With “Seinfeld” and “Friends” existing only as the shadows and ghosts that are reruns, the great American sitcom is certainly in a bit of a valley at the moment.
Upon realizing this, a casual observer may be tempted to believe that the hypnotizing monster lurking in almost every living room in America is incapable of supplying fresh, new humor, and one must journey all the way to Blockbuster for a nightly laugh or two. The casual observer would be quite wrong in that assumption.
After “CSI” and “Law and Order” have totally numbed America’s minds, many have found a safe haven to reboot at the Cartoon Network. Yes, that magical television land that captivates our nation’s youth with seizure-inducing spectacles now does the same for the slightly older crowd by night through the edgy lineup of animated programs known as Adult Swim.
Adult Swim humbly began as a Sunday night affair. It has since ascended into a pop culture phenomenon and become an entirely separate entity from the Cartoon Network, appearing on the same channel late at night in a fashion reminiscent of Jekyll and Hyde.
But who tunes in? Who has captained Adult Swim’s voyage to the top of the ratings chart and household recognition? According to Timewarner.com, in just its third week as an individually rated network, Adult Swim set a record with 242,000 male viewers between the ages of 18 and 24. So, presumably, college guys. A female presence is far from absent as well.
But why on earth do a group of supposedly cultured individuals who spend their days reading great works of literature and discussing major philosophers seemingly waste their nights watching cartoons?
“It appeals to older ages because of the maturity level of the shows,” freshman art major and avid Adult Swim fan Richard Tuck said.
On one hand, that is seemingly true. The shows earn their TV14 and TVMA ratings due to coarse language, an abundance of risqu‹¨ humor and often sudden scenes of violence and gore that makes “Mortal Kombat” look like a “Teletubbies” spinoff. But even with that thrown into the equation, they’re still just cartoons, right?
Not entirely. A deeper look at the shows on Adult Swim reveals them as well disguised yet imaginative and sometimes even intellectually stimulating jewels. The lineup opens (with the exception of weekends) nightly with “Futurama” and “Family Guy,” both syndicated Fox programs.
“Family Guy” has proven to be Adult Swim’s most popular show. Its success on the lineup eventually brought about the ressurection of the series on Fox (along with the spawning of a very prominent Facebook group declaring it as the best show ever.) “Family Guy”‘s formula is far from complicated, yet it never gets old.
The cast contains some of the most unique characters television has ever seen, such as Stewie, a pint-sized evil genius, and Bryan, the sophisticated, martini-sipping family dog. Each episode sends the central cast through a seemingly everyday circumstance that soon explodes into an over-the-top frenzy that somehow crams countless spoofs on pop culture, politics and every other facet of American life.
“Futurama” is the brainchild of legendary “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening. Its look at a hilariously bleak future in the year 3000 brought much critical acclaim during its lifetime on Fox (1999-2003), and its reruns have continued success in their final resting place on Adult Swim.
The success of “Futurama” and “Family Guy” isn’t hard to fathom. It didn’t take long for the producers of the show to realize that animated characters can evade censorship much easier than their live action counterparts, and this certainly shines through. This is a breath of fresh air in a politically correct world where almost everything is taken far too seriously, and Archie Bunker seems to be a shadow of the past. It certainly causes a chuckle every now and then when we get a glimpse of him through Bender or Peter Griffin.
Many of Adult Swim’s other shows are originals of William’s Street Productions, the team behind Adult Swim itself. These programs often have a very surreal feel to them and are even more random than “Family Guy.” One such program is “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” which follows the very obscure misadventures of a talking box of fries, a milkshake and a wad of meat, none of which are teenaged or aquatic. The word “force” in the title is quite laughable as well, as most episodes consist of the trio sitting around their house and annoying their hairy, obnoxious, wife beater-wearing neighbor Carl.
Other Williams Street Productions originals include the new “12 Ounce Mouse,” the tale of an alcoholic rodent hitman for hire that was seemingly animated by a schizophrenic preschooler and another brand new series called “Squidbillies,” which introduces a tentacled version of the Red Man chewing, shotgun wielding family we’ve all run into in Wal-Mart a time or two.
Veteran Adult Swim shows include “Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law,” in which many late Hanna-Barbera characters come back to television and have their day in court. Attorney Birdman serves characters like Elroy Jetson and Fred Flinstone while also dealing with comical co-workers such as the hyper-sexual hippopotamus that always poses the question, “Did you get that thing I sent ya?”
“Sealab 2021,” which ended its stint late last fall, documents the hijinks of an incompetent group of marine biologists in the near future. “Sealab” is another spoof on Hanna-Barbera. Characters like Stormy and Debbie are dubbed-over original “Sealab 2020” footage from the ’70s and given absurd dialogue. Though “Sealab” is now syndicated, it hasn’t lost its bizarre touch.
“Robot Chicken,” a claymation/stop motion animation program is a relatively new addition to the AS lineup. Like “Family Guy,” the 15-minute feature references pop culture religiously. The creators use a nostalgic edge at times, such as a scenario in which classic “G.I. Joe,” “He-Man,” “Superman” and “Thundercats” villains get stuck in traffic together. They also poke fun at current events, movies and shows like “Oz” and “Buffy The Vampire Slayer.”
As night gives way to the early hours of the morning, Adult Swim shifts from comedy to anim‹¨, a collection of animated action/adventure series from Japan that may be the brunt of many jokes from non-followers of the genre, but is nonetheless a stunningly detailed and beautiful form of animation. If you look past the sometimes ridiculous dubbed-in English voiceovers, you’ll find some incredible stories that stretch your imagination far beyond most of our English action cartoons. A couple of the more popular anim‹¨s airing on Adult Swim currently are “Inuyasha,” “Cowboy Bebop” and “Full Metal Alchemist.”
Adult Swim can certainly cut into time reserved for studying and, more notably, sleeping, but for the average college student whose day-to-day life is chained to a class schedule, it can be a welcome escape from the routine. Williams Street Productions has combined satire, utter nonsense and spectacular animation into a nightly block of television that can only be described by the words of Peter Griffin: “Freakin’ Sweet.”