If after Charlie had inherited the Chocolate Factory imagine Willy Wonka had spent a lost weekend in Amsterdam and contracted one or more communicable diseases, what would have transpired? I suggest that in his compromised state, he would  employ the artistic talents of R. Crumb and Fantagraphics and the writing talents of a  privileged 14 year old boy circa 1987 and Da Da!…you would have Superjail! This is not so much the thinking man’s comedy as it is the artists blank canvass. And that’s the appeal. While most shows concentrate on a balance of visual viscosity and written artistry, this show does nothing of the sort.  Instead,  it takes it’s talent and forms it into aluminum knitting needles aimed for the eyes. The art is the spearhead that protrudes and provokes the story. It’s an asylum run by the insane with varying agendas to house the ultra-violent and serve as fodder for a variety of unspeakable experiments.

In other words, it’s like nothing you have ever experienced in any adult-swim format but retains a quality that is still vaguely familiar.  Like a Green Day song.

Where Did This Come From?

Superjail! is like an all-star team in the adult-swim leagues.  I guarantee that if you go to the Augenblick Studios website and check out their past projects you will recognize the contributions they have made to a the animated world at large.  My favorite is in the episodes of Wonder Showzen.  It was the kind of show I would have to watch late at night with the wife and kids sleeping and with the volume turned down like I was watching a pornographic feature.  In other words, it is a guilty pleasure that you share with only the closest of friends. If your Mom walks into the room, quickly change the channel!

What Can You Expect?

Leave your expectations at the door.  Expectations, like traveling to a foreign country, will kill the experience.  While most animated shows borrow from the heavily leveraged situation/comedy format, Superjail! is more a screwball comedy seen through the lenses of a bloody kaleidoscope.  Or An animated mural powered by a V-8 big block engine huffing gold paint for the past 3 days.

The Main Characters:

The Warden Voiced by David Wain	Alice Voiced By Christy Karacas	Jared The Accountant Voiced By Teddy Cohn
The Twins Voiced by Richard Mathar	Jailbot The Enforcer of Superjail!

My Favorite Episode:

Reasonably you could make a case for any episode, but my favorite is the pilot entitled “Bunny Love”.  Basically, The Warden plans to dress the prisoners in bunny suits, but the Twins interfere with the purchase order, making half of the order wolf suits.  This episode really primes you for the rest of the season and sets the bar for preparing you for the insanity to come.  And I mean that in a good way.

Why You Should Watch It:

There’s a reason your video game of choice is GTA IV and your High School Class voted you the “Most Likely to Assassinate A President”.

Program Particulars:

Having finished their first season, We are still awaiting to see if they get secured for a second one.  Please contact you local cable provider and/or Cartoon Network to support our generations art endowments.
Look for it on Cartoon Network. (15-Minute Episodes)

Exclusive Creator Interviews:

Look for my exclusive interviews with both co-creator Christy Karacas and the lead animator Kristofer Wollinger.

Imagine if you will, a Bizarro universe where instead of a present-day existence pioneered by M.I.T. graduates, Silicon Valley engineers and aspiring movie directors working for MTV: your futures were created by legally defined retards. Or those corporate bosses you couldn’t stand! That is what lays the foundation for Tim and Eric Awesome Show. It turns Gortex into faded bell- bottom corduroys.

Who Are They?

Hosted by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim who first appeared on the adult swim scene with Tom Goes to the Mayor, they are a comedy team who incorporate a live-action, low-tech approach to produce their comedic wares. Their production values are like a colorblind science teacher who daily picks out his own wardrobe, mismatched and yet you are unable to turn away from the spectacle. And when I say that I mean their techniques range from a hokey green screen to good old-fashioned prop devices. Notably with the team, there is no single straight man, fat man or cross dresser. They equally participate in degrading themselves. But it is always amusing to find out where each of them are placed in a sketch or parody.

Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!

My Impressions

When it was first described to me, I thought I could handle this. After all, I am an accomplished student of the comedic genre. I know my Python and have written papers on everything from the French New Wave cinema to the origins of the screwball comedy.

But for me, “The Learning” was not enough.

All good sciences push the envelope of what came before them. But not this show, it actually boils down the hard facts to the least common denominator. It melts down technological wisdom and accepted social behavior in a blasting furnace of it’s own design.

It’s almost as if my generation, the 30-40’s crowd, were too smart for everything that came before us. And because of this, we are attempting to hijack our earliest memories and change them. Like we a lost bet and now have to make our past even more deplorable.

For me, the show is like being a forty-year-old going into the waiting room of a 1st year resident proctologist, closing my eyes and imagining I am anywhere else; or tricking my mom into taking me to see a Cheech and Chong movie. The experience is cheap and dirty and not something I would openly share with acquaintances. For others it may be a faint holiday memory of your Dad dressed as Kinko the Clown coming down the chimney and err, well maybe a memory you’d just assume to forget. It is so personal and wrong on so many –levels and for so many reasons, but when the jokes hit you, they hit you hard. I woke my wife up a couple of times to my tear-welled wailings.

Who Should Watch It

Fans of experimental theater and comedy. This is not textbook stuff. If you even remotely liked SCTV or The Upright Citizen’s Brigade you will feel very much at home.

Because like the previously mentioned programs; they don’t just satirize the world around them – they reinvent it. And that is where many will have a problem with them. You are required to have the fortitude to suspend the conventional sitcom dribble and go along for their ride on their terms.

This is a show that takes risks and either swan dives into a perfect comedic wave or belly flops. You will not always laugh…but like a tilt-headed dog you will stare in wonder, look around and see if anyone else thought “that” was funny and then question yourself again.

For The Literary Minded

The theater of the absurd attempted many things. But at its heart was the idea that the audiences’ reaction was as central to the performance as the piece being presented. And Tim and Eric Awesome Show is a contemporary example of this device. You can tune them out like a Beckett play, but you’ll pay patron prices later on for the experience in the form of collected season DVD’s.

Things and People to Look For

Brule’s Rules with Dr Steve Brule: Played by John C. Reilly.

Uncle Muscles Hour: Hosted by Weird Al Yankovic.

Cinco Corp: A clueless commercial conglomerate that produces worthless products and services. One sketch features Ed Begley Jr. in an infomercial for the Cino-Fone.

Bob Odenkirk: who makes appearances in a variety of sketches.

Program Particulars

Having finished their third season, the fourth season is scheduled for February 8, 2009.
Look for it on Cartoon Network. (15-Minute Episodes)

This is not a show I immediately loved, revered or even liked. It was more like a curiosity, a pig fetus in a jar of embalming fluid. Something I wished to understand and appreciate. If the Church of the SubGenius had produced a television show, I am certain it would resemble The Venture Bros.

Huh? You lost me.

Exactly.

When you have graduated from the community college level of pop culture trivia via The Family Guy, only then are you eligible to enter into the graduate school of all animated television shows’. This is an experience that requires a serious time investment in a variety of disciplines.

These would include but not limited to:

• Hanna Barbara Animation
• Marvel Comics
• The Occult
• Adventure Novels
• David Bowie (There’s a reference to Him or His music in every episode)
• Counter-Culture Revolutionaries

This is a show that intellectually digs where other’s scratch. And this is where it may lose you. Unlike other adult swim offerings, this one will practically challenge you to watch or turn the channel. It requires an education. And I am not saying that to be rude or elitist. You will either get the jokes, have access to an extremely pasty and lonely ex-Jeopardy champion who can fill you in on them (Ken Jennings I am looking at you) or be totally stumped as to why this show is funny.

This heavy-handed comedy to be sure, but like a Dennis Miller concert, the creators will throw the audience a bone every once in a while. They do this with a seemingly simple plot device that unwinds itself into a boa constrictor that forces viewers to re-examine what they thought they knew.

Because of this, it requires a participation I have yet to see in other programs. And this is what I like about the show. It doesn’t cater to the lowest common denominator in the food chain. It doesn’t pander to yahoos. To be fair, it doesn’t care that some of its choices will result in them losing some of their potential audience. It challenges, engages and ultimately abandons those not worthy to achieve the greater call.

To that I say good riddance! The broadcast networks have plenty of swill for the bovine masses to consume. Let the natural order weed them out and leave those left with an inside joke to slam mediocrity.

A Synopsis For Those Who Appreciate Prose

Now in it’s third season on Adult Swim, watching The Venture Bros. is like picking the bones clean of all your childhood memories, raping them and then setting fire to the carcass as you struggle to understand the depth of the hilarity laid before you. And afterward, as the smoke still stings your bloodshot eyes you are left only to wonder what there is still left to lampoon, what other pop culture sacrifices these godless men will kill…week after glorious week.

A Synopsis For Those Who Don’t Appreciate Prose

After the passing of the great scientist, inventor, philanthropist Dr. Jonas Venture, the family business now falls to his son Rusty or Dr. Thadeus S. Venture. With the help of his sons Hank and Dean, Team Venture takes on extraordinary adventures and foes alike.

The Cast

Dr. Venture – James Urbaniak
Hank Venture – Christopher McCulloch
Dean Venture – Michael Sinterniklaas
Brock Samson – Patrick Warburton (High-Five!)

Take one part Johnny Quest and then mix in The Hardy Boys, Doctor Strange, Doc Savage and a running tribute to the musical legend of David Bowie.

You can expect to see things like a transvestite modeled after Hunter S Thompson, retired Scooby Doo villains and parodies of the Legion of Doom, referred to as the Guild of Calamitous Intent.

If you have a devil worshiping Occult fanatic who can fill you in on the mystical details, that would be ideal. Email me your questions and I can forward them to my contact in the underworld.

Program Particulars

Airs Next: Cartoon Network at Saturday 11:30 PM (30 min.)