Both left-wing and right-wing adults seem to think Mindy Kaling ruined national treasure Scooby-Doo with her remake, Velma. But they’ve got it backward: Velma is funny; Scooby-Doo was weird and trashy. I’m 11 years old—the target audience for the original Scooby-Doo!—so you can trust me when I say: The old show was never that good.
If you haven’t heard of it yet, Velma is an animated mystery comedy on HBO. Kaling voices Velma, but now the character is South Asian, attracted to both men and women, and funny. Conservatives are mad about her race, sexuality, and personality. Liberals are mad that the teen detective isn’t that great of a feminist. (She has a crush on Fred, your typical rich, white guy.)
First of all, there was nothing to ruin in Scooby-Doo; it was a terrible show. It had two jokes: Shaggy eats a lot because he’s a stoner, and Scooby eats a lot because he’s a dog. How nostalgic are you for constant jokes about Shaggy being a stoner? He eats a lot and talks in hippie slang. Not very funny, if you ask me.
I never experienced Scooby-Doo when it originally aired, back when there were just three channels on TV. But in 2023 there’s plenty to choose from; Scooby-Doo isn’t cutting it. (And maybe Scooby-Doo was never really that special: After all, “teenagers solving a mystery, sometimes with an animal sidekick” is the plot of many of the Hanna-Barbera shows, from Josie and the Pussycats to The Funky Phantom.)
The biggest complaint from conservatives is that Velma and some other characters aren’t white anymore, and that she kisses Daphne, the other teen girl detective, who is fashionable and cute. But Velma’s race or sexuality never really mattered. People liked Velma—to the extent they paid attention to her—because she was “the smart one.” She was the one who would helpfully blurt out essential information. No one liked Velma because she was straight or white. If the old Velma were a Dungeons & Dragons character, she would roll a 20 for a knowledge check every time, but never roll anything above a 3 for charisma. (Daphne, being “the dumb and pretty one,” would obviously have the highest charisma.) Old Velma was also as flat as the animation. The new, improved Velma is now smart and funny.
People always thought Velma might like girls. Basically because she wasn’t “hot.” Unlike Daphne, she didn’t follow the typical beauty standards. Velma became officially gay in 2022’s Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo. James Gunn, who wrote the live-action Scooby movies 20 years ago, tried to make her gay, but the studio refused to play along. Sarah Michelle Gellar (who played Daphne, as well as Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) said last week that she filmed a big kiss between her character and Velma. Velma just confirmed the character’s sexual preference. Also, I don’t care who she kisses.
On the other side of the aisle, people are complaining that Velma is just another Mindy Kaling character who falls for a shallow white guy (like Danny and Jody on The Mindy Project). But other comedians also play the same characters over and over. Pete Davidson plays the same overly laid-back white guy, Chad. No one complains that he’s letting white guys down. Velma is smart, curious, and has her own personality and problems. Too often I’m supposed to like the Daphnes of the world—female characters who aren’t intelligent or funny or anything except hot.
And Velma is complicated, too. Shaggy is now called Norville, which was actually his name on the original show. The new Norville is Black, smart, not on drugs, and similar to Bruno from Ms. Marvel. He’s the loyal friend/sidekick of the main character who’s always been in love with her, then after being rejected falls in love with some random girl, causing the main character to experience a fit of jealousy.
Scooby the dog is missing from Velma. Don’t worry, though, he was never that important to the plot of the original show. Even as a dog person, I don’t care. Scooby was never really that great—or much of a dog. Scooby’s jokes, if you can even call them that, were never funny. I get it: He eats a lot and is a scaredy-cat. Hilarious. He’s basically a combination of Marmaduke and Astro (from The Jetsons). He’s even voiced by the same person who voiced Astro. Nothing to miss here.
Velma, on the other hand, is really funny. The show has great jokes, especially about hating exercise. When Norville, who drives Velma everywhere, ditches her at Daphne’s house, she’s furious at having to walk home. Then we see that they live right next door to each other. I hate walking, too! That’s hilarious! You can’t honestly say that wasn’t funny.
When Velma’s principal tells her about the old program to combat the menace of meddling kids, the anti-hippie program dubbed SCOOBI (the Special Covert Operation Brain Initiative—the show’s first reference to its source material), and Velma asks her, “But what did SCOOBI do?” I definitely laughed. Even with all the criticism, I really like Velma, and I still admire Mindy Kaling. It’s a funny, well-animated show starring my favorite actress—not something to start an internet war over.
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