Why are Bebop and Rocksteady so popular?
 

First off let me state that I don't hate the characters. Love their designs. But after season 1 they were just so goofy and rarely came off as a threat. Is their goofiness what made them so popular?

Exactly. They were iconic because of their goofiness.

My guess is nostalgia.

Then again, I've never watched it, so I might be wrong.

"Cool designs" are my guess.

Because in my experience, nobody *wants* the goofy Bebop and Rocksteady brought back. They want them looking the same, but more hardcore. "Like in the first season", they say, though they were plenty goofy there, too.

I know not everybody feels this way, but it's what I've often seen.

they looked cool and were damn funny.. made me laugh a lot.

Because they were funny and entertaining, and not boring and one-dimensional like Dogpound and Xever.

My guess is that it's mostly nostalgia.

Because they were funny, bumbling henchmen. They played off of Shredder and Krang well and they had nice designs to boot.

Yep, these are exactly my thoughts. :)

I feel the same about Dogpound and Fishface too, but you can't beat Bebop and Rocksteady! I do believe that each duo are appropriate for their respective shows though. :)

Some of the fans want they to be in 2012 in the show.

I prefer Krang over them, but, some people argue about they don't care if Krang wasn't present in 2012 or they want Kraang Prime to be another character because they don't want Nick toons to be a mirror of Fred Wolf cartoons, but they want Bebop and Rocksteady in the show, as well, Baxter the fly.

In my opinion, is they are bumbimg incompetent as his Fred Wolf counterpart, is good to the show to be lighter, but this Shredder is by far cruel and evil, i fear this show would make them darker if they showed up.

Kraang Prime pretty much is Krang, he's updated in the same way other characters are.

They were popular because if their dynamic with Krang and Shredder. Krang and Shredder bickered like an old married couple, and Beebop and Rocksteady were like the unwanted children.

If they appear in Nick toons, i'd like the show keeps their funny part.

They are classic, nostalgic, and easily recognizable.
Even when Tokka and Rahzar hit the big screen, kids called them "Bebop and Rocksteady"; lasting impressions.

Excellent character designs and are both "fearsome" as they are goofy.

It'll be near impossible for them to ever be topped or replaced (in my opinion).

EDIT: to note, I would love to see an updated version of them where they have humor but they are as lethal as they look.
I am eagerly awaiting their revival in IDW.

I always here about this on the internet, but I don't think I knew anybody at the time who did this. And if they did, I probably would have corrected them.

WTF? Nobody ever called Rahzar and Tokka "Bebop and Rocksteady."

Ya the internet is full of false ****.
I was the kid who was beat up in my small school for still watching Ninja Turtles so I didn't really know anyone who did this either.

http://handfacts.files.wordpress.com...rman.jpg?w=430

Because they were funny. And they blend well with Shredder's annoyance with them.

I like the OT that their comedy can be maintained by the Turtles, Channel 6 and the Technodrome gang on their own.

Why were Dogpound and Xever created at all when Bebop and Rocksteady could have been? If you want to see the show darker, show the tough side of Bebop and Rocksteady.

In addition, I love their boss fights in the games.

Rocksteady always appears first so he's kinda among my very first introductory game boss battles (then later on Bebop will appear on subsequent levels).

And when I see them on the cartoon, I instantly recognizes them, hence I always remember them.

I love Bebop and Rocksteady and it has nothing to do with nostalgia, it's just they're really cool characters. They had awesome designs, I mean look at them, they had some amazing voice talents behind them and yeah they were too goofy but some of their comedy was actually on an adult level too. I like Dogpound and Fishface but a dog and a fish compared to a frickin rhino and boar? Come on!

My guess is a mixture of nostalgia and the fact that they were pretty funny characters. Their goofiness just tended to make them endearing.

Because we were like 5 when they came out and a big, dumb talking rhino and warthog with 80s punker gear seemed cool at the time.

I think still OT had the largest fan-base out of all the three animated series, people who watched it are now grown-ups, and even if they don't care much about TMNT anymore, they still remember Rocksteady and Bebop from it, and when they meet new tmnt media (games, movies) they wonder why B&R are not in there like Shredder.
Otherwise, they were pretty nice character designs for their time, and they worked nicely as comic reliefs. They were memorable, and I'm sure a lot fans (including myself) wanna see them again in some form, which is not yet happened...
Well, IDW will bring them soon, and it seems like, they'll keep some of their goofyness and dumbness, but they won't be incompetent idiots, like in OT, and that's fine for me.

Which is a little puzzling to me. As almost every poster in this thread seems to agree, about all B&R had going for them was how dumb and goofy they were... so if the idea in IDW is to bring them back for the nostalgiacs, but to change them to be serious and credible threats... isn't that fundamentally making them into different characters? And if you're fundamentally making them into different characters... what's the point, really?

I noticed a bit of adult orientated jokes in the Season3 DVD set I bought.

Very true points. But only time will tell now, until then everyone is speculating. I just hope the feel like the same characters but that they are coherent enough to prove to be a road block or force to reckon with.

Well, the point is to satisfy the curiosity of how they would work, if they were written as more serious/cartoonish characters. Or at least for me.
Of course they would be a different R&B like that, but I don't think that can be a problem, if they don't go too far. From what we know of their IDW version so far is that they're mutated fun lovin thugs, who are not really intelligent, but they're street smart at least, and they're still a threat to the turtles. That's really not that far from OT's Season 1, but we will see.

But I kinda got your point about nostalgia.

I guess the comparison can be made towards Mikey,
who has undergone drastic personality changes over all his incarnations. In the cartoons alone he has gone from the party surfer guy of the 80s to a totally un-serious, prank loving kid-at-heart sorta thing.

I dont honestly know how to describe him in the new show...
Anyway, same character but totally different.

[QUOTE=FlogginMcMurryZombiePizza;1144349]I noticed a bit of adult orientated jokes in the Season3 DVD set I bought.

Seems like there were a lot throughout the series but I can't remember any of them off-hand. The show was like that, an adult joke would pop up outta nowhere.

Bebop made a joke about how he never washes his hands because they don't work when they're wet.

I kinda figure they can be dumb and be funny and what-have-you... but when it comes time to fight... let them actually... you know... fight.

I still think Dogpound and Fishface are awesome though, especially in the sense that they hate each other and are basically forced to work together.

Ya, I'm the same way. I would need to watch all 4 discs again. They were just thrown around and I was caught totally off guard. It's great to laugh at this old show. Some of these shows I used to watch younger just hasn't aged well at all. OT shows it's age but doesn't apologize for it and therefor it's still fun

Yeah, it really does hold up well.

I wouldn't say their goofiness is all they have going for them, and for many people it might not even be what they like best about them. For me, I just think they look cool. And I'd wager it's the same for a lot of other people, just based on the kind of fanart they usually get.

Yeah I never really got those guys. Just their appearance was so cool, to me it never really matched their goofiness. I know they started as goofy thugs, but they have such a hardcore look. Even as a kid I remember thinking 'sure they're dumb, but by all accounts they should still be a viable threat' which of course they never were

That same question could be asked of "why bother to remake TMNT in the first place?". Or remaking anything, which often results in changing aspects of a character. Marketability and the $$$ that come with the name recognition. Familiar elements will draw people in, hopefully. There are many comic readers who remember the cartoon show but probably haven't touched a Mirage comic. Seeing Bebop and Rocksteady on a cover may draw in some more buys.

Primarily nostalgia, but the characters have grown in popularity with the fanbase at large, it seems, that they are going to trickle over into other media- much like the Jimmy Olsen and Perry white characters in Superman did- both originated in an adaptation (the radio show) but became so well know they bled over into other media (such as the comics- the source material)

Not that Shredder or Krang were much better

Next Mutation Villains In a nutshell.

Whatever the reason for thier enduring popularity, I'm just glad they are back, and that the ban on using them and so many other haracters has finally fallen by the wayside. :D