Salute Your Shorts

TV review by Stephanie Morgan, Common Sense Media
Salute Your Shorts group shot

Common Sense says

age 10+

Campy 1990s comedy full of insults, pranks, fart jokes.

Discovery+ Comedy 2022
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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this TV show.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Salute Your Shorts is a Nickelodeon comedy from the early 1990s set at a kids' summer camp. The kids often learn a lesson on the show but also prioritize being popular, bicker, insult another, and often play pranks on their camp counselor. Two of the characters, Bobby Budnick and Donkey Lips, are bullies who push kids, steal underwear and put it up the flag pole (hence the name of the show), and put kids into headlocks. They also regularly issue insults like "waste of human flesh" and threats of kids being "roasted, toasted and burnt to a crisp" or given a mysterious "awful waffle." Some of the kids occasionally get into fights wrestling around. It's all done for comedic effect and kids aren't shown as ever being very scared.At one point Bobby Budnick briefly shows his collection of magazines with scantily clothed girls. The desire to date is sometimes a part of the plot and one episode features a kiss. There's lots of insult language, burp and fart jokes, and rare references to the camp cabins being named using racist terms such as "squaws" and "braves."

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What's the Story?

SALUTE YOUR SHORTS is a comedic sitcom for kids set at sleepaway camp, Camp Anawana, where a group of young teens spend their summer. Bobby Budnick and his sidekick, Donkey Lips, are the resident bullies (though they're more laughable than scary) and camp counselor Ug is the butt of many jokes.

Is It Any Good?

With lots of physical comedy gags, 90's references, and the standard cheesy music and touching lessons in sitcoms of the time, kids will find this throwback comedy funny in both good and bad ways. Salute Your Shorts was always meant to provide irreverent, yet harmless, laughs to young viewers, and it mostly still succeeds. Camp counselor Ug being the victim of countless jokes and pranks will certainly still entertain today's middle grade audience. It's the reliance on put downs for humor, as well as some stereotypes, that can be problematic. Although there's a female athletic character that everyone likes, for example, there's also a girl who only cares about makeup and shopping. The camp itself is also guilty of cultural appropriation. For these reasons, this isn't the show to turn your kids loose with all on their own. But you may enjoy watching it together while pointing out the things that wouldn't fly on TV today. Your kids will almost definitely enjoy the boomboxes and mullets regardless.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the use of stereotypes in Salute Your Shorts. Discuss how the characters only seem to have one interest. Is this how people are in real life? Ask your children to think about all of the different types of interest that combine to make them the people they are.

  • A lot of the humor in Salute Your Shorts involves insults, and sometimes threats. Would this be OK in real life? Talk with your kids about what to do if they encounter or witness bullying.

  • Many of the episodes in this show end with the characters learning a lesson. Ask you kids to think about how meaningful the message is if it's always left for the last few minutes of the show. Ask what they think younger viewers take away from a show that has bad behavior for the first 90% of the episode and good behavior for the last 10%.

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