denver the last dinosaur

I was talking to a friend today about how weird and corny some cartoons were when back in the day, and Denver the last Dinosaur came up. Denver took place in what we were supposed to believe was reality (modern day California or somewhere). Smurfs was weird, but it took place in Smurf village. The Snorks (I know you remember that) took place somewhere in the ocean or something like that. The reason Denver was so funny is because it was supposedly the real world. Are we supposed to believe that just because you put a Hawaiian shirt on a Brontosaurus it no longer looks like a Brontosaurus? That's funny to me.