We need to talk about Velma…

HBO Max announced a new adult animated Scooby-Doo cartoon show about Velma, and we need to talk about it.

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⏱ CHAPTERS
00:00 we need to talk…
01:16 the worst take
06:25 splitting up the gang
11:14 scoob for the whole scoob fam
15:00 my official scott take™
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Home of the popular Comic Misconceptions series, NerdSync makes video essays and in-depth analyses about nerdy pop culture. From comic books and superheroes to Scooby-Doo and other classic cartoons, host Scott Niswander explores fascinating topics that range from history, philosophy, culture, and art. NerdSync makes fascinating, complex ideas a little more accessible through the heroes and villains from Marvel, DC Comics, and beyond! Subscribe for new videos every other Friday, you wonderful nerd!

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[NerdSyncProductions]

🧐 This is a bit of an experimental video for me, diving into the reaction/commentary space here on YouTube. Let me know if you enjoyed it, and let me know what else I should respond to with little videos like this. I already have ideas…

🙏 This video was also edited by a person who isn’t me. His name is Cade and his channel can be found at

[jennifermc]

If HBO really wanted an adult edgy Scooby-Doo they should have just bought the rights to Mystery Incorporated inject it with an HBO budget and everybody wins

[leftygurl]

my thing is that adult comedies never have much impetus beyond being crude, there’s seldom any willingness to treat the audience as adults, more as thirteen year olds who think they’re adults. they tend to reduce the experience of adulthood to sex and swearing, when there is so much more comedy and commentary to draw from.

[zacharymcqueen]

your concept about velma solving mysteries on her own while she owns a little book store, game me goose bumps.

[jujuberrie]

I always felt that race swapping established characters was always the 'easy' thing to do, but totally disingenuous. Like, "You're not worthy enough to create something unique and original for, so here are some of our hand-me-downs." It just makes me cringe every time

[wizardbrawl]

Here's my giant issue with this video:

Blue didn't solve mysteries, she methodically laid them out for her human friends to piece together, clue by delectable clue.

That's it. No other notes.

[DangerDurians]

My main gripe is
If she’s solving murders in high school
Going on to solve costume based fraud is kinda a step down, Yeh?

[NemesisHero]

my biggest issue is that this is going to be an "Adult Cartoon". After previous experiences, I pretty much know what to expect. The overuse of swear words, excessive gore, and so much nudity. It's going to feel more childish than it's supposed to be.

[iw]

I don't like when they race-swap, someone because it feels insulting. I don't need Velma to be brown to identify with them! I don't care whether a character is Latina or not, I relate to their experience. I already identified with Velma so much! I was the obnoxious know-it-all, the shy brainiac, and the clumsy girl! I loved her! I feel insulted when they say "NOW you can identify! She looks more like you!" Huh? So I wasn't supposed to identify with her before?

[callmeinstead]

This seems like less "we're changing Velma to be South Asian" and more "we're changing Velma to be Mindy Kaling."

[harryallsopp]

Velma being a mix of Buffy and Giles, fighting fake monsters from her bookshop in the hopes of finding a new frontier of knowledge in the real supernatural world only to keep finding creeps in masks could be AMAZING.

[SEBSEB]

Fans always hate it when a character's design is changed. Their ethnicity is the most noticeable part of their design, so it's obviously annoying that they'd change it, it'd be exactly the same for changing a character from black to white. But the reason it's done is why people hate it so much. They're trying to increase diversity without putting in the effort of actually creating black characters and stories, so they just paint a white character black and expect everyone to applaud them for it.

[rileywakeford]

If you genuinely like the idea of that more adult pitch you gave in this video, may I recommend the book "Meddling Kids". It's a story very clearly "inspired" by Scooby Doo, with each character a direct comparison to one of the Scooby gang. It tells the story of them after their teen years coming back to the small town they grew up in to solve a mystery with real monsters and stuff like that and its more grown up and very dark.

[sandydeath]

Everyone else has gotten their own spinoff and solo adventures. I want Fred and Scooby as wacky roommates and yes this is entirely because Frank Welker voices both of them! and I think he should get to decide what every episode it about!

[otakoob]

I can see why they change Velma's attributes to match her voice actress/writer. But this has me worried because self-insert mostly makes the writing being bias and wastes time on self-expression instead of progressing the main story. Hope they don't do that

[c]

Instead of saying that she “is” the velma from scooby doo, she could have just been a huge fan of the character to which why she looks just like Velma… or maybe a multi universe.

[leecoffill]

I think people have a hard time articulating why exactly they have a problem with the race change, and that the result is that they themselves appear as racist as a result (and of course some of them actually are but that's a given in this world). See, a lot of people grew up with these characters, and we've formed a sort of bond with them, like they were old friends. So, any obvious, perceptible changes to their appearance is going to stand out. Making Velma Jewish, or altering aspects of her personality, don't really stand out all that much. But fully changing her race and skin color does - it transforms her into a different character entirely. An imposter, wearing Velma's clothing and speaking Velma's lines, and using Velma's name... but she *isn't* Velma.

I think it was the same reaction that people originally had with Miles Morales Spider Man - it felt as though out beloved character was being killed off just to be replaced with a quota-meeting imposter. The difference, however, is that we were wrong - Miles ended up being fully his own character, with his own arcs, his own personality, and his own, well-written story, standing apart from Peter Parker Spider Man, allowing us to remember the character we loved, while also accepting Miles not as his replacement, but as more of an heir to his legacy.

That's not what we're getting with Velma. Instead, what were getting is "This is Velma now, deal with it." And that's going to make it very hard for people to connect with her. It feels like your parents getting rid of your pit-bull pup and replacing it with a German Sheppard, giving it the same name, and expecting you not to notice or care. It has nothing to do with race (for most of us - again, bigots gonna bigot), it's about making fundamental changes to our beloved character, and expecting us just to be fine with it.

Also, I know you were doing a bit, but were you seriously more bothered by Fred having brown hair? You do realize that this is the exact same thing, right? But I suppose you can still complain about a hair color changes without worrying that someone will call you a racist for it.

[gemmamoon]

I love how the “adult” Scooby show you described is just Mystery Incorporated lol

[oranmorton]

Ironically I think the pitch, barring the specifics of how truly violent and juvenile the writing is, would work really well for Nancy Drew. Shes a headstrong & smart detective with alot of sass who is already an adult, and one people only really have a vague idea of from osmosis.

[SpectreBagels]

But there is a difference between changing a character's personality and changing their race so I don't think your points of saying how the gang's personality and some tid bits about them have changed lends to why changing Velma's whole race is fine