Argot Navis

First, a short history lesson. The original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? series aired from about 1969 until 1972. In 2002, a new series with roughly the same premise, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, began its run. This leaves about 30 years between the end of the first series and the beginning of this one, which takes place in the present day (see Velma's “wireless internet connection”). I'm not totally sure whether the gang has actually aged 30 years, as they seem to have in many of the movies, but here's my complaint:

In an episode of the show that I saw today, Fred takes the Mystery Machine in for a tune-up, and it starts acting weird. During their attempt to figure out why their van is driving itself around town without them, the gang learns that the Mystery Machine was originally the tour bus for a vaguely Partridge Family-style band called the Mystery Kids. The Kids aren't very popular these days, but their mother is pushing for a comeback. Now, the Mystery Kids are all roughly around high school age (one is trying out for the tennis team). This means they probably used the Mystery Machine 10 years ago, at most. And yet, the gang have had the Mystery Machine for over 30 years.

I actually have my own theory about this, though. The writers of this new Scooby-Doo series remember the mind-numbingly awful Scooby-Doo series involving Scooby's nephew Scrappy-Doo (e.g. Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo — which was somewhat redeemed by the Vincent Price appearances — among others). I think this may be an attempt by the writers to retcon Scrappy out of the Scooby-Doo universe. Rather than admitting to the existence of those series, the writers simply insist that the years 1973-2001 simply do not exist in the Scooby-Doo universe. Simple. This even lets them keep a lot of the newer movies, since those take place at some indeterminate point in the future where the gang has purchased a change of clothes and some of them even hold steady jobs (I think Daphne is a reporter, the most common profession of red-headed cartoon women). If I'm right, then this episode really does make sense after all.

(Also, dig my not-at-all-ripped-off-from-Dan links.)