Inexplicable TV Review: Go Team Venture! (I guess!)

Confusion over Ivan Drago vs. Khal Drogo.

It only took about three years, but by god, the Venture Brothers are back on TV! For unexplained reasons, the show took a siesta from November 2010 to June 2, 2013, which made me think that the axe had fallen, despite claims from the creators that they were working the entire time. (And yes, they come across as dicks in that interview, but they did produce episodes, so good for them!)

All of that hard work though went into the greatest… Well, a pretty good episode. The fifth season debut, “What Color Is Your Clean Suit?”, was solid, but it wasn’t an all-time great episode or anything. The episode barely had any Brock Samson in it, after all, and the best moments involved a misunderstanding about sexual roleplay between The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend.

Also, the fifth season is apparently just nine episodes, which doesn’t seem like much given the 2.5-year production time. Maybe that’s all they got the funding for… But if that’s the case, why did it take so god damn long? Ugh. I hate to keep harping on the huge production time of the show, but it bleeds into the series’ overall quality – It’s hard to build any momentum from a narrative standpoint if you’re essentially have nine to 13 episode seasons, with 18 to 29 months between seasons.

So yeah, there are some good jokes and sight gags. But I couldn’t help but let my mind wander after watching, and it came up with, “Is this it?” (Thanks for the assist, The Strokes.) The Venture Bros.is kind of the other extreme from forcing writers / showrunners / creators on unrealistic schedules – Sometimes, you just lose the previous momentum you had, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest.

Inexplicable TV Review: The genius of Robot Chicken

Hey, did you realize that Robot Chicken is now in its fifth season? I didn't either really, until I was poking around for information about a specific skit on the Internetz.

I'm talking about "Table Be Round", a song that features a Sir Mix-A-Lot clone Sir Mix-A-Lot rapping about the reasons why King Arthur needed to switch from a conventional, rectangular table to a round table. In many ways, the song is an example of Robot Chicken at its best - A flippant merging of nerdy current junk pop culture (Sir Mix-A-Lot) and something "classic" nerdy pop culture (Sir Arthur).

Robot Chicken is pretty undecipherable unless you know something about 1970s to 2000s pop culture. Heck, they have two extra-long episodes devoted to just Star Wars, which makes the nerd in me rejoice. (My favorite part from those episodes? George Lucas trying to escape from ravenous fans.) Pretty much any significant comic or cartoon character from the 1980s and 1990s - Skeletor, Cobra Commander, the Smurfs, Thundercats, He-Man, Aquaman - has been on the show.

Also wonderful is the fact that Seth Green is the guy behind it all. Between his role as Chris on Family Guy and his heavy involvement in Robot Chicken, I guess he has quite the interest in animation. He obviously remains a popular guy with his former co-stars, since the voice talent they've used on the show is a vertifable who's who of 1990s stars - Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Rachel Leigh Cook and even stars with just two names have been on the show frequently. (My favorite from this category? Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper, of course.)

Note: My plan to queue up some Baggage posts ran into some unfortunate problems, so I'm doing this on the fly instead. Sorry! I'm actually typing this during the train ride to New York City, which is a pretty sweet usage of technology, if I do say so myself.

Hey, Chevy Chase used to be funny!

Insert obvious joke about Chevy's career.

Since he's now been relegated to a minor supporting character on Community, it's easy to forget that Chevy Chase was once funny. Heck, all of his best work - Caddyshack, Fletch, Saturday Night Live - came out either well before or near my birth date in 1984. (I'll wait for some of you to come back from hanging yourselves.)

His demotion isn't exactly undeserved. Even on Community, his character has seemingly been scaled back because he simply isn't as funny as the younger comedians. Because he kind of looks the same, it's easy to forget that he's 66, and that a lot of his former SNL co-stars either work reduced schedules (Bill Murray) or are similarly damaged by drugs (Garrett Morris) or are dead (Belushi). Chase simply surviving to this point, given his immense cocaine problems in the past, is surprising.

However, I recently stumbled across the old Chevy Chase NBC specials on the Internets, and it is amazing how much of a fastball he had then. From 1975 and 1977, there is a dry sort of humor that is well ahead of its time. There is stilted, awkward dialogue, the sort of which Adult Swim and Space Ghost and Archer would use 30 years later, along with traditional sketches. The drug humor is also far toned down from the first season of SNL. (People tend to deify that first season, but for every great Samurai Delicatessen sketch, there is one where everyone is loaded and slurring through their lines.)

I'm guessing the specials are so good because there are only three of them. Heck, even Charlie Murphy was great for two episodes of Chappelle's Show. Without Dave and Neil Brennan editing? Eh, not so much. The specials give a glimpse at Chevy's incredible talents, and it is just a shame so much of it vanished up his nostrils.

On an unrelated note, the specials also have a really, really young and hipster Martin Mull in them. It's hard to imagine him as an actual comedian now, given all of his supporting roles - he has been in 111 freakin' things! I'll always remember him as Col. Mustard from the Clue movie though, which only I seemed to love.

Happy Memorial Day! With The Venture Bros.

On holidays, readership always goes down, so I didn't want to write a super-long post or anything. Therefore, my message is simple today - Watch The Venture Bros. when it comes back on television on August 22. It's the best pure cartoon on Adult Swim, and one of my favorite shows on television. And in honor of this, here is a picture of Race Bannon from Johnny Quest, who was featured on the show once as a model for Brock's behavior.

Check It Out With Dr. Steven Brule, a.k.a. The Same Old S*** With Tim and Eric

My vision of the apocalypse.

I'm a pretty avid viewer of the Adult Swim block of programming on Comedy Central. (Heck, according to my own labeling, I've written about it a dozen - now 13 - times on this here blog.) However, one aspect of that programming that is severely played out to me would be all of the various Tim and Eric programming.

Of the shows they've done, the only one I liked a bit was Tom Goes To The Mayor. Between the odd animation and quirky situations, the show had its moments. Too bad some episodes were just horrifically depressing. Anything involving Tom's wife was just painful and awkward to watch.

However, "painful and awkward" is the best way to describe any Tim and Eric program after Tom Goes To The Mayor. Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! is meant to be horrifically bad, and thus funny, but I find it more horrifically bad, disgusting and tedious.

Part of the appeal of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and spoof movies like Airplane! and The Naked Gun is that the actors are never in on the joke. Given the whole format of TaEASGJ, I can never shake the feeling that they feel the whole show is an effing joke, and they're in on it. Meaning, Tim and Eric know the show is crap, and there is an effort to maximize the crap by them.

Where is the fun in that? Congo is a horrible movie and funny to me partly because people are actually trying. They are not meekly reading horrible lines - They are enthusiastically talking about using diamonds to power lasers that they will then use to kill gorillas who are guarding King Solomon's diamond mines. This adds a layer of enthusiasm that simply isn't present in most of the "this is so bad aren't we cool?" hipster stuff like TaEASGJ. Mr. Show had some great "this is so bad, it's good" moments, but they also balanced it legitimately decent song-and-dance numbers by Jack Black and funny spoofs of infomercial pitchmen.

Which brings me to Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule. Poor John C. Reilly - you've gone from hosting Saturday Night Live and hanging out to Will Ferrell, to crap like this? Come on, you're better than this. Shake N Bake!

The show is meant to spoof horrible local newscasts and their bad broadcast quality, but what actually happens is that Reilly has an awkward interview with people who aren't really in on the joke. So really, all that happens is the recreation of a horrible local newscast. The first two shows were on "Food" and "Relationships", and both were horrible, except for some non-Brule segments with cheesy local commercials.

But thankfully, both episodes were only 11 minutes each. Yay?

Grade: D+

A groovy time with the Aqua Teen gang

Sunday marked the hundredth episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, which was appropriately named... "100." In contrast to the gay ghost episode I wrote about two weeks ago, this was pretty sharp, self-referential humor, similar to the Larry Miller episode last week.

Keeping with the theme of the title, Frylock keeps noting the number 100 popping up in every aspect of his life, and like that crazy Jim Carey movie that nobody saw, he scribbles 100 all over the house. By the middle of the episode, every single thing anyone says, included a cop played by George "Space Ghost" Lowe and Tom Savini.

I particularly enjoyed the sequences with Dana Snyder playing himself in a Master Shake costume, trying to get a syndication deal out in L.A. When he hears 100, he thinks of something entirely different - the standard mark needed to be syndicated. But as the network guys point out, Aqua Teen Hunger Force needs to do another 100 episodes to get syndicated, since each episode is only about 11 minutes long. Then again, it's hard to imagine anyone but Comedy Central or FX paying for ATHF, excluding TBS, which is a Turner property like Cartoon Network anyway.

Anyway, Shake returns back to Jersey, at which point a monster 100 (as in a numeral that runs around) attacks them. The monster is voiced by Robert Smigel, a.k.a. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, which seems pretty appropriate. To get away from the monster, Shake invents a new show for them to inhibit, which is a spoof of Scooby Doo. This turns out to just be another pitch to the network executives though, sadly, because it looked pretty god damn sweet. Sigh. I guess I'll have to wait for the Aqua Teens to actually solve crimes like Scooby and the gang...

Grade: A+

TV Review: Holy crap, it's Larry Miller! On Aqua Teen Hunger Force!

I'm a big fan of Adam Carolla, and for a while, one of the most frequent guests on his podcast and morning radio show was Larry Miller. The first time he guested, he was pimping a book, Spoiled Rotten America, that I subsequently requested a copy of and reviewed for my college newspaper. (Sadly, I can't find the review on their website to share with all of you; I'm sure it was glorious.)

However, whenever I try to explain who Larry Miller is to people, I have to go through his various movie roles. You know, he was the dad in Ten Things I Hate About You, and he looks kind of like Mr. Belding from Saved By The Bell, but he isn't him. Normally, after a few comparisons, something stokes the memory of the person I'm talking to, or they just tell me they know who I'm talking about so I'll shut the eff up about it.

Imagine my surprise to see Miller pop up on this week's episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force then, spoofing his own status as a "that guy in that movie" Hall of Fame member in the show's opening minutes. Carl has no clue who he is, and quite comically, Miller is trying to sell him his patented hair growth system. (Miller and Carl are both bald, very bald.)

Anyway, Miller darts out to Atlantic City eventually because of his crippling addiction to gambling. And in his van, there is a sort of glimpse of an alternate universe available, as Carl debates it out with a clean-cut, clean-living version of himself. Oh, and also, the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past of Christmas Future makes an appearance at the end, and he remains my favorite non-Aqua Teen character on the show, slightly edging out the Mooninites. Strangely, the Aqua Teens are barely in this episode, but it's still quite entertaining anyway, similar to the Bart Oates episode in a past season.

Grade: A+

TV Review: Gay ghost fab-u-luss on otherwise iffy Aqua Teen

This week's Aqua Teen Hunger Force was quite disappointing, except for the presence of a fun monster of the week - A gay ghost that explodes when he is exposed to cell phone dial tones. mwhahaha.

Outside of that though, this whole episode feels recycled. (I suppose you could argue that the gay ghost idea was already kind of used in the Dirtfoot episode, but he was a MONSTER, not a ghost, duh.) Frylock and Master Shake are fighting over a cell phone game for most of the episode, which causes Meatwad to do silly things to himself and with the ghost's help to try and get their attention. None of these really work, until Meatwad and the ghost blow up the house, and the phone in the process.

Once the phone is out of the picture, which takes about half the episode, we can get into the wacky fun that Aqua Teen is more known for. You know, like the fact that the ghost is the result of radiation at Smiley Junction, New Jersey, a former utopia a la Epcot. And that Carl's sister, who he hasn't talked to in two years, once gave a handy to Meatloaf. And that the ghost explodes when he is exposed to cell phones.

But like I said, outside of the ghost, this episode isn't anything special. It's definitely skipable if you didn't manage to catch it Sunday.

Grade: C+

TV Review: Pair of ATHF episodes delight

The Insane Clown Posse and George Lowe combine to make ATHF awesome.

Catching up on an episode I didn't write about last week, I continue to enjoy Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Last week's episode revolved around Meatwad and (mostly) Shake throwing crap off a highway overpass. The hilarity ensues, Aqua Teen style, when Shake throws a chunk of pavement off the overpass, killing a dude driving his car. You know, the typical family-friendly fare of Aqua Teen.

From there, the episode picks up speed as the ghost of the dude haunts Shake for the rest of the episode, forcing him to do good deeds for Carl and others. Shake finally has enough though, and trying to find a demon to help him, he instead comes across an Insane Clown Posse disciple. Of course, this kid is about 15-years-old, and only succeeds in having Shake give him rides before Shake commits suicide with a shotgun, in an attempt to avoid getting banished to Hell.

The best segment of the episode though are the two minutes at the end. Frylock and Meatwad sue the Insane Clown Posse for causing Shake's death. (It isn't really made clear why, since they don't really like him, but maybe they want the cash from it.) And fabulously, George Lowe makes another appearance on the show this season, serving as the bumbling lawyer for Frylock and Meatwad. Even ICP are decent in their brief cameo.

This week's episode is similarly strong, but it has been floating around on the Internet for a while, so I won't go as in-depth on it. Just realize that it is a take on Fantasia, with Meatwad in the role of the multiplying brooms. Good times, good times!

Grade on the two episodes: A-

Sorry for these kind of short entries. Yeah, I'm not doing so much flood coverage at work, but unfortunately, I've been getting chills and headaches during the mornings and nights. As I type this on Sunday night, I have a 99.8 degree fever, despite some Tylenol and Motrin throughout the day. So, until I'm back to complete health, the entries will probably remain short. Sorry folks!

TV Review: 12 Oz. Mouse, 12 Oz. Mouse!!!

I'm always sad when shows I enjoy get canceled, even if there are so bizarre and "out there" that I barely realize what is going on. Oh, why hello, 12 Oz. Mouse. If you like LOST and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, then you might like 12 Oz. Mouse. As odd and different as those shows are, Mouse is essentially a combination.

It starts by following the drunken exploits of Mouse Fitzgerald, a crudely drawn green mouse. He is hired by a shark - old Kentucky shark from Space Ghost Coast to Coast, oddly enough - to rob a bank, and while he does this, things quickly spiral out of control as other characters are introduced.

The show is nearly impossible to explain, yet by the end of its two-season, 20-episode run on Adult Swim, it all kind of made sense. Throughout the show, more sinister background details involving mind control and memory loss and alternate realities are revealed.

Seriously, this show isn't everyone's cup of tea, but it only cost like $5 to make, so I was surprised and disappointed when Adult Swim did decide to cancel it. They did continue it with a web-isode, which was supposed to be the first of seven or eight, but nothing ever continued past the first episode. That's kind of a shame, although the web episode isn't nearly as good as the rest of the series.

Grade: B+

For a great interview with the show's creator, click here.

At The Commercials: Old Spice, Old Spice, Old Spice, Old Spice, Old Spice...

One thing I have always loved about Aqua Teen Hunger Force is its willingness to be utterly shameless when it comes to advertising. The best example of this would be the episode devoted to Boost Mobile – Master Shake sells out the crew, and for an episode, a big talking cell phone follows him around, talking about the need for them to stay fresh with young kids and to visit “heezys.” The blatant, uncontrollable commercialism is funny to me.

Likewise, Carl has his own Old Spice commercial now, which is pretty awesome. Sure, more than 15 seconds of it is just him repeating Old Spice, but that only makes it better in my eyes. Plus, how can you not like a guy in black-and-blue leopard(?) print pants. I mean, unless you're actually meeting someone like that in person, in which case, yeah he's gross.

This continues a long string of successful commercials for Old Spice, since their re-branding a couple years ago. At that time, they were shifting from a cheesy deodorant aimed at kids back to their roots, as something for rugged, classy men. The best and first commercial featured Bruce Campbell talking about experience.

TV Review: The rest of Thursday night, and inexplicably, South Park

I'm lumping in South Park with the rest of my Thursday night reviewing, since I forgot to write about the episode until now. Don't like it? Well, start your own god damn blog. As Butters would say, don't be such a phony.

- Even though I aggressively started off this entry by mentioning South Park, and included a photo from it, I still enjoyed Community more, even if it wasn't as good as Parks and Recreation. But hey, that was so good that it deserved its own entry last night. Maybe Community can reclaim its belt with its performance this coming Thursday.

I mean, it's not like this week's episode sucked. While Pierce got the most obvious sight gag of the week (Community loves sight gags, and I love them for it), the best storyline involved Annie and Shirley each trying to prove that they were "harder" than people thought. They were both asserting their dominance as a "bad cop" kind of character, and thankfully, Abed was there to spur them and the bald dean on.

Unfortunately though, their whole plot was based upon a premise that a prank gone horribly wrong caused Brita to frame Jeff for the crime. This fell kind of flat for me. It was enjoyable, but the cop dynamic between Annie and Shirley and Abed was better, and Troy and Pierce were wasted after the initial comic wizardry scenes. This could have been another A or A+ episode, but it fell just a bit short because the Jeff storyline was surprisingly stale.

Grade: A-

- Likewise, I would have given South Park a higher grade if they could have just reigned in the vomit a little bit. Seriously, there is projectile vomiting going on for about a quarter of the appropriately-named "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs."

The underlying message of the episode is actually great, as it is subtle criticism against all of the people who try to assign ulterior motives to books like The Catcher in the Rye, or say, programs like South Park, that simply aren't there. The boys learn from Mr. Garrison that The Catcher in the Rye, the next class reading project, has been chosen for the class because it has been banned in so many classrooms. Unfortunately though, they're disappointed by the lack of swear words.

As a result, they collaborate to write the most disgusting novel of all-time, which shares its title with the episode. However, when they think they're going to get blamed and punished by their parents for it, they say that Butters wrote it... only to find out that the adults love the book, because they think it is an allegory for their own personal beliefs.

If you exclude all of the vomit, a gross-out device that has been used in countless South Park episodes, then this is a strong episode. (Hey, I'm a mark for anything with Butters in it, especially if he's threatening to kill John Lennon and calling people phonies.) Unfortunately though, like "Smug Alert" and "Canceled", the episode veers a bit too much into the gross out shit (or vomit) to really appeal to me fully.

Grade: B+

- Unsurprisingly, The Office still brings up the rear, although this week's episode was much better than last week's effort. The focus has started to shift away from the boring corporate crap and staff drama to where the show made its money: burgeoning relationships and Michael's "aw shucks" buffoonery that makes you cringe while fighting the urge to give him a big hug. It also helps that Kevin was doing Kevin stuff throughout the episode, such as being very, very enthusiastic about seeing Pam, and making thrusting motions in the direction of Andy and Erin.

Tackling it in reverse order, Pam the New Mom is desperate to get out of the house, even if it means hanging out with the crew from the office. She even brings Michael a friend, so that they can do a bit of a double date. Things are going great until Michael finds out it is a date, at which point, of course, he freaks out and almost gets thrown out of the bar. The episode's bartender kind of reflects the viewer's general point of view, in my opinion; she goes from wanting to throw Michael out because of his boorish behavior to taking pity on him, and throwing her hat into the ring for his affection on the sly.

The episode's other plots mostly revolved around the various romantic tendrils of the office's tree. Very minor plots included Oscar hoping to hook up with a potentially gay guy in the warehouse, and the continuing oddness of Kelly and Ryan. Andy stupidly downplaying his relationship with Erin got plenty of screen time, which is a shame, because I've decided that she is the second secretly hottest character on NBC Thursday night, after Annie on Community and slightly ahead of April on Parks and Recreation. He makes amends at the end of the episode though, which is nice of him. Meanwhile, Dwight chooses Pam's freakishly tall bridesmaid to pursue instead of Angela.

Frankly, all of these storylines are retreads from past seasons of The Office - Michael has had a string of stupid love interests, Kelly and Ryan are a sick joke of a couple at this point, and Dwight is now the focal point of a love triangle as opposed to Angela. I guess the Erin and Andy stuff has a kind of fresh feel to it in terms of The Office plots, except that both are so freakin' weird that I can't imagine them having anything resembling a normal relationship. All of THAT being said though, I still enjoyed the show this week.

Grade: B

- And finally, I forgot to mention last week that the 10th episode of the season was the final one for Archer. It'll return at some point next year, which is a shame, since I was just getting used to its greatness. So, sorry, but I won't be able to include silly pictures from it in the foreseeable future.

As pennance, please except this picture of billionaire playboy Xander Crews from Frisky Dingo. See, back before they did Archer, the creators had a show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim called Frisky Dingo. While it didn't hit quite the high notes that Archer does - the voice talent isn't quite as good, since you didn't have H. Jon Benjamin or Jessica Walter - the show did have its own sort of continuous anarchy that made it wonderful. You can buy the combined season one and two pack, 25 episodes in total, for about $37. The individual seasons go for about $10 each. If you like Archer, or anything like Space Ghost Coast to Coast or Sealab 2021, then you'd also love Frisky Dingo.

Frisky Dingo overall grade: A-
Archer first season grade: A+

TV Review: Monsters, stickers and Shake on ATHF

This past week's episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, "Monster", was pretty good. Not so much for the episode itself, because it was good, but ho-hum. Master Shake did have some great lines, true, but more importantly, there were some great images from the show, such as the one above, featuring Shake trying to sell Meatwad on a monster prevention pack.

And, to the right, Meatwad apparently likes to get stickers when he behaves well. He keeps complaining of a monster in his closet, in the sand, and tries to sneak into Frylock's bed for a "booty call" at the beginning of the episode as a result. Hilarity ensues from there! Good times, good times.

Grade: A-

Around The Dial: Leno back with some kinda, sorta good guests; Archer gets second season!

Checking in with some television news around the dial...

- The guest list for Leno's return to The Tonight Show has been released, according to TV Guide. Click here to catch a glimpse.

To be honest, I think TV Guide is stretching a bit when they say it includes "a lot" of A-Listers. The first night back, yes, Leno has Jamie Foxx and Lindsey Vonn, followed by Sarah Palin and Shaun White that Tuesday. Those are four pretty solid guests, and I imagine Vonn and White will do well on the show, coming off the Olympics and because of their solid conversational skills anyway.

However, after that, it goes downhill fast. Wednesday has Chelsea Handler, which is probably the first night Leno might get shit on by a guest, and the "big names" for that night are the cast of Jersey Shore. Thursday is Matthew McConaughey - ugh. And Friday has Morgan Freeman, a definite A-lister, but not someone known for his dynamic interviews.

I think most of the better A-list interviews - Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise - are going to wait out Leno's "new" Tonight Show to see how the ratings are. If there is a big public backlash against Leno, then I think they'll avoid the show like the plague. At that point, it would be REALLY interesting to see what NBC does. Maybe they could lure Conan back, as nuts as that sounds, with a ridiculous contract offer. Otherwise, they'd have to quickly promote Jimmy Fallon (unlikely) or hire some outside gun with little late night experience.

- In great television news, Archer has been picked up for a second season by FX! Woohoo! Just the other night, I was worried it wouldn't get picked up, but it seems like the ratings have stayed strong for the show. It's great news for Adam Reed, who came from the Adult Swim / Cartoon Network way of doing things, which was to constantly stall and wait on renewing shows.

The Archer picture comes from the news item I linked to in the story. The Leno cartoon is from this site.

TV Review: More Aqua Teen Hunger Force MADNESS

"If the Family Guy can have a pinball game, so can I!"

Dear Master Shake, I love you so much. You are my favorite animated character by far, with your bombastic, egotistical sayings. And thankfully, you were on full display, in your element, with the latest Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Eggball" on Sunday night.

The premise: Shake somehow creates a pinball game based on himself, complete with sound drops from the Mooninites, Frylock and others. (To be honest, the game itself seemed like a great product for an actual arcade, and it wouldn't surprise me if it was based on an actual design for a table or video game proposal, excluding the fact that it had about 17 flippers.) The quote below the picture of Shake is something he said in the episode, which only adds to my love of him.

Anyway, the first five minutes or so of the episode were incredible, as Shake breaks the machine and then attempts to get it fixed. The repairman turns out to be George Lowe, his second appearance on the show in a row, although as another generic character. Lowe hasn't really done much since Space Ghost Coast to Coast ended, so if they can squeeze him in as a semi-regular character, my love for ATHF will only grow.

Predictably, Shake freaks out that he can't find a proper replacement pinball, and the episode drags a bit as they go to Death Island to find a replacement ball. However, it's still funny, and there is some Meatwad humor in the second part of the episode involving jetskis.


Touching on the previous week's episode, "Rubberman," I found it enjoyable, even though it was a return to the "gross out" humor of ATHF that I have criticized in the past. From the picture and the title and my short description, you can probably guess what the episode was about, but just in case you need some more elaboration - Frylock creates a duck made out of used condoms and syringes that he calls Rubberman, and Meatwad brings it to life by placing a magic hat on top of its head.

... You know, really wholesome, family stuff! As gross as the episode starts out, it does get better as it goes along. While it is not an instant classic like "Eggball," "Rubberman" was still entertaining enough for an 11-minute show.

Grade for Eggball: A
Grade for Rubberman: B-

Aqua Teen Hunger Force is back with a vengeance, and a rabbot, kind of.

One of my favorite shows is Aqua Teen Hunger Force, despite the fact that I don't smoke pot. (I've learned that this can be a rarity among viewers.) A few weeks ago, the seventh season started with "A PE Christmas," in which Master Shake stole the identity of Flavor Flav and Terminator X, so he could record a Public Enemy Christmas album. It was pretty funny, more in line with the humor of the first couple seasons, as opposed to the super sickening humor of the last couple seasons.

However, the frustrating part about ATHF lately has been the release schedule for episodes. Before the Christmas episode, season six ended on May 31 with the neat concept episode of "Last Last One Forever and Ever," the only live-action ATHF episode. (The actual quality was somewhat disappointing, though.) Between seasons five and six, there was more than a year lapse. Like South Park, ATHF also has a short season, only about eight to 10 episodes. And after the Christmas episode, this week's episode came out almost a month later.

But speaking of this week's episode, the point of this post... I thought that "Rabbot Redux" was another good step in the direction of the past early success of the show. As anyone familiar with the show will realize from the episode title, there are referencing the earlier episodes now. This seemingly doesn't make any sense, since all of the characters have died multiple times and been resurrected without any acknowledgment. But hey, if that's the case, then you might as well up the insanity by adding in references that don't really make sense.

Anyway. The start of the episode has a bit of a swerve, as Master Shake and Carl are saying goodbye, since the gang is moving away! Don't worry though - They're just moving to the house on the other side of Carl, much to his dismay. Standout scenes in the episode include the beginning portion with Carl, and Master Shake and Meatwad's discovery of what a bathroom is.

Again, the whole episode feels like a bit of a throwback, to the origins of the series. If you checked out for a bit while they were doing episodes on mucus men and nosebleeds, then the show's tone might be better for now, similar to my own experience.