No, Cartoon Network Is Not Shutting Down, But Here’s Why #RIPCartoonNetwork Is Trending

With the constant entertainment mergers and shifting names of streaming services in response to consolidation, it’s easy to get confused about who owns who. Heck, John Oliver is known to swing at his “business daddy” in response to rebranding cycles, and speaking of which, the WBD-owned Cartoon Network is the subject of a current X/Twitter hashtag (#RIPCartoonNetwork) that is causing a ruckus for obvious reasons.

Cartoon Network is still alive. Perhaps it isn’t “well,” but it’s hanging in there, and the hashtag sources back to grave concern from the Animation Workers Ignited movement, which posted a video — voiced by Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything) and Alex Hirsh (Gravity Falls) — to highlight the ongoing upheaval of the industry, which is feeling the pain as streaming services scale back from their attempt to outdo Netflix during the pandemic. This tweet thread is a rallying cry meant to call attention to what could happen to the entire animation industry if current trends continue. Yup, the “Cartoon Network is dead?!?!” sure grabs attention and is having the intended effect.

Fortunately, a community note is popping up on tweets with the hashtag, and Bleeding Cool summarizes some of the ongoing issues including job losses in the animation field. The below X thread also hits the essentials with a link to a pertinent survey from the Animation Guild.

It’s also worth noting that many of the tweets with the #RIPCartoonNetwork hashtag post photos of the former (iconic) Cartoon Network headquarters building, which closed its doors in 2023 amid the WBD rollout, which merged Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation. At the time of that shuttering, ComicBook published a fine explanation of that studio shift, which also caused people to wonder if Cartoon Network was heading into he sunset.

Again, Cartoon Network remains open for business, although that road remains bumpy and likely will for some time.