Joseph "Joe" David Murray (born May 3, 1961 in San Jose, California) is an American animator, illustrator, writer, director, producer and voice actor.
He is the creator of 90s hit Nicktoon Rocko's Modern Life, 2000s Cartoon Network cartoon Camp Lazlo and PBS cartoon Let's Go Luna!.
Related Tropes:
- Creator's Oddball: Let's Go Luna!, a preschool cartoon on PBS Kids, was created by him and whose two other cartoons beforehand, Rocko's Modern Life and Camp Lazlo, the former of which is considered one of the raunchiest Nicktoons of all time and the latter also having its fair share of Parental Bonus.
- Lighter and Softer: While all of his shows were intended for a younger audience, they get more kid-friendly and more aimed at a younger audience as times goes on. Rocko's was pretty raunchy for a Nickelodeon show, Lazlo had more kid friendly storylines and humor but still had a few jokes for the parents, and most recent show Let's Go Luna is more aimed towards preschoolers. He would go back to his more raunchier cartoons later with the Rocko's Modern Life movie.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Rocko is down the cynical end and Lazlo is in the middle, while Luna, being an Edutainment Show, is more at the idealistic end than the other two Murray shows.