I would just like to mention that I remember TMNT when they were an underground comic, and when they sold out and became a kiddie show, my friends and I were aghast. For years, whenever the show came on, we would turn to the TV and bellow, "SELL-OUT!" traumatizing any toddlers in the room.

Aw, that's a shame. For some reason I am ridiculously curious about this.

The CGI movie was the closest anyone has ever come to the tone of the original comic.

-- Ben

The assumption is that no one here is intelligent?

Creating a commodity that sells out is what good business strives for. I've never understood this hipster perspective that if a band/show/comic becomes known popularly, it diminishes their quality. I liked a rock band called The Uninvited back when they were just some group in LA with a couple albums that had smiley faces on the album covers. When they got a national recording contract and released an album through that, the music was still just as good.

My favorite take on this was, I believe, Gene Simmons, when accused of having sold out. He said something to the tune of "Of course we sold out. Not an empty seat in the house. We sold out the last four shows too. Isn't that the point of going on tour?"

Perhaps I am not a hipster. I have no problem with bands/comics/entertainers becoming popular and successful. I rejoice when the little-known, talented independent becomes well-known , if they do so by perseverance and commitment and belief in the worth of what they are. What brings out the yells of "sell-out" is when they change and water down what they were merely to meet market appetite, lowering their standards to meet petty expectations.

Okay, laying off the innuendo and pubescent humour of the original and becoming clean, cute, and wholesome isn't the worst way to sell out, and the turtles were never as gritty as the Adolescent Radioactive Black-belt Hamsters and definitely a better choice to make into a kiddie show. But at the time we were just beginning to take pride in having a world of comics that wasn't dominated by the Big Few to the exclusion of independent thought. The Turtles were fun and they stopped being fun. That's what I meant.

While its not often that I wholeheartedly agree with Azh, this post is proof that it happens.

What people are referring to when they say "selling out" is not, if they have any intelligence, "being successful." It's having no artistic integrity. It's selling your tacit approval because you care more about the pay check than about what things you're supposedly approving. It's using the Lorax to advertise SUV's. It's using a punk rock song at the RNC.

People misuse the phrase, but that's no reason to get all reactionary about it.