The Venture Brothers

When I read the title of this thread, I thought "who's Mark Venture's brother?"

Got a bit of of that Star Blazers thread bleeding over, I guess....

--Mike L.

Michael Barnes wrote:

But I still don't get the whole Adult Swim thing. I hate crudely drawn cartoons with crude humour and an endless barrage of pop culture and lowbrow references. I watch and just kind of frown the whole time.

Michael, most of the Adult Swim stuff is made for viewers who are really, really stoned, but Venture Brothers is way more intelligent and better animated than that.

It's 100% USDA Grade A Ameritrash.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Watching a syndicated episode of the Simpsons (i.e., the greatest TV show of all time at least for 5-6 full seasons)dated from 2006, I realized that the crude humour and vulgarity of shows like that Adult Swim stuff, Family Guy, and so on is likely one of the reasons why The Simpsons went so wrong- the writers have tried to compete with those programs and as a result lost that the show was actually very sweet, positive, and funny on an intellectual level, not a body fluid level. Apparently the more recent writers thought it was the pinnacle of hilarity to have Marge make sex comments. The episode I was watching had stupid boob and orgy jokes to appeal to the "doo doo is funny" crowd but then had a Thomas Pynchon gag. Go figure.

I haven't watched enough recent Simpsons to have noticed the "body fluid" stuff to a large degree. But I see your point. I pretty much stopped watching 1) after the characters started acting as caricatures of themselves and were being played very narrowly based on stereotypes (e.g., Homer says "Doh!" at this point in the script because Homer is stupid and always says "Doh!"), and 2) instead of irreverently but lovingly lampooning culture, religion and politics on all sides, it became obvious after about the 6th or 7th season that a decision had been made to blatantly push particular political/cultural outlooks and get rather nasty with the opposing viewpoints. I watch cartoons to have a laugh even at myself if done right, not to tell me how I ought to think.

BillN

Nice.

Checked out the Venture Brothers on the Adult Swim site - top notch. Not sure how I missed this one though. I remember it coming out and all I knew was that it had the voice of Putty from Seinfeld.

Yeah, Patrick Warburton is all over AS.

And to whoever turned down season 1 for $19 I would have snapped that up in a second. It's like 30 everywhere I go here.

Chiming back in, late as usual...
I think Barnes, Skeletor, ect. would really enjoy Venture Brothers, due to its suprising depth. It wonderfully illustrates the "death of the American dream" (as thoroughly as Hunter S. Thompson ever did [a pseudo-Hunter even makes a guest appearence in one episode]).
It crushes the old idea that American ingenuity and determination will lead the world into a golden age of prosperity and homogeneity: The giant space station that we would all be living in is decrepit and populated by two oddballs. The undersea lab is inhabited by a strung-out Johnny Quest. The two sons, who have been programmed to be the ideal teens (pure Hardy Boys types as seen through the 1950's) are woefully ill-prepared to deal with the real world. Dr. Venture is dependent on amphetamines and spends most of his time scavenging old inventions from his larger-than-life father for cash.
The creators claim that the show is all about failure, and it retrospect it's hard to miss.


On another topic...
Okay, you bastards, I went through the trouble of posting Part 2 of my session report on the blogs, and I've heard nary a peep. There's been only, like 18 hits, and half of those are from me checking to see if there's been any hits. I want some love, and I want it NOW.
(not ready for my 15 minutes to be over with yet)

The King in Yellow wrote:

On another topic...
Okay, you bastards, I went through the trouble of posting Part 2 of my session report on the blogs, and I've heard nary a peep. There's been only, like 18 hits, and half of those are from me checking to see if there's been any hits. I want some love, and I want it NOW.
(not ready for my 15 minutes to be over with yet)

Sorry Dude, I've been busy this last week. I'll give ya a hit now and give it a read soon. Good luck with that 15 minutes thing.