#meatwad is HUGE for some reason

[candyheartedchy]

THE CHARMS AND ACRYLIC PINS ARE HERE!!

And also the Jellystone phone charms!

[meatwadjr]

how i think,,, YANDERE! HUMAN!!Frylock and HUMAN!Master Shake would act with their S/O headcannons!

(separated)

warnings.

(its a yandere headcanons so..) cussing, gaslighting, shake being a total asshole to reader (shakes part). carl and frylock fighting (mostly getting his ass beat by frylock) frylocks part, stalking, frylock being really obsessed with reader … shake being a loser for reader. you can also imagine them how you want as humans.

FRYLOCK —

-

god damn, you’re dating yandere frylock? phew praying the best for you.

he’s the type to blow up your phone, and get mad when you don’t respond or answer his calls or texts, what do you mean you can’t answer 44 of his text’s and calls? are you cheating on him or something?

he will always try his best to always be by your side, like always. always inviting you to the house, places where ever meatwad and shake go.

he has a problem with wanting to know your every move… when you slept over at his house once he installed a tracker onto your phone, and would constantly text you wondering whose house your at? who are you with and more.

you would try your best to confront frylock you would tell him how uncomfortable it made you, and that he’d should respect your privacy. but than he would hit with.

“why? what are you hiding? how come i can’t know where you are? are you trying to cheat on me, don’t you love me why can’t i know where you are?”

it was exhausting arguing with him so you gave up.

Frylocks jealousy can also be a huge problem in the relationship as once carl cat called you when you were walking to frylocks house.

it did make you uncomfortable but you tried to pay no mind but you didn’t notice frylock standing there as he had an angry expression as he grumbled walking up to carl before punching him the face as they began to wrestle on the floor as you screamed for shake and meatwad as they came rushing out.

meatwad was more help helping you try to pull frylock off carl as shake was laughing before finally helping as finally frylock got off carl who was beaten up badly.

but by far frylock as a yandere he’s so obsessed with you, having you as his lock screen, always talking about you to the point shake being irritated.

like the only guy he’d trust around you is meatwad, and for some reason gets irritated when you and shake talk

MASTER SHAKE —

who the hell wants to date a deranged no bitches having loser? me!

anyways total loser for you, everyone knows that.

he’s the type to show up drunk at your house at 3 an screaming at your window and blowing your phone up with frylocks phone who he’d stolen from.

for some reason everywhere you go shake is their, he will always try to figure out where you are, and he’ll be there just to be a asshole and annoying.

whenever you two argue it’s pretty exhausting as he uses his famous lines

“oh please, you’d be nothing without me, i’d say you’re even lucky i looked at YOUR direction”

“i could of done way better”

“oh yeah? who would wanna date you?”

and after if you avoid shake for 2 days he’ll finally give a simple sorry before acting like nothing happen which irritated you further.

he will always try to find a reason to stay at your place, whenever he goes missing frylock always calls you first to see if shakes hiding there.

he has a jealousy problem, like really, once you were talking to meatwad as he complimented your shoes as he used a baseball knocking him into the wall leading you to yell calling him physco

“well he shouldn’t flirt with MY girlfriend!”

another time he threw a drink at a guy who tried to flirt with you leading to them fighting and you and shake getting kicked out, while on their date.

he always demanded to see and look thru your phone, and if you deny he’ll press you until you give your phone to him. why wont you give it to him? are you cheating? did you find a better guy than him? than why won’t you show him?

he’ll make sure to look thru you text messages deleting random guys names off your contacts which would get you irritated because once he deleted your bosses number.

he also will go thru your camera roll than complaining that you don’t take pictures of your body more.

literally a mess when you two are alone, will be pressing his body against yours pulling and holding you close as you two lay on your bed. shake will only be craving attention for you is when you two are alone because he doesn’t want people to see him be soft if he’s lovey dovey with you.

[where1endandyoubeg1n]

I think for every athf season I watch I'm gonna do a series of quick reviews for each episode. I like jotting down my final thoughts

Season 1

Rabbot- A pretty good pilot episode tbh, I really loved their dynamic here with Shake being so uppity about getting things done yet so uncaring at the same time and Frylock just kinda going with it. The shitty lipsyncing took a bit to get used to, but great start. Also HAHA HE SAID THE FUNNY DANCING IS FORBIDDEN LINE

Escape From Leprechaupolis- Fun concept. Didn’t get too attached to the leprechaun guys but Carl and Shake were especially funny, and Meatwad’s big sunshine and rainbows speech at the end had me holding back laughter.

Bus of the Undead- Wasn’t enthusiastic for this one. Not a fan of zombies, which is what usually comes to mind with “undead” but it was completely nonexistent vampires so that was a relief. Tangential rambling aside. the moth guy was cool and while I don’t remember too too much about this episode, I remember it getting some of the best laughs from me.

Mayhem of the Mooninites-

Ignignokt and Err’s debut in which they entirely destroy Meatwad’s morale and Frylock acts like a guardian to Meatwad, and really what more could I ask for? I love me some mama Frylock. And of course the stars of the show, the Mooninites, do not disappoint. Ignignokt has a whinier voice than I remembered, but I don’t mind because that homestly makes him even funnier, and Err has some really aggressive lines that caught me off guard in a good way(“GO BACK INSIDE! WE’RE FIGHTING!”). Fave moments have to be when they lazer Carl and when Meatwad tries to give “the finger” and just morphs into a hot dog. I was very giggly during this one.

Balloonenstein- Fun premise that just spirals out of control the further into the episode it goes. I like the first half where Meatwad has control of the whole household when he gets electricity from being spun around in the dryer. And the literal plothole that’s just a random massive vortex that shows up for plot convenience is honestly hilarious.

Space Conflict from Beyond Pluto- Favorite episode of the season, no contest. I was in tears by the end of it, my cheeks hurt from smiling too much, I was so amused throughout you don’t even know. Possibly the funniest fucking thing I’ve seen and I don’t even know why. The jokes just get thrown at you nonstop again and again and again and stellar vocal deliveries + terrible(/pos) character dynamics + stilted animation = just… perfection. Fave joke is definitely the running gag of all the buttons triggering balloons and confetti(“Did… Did we blow it up?” “YOU ARE TOYING WITH ME!”). I didn’t think the Mooninites would be outclassed by the Plutonians but here we are.

Ol’ Drippy- Was totally unsure what to expect and was very pleasantly surprised. Ol’ Drippy was a super pleasant addition to our nice little list of characters, big fan of the entirely decent character hanging w the total dipshits trope and it's stellar here. Poor dude, I hope he returns for another episode one way or another. Yea, can you tell he steals the show this ep? Such a soothing voice too.

Revenge of the Mooninites- Hear me out but I think this is the worst of the "these aliens are stupid nuisances" episodes of the season. It's kind of just a retread of Mayhem; They come to earth for essentially no reason, take advantage of Meatwad, terrorize Carl, and run away after an anticlimactic showdown. I mean it's still good, like a solid 7/10 episode, not that I'm giving them number ratings, but not very original. I think I would have liked it more if this premise were saved for next season.

MC Pee Pants- Scared of spiders... a little freaky, but I honestly loved the premise of "giant spider coerces innocents to use their brain waves to drill a hole to the center of the earth for candy." it's as nonsensical as it sounds, and i don't have lots to say on it but it's good.

Dumber Dolls- Wasn't a huge fan. I don't have much of a reason, I just thought everything was done pretty average, and there weren't a lot of laughs. I dunno, I wasn't feeling this one.

Bad Replicant- The replica Shake is really goofy, definitely ringing a bell for Emory, which is funny because he's also here. They're kinda just... guys. And I love that. Plutonians are hilarious as always, got tons of laughs from everyone... Great episode.

Circus- I enjoy how many fuckass blob characters this show just throws in 😭 First the Plutonians, then Ol' Drippy, then Randy the Astonishing, today's new flavor of alien! I'm not even getting tired of the aliens, all of them are terrible in their own ways and it's great. Randy gets tons of laughs, and Shake in the circus was really funny.

Love Mummy- Weird premise I'm digging. I really love how absolutely none of these plots are tropey or already established episode archetypes, at most being something that seems tropey and then is totally flipped on its head(e.g. aliens come to earth... but only to corrupt the impressionable with drugs and crime. a biohazard mess becomes sentient... but the monster is friendly and does everyone's dirty work.). I do find the mummy grating after a certain point, but still for the most part fun.

Dumber Days- Now it starts to fall into trope territory, and I'm not even mad because I love this kind of episode. It's the Patrick Smartpants of the show, and I'm running out of things to compliment, dude... Funny!!! Go watch it damnit!!! Good show!!!

Interfection- Shake and Meatwad being total fucking nuisances 💖💖💖 They really did predict just how bad subscription models would get though... I thought Shake would be more internet savvy but him just clicking on ads like a grandma is really funny. The scene where Frylock is trying to retrieve Meatwad from the scene of ads is great.

PDA- The monster of the week format works so well for this show... This and the previous one especially feel like a cracked out version of Regular Show, they're more similar than I would have thought at first. I wonder if there was any inspo from this show. Love how Shake just gets the random ahh tar monster's PDA, and the actual tar pit tour scene was 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂... Enjoyed this one.

Mail-Order Bride- I wasn't big into the premise of this one. Kinda sucked, not a lot to say. It felt like it dragged on for a good ten minutes longer than it was.

Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future- The way the robot's story stretches on and on here is really funny, he just like me frfr(yapping). Everyone being so fucking done with him was great, and the twist at the end was really funny.

BEST TO WORST: Space Conflict from Beyond Pluto, Ol' Drippy, Bad Replicant, Mayhem of the Mooninites, Rabbot, Circus, Bus of the Undead, Interfection, PDA, Dumber Days, Balloonenstein, MC Pee Pants, Escape from Leprechaupolis, Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future, Love Mummy, Revenge of the Mooninites, Dumber Dolls, Mail-Order Bride

OVERALL: I thought I'd like the show, obviously... but I think I'm hooked. It's got its teeth into me for sure. The comedy isn't the lowbrow shit I expected from an adult animated comedy, and I'm hungry for what's next in S2!

[adultswim2021]

Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job #45: “Crows” | March 29, 2010 - 12:30AM | S05E05

Lotta chatter in the discord about this season of Tim & Eric. Most of my friends were Tim and Eric devotees to some degree, and we are all having a great time communally reshaping our opinions on a shared like of something. It’s special. I like it! They’ve been selectively watching along with my watch along, and a lotta them are making a point to dig into a Tim & Eric rewatch. You bet they are. Lotta them said they hated this one especially, but lord help me, I think I love this one. 

When I give a contrarian opinion–you better believe it–people talk. So, let the conversation begin: I got very high before watching this episode, and that is probably the only reason I liked it so much. So, I am going to make the mistake of letting this stand as my definitive opinion on the episode. When one embarks on something so audacious as an adultswim.com branded blog, when one uses their mind for a higher purpose (discussing Meatwad, Brak, etc), they must occasionally reflect on their lives and conclude: I am the only person who is right about anything, so much so that it’s especially true when I am high as hell. 

Okay: Quall sings the Car of the Future, not that good but I like that there’s a crazy guy on TV. This was Tim & Eric’s intent all along, and sometimes it’s just nice.

Then there’s the Paynus Bros. This doesn’t go anywhere, really, but I laughed a bit and I can’t deny that. Is it weird that a guy in this once yelled at my wife over some seriously pedantic bullshit regarding some forgotten stand-up comedy-related scandal? Yes, it’s weird. But guess what? I don’t even HAVE a wife anymore, dickhead. I do like the part where the host of the entertainment news show interviews his friend’s parents. LOL who DOES that. A lot of this is a little time-wastey though and it doesn’t really have much of a point. But some of it works for me, which isn't bad for being the worst sketch in the episode. 

The Cinco Sleep Watching Chair is a classic. I love this sketch so much. Doug Foster (aka Doug Prish-Preed) cracks me up, and the bit where they give him age-inappropriate frat boy dialogue (saying his romantic partners just need to be hot, and nothing else matters- IMAGINE!). Michael Gross plays his sleep-watching friend, a strange sinister-seeming relationship. It’s almost as if he’s the man’s feeder, but for sleep. One of my favorites, I love the little smile at the end. It makes me do a huge one. 

The wraparound is that Tim has his eyes pecked out by crows, which eventually leads to Eric getting his eyes also pecked out. This is because, inexplicably, they can’t not simply avoid one particular alleyway where foreboding crows attempt murder on those who pass one too many times. This is all connected to a “Dark Man” who, I learned only recently, is famous rapist Marilyn Manson. I thought he was just some bad actor they got. Oh well, fooled me. I am sorry for not taking a stand against him. I promise I don't like the guy.

The reviled Rainn Wilson plays a menacing character who crackles and warns Tim & Eric of the crow storm coming. It’s all meant to evoke tropes of supernatural horror films. I hate Rainn even more than Manson, but even his presence doesn’t bug me in this. This is a good role for a wad like him.

Another interesting thing about this sequence is that it results in a sketch that works both as a standalone bit of weirdness AND as a narrative bridge that introduces the referenced "dark man". A circle of chanting people all say mildly absurd things like “Be provocative, be organized”, which is a phrase that I think is poetry, and I think about it often. A shadowy figure swoops in and takes one of the men's sons. I love this, and consider it art.

The Dark Man shows up in the spooky alley to turn Tim & Eric into a pair of porcelain birds because of their past crimes against birds. The little bit of footage of Eric smugly shooting a bird at point blank range is so funny to me. I consider moments like this to be gifts, and I appreciate the wonderful one I have received here. He also turns Rainn Wilson into a toilet, like he deserves. It becomes apparent that this is a reference to the Tom Goes to the Mayor episode Porcelain Birds; so much so that John Ennis reprises his role as the guy at the bronzing plant. Then he morphs into the Tom Goes art-style and we cut to Tom Goes to the Mayor style credits. Wonderful! Simply wonderful!

I like Crows, everyone!

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force #67: “Antenna” | December 10, 2006 – 10:30PM | S05E11

We all know and respect this episode by calling it by it’s REAL NAME: “The Lowesode” 

In “Antenna” (I call this Aqua Teen Hunger Force tale… “Antenna”), a huge antenna gets built over Carl’s house. It is interfering with Shake’s television reception, and “interference is forbidden!” as he might say (he does not say this, he is mostly racist to Indians in this). Carl gets a big fat old brain tumor because of it but it’s cool because he loves the new alien show he has (which I simply do not understand; aliens are scary as hell).

What’s actually happening is the antenna is a ladder to the alien’s home planet, and the show is actually a live feed of two of the aliens pretending to stack boxes for Carl’s entertainment. They are going to come down and take over Earth or something like that. I don’t know. I watched this twice and I technically don’t know how the alien’s plan shakes out. Frylock doesn’t kill them. They enslave Shake and make him tell knock knock jokes on TV. Also, they have George Lowe. He’s the Darth Vader to their Emperor Palpatine. He’s muscle they send down to intercept Frylock, on his way up the ladder to have words with the aliens. Lowe is wonderful, of course, playing himself and ad-libbing to absurd degrees. George Lowe’s character seems slightly redesigned from his appearance as the wedding DJ, but maybe it’s just the wardrobe change. Frylock even references his love of folk art in one scene. 

I like this one a bunch, but for some reason I am genuinely bothered by the opening sequence with Shake doing his night-club act. This sets up that the show is being told via his flashback in this moment, essentially starting the show at the end and working it’s way back. It seems like a gratuitous choice just to get more of shake doing stand-CUP (lol) comedy. I don’t know why I find it so off-putting, it’s a comedy show - LAUGHS ONLY. Call me a “mean guy” if you must. 

Mike Judge and Will Forte are the big guest stars in this one. MAN they are both great. Mike Judge delivers his famous BEAST-MAN line, which I fucking love. I keep stopping writing this write-up to do my impression of it to nobody. Will Forte’s voice is good too. I sometimes wish he was less famous and just fulfilled his true destiny of being an underpaid staple of Adult Swim. He should’ve been Brak.

I’m watching WOLFEN tonight, in Meatwad’s honor. Wish me luck.

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force #59: “Dickesode” | October 22, 2006 – 10:30PM | S05E04

The TRUE RETURN of Aqua Teen Hunger Force fills the void left behind by The Venture Bros. And thank god, too. There was a bit of a false start with this season way back in December of 2005 with Dirtfoot, Boost Mobile, and the Deleted Scenes special. And now we get 10 weeks in a row of new Aqua Teen Hunger Force to sooth our weary souls while the movie was still being worked on. Is it classic shit or is it gay and retarded? We shall find out.

Carl “wins” a prize at Wong Burger (an Asian-style fast food burger joint) which is that he gets his dick ripped off. This contest was concocted by Dr. Wongburger, who is trying to steal all the dicks he can from the general public so he can build a dick-shaped rocket out of dicks so he can return to his home planet Dick Planet. Two of his little henchmen, who are grains of rice drawn like WW2-era propaganda stereotypes with big buck teeth and necklaces made of dicks (that's not a stereotype I just mean additionally that's what these guys are about) try to “deliver” on this “prize” while Carl hides. When they tear his house apart and leave, Frylock attempts to solve the problem by giving Carl a sex-change operation, in which Carl gets his dick removed anyway. Eventually the Aqua Teens go to confront Dr. Wongburger who attempts to take off in his rocket before it's completed and crashes it into Wong Burger corporate headquarters which is a big tall building made of dicks.

This seemed sorta important at the time. Like the boundaries of what Adult Swim could and couldn't get away with were pushed back significantly. They didn't show you any dicks, really; everything was censored out using a rainbow/color bars/test pattern overlay. The pile of dicks on Dr. Wongburger's floor were one big 2D lump with the rainbow pattern covering them up, but then a few dicks strewn around not in the pile were more pronounced and unmistakable. Also, I recall them saying dick A LOT in this episode and it not getting bleeped. Impressive, especially because a lot of times when it comes to cursing on shows like this the ruling comes down to weather or not the offending word actually refers to anatomy or if it's a euphemism for jerk or whatnot. Here they are definitely saying dick, which refer to dicks that we see on screen in some fashion. Pretty cool in 2006 for a standard cable network that shares it's broadcast day with a children's cartoon channel.

This episode is PRETTY FUCKING GOOD. There's big-picture stuff like what I just described, but there's also really funny bits and character stuff throughout that keep things lively. Shake's bit at the beginning where he's ordered a huge soda, one that's about as big as he is, which he's selfishly forced his friends to carry out for him while he chows down on the edible handtruck designed to carry it instead (the wheels are made of chocolate). Shake explains that he needs that much soda to live, which, actually, him  being a big cup sorta makes sense? But he's such a cunt you believe that he's just being a jerk. This is a testament to Master Shake being one of the greatest comedy characters of all time. I mean this!

There's a scene where Meatwad re-enacts the commercial they just watched at home which explains the promotion (they don't have TiVo so they can't rewind) and while they wait for Meatwad to go get his puppets we can see Space Ghost doing the robot on screen.

Also, Brendon Small (as Donald Cock) plays Wongburger and the little henchmen. He's so funny in this role. Speaking of the credits, there's something VERY FUNNY about them that I won't spoil!!! Just kidding, yes I will, you're just going to go look it up anyway: everyone changed part of their name to DICK.

This episode is available on DVD in it's UNCENSORED FORM, so you can see all the actual meaty dicks in their nasty glory. Another reason to collect physical media, baby!

MAIL BAG

MC Chris announced on his tiktok that Adam Reed and Matt Thompson molested him during his time on Sealab. Still a fan?

Of MC Chris? Not really.

Did Tom Shales ever say anything nice about you?

The only Tom Shales anecdote I have is he interviews Garry Shandling on the long-out-of-print season one DVD of Larry Sanders (the first version that came out way before they released the best-of Box or the complete series) and he takes a moment to tell Garry that he was sorta snide to Tom when he did a guest starring role on the show and they left it in, I guess because Garry is obsessed with atoning for slights. I remember the thing he said, supposedly snottily, “this is LARRY’S Suit”

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force #58: “Aqua Teen Hunger Force Star Studded Christmas Spectacular Starring Rhon Geremi” | December 19, 2005 – 12:00AM | S05E03 (AKA “Deleted Scenes” - two-part version aired January 3, 2007 and January 4, 2007 at 12:00AM)

Here's the thing: the Library of Congress website has the long title for this episode and that's it as far as I can tell. Swimpedia distinguishes the original 30-minute version of the episode as “Deleted Scenes” while the two-parter version has the long title only. I was curious to see if it was split into two episodes or not in it's official registration document, or if separate entries cover the two-parter or what, but I only found one listing. Also, it was filed in August of 2006, solidly after the first version aired and solidly before the two-parter ever did. Believe me, I'll cover all that stuff later. I'll probably spend way too much time talking about it, too.

This is a fairly unspectacular episode on paper, and could be considered a legitimate “cheater” ep; not for anti-humor reasons or intentional time-wasting reasons, or whatever. This episode consists mostly of Shake in a vague “backstage” area with a projector set up, and he's showing us clips from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, which had yet to come out, and wouldn't be out for a while, actually. I remember seeing this special, really liking what I saw of the movie (despite the fact that we were seeing stuff that was actually cut out of it), and sorta being under the impression that the movie was basically almost done because how else could they have nice-looking deleted scenes?

The scenes concern Carl having his pimp-ass rims stolen from his car by the Mooninites. They are hypno rims that he intended to rape women with. They don't put it in such coarse terms, but let's not split hairs here, Carl is a sicko rapist freak. Anyway, the Mooninites use the rims to hypnotize Carl into doing their bidding, including him shoving a broom up his own ass and stealing a microchip from the Aqua Teens for them. It really whetted our collective appetites for the upcoming film, boy did it ever. I mean, *I* liked it.

Okay, so I have the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume 5 DVD and guess what? One of the episodes on it won't play. That's one bittersweet thing about this blog: as I reach for certain series on certain DVD discs, I'm discovering that despite the fact that I take *pretty* good care of my DVDs that some of them are inexplicably no longer working. Disc rot? Bad batch? Who knows! Physical media is nice, but it sure don't last forever, so buy up some huge hard drives, and some more huge hard drives to back up those huge hard drives, and don't forget to back up everything. You'll never have enough time to do this, realistically, and even if you attempt it certain precious things will still surely fall through the cracks. But you gotta try.

Anyway: Volume 5 on DVD has this episode in it's later two-part state. If you want the original half-hour version, you need to get the ATHF movie on DVD; the original two-disc version (don't know if there's a one-disc version out there but I can't rule it out) has the thirty-minute edition of the episode on the second disc. I spotted some differences by the way! Here they are (there may be more):

The thirty-minute version has deleted scene where Meatwad attempts to replace Carl's stolen rims with Christmas wreaths. Then the Mooninites show up with their spaceship tricked out, trying to make Carl jealous. In the two-parter this whole scene is moved to be beginning of part two so they could use it as an introduction. They cut out the part with the Christmas wreaths.

There's a bit where Shake and Meatwad bicker about the practice of putting bloopers doing the closing credits of a movie (citing Cannonball Run as an example). This is missing from the two-parter.

The two-parter includes the full opening sequence for both parts, and closing credits are added over the final moments of the first part. The thirty minute version originally has Shake throwing to commercial by falsely claiming that he also produced the commercials we're about to watch. The two-parter version has a generic sign-off instead. There's also the aforementioned added introduction for part 2, which utilizes a deleted scene that originally aired in the first part of the thirty-minute version.

This episode also includes a little clippy of Raydon, a little live-action short Dave and Matt made that wound up on one of these DVDs. I should've been covering that stuff as ephemera, maybe, but... I fucked up. On that note: can anybody find “Michael Myer's Day Off”? There are a bunch of different unrelated sketches with similar premises on the internet. The one that Matt/Dave made (if I remember correctly) was never on a DVD and was only ever a low-res internet video. It featured a DOLL of Michael Myers, I think. Also I remember it being stunningly unfunny. Like, there weren't any jokes in the entire thing. I'm just curious to see it again, is all.

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force #57: “Boost Mobile” | December 12, 2005 – 12:15AM | S05E02

I don’t remember liking this episode when it originally aired. I’m not sure if I did or didn’t. The biggest sense memory I had of this episode was feeling uneasy seeing product placement in this show, even if it was tongue-in-cheek/quasi-parodic/experimental. But, it’s the experimental that I’m precisely afraid of, my dear boy (WOMEN DO NOT READ THIS BLOG AND IT IS A HUGE PROBLEM). What if the experiment were to result in “oh we should do this all the time”. Not that Adult Swim isn’t somehow powered by a baby raping/eating conglomerate in some some small way or another. But I do like to think of it as having more integrity than most of the tentacles stemming from a soul-devouring capitalist machine. They are robotic tentacles, in case you were about to question my metaphor mixing. I know, I agree with you--it DOES defeat the purpose of them being tentacles.

This episode is about Shake putting product placement into the show. It’s as though the Aqua Teen players are real people doing a sitcom, and one of the cast members refuses to take off his 9/11 IS AN INSIDE JOB shirt, and is going off-book a lot, and one of the other cast members is visibly frustrated. There’s only one way to get someone to take off their 9/11 IS AN INSIDE JOB shirt. Offer them nine-hundred and eleven dollars. You will have to pay them the money for real, but isn’t it worth the price of helping your government stifle the truth? We are all in this together. ACT LIKE IT

So if you couldn’t tell from these last couple paragraphs: I’m a real “Fight Club” kinda guy. And by that I mean I’m ANTI-CAPITALIST, ANTI-CONSUMERISM, a gay guy from Portland, Oregon, and I love that freaking Pixies song that plays during the credits. DEAL WITH IT (brattily sticks tongue out).

Okay, I’ll actually talk about the episode. Shake has a Boost Mobile phone that he hangs out with and he keeps just shilling for the phone. Sometimes he gets calls from, presumably, the Boost Mobile offices, mad at Shake for failing to deliver certain lines properly or fudging technical specs. Frylock is pissed, and wants nothing to do with the advertising. He eventually tricks the phone into traveling into the earth, into the bowels of hell itself. I remember reading somewhere that Boost Mobile--a real company with a real product to sell in 2005 if that wasn’t clear and I should have said so earlier--actually asked them to change this scene from something else. I think they go up into the mountains in order to make the phone lose reception, but the higher-ups didn’t like that. So they changed it to be them going towards the planet’s core, where hell lives.

Again, I was nervous at the time that this could become a trend. The Simpsons wasn’t ruined by any single event; the reason The Simpsons got ruined was because the show got bad, but stayed profitable, so why bother fixing it getting bad. When the Simpsons staff realized they could turn in a lackluster version of the show, stay just as employed and only get richer-- what could possibly be the downside in that? Just pretend the show is as good as ever in interviews and someday historians in a distant future won’t be able to tell the difference between season 4 and season 40, so The Simpsons will just be canonized like Shakespeare even though I’m sure there were people who knew better than everyone else way back then and thought Shakespeare fell off after his tenth play and “Hamlet’s actually his worst play!!” So, it reasons to some degree to argue that maybe the same could happen on Adult Swim. I remember when they flirted with putting voice overs on credits. That spooked me. I wanted Adult Swim to stay perfect. I wanted to never be spooked again. I wanted to NEVER grow-up!

Good stuff: Meatwad getting upset about his hair. Shake calling Frylock black. A part where Carl swore (a thing I did was I monitored this episode for how “edgy” it was, thinking maybe Boost Mobile, the company, might have asked them to soften the show’s edge; I found this episode to be about typical of a normal episode of the show. Carry on), and said he was going to “fuck your ass up” to Shake. They bleeped “fuck” of course, but weirdly my Plex app had one of it’s sporadic audio hiccups and it perfectly covered the bleeped f-word,  making me think that the show opted to blank audio out like when they show movies edited for television. I hate when they do that for movies on TV. Just bleep it you freakin’ weirdos!

[adultswim2021]

Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law #9 “X, The Eliminator” | June 9, 2003 - 12:00 AM | S01E09

X, The Eliminator, a dorky villain from Birdman’s crime-fighting past, attempts to reignite a decades-old contract kill after finding out Birdman is a lawyer. Meanwhile, Birdman is shit shy after eating a volatile sloppy Joe.

Sorry, I don’t mean to make Birdman sound good, and the truth is this one is okay as far as Birdman goes. I’m a broken record when it comes to my distaste for this show. The wackiness kills me because that’s all there ever is. I guess if I have to hand it to Birdman in one regard it’s that they tend to make sure there are visually interesting gags going on almost at all times. When Birdman tells his assistant Peanut to��“cover for him” Peanut is inexplicably holding up a cheerleader in the air as if he’s helping her practice a routine. It’s silliness. I respect it on a certain level. But I still don’t laugh at Birdman much.

So X, The Eliminator is going after Birdman 26 years after being instructed to kill him for a million dollar bounty. He does this by simply visiting Birdman’s office and lugging around a huge silver control console that shoots lasers. It’s a reasonably funny bit, he has to find a place to plug it in and let it warm up every time. It’s that joke that Birdman does so... uh, not “well”, what’s the word I’m looking for? “much”. The undercutting dramatic cartoon tropes with mundane realism thing.

Side Note: X, The Eliminator is in the first episode of the 60′s Birdman. I forget if he’s in the first cartoon, but he’s definitely in the first half-hour episode. His role in this is definitely very much the same as he is in the action show. Also, there’s some significance to him watching the Galaxy Trio; that was the “B” segment for the original Birdman show. Hanna Barbera used to package shows with unrelated segments in hopes of scoring enough popularity points for a spin-off.

The subplot is Birdman can’t shit because he requires privacy. This subplot yields one laugh: Peter Potamus annoys Birdman in the bathroom stall, so Birdman runs out. As the scene ends another guy enters the bathroom and Peter just goes “hey-ey! There is is!”.

Is this a good one? There are better Birdmans. And I don’t really like Birdman. So, not really. But boy, do I like that one joke.

MAIL BAG

Okay, new MAIL BAG policy: No more than 5 messages per post unless I can’t catch up. I am simply getting too many messages, all clearly from different people, none of whom I know in real life. Here we go:

At this point in Sealabs life, the high-concept pisstakes are all the show has to really offer. They exhausted all their halfway decent comedy premises at this point so I kind of like the uh ohs. Also anything with Pro-Shop Murphy is a true classic as far as this show goes.

I’m not sure if I overtly stated that I respect the uh-ohsode, so let me do it here: I respect the uh-ohsode.

Of the shows you are watched so far which one would you say you are craving for more episodes. Also: What are you craving for dinner.

I've spent way too much time with these early episodes of these shows, so there is a small part of it that is chore-ish. I wanna get to like, 2005 when I sorta stopped watching Adult Swim so much cuz of college. But for actual pleasure, Aqua Teen is the best. Plus, it makes me hungry for Hamburger French Fry!

Considering Mr. Potatohead can be a guy anymore they will probably make Master Shake remove the "Master" from his name. Probably can't do Mr. Shake either for the reason above. Fucking awful.

They will probably make Meatwad be MeatWAS, and he’ll be made out of grass clippings or whatever they make those limp-wristed Impossible burgers. You know why they call them Impossible burgers, right? Because it’s IMPOSSIBLE to have heterosexual sex after you eat one! HAHAH! 

Actually I had one it was okay

Is there any adult swim show you haven't seen and are you going to cover it?

There’s a bunch I’ve only seen bits of, like real recent ones. The earliest one that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before is........... (wikiing it hang on) KING STAR KING, from 2014. But there’s a lot more I’ve only seen like one episode or less of. I will cover all of them, and the blog will stay bad.

You should call your fans "uh ohs" like how Rush would call his fans "dittoheads". God I miss him.

May he RUSH in Peace :D

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force #11: “Dumber Days” | December 1, 2002 - 11:15 PM |  S02E09

Okay, look, even though it’s “no big deal” when I skip a night, I decided to try and rush this one through to get it posted by press time (I have a queue set up to publish at a particular time each night and it’s less than a half hour away... gosh!)

I think of this as a lesser episode and it turns out there’s no actual good reason for it, because it’s great. It’s a tad jarring to have an episode without a guest monster or entity, sure. It’s a tad jarring to have Carl taking a proactive role in the plot, sure. It’s a tad jarring to have the Dr. Weird segment pay off in the course of the episode, sure. But man, this is just a great episode. All the Aqua guys are just perfect. Shake tells a fib to Meatwad about Dracular and oh man... it made me misspell Dracula I was so impressed. I think the only reason i ever thought of this as a lower-tier episode is because it’s easy to compare it to the similarly named “Dumber Dolls”. Also: if you wanted to see Meatwad get HUGE, this one’s for you.

MAIL BAG

Anonymous strikes back:

Between "The Legend of Baggy Pants" and that bad Home Movies episode its makes me wonder why comedy writers of that time saw Bagger Vance, a completely unexceptional movie in every way, and red meat for comedy. Just something I've been wondering about. Love the blog, don't let the other anonymous haters get your goat. Tell them all to just shut the fuck up.\

I guess people just like the name “Bagger Vance”. It’s sorta pleasing to say. Sorta baffling. It’s a bit like a Tim & Eric name. Do you guys like Tim & Eric? They are democrats!

It was bad that the bug did that. Thank you. - The Gay Community, not to be confused with the GAYYYYY Community that is fans of Ken Jeong on that hit NBC show.

Yeah, bugs are bad for a lot of reasons and I wish they could all go extinct. Imagine one jumping on you and you’re not sure where it went. That’s such a fucking nightmare. The smallest an animal should be allowed to be is a Rabbit. Just some of King’s Things.

Clarence is the fucking worse. A Butters/Stuart from Beavis and Butthead ripoff that manages to be the most obnoxious character in a TV show full of them. This seals it for me that the Brak Show is worse that Sealab as far as the original shows go. Sealab may have lower lows but Brak isnt too far behind with almost no highs at all.

It’s a real DC vs. Marvel situation here, which I won’t explain because I don’t wanna get pantsed by bullies. But there’s a parallel, just trust me.

brak is childish, why can't he grow up and be a man and have it be the man show. think about it

MOM jumping on Trampolines?? (thrusts pelvis forward, knocking over my sister’s machine that breathes for her while she’s sleeping due to a very rare condition that runs in my family - it starts beeping loudly. I ignore it) ... yes please!

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force #38: “The Clowning” | December 7, 2003 - 11:00 PM | S03E20

Man, do I love this one. In “The Clowning”, Carl suddenly has hair. It’s a wig, obviously, but he can’t take it off. He uses it to pick up a disgusting woman in one of the single-funniest scenes in Aqua Teen history: Carl attempts to woo said woman by doing air guitar and making guitar noises at her while shaking his hair around. It’s so fucking good. This would be a great episode without that scene. This might be one of my all time favorites.

Eventually Carl’s wig mutates and so does Carl. Carl eventually becomes a disgusting mutant clown. His sagging skin resembles a clown’s costume, and his feet grow to an enormous size. He can’t help but juggle Frylock’s science equipment. Worst of all, he infects Meatwad who also turns into a clown. Frylock freezes Carl until he can come up with a cure. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t.

This one only suffers in one fundamental way: a bad ending. There’s a perfectly good ending in this episode, but it telescopes out into what’s basically a “just a dream” ending with Dr. Weird and Steve. It’s not very satisfying. But, you could just consider it a “bonus” ending. I don’t know why they didn’t just keep the future ending they already had. Oh well!

MAIL BAG

Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo Doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo Doo doo doo I'm packed and I'm Holden I'm smiling, she's living, she's golden She lives for me, says she lives for me Ovation, her own motivation She comes round and she goes down on me And I make you smile, like a drug for you Do ever what you wanna do, coming over you Keep on smiling, what we go through One stop to the rhythm that divides you And I speak to you like the chorus to the verse Chop another line

Hey thanks for writing. You’re right, Patton does do a lot of ham-fisted liberal hand-wringing, and I totally forgot about his feud with Barbara Gray, in which I thought he acted like a huge baby (not that I particularly identified with the outrage that precipitated it, but if I have to pick a team I’ll go Gray any day).

Doing away with the mailbag was a good choice. It's fine if someone has a cool fact about a previous episode, but most of it seemed like nonsense. Like who's thinking about hootie and the blowfish in 2021? Anyway thanks for the blog.

What actually happened was I ran out of messages and then took a little break cuz my queue was a few days full and I had a was busy scrambling to find a job in the final week of receiving unemployment benefits. It’s back now. I’m so sorry.

Todd Barry is just a lower energy Dennis Miller, don't @ me.

I won’t, fatso! Freakin’ lardass!

Do any of the wayouts even have any animation other than the drummer? I swear the other two never move much less say a peep. I always considered them animatronic that space ghost and zorak put up to simulated a full live band while zorak really does everything from his keyboard.

I seem to remember one of them having a line of dialogue early on. I remember it being a guitar player for some reason. But I like the animatronic angle. That’s fun! It’s like freaking GhostBiz Pizza, ahaha! XD

Bring back the mailbag. Let people speak their mind for cry-aye.

by all means!

[adultswim2021]

The Brak Show #1: “Leave It To Brak” (AKA “Mr. Bawk Ba Gawk”) December 21, 2000 - 5:15AM | S01E01 regular series version aired October 7, 2001 @ 11:00PM

I’m trying to break the habit of assuming only my friends are reading my various blogs, but I failed in one fundamental way: I didn’t really describe the premise of Sealab 2021, like, at all. Despite digging into it’s roots somewhat by watching it’s various pilots, I failed to include even a paragraph with the basic premise of the show. I’ll try not to make the same mistake with Brak. Instead I'll make a DIFFERENT mistake by writing way too long of a blog entry.

On December 21, 2000, after Sealab 2021, The Brak Show, then titled “Leave It To Brak” debuted. Who the fuck is Brak? Brak began life as a villain on the 1960s iteration of Space Ghost, a fairly garden-variety Saturday morning action kid’s show. He appeared in, I wanna say, a very small handful of episodes. I’ve seen the whole series, and I don’t think he was like, a regular or anything. Without looking it up I'll say he was on it twice. In the show he was a space pirate and had whiskers. He has a very memorable design. I’ve never been sure if we’re actually looking at Brak’s face or if he’s wearing a helmet. His fangs imply that we’re looking at his actual face (or at least his actual jaw), but that little curtain thing that hangs down from his, uh, ears? Is that a naturally occurring part of his head? It suggests that his wardrobe is actually his body, and vice-versa. He just looks absurd, making him perfect fodder for an absurdist revision.

Brak as we know him today was first used (barring some kind of Cartoon Network commercial that I’m unaware of) in Space Ghost Coast to Coast, appearing with Sisto. Sisto is his twin brother who appeared in the 60s show. Why Brak was targeted for comedic revision and not Sisto eludes me. I’m guessing “HI MY NAME IS BRAK” just sounds funnier than “HI MY NAME IS SISTO”. Anyway, in the first Coast to Coast episode they are voiced by C. Martin Croker (RIP) doing a Beavis and Butt-head parody. Eventually Andy Merrill took over the role, basically turning Brak into a, uh, childish adult. Okay, he’s basically doing a retarded guy voice. Sorry, but it’s time to grow up.

Space Ghost Coast to Coast debuted in 1994 and remained a cult hit on the network until it was moved to Adult Swim and eventually canceled in 2004. The concept of Space Ghost Coast to Coast was Space Ghost, a super hero from the 60s, now hosts a modern 90s late night talk show, interviewing live-action celebrities on a monitor that hangs over the set. Random obscure Space Ghost villains would show up with skewed personalities from their original 60s counterpart. Brak was easily the runaway star of the touted rogues gallery. He would come in and cheerfully sing a song about beans or something else equally wacky. He rarely had a definable role on the show, he was just a figure that was around and would wander into the set.

A second 90s Space Ghost spin-off was commissioned called Cartoon Planet. This was an actual kiddy show that aired during the day as opposed to Space Ghost Coast to Coast which was kid-friendly but meant for adults. This time Space Ghost, Zorak (Space Ghost’s bandleader on Coast to Coast), and Brak would host an hour of classic cartoons, with little absurd skits between segments set in a studio SORTA like the Space Ghost Coast to Coast set but different. LOTS of Brak’s fandom is based on these skits, which were a little more silly and lighthearted than the material on Space Ghost Coast to Coast. The skits were popular enough that they repackaged them into their own half-hour show, sans classic cartoons. This was an early point of confusion for me. Beloved Brak songs turned out to be from Cartoon Planet and NOT Space Ghost Coast to Coast, so I'd tune into Space Ghost wondering if they cut out all the Brak segments or what?

Cartoon Planet would answer viewer letters (conceivably real ones; they DID include various ways to contact “Ghost Planet” at the end of both Space Ghost Coast to Coast and, I’m guessing, Cartoon Planet, which I never did see in it’s original form). They actually answered the reason for Brak’s lack of intelligence (brain-damage caused by Space Ghost, using an actual clip from the 60s show). I bring this up not out of genuine concern for continuity or canon; these aren’t huge concerns for the writers of these shows. The real reason Brak is dumb is because Andy Merrill thought the voice was funny, probably. I bring it up because generally the premise of Space Ghost in the 90s is that even though he IS a super hero with super hero abilities, he’s also an actor who makes cartoons about being a super hero. So, it can be concluded Brak’s brain damage is from a stunt gone wrong and not carried over from the fiction of the show.

The premise of Space Ghost Coast to Coast is that Space Ghost has captured evil villains Zorak and Moltar and is forcing them to work on the show. But they also freely reference their personal lives outside of the show, breaking character. They are actors who are sticking to a premise only when it’s convenient. Yes, it’s fun for the kids to pretend that Space Ghost has enslaved his enemies to work on his talk show, but the reality is that when the camera turns off they all go home to their apartments or wives or whatever. This concept feeds directly into The Brak Show: we aren’t watching Brak’s real home life; Brak, cartoon character and actor, is playing himself in a sitcom. His mom isn’t his real mom. His Dad isn’t his real dad. Zorak isn’t his real best-friend. They are all actors. This isn’t played up in any significant way on the show itself except for a few moments and certain episodes, but THAT IS WHAT’S HAPPENING and you wouldn’t really understand that just by watching this episode and nothing else. You would have to have been paying attention all this time to Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Cartoon Planet, and also, yes, Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak.

Okay, Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak isn't REALLY required viewing for this series. But guess what? I watched it for the first time ever in preparation for this and now we all have to deal with Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak (sorry I keep repeating the full title which is Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak) was a two-episode special presentation that aired on Cartoon Network while Space Ghost was on hiatus and before The Brak Show's stealth premiere. It (Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak, that is) was a Sonny and Cher style variety show, featuring Brak and Zorak on stage together performing songs, intentionally corny sketches, and a LITTLE BIT, but NOT A LOT of backstage drama; which could be argued to have been part of the show itself. Variety shows doing sketches fictionalizing the backstage antics of the production is nothing new. There are also live-action integrated celebrities, and the show comes to a screeching halt whenever they show up. Maybe their performances are hampered by having to perform on a green screen, but these segments come off lame and pandering. Space Ghost Coast to Coast would make it's name featuring washed-up, kitschy, or counter-culture celebrities. Here we are treated to Monica, Freddie Prinze Jr. (whose segment in particular really drives me up a wall), some wrestler guy, and a lady who's name I don't remember. Okay, I admit I fast forwarded through the second of the two episodes a LOT. Sitting through one episode in real time was just too much to bear.

Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak is written off by a lot of Brak fans as a substandard product, and they're not wrong. I myself never sought out the whole special until I started writing this blog. But there's one thing I'll give it, the visuals (minus the live-action celebrity parts) are actually pretty fun. There's a lot of weird character designs, and the same playful use of stock footage and kinetic editing from Cartoon Planet carries over into this. Skipping past the celebrity guests and watching the special on mute would be the preferred viewing method here. Honestly, I've never been that charmed by Brak's songs. I never cared much for Cartoon Planet.

Brak Presents the Brak Show Staring Brak eventually became The Brak Show, but with one more step: a scrapped audio-only pilot. This pilot appears as an audio commentary track on The Brak Show Volume 1 DVD set. I discovered it by accident. In preparation for this blog I popped the DVD in, saw there was commentary for Mr. Bawk Ba Gawk, and pressed play. Instead of Andy Merrill and Pete Smith dryly talking about their creative process, I was treated to what would have been the audio for a Brak Show pilot (there are stage directions being read in lieu of visuals), roughly the length of an 11 minute episode. This version plays up the backstage antics of Brak's variety show much more, kinda like Larry Sanders meets Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. Returning from the show is Brak and Zorak, along with Allen Wrench, a talking Allen wrench that appeared in Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. On Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak, Allen had a crazy high-pitched voice. In this audio pilot he sounds closer to Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Also present in the audio pilot is Thundercleese, who curiously sounds like the regular series version of Thundercleese. In “Leave it to Brak”, Thundercleese sounds slightly different. Maybe they went back and rerecorded Thundercleese for the DVD?

That FINALY brings us to the actual episode. “Leave it to Brak” was the first episode of “The Brak Show” proper to air (though if I remember correctly from what was reported way back when, they wanted to call the actual show “Leave It To Brak” but couldn't for legal reasons). It feels more like a first episode than Goldfish does, which was the first episode I saw when Adult Swim officially began in 2001. “Leave it to Brak” introduces each character with fake studio audience applause. They even introduce Sisto, who simply walks in front of the camera, farts, and is not seen again. The premise of the show is this: Brak stars in a family sitcom. His mom belongs to the same species as Brak, but his dad is a tiny human voiced by George Lowe doing a Ricky Ricardo voice. According to this episode; Brak is roughly high-school aged, but it's all a pretense to get this cast of weirdos together under one roof. Again, Brak is a cartoon character playing himself here, so we're not meant to actually think these are his real parents; Brak is not half-human, necessarily. It's all just for the sake of this dumb show.

The plot of the episode is this: Zorak, Brak's best friend and worst influence, convinces Brak to help him kidnap the mascot of their rival high school, a chicken named Mr. Bawk Ba Gawk. Having done this, Brak grapples with the morality of his actions, tries to deceive his parents by dressing the chicken up like a little man, is caught, and is taught a lesson. There's a comedic final scene that reverses the lesson Brak supposedly learned, and then it ends. Somewhere in there we are introduced to Brak's giant robot neighbor who blows up Zorak for ripping up his lawn.

The Brak Show was possibly the most anticipated show when Adult Swim was announced. We all quietly ignored how much Brak Presents The Brak Show Starring Brak sucked; mostly because this was touted to be a show for adults. Afterall, Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak's biggest shortcoming was the fact that it was the first Brak-centric product to pander directly to children. Brak was always seen as a uniquely weird creation that just so happened to appeal to kids, kinda like Pee Wee Herman or Joe Camel. Also the idea of parodying the sitcom genre seemed novel, despite the fact that it wasn't really a new idea. Now it just comes off like a shallow observation: boy, old sitcoms sure were corny, right?

I don't know exactly how to pinpoint what was so disappointing about this show. I can see there was a genuine effort to make it funny. Dad was a decently funny character. They weren't just trying to mock sitcoms, they were trying to build a genuinely strange world that resembled our own. Brak lived in the suburbs but there were aliens and robots everywhere. Sci-fi situations casually reared their ugly heads into the lives of these characters. I mean, look at the plot description of Brak stealing a high school mascot; it's an ACTUAL SITCOM PLOT. There's no real subversion to it other than the fact that Brak and Zorak from Space Ghost Coast to Coast are doing it. This could have been decent as a one-off special like Tim & Eric's Bag Boy staring Steve Brule. But they made more.

Oh wait, I figured out why The Brak Show sorta sucked. It's the fact that the show was a musical. Fuck, I hated that so much that I blocked it out of my head until this moment. Every episode had musical numbers in it sung by Brak and the family. Ugh. They were supposed to be funny nonsense but I never liked it. In fact if there were ever an edit of the show without the songs I would probably remember it much more fondly.

This version of the pilot had very simplistically drawn backgrounds. When the show went to series they redid the backgrounds with photo-realistic settings and props. It's a much more appealing look. This version of the pilot was briefly featured in an episode of Sealab, where Murphy was flipping through the channels on his monitor. He flips past this and Aqua Teen Hunger Force and maybe Space Ghost? This was back in the early days when every show seemed like it was connected to each other. I miss that. The “regular series” of The Brak Show used to give the show a different parodic on-screen title; “Mr. Bawk Ba Gawk”, which aired fifth on Adult Swim, had the opening title “B.J. And the Brak”. “Goldfish” used “Leave It To Brak”, which causes some episode guides to get confused over which episode is which. In fact, Adult Swim's website features the pilot version of this show and incorrectly uses the plot summary for “Goldfish”. I'm not linking to it because the listing says it expires today. But go look for it if you want.

The other big difference between this version and the “regular series” version is there are a few missing bits here and there. For example, the pilot version starts with Dad asking Mom for another biscuit. She sighs and says “maybe later”, to which dad just shrugs off. There's also a cut song I call “Kiss you hot” that dad sings to mom. There's probably other differences here and there. Oh, Brak's clock is the beeflog illustration from Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak. Isn't my life fuller for being able to make that connection? God, I'm so glad I watched Brak Presents the Brak Show Staring Brak last night instead of getting an extra hour of sleep.

So what's good in this? I REALLY like the scene where Bawk Ba Gawk is at the dinner table and everyone keeps stealing his little hat to wear. Mom scolds Dad for wearing the hat, to which he mutters “I'll do what I damn well please”. Mom then plucks the hat from his head. When we cut to the wide shot, she's wearing it. Funny! SOLIDLY VERY FUNNY. But the series generally suffers from them trying to cram in weird pointless bits of absurd comedy. Only sometimes does it work. Not sure why. But that's how it goes, I guess.