The Scooby-Doo franchise has permeated American pop culture since the first series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, debuted in 1969. The franchise eclipses Hanna-Barbera, the company that first brought it to the screen. Hanna-Barbera became defunct in 2001, whereas Scooby-Doo is still thriving as of 2020.
Just last year, in 2019, a Scooby-Doo meme exploded in popularity. Someone added Shaggy, a notorious coward, to the line-up of characters that Goku would have to defeat to keep his universe intact in Dragon Ball Super, elevating Shaggy to the opposite extreme. The internet had a field day, further cementing the series in pop culture. A new film, Scoob!, was also released this past May.
Like many children's shows, Scooby-Doo has a static cast of characters and a repetitive formula. How have they managed to get away with it for over 50 years, spanning several movies and 19 different series? Why is Scooby-Doo still so popular?
Nostalgia, Comfort, and Family Bonding
The overall message and formula of Scooby-Doo creates an appealing cycle of comfort, nostalgia, and family bonding. The formula might be a bit repetitive, but it still works.
For many children, the series is a comfort. In most versions, especially the original series, all of the things that go bump in the night are merely mean men in monster masks. Child viewers are reassured that there is no boogeyman to fear, and that Scooby-Doo and the rest of the gang will solve the mystery and catch the real culprit.
As these children get older, the continued popularity of Scooby-Doo can be explained by nostalgia, the fondness the original viewers have for the many versions of the gang that they grew up with. It doesn't hurt that older viewers can watch any iteration of the franchise with their own children, reinforcing that nostalgia with the new warm associations of family bonding.
New Content with the Same Relatable Core
To keep the formula from becoming too stale, some series change things up a bit: Scooby and Shaggy might be on their own, Daphne isn't always a damsel in distress, new celebrities make cameos, the gang might be older or younger, the series might have lore and continuity, the monsters might even be real (but they always lose).
However, the warmth the franchise inspires is always the same. Impressively, much of the humor also appeals to kids and adults alike, even the jokes in the original series. It's no surprise that young people have started making Scooby-Doo memes; like the rest of the series, the jokes still resonate.
Scooby-Doo has captured the hearts of several Americans for half a century, and the iconic Great Dane and friends will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.