Transparency Item: The Perspectives section of the Graphic is comprised of articles based on opinion. This is the opinion and perspective of the writer.
This past summer, HBO Max removed “Courage the Cowardly Dog” from its streaming platform, according to IMDb. This means the show is no longer available to watch on any subscription streaming platforms.
“Courage the Cowardly Dog” is one of the strangest cartoons I have ever watched. When I went back to rewatch the show a few years ago, there were multiple times where all I could do was stare at the TV screen and think “what am I even watching?” As I dug deeper into the show and watched video essays on it, I started to see the beauty in the show.
The best part of the show is the simple message the show looks to teach its viewers: Courage is not the lack of fear, it’s the ability to do what’s right in the face of fear.
Whenever a villain came to cause havoc, Courage never gave some speech about how he’s not afraid of bad guys and it’s his duty to make sure everyone’s safe, or anything cliche like that. Rather, Courage was visibly frightened every single episode and made it clear he would rather be doing just about anything else than dealing with this new villain.
Despite this, Courage always did the right thing and saved the day, and that’s what makes Courage so great. Whenever he saw an episode’s respective villain attack his owner Murial, Courage usually utters his signature line “the things I do for love,” before ultimately saving the day.
Courage’s actions are something a lot of us can learn from. Life, like the show’s villains, can be terrifying, but that’s not a reason to be too scared to act. When life gets challenging, we should remind ourselves of why we’re doing what we’re doing — in Courage’s case, for Murial — and keep pushing on.
Another aspect of the show I appreciate is when Courage is having to deal with the show’s villains, the vast majority of the time Murial and Eustice are the only people he’s saving. While a TV show villain with the power to destroy a city, world or universe does raise the stakes, seeing Courage fight for Murial can remind us to look out for our own close friends.
Many of us will never have a large impact on the world as a whole, and that’s OK, because we can still have an impact on those who we deeply care about. Even if we aren’t going to go down in the history books as someone who is remembered by everyone, we can be remembered by those who we love.
All Courage wanted to do was keep his family and himself safe, so if you’re ever wondering if there’s a point to all of your actions, look at the people around you. If you’re making the lives of your fellow peers and close friends better — similar to what Courage did — then there is a point and you are leaving an impact.
I don’t know how getting the rights to have a show on a respective streaming companies platform works, but one of these companies should do the general public a favor and bring back the opportunity to learn these great lessons from “Courage the Cowardly Dog.”
Since October isn’t far away and people will be in the mood for something horror related, consider ordering a DVD and embrace the weirdness of “Courage the Cowardly Dog.” You might learn a thing or two.
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Contact Tony Gleason on Twitter (@tony__gleason) or via email: anthony.gleason@pepperdine.edu
