#anyway. you can tell i want frylock BAD.

[vampireassistant]

i am not coloring this. whatever. fryman and the milkshake

[vampireassistant]

happy family (click cause tumblr nukes the quality)

more doodles under cut

[adultswim2021]

Home Movies #43: “Everyone's Entitled To My Opinion” | November 11, 2003 - 3:00 AM | S04E01

Home Movies is BACK! Sort of! This was actually a stealth premiere, airing on Tuesday morning at 3:00AM. This is the one where Brendon starts getting really into writing reviews for a movie review website and actually winds up getting paid for it. He’s like Lights Camera Jackson with teeth (Did LCJ have teeth in 2003? probably not). Meanwhile, Mr. Lynch is the interim principal of the school for some reason, and McGurk uses this to be bad. And thaaaat’s the frea-kin’ plooooot!!! 

I think most fans remember Home Movies season 4 as the season where the show got a little soft. In my estimation that’s probably true; season 4 does have a larger share of forgettable episodes. Also my least favorite episode is from this season. It’s the only episode of Home Movies I truly dislike, actually. We’ll get to that one eventually. This episode was pretty wonderful, though you can sense the show focusing on being a little more scripted.

Two moments stick out: A scene beginning in science class starts off with the teacher saying “wow, I didn’t expect to spend the first 25 minutes of class answering a single question!” and it cuts to Brendon looking satisfied, holding a book titled “THE WORLD’S HARDEST QUESTIONS”, and a part where Mr. Lynch does monkey bars and all of his stuff falls out of his pockets and you hear him sighing and grunting. Both of these moments seem to have scripted out the actual action happening on screen, where earlier seasons might’ve just created a largely audio-driven story, leaving all that stuff up to the animators. But those two gags seem very written in a way that would make famous rapist John K. furious.

Now, that isn’t to say that they completely abandoned letting the animators be creative. The commentary reveals that the kids’ movie wasn’t written or recorded with the idea of it being a Sopranos homage in mind. That was the work of the animators. I don’t know, maybe it’s nitpicky or a more shallow observation than I’m making it out to be. Like the monkey bars gag struck me as a gag that would be put in by the animators as an afterthought but the fact that Mr. Lynch has dialogue to support it made me think it wasn’t. What’s the fucking difference, anyway? That they put more work into the script? Big deal. This is apparently an annoyance to the creators of the show, who’ve heard this criticism over and over, and maintain that the ratio of scripting/improvising has remained pretty consistent while the show was on Adult Swim. Nonetheless, I noticed a difference. And I have to talk about SOMETHING on this blog, don’t I?

This write-up deserves to end on a less critical note: the opening scene on this one is one of my favorites. It’s the one where Brendon and Melissa are just laying in the grass talking and there’s a reveal that they’re in the middle of a game. McGurk comes over to yell at them and then winds up sitting down himself to shoot the breeze with them. Real wonderful.

MAIL BAG

Here’s the mail bag. First message is about yesterday’s Brak Show recap (which was probably bad because I forgot to do my customary editing session before it went to press):

Before you tread any further with this project, I BEG you, please watch the documentary The Problem With Sexy New Brak Show Go. It will open your eyes AND make you think for once in your (*looking up an adult swim show*) Momma Named Me Sherrif-addled life

How dare you, I’ve never watched Momma Named Me Sherrif, and I’m disgusted that there was a spin-off of Mr. Pickles (RIP Jay Johnston, who I think was in that). As for the doc, if it’s half as good as The Problem With Apu, then it’s bad

2003 Scharpling voice is freaking me out!

I used to go through Best Show archives pretty regularly, but it’s been a while. Weird to think we’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of the first Best Show. I remember when ten years seemed extreme. Mortality is nasty.

Parts of Broodwich are inspired by Don Hertzfeldt. I thought a fan of classic animation would be pressed to point that out but you must be spending too much time thinking about "the twinkies" to mess that up.

I never made this connection, damn. To be honest the first time I saw Rejected I really didn’t care for it. I’ve seen more of his work and I appreciate it a lot more. I don’t know what I was so mad about. I think as a young adult I was still hyper sensitive about what I perceived to be bad “random” comedy, and almost anything that was a quick succession of little gags would always come off that way to me. Also, fuck you. I don’t care about Tiger and the Twinkies.

Would you eat a haunted hamburger provided it had your choice of toppings (nothing). Or would you be too chicken?

I am addicted to hamburgers and would probably eat it. My soul would burn in hell’s eternal flame. But what else is new

How much of the Adult Swim cast could John Wick and Bob Odenkirk kill before they were stopped? Would it be Space Ghost with his powerful rays? Would it be Frylock with his mindbending magic? Thundercleese? Oh! Do tell! We really want to know (rolleyes).

NOTE: I misread this as John Wick Bob Odenkirk, taking “John Wick” to be a descriptor for Bob’s Nobody persona. The following answer has not been changed, because I don’t want to think of a new one:

In Bob’s current state (recuperating like a bitch), I don’t think he’d get past even FREAKING MEATWAD, lol. But it’s my sincere hope that he’d last long enough to face off against the big boss: Icelandic Ultra Blue’s David Cross, finally putting an end to him once and for all. Hey everyone, it’s Bob vs. David!

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force #13: “Dumber Dolls” | November 3, 2002 - 11:15 PM | S02E05

Aqua Teen Hunger Force took a little bit of a hiatus and returned with one of their all-time greatest episodes. In Dumber Dolls, Frylock buys Meatwad a budget-priced doll named Happy-Time Harry, who is a sentient miserable prick who’s voiced by David Cross. David Cross is best known for Mr. Show, the world of stand-up, Arrested Development, and also being a sentient miserable prick who’s voiced by David Cross. Happy-time Harry has been beaten down by life, is suicidal, self-harming, angry, and worst of all, MEAN! Meatwad becomes more and more depressed after hanging out with his new doll, to the point where Frylock actually buys Meatwad the expensive doll he actually wanted, Jingle Billy. Jingle Billy is a happy-go-lucky hillbilly that dances at the drop of a hat and has his own pair of night-vision goggles. Jingle Billy blows his own head off with his musket after spending time with Happy-Time Harry. In 2002 I was still infatuated with David Cross and this episode not only didn’t disappoint, but it still resonates to this day despite my views on Cross evolving. I still like the guy more-or-less. Cross has this odd quality that I think can be summed up in a review I read of his first album, which stated that laughing at his comedy felt the same as laughing at your incredibly funny friend you’re hanging out with during a long late night of drinking beers and (does a backflip) ♪ smoking weeeeeeed ♪. I feel like when people fall in love with Cross’s comedy they sorta fall for this illusion that they’re kinda friends with him, because that’s just the vibe he gives off on stage. He’s comfortable, confident, and willing to mock you to your face because you’re pals! But by all accounts (including my own) he strikes me as enormously unfriendly; a bitter misanthropic crank who deep in his heart just wants to be left alone. I’m not judging him at all! That’s how I am most of the time, to be honest. Anyway, this is one of the funniest episodes they ever did. Aqua Teen was really strong during this era and this episode is a gem, and it’d probably make my list of all-time greatest Adult Swim episodes.

One last thing is: I can’t find my source on this, but I remember reading somewhere that this episode was supposed to air later in the season and Adult Swim simply played the wrong episode. This might be true, maybe Dumber Days was supposed to air instead? But I vaguely do remember this being advertised as a different episode airing. I should keep better notes.

MAIL BAG

London Arbuckle writes:

I remember attempting to write South Park fanfic in middle school, literally hand-written on lined paper so I could work on it in class or at lunch. One was just a flagrant ripoff of This Little Wiggy but with Barbrady's son. Another I just went off of the Chinkpokomon episode and did that but about Pokemon cards, because I was a child and into Pokemon cards, you see. Write what you know! Speaking of which, do you think Policy was just Adam Reed humorlessly documenting an actual fantasy of his?

I think it’d be really fun to do a project that involved attempting to recreate bad fan-fiction attempts from childhood. When I was a kid I remember delusionally  convincing myself I was writing a REAL episode, like a spec script that might be made into a real episode if only I could get a writing agent or whatever it is you do. I remembered trying to write a Seinfeld once. The cold open had Jerry doing stand-up about how Mario Bros. was promoting drugs, and the plot involved him trying to look like a badass to impress a girl but Kramer fills his apartment with dozens of cats, and the girl thinks he’s a wimp because he has an apartment full of cats.

Anonymous writes:

Hey its Matt Stone (Hey its Trey I'm here too but I'm just gonna chill out.) We saw your IRA protestant/prostitute idea and I gotta say we really think it's pretty fucking funny. Any chance of you coming to Colorado and fleshing it out along with any other ideas you have? Peace out. (Later.)

Oh wow! Thank you Matt I would love to! I’m not going to give away the whole idea here, but you know how everyone seems to think that cancel culture is good? Well, I have some, shall we say, differing opinions on the whole thing that you’ll probably find PRETTY interesting. Can’t wait to meet up. Are Colorado strip clubs allowing full-contact lapdances now?

Brandon writes:

So happy to see David Cross on Adult Swim again. His third appearance since Space Ghost's "Gallagher" and Night of the Living Doo with Gary Coleman. Hope this guy doesn't make himself a stranger on this late night block!

I think David Cross has a lot more up his sleeve so stay tuned!

This barely has anything to do with anything, but it’s about David Cross and I’ll say it here to my friend Brandon who will enjoy this: I remember a long time ago I saw a trailer for a student film made by a bunch of dopes and the premise was basically that talking junkie sketch from Mr. Show but it was about David Cross, like a guy believes in David Cross and is seeking the truth in the face of stuffy bureaucrats who keep telling him “there’s no such thing as David Cross!” and one of the big jokes in the trailer was they kept cutting back to one of the characters chugging what was probably tap water out of a vodka bottle. I wish I could find it. I wish I could find them. I wish I could help them.