Mongo Nation

New “Frisky Dingo” spin-off premiers

By Jeremy Azevedo

Last night was the premiere, of “The Xtacles”, a new show on Cartoon Network’s popular late night Adult Swim program. Xtacles is a spin off of Frisky Dingo, from Matt Thompson and Adam Reed, creators of Sealab 2021.

At the end of Season 2 of Frisky Dingo, billionare playboy/superhero and leader of the Xtacles, Xander Crews (sort of a cross between Tony Stark and Tom Cruise at his gayest) vacates the planet for good (?) leaving his army of quite possibly retarded cybernetic super soldiers without a leader.

Enter President Stan, the megalomaniac President of the United States who seeks to manipulate the Xtacles to become his own private army… Which doesn’t prove to be too difficult because they’re often drunk by 11AM and spend most of their day sexually harassing their foxy holographic supercomputer, A.L.E.X.

Xtacles is voice acted by some awesome talent, including Marshall Bell, Rachel Harris and Michael Ian Black. The humor is very similar to that of Sealab 2021, very bizarre and generally centering on events that spiral completely out of control due to the overwhelming stupidity of the characters. For those that found Sealab a bit lacking after the real life death of Harry Goz (Captain Murphy), Xtacles serves as a second chance for the humor that made the original show so great.

Check out the premiere episode of the Xtacles on AdultSwim.com and be sure to catch new episodes at midnight, Sunday nights on the Cartoon Network.

Back to the future

By Ted Hucklebuck

Back when the first of the four planned Futurama features, “Bender’s Big Score” debuted, we were on the red carpet to interview the cast and crew. Tress MacNeillie, whose role was relatively small in the first film, alluded to a future movie in which her character, Mom, held a pivotal role.

A year later, we find that “Bender’s Game” is that movie, in which the Planet Express gang is on a vengeful suicide mission to destroy Mom’s supply of dark matter (the future version of crude oil) with an “anti-backwards crystal” (long story), purely out of spite.

In typical Futurama/Simpsons fashion, the “B story” intersects with the main plot when Bender discovers, through the Cheeto-stained wonders of Dungeons and Dragons, that he has an imagination. This, of course, causes Bender to go batshit crazy and drag everybody into his whimsical, imaginary world: “Cornwood, home of the Fancy Men” (Giving us a welcome break from the show’s usual future theme while he’s at it).

Deviating from the tired formula of Fry/Leela love stories and Bender’s alcoholism, we are instead treated to something resembling a psychedelic “Lord of the Rings” spoof. Nerd fan service is in full effect here, but the comedy is also spot on. Imagine if “Family Guy” referenced pop culture that people were actually aware of instead of trying to think of the most obscure 80s footnote possible, and you have some idea of what you’re in for.

Compared to the previous two Futurama movies, “Bender’s Game” is both the strangest and the most conventional. The first two movies had plotlines that sort of dovetailed one another, whereas “Bender’s Game” is completely a stand-alone story. Additionally, there are no songs or major guest stars present, which is a plus for some, a minus for others. I recommend that if you haven’t already seen the first two films, that you at least check this one out. And if you are one of those Magic the Gathering, D&D dorks, then I’m afraid I must insist that you watch “Bender’s Game”, if for no other reason than that it skewers you so deservedly (though not nearly as mercilessly as South park did to the WOW nerds a few months back).

Score: 8 out of 10
+1 sword of infinite slaying
-12 hit points! You are now afflicted with Sleep!

The spotlight finally shines on dark side of South Park

By Jeremy Azevedo

Throughout the years, South Park has become increasingly more preachy and topical, almost to the point of rendering each new episode irrelevant two weeks after the original airdate. Remember Terry Schiavo? No? How about James Frey? Didn’t think so.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been painting themselves into a topical corner so long that they almost didn’t seem to realize that the real star of South Park always was, is, and will be Eric Cartman.

“The Cult of Cartman” serves as an evolutionary study of a character that began as a fat sidekick and blossomed into the rotund little sociopath that we all know and love today. Fittingly, this DVD collection begins with the 2001 episode, “Scott Tenorman Must Die”, the definitive turning point in which Cartman transformed from a piggy little victim into a truly diabolical and godless little monster. This transformation continues onward throughout each episode until every trace of sympathy is removed from his persona.

The thing that makes this DVD collection so great is that it fully embraces the fact that Cartman represents the only real freedom the writers of the show have to lampoon their own show. Just when you think Cartman is going along with the same socially redeeming character arc as Stan and Kyle, or possibly even learning something, his true agenda is eventually revealed to be completely self-serving and probably evil. Any good that comes as a result of Cartman’s actions is purely by accident, and probably serves as an embarrassment to him.

Next to Cartman’s sociopathic, racist, homophobic and soullessly greedy behavior, the other South Park kids look kind of vanilla. This is a great compilation to illustrate this fact, and not entirely coincidently, is also an archive of some of South Park’s most extreme moments. If you have been watching regularly, you may be disappointed that as much of a third of the episodes are less than a year old, but everyone else will find The Cult of Cartman an entertaining diversion.

Score: 8 out of 10
+ 1 if you are also the scheming, overweight offspring of a slutty hermaphrodite, and thusly relate to the character
-1 if you have every season of South Park on DVD already

Not quite what you would expect from Mike Judge…

By Jeremy Azevedo

I can vividly recall piling into the car with three or four other kids as a teenager, passing a doobie around on the way to “Spike and Mike’s Sick Twisted Festival of Animation” once every six months or so when it came to town.

I am just old enough that when I was a teenager, there weren’t really any videos online, so this was the only way you could see, weird, experimental animated short films from around the world.

Sadly, with the onset of Youtube and high speed internet, interest in Spike and Mike dwindled and seemed to disappear. In stepped Beavis & Butthead creator Mike Judge and animator Don Hertzfeldt with a new touring show, “The Animation Show”. Unfortunately, The Animation Show does not seem to be faring any better.

This film, “City Paradise”, wasn’t even all that animated, to be perfectly honest.

It isn’t true to say that the films collected in Volume 3 are poor in quality, but rather that they don’t really make an effort to reach out to the broader audience outside of the art house crowd. While the majority of us have been accustomed to seeing thousands of clever, well animated, funny and coherent films popping up online faster than we can even watch them, it’s amazing how few of these films even come close to anything resembling story structure or comedic timing. Read the rest of this entry →

The harsh light of truth shines upon a new batch of victims

By Jeremy Azevedo

Each year I am consistently surprised that the writers of South Park are able to be even more brutal in their satire, more offensive to the special interest groups that terrorize our entertainment industry, and less likely to receive any heat as a result of it.

Having already laid down the gauntlet with their first animated film, “South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut”, Matt Stone and Trey Parker have made their detractors part of the gag, ensuring that anyone that speaks out against the themes reflected in South Park comes out looking like a fool. South Park is like a bully that can not only kick your ass, but make you look really stupid while they’re at it. In the end, the only way to avoid incurring their wrath is to not appear as an asshole publicly to begin with.

Among the many victims being called out in Season 11 of South Park are Jess Jackson, Christians, lesbians, the homeless, Bono, Guitar Hero and, in a brilliant piece of cleverly disguised political satire, the “terrorists” that exist within our imagination. Amazingly, Jess Jackson did not demand an apology for the episode “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson”, which may very well be the first incident in recoded history in which Mr. Jackson did not go bat-shit crazy over a perceived racial insensitivity and bankroll a few hundred grand on a protracted morning news show appearance tour. Even Bono kept his notoriously gaping mouth shut despite being portrayed as a greedy, self-absorbed literally giant piece of shit in “More Crap”. Read the rest of this entry →

A Billion good reasons to see the new Futurama movie

By Jeremy Azevedo

I never thought I would see the day that Japanese tentacle porn made its way into mainstream American television programming, but here it is before my very eyes…

“Futurama: The Beast With a Billion Backs” is the second feature length episode of a four part series that will in turn be broken up into twelve separate episodes and broadcast on Fox next year. Sounds confusing, I know, but try not burn out your meager attention span trying to think about it and let’s just focus on the matter at hand.

The first installment of the new Futurama series, “Bender’s Big Score” was somewhat plagued by the “Look at me! I’m back on TV!” syndrome that plagues shows that go through lengthy periods of seemingly permanent hiatus. While longtime Futurama fans surely enjoyed it immensely, it maybe tried a little too hard to cram too much self reference, too many cameos and too many inside jokes into it’s meager run time. Plus there were those intolerable musical numbers… But there was a lot of Bender, which is never a bad thing, so we were essentially off to a pretty good start.
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Popular Internet video site shuts its doors

By Jeremy Azevedo

Anyone that spends any amount of time watching videos on the Internet is probably at least somewhat aware of Super Deluxe. For about a year and a half now, SD has been bringing us some of the best live action and animated work from a number of notable entertainers, from Bob Odenkirk and Norm Macdonald to Brad Neely and even Master P.

Sadly, Super Deluxe was not able to compete with the many competitors in the online video arena, mostly for the same reasons that everyone else is having trouble: the traffic and ad revenue doesn’t justify the amount spent on talent. Further compounding the problem is the fact that Super Deluxe is owned by TBS, who also owns Adult Swim, in essence creating two competing entities in the same network. And so it stands to reason that obvious course of action would be to combine the two properties.

It really is too bad that a lot of the shows on Super Deluxe never saw the breakout success that they rightly deserved, but hopefully we will see some of these series resurrected on Adult Swim’s site, and possibly even airing on the Adult Swim programming calendar on regular television. But for now, do yourself a favor and head over to Super Deluxe and check out some really great stuff before it’s gone for good.

Psychedelic dirty puppets and Beaver Boys, anyone?

By Jeremy Azevedo

Of all the silly things in this world that beg to be mocked, few are as untapped as public television. Where else can you see the batshit crazy musings of people that have no business being on television (or even the radio, for that matter) than public access?

And who better to capture this raw, unfiltered awkwardness than Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, perhaps two of the most uncomfortable performers on regular TV?

Tim and Eric are already (sort of) well known for their (sort of) animated show, “Tom Goes to the Mayor”. Their new show, “Tim and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job!” transfers that same kind of humor into a live setting, sprinkles in a few amazing guest stars (John C. Rielly, Michael Cera, Jeff Goldblum, etc.) and cranks the weirdo dial up to 11. Season 1 is available now, so if you haven’t yet been acquainted with Tim and Eric, now is as good a time as any.

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The stars of Metalocalypse finally get their own album!

Metalocalypse: You should watch the show while you’re at it.

If there was even one metal band on the face of the earth that had both the talent and the sense of humor that fictional band Dethklok has, metal might still be the driving force in music that it once was. On their debut album, “The Dethalbum”, Dethklok prove that they can make shredding metal that rocks your face off while mercilessly mocking the genre at the same time.

Based on the Adult Swim cartoon, “Metalocalpse”, and written/performed for the most part (astonishingly) by one man, Brendon Small, The Dethalbum may be the best metal album of all time. The problem with really heavy metal has always been that they start off with really ridiculous subject matter, and then they express it without a shred of humor or self-reference. This album finally bridges the gap for people that like heavy music but find the substance rather corny.

Typical Dethklok fan.

Dethklok exists to lampoon the genre while also paying metal its due respect. There is no doubt that Brendon Small has done his homework, the music is so heavy and the subjects are so spot-on you almost wouldn’t know that this is kind of a comedy album if you didn’t know it was all music from a funny cartoon. (If you’ve twisted your fingers into pretzels playing “Thunderhorse” on Guitar Hero 2, then you know exactly what I’m talking about). The humor is just subtle enough not to ruin the enjoyment of rocking out to the music just for rocking out’s sake.

It speaks volumes for the quality of the album and for the show that it can garner huge ratings on Adult Swim while sharing airspace with mostly hip-hop flavored shows like The Boondocks. Even if you don’t think you have the stomach for loud and crazy deathmetal, or even if you don’t like weird cartoons and anything that has to do with them, I suggest that you put your perceptions aside and buy this album. If you don’t find yourself smiling and bobbing your head while listening to “Murmaider” and “Birthday Dethday”, it’s probably because your head already exploded from awesomeness.