We’re not sure if you’re heard about this trend, but people on the internet are really interested in the cultural happenings of the 1990s. This fascination leads to all sorts of parodies and tributes of their favorite entities from the decade, including Rugrats, one of Nickelodeon’s most beloved cartoons.

But while Eric Molinsky–who worked as a storyboard artist on classic Nickelodeon shows including The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power, As Told By Ginger, and Rugrats–appreciates the efforts, he has a gripe with the philosophies behind them: Most of the works depict the kids as cool, hipsterized versions of themselves, which he believes goes against one of the main points of the show.

“We referred to them as lumpy babies for a reason,” Molinsky said. “If we ever drew the Rugrats as being too cute, our executive producer would scold us. We were supposed to emulate the style of Eastern European animators—many of whom were brought over, with their sly wit and husky voices (they took a lot of smoke breaks.)”

Instead of idly complaining, he drew up his own vision for what he believes adult versions of the characters would look like: check out the images above and below. His interpretation of them keeps them super lumpy and is much more aligned with the visual style of the show. They also all look a lot like their parents, especially Angelica and the Pickles boys. And kudos to Phil for getting a tattoo of a gray, X-eyed duck.

“The Rugrats did not all grow up to be fashion models or self-confident hipsters,” he said. “Especially not Chuckie. They probably grew up to be average if not slightly lumpy looking people — just like their parents.”

Read the rest of Molinsky’s post here.

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HT: Vulture

Images courtesy of Eric Molinsky