Regular Show Review

TheWildeOne Reviews: Regular Show

Welcome to another episode of TheWildeOne Reviews, evrabody. Now, let me just say that I grew up during the Golden Age of cartoons: when Genddy Tartakovsky ruled over all cartoons, when Craig McCracken gave us Foster's and Powerpuff, and when Nickelodeon had respect for its cartoons with Danny Phantom and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now, given from what you have all heard on the internet from old school cartoon lovers who are pessimists, you may already think that I'm a real pessimist about today's crap on TV, that it's not as good as the original cartoons we use to have and that I want it all back. To be honest, I don't have that much of a mindset like that. Yes, I miss the old cartoons for being edgy with their humor and for all of the great animation and writing, but that doesn't mean I hate all of today's newest cartoons. First, though, I am mainly referring to Cartoon Network in this case. I know that taste in humor can change over time, and I fully accept that kids today have different tastes than what we old school CN freaks had back then. But, with this mindset, I do not freak out like others; I accept the change as it comes and welcome in a new generation of animation and childhoods to be started. This is why, at age 17, and possibly more down the line, I will watch cartoons and ensure that children are getting the good childhood they all deserve. Now, with a new taste in humor for this generation of kids, this could be insinuated as bad, but with what we are reviewing today, I will show that this is not entirely bad, as we will see with Regular Show.
Regular Show was created by J. G. Quintel, originally a worker on The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, which I may get to eventually, who created two shorts that became what we now know as Regular Show, and was produced by the Cartoon Network Studios. Now, what I am about to tell you is not an acid trip. This really is the plot of the show. *Ahem* This show is about a blue jay named Mordecai and a raccoon named Rigby who work at a park as groundskeepers, with fellow workers Skips, the skipping yeti voiced by Mark Hamill, Muscle Man, the green Meatloaf stand in, and High Five Ghost, the ghost of a hand puppet who can magically change voices mid-series. Their bosses are Pops, a lollipop headed man who is either senile or partially retarded, and a Gumball machine named Benson, who needs anger management classes. And as for the general plot to this series, there is none. Now, with that said, you may think that Cartoon Network took a whole bunch of acid before green lighting this acid trip of a show, but to be honest, this is a good show.
      Let's start by discussing the characters. Now, I admit that the design for the characters makes no sense whatsoever, but I will get to why that's okay later. Mordecai and Rigby are portrayed as the best of friends in this show, but as with most character duos, they make for good foils for one another. Mordecai is responsible, moral, and always considers the consequences of his actions, while Rigby is loud, whiny, loves causing mischief, and is always trying to get something for nothing. This makes for a good foil between the characters and makes them into a good duo, like Jay and Silent Bob, except without the pot, profanity, and half-silence. But, they do have similarities with one another. They are both incredibly lazy guys, if guys can be the term, which usually leads to their eventual downfall in episodes since they cause more mischief and chaos than they are worth, and they both tend to have the same type of humor and are irresponsible in some way. Also, they're catchphrase spouting whores. Seriously, Mordecai and Rigby are some of the most quotable characters I have ever seen. If you can, look up on YouTube a commercial for Regular Show that concerns catchphrases in the show and you will know what I mean. Catch phrasing aside, Mordecai and Rigby also have an undying loyalty to one another. Rigby is willing in one episode to do anything to get Mordecai to not hate him anymore and even saves his life in a freezer, while Mordecai tends to help Rigby out of certain situations. The two characters are very well mismatched in the show and also show a good friendship with one another, but another big thing is that they also have a big rivalry with one another. Rigby is handicapped by the fact that he is small and weak and tends to get picked on for it, so he tends to contend with Mordecai a lot, such as with a rock-paper-scissors game and a game of punchies, all of which get out of control in crazy ways. This rivalry makes for some good episodes that help to root out their friendship and results in showing us the bond the two share and makes them much more memorable with their irresponsible nature and friendship.
      While Mordecai and Rigby are the main cast members, the side characters are just as memorable and fun in the show. There is Skips, who is a really old yeti who works out a lot and is named so for his skipping around everywhere he goes. Skips is used a lot in the series as an old and wise mentor. Skips usually has a solution for the problems that Mordecai and Rigby get into, often serving as the main conflict solver for the weird situations in this show. But, like Mordecai and Rigby, he too has his flaws, such as he prides himself on his muscles and gets jealous in one episode when he loses in an arm wrestling game with Rigby, the weakling of the park staff. Then, we have the duo of Muscle Man and High Five Ghost. I will get into these guys later when I discuss the humor of the show, but Muscle Man is the most immature of all of the side characters. He constantly makes Mom jokes and High Five Ghost pretty much only eggs him on by high fiving him, hence his name. Muscle Man is also pretty disgusting, with his man boobs being a running gag in the series and having the most annoying voice in the series. HFG doesn't really do much other than high five, so we'll pass on him. Next, we have the owner of the park that Mordecai and Rigby work at, Pops. He's a lollipop-shape headed man who, as a said before in the short description, is odd. He has the second most annoying voice in the series and laughs like an idiot a lot, usually not even batting an eye at what Mordecai and Rigby do, since he is so senile and giddy all the time, which goes against the usual idea of a boss and owner over unruly employees. He is mainly one big non sequiter in the series and adds on to the weird. Finally, we have Benson, the gumball machine. Yes, he is a talking, walking gumball machine. Anyway, Benson is the employer of Mordecai and Rigby and sets them up with jobs to do around the park. But, since Mordecai and Rigby are constantly slacking off and causing trouble around the park, he tends to get really infuriated and snaps out of control, making for a good foil for both Mordecai and Rigby.
       Now, with all of those characters out of the way, what is the central plot of the show you may ask? There is none. The whole concept for the show is that the characters constantly get into wacky situations due to their own mishaps and flaws as characters. As such, this goes hand in hand with the comedy in the series and overall style of everything. I might as well just say that with the humor of this show, the chief demographic for this series is mainly targeted towards those guys you see in school who are "tight"; the ones who are good with each other and are generally annoying towards the girls since they aren't guys and stuff. This is who this show is for and it does this wonderfully. As such, you probably expect some pretty immature humor, but the humor in this show is far from immature. A lot of the comedy is derived from Mordecai and Rigby being foils for each other and clashing, and is also derived from the crazy situations they get into. The side characters also get into the action as situations get weirder and weirder. But when you see Muscle Man, you may think that he is the embodiment of whoever watches this show, but far from it. Muscle Man is portrayed through a lot of the series to be so much more immature than Mordecai and Rigby with his jokes and stuff that he becomes somewhat of a parody of the humor he promotes as other characters see his antics and humor as annoying and tasteless. See, this show does promote a good sense of humor! Although, I think this series could benefit from getting rid of Muscle Man's bitch tits. Seriously, put a bra on those things. Also, this series does a very good job at parodying various pop-cultural things, such as YouTube and their videos, old 8-bit games, and they even have an Evil Dead parody in one episode where the dead rise up, and let me tell you, zombie movie fans will love that episode. Anyway, while the humor in this show is mainly for those boys you see that are all about bros before hoes, the humor is still fairly mature for kids, and in some of the early episodes, there is even some minor profanities. Now, I may have not touched this in my Mad review, but yes, both Regular Show and Mad had minor curse words in their early episodes. I understood what they were trying to do and that was create an opening for a more mature generation of kids, but apparently CN didn't like this and they toned down the language from then on out. I personally like this choice since I have a strong belief that you don't need curse words to be funny, and trust me when I say that in Mad and this show, they didn't need cursing to be funny. Still, while I can't say that parents will get too into it, with its brotherhood thing between Mordecai and Rigby and constant catchphrases, the humor does at least pick its demographic and delivers to them perfectly.
      Another thing I should address about the show is its music, and it's a very interesting choice in my opinion. The music in the series is an interesting choice since it is based a lot around 80's rock rather than today's pop music. I don't know whether this is in reverence of a time when music was really great or whether it was meant to add on to the surreal nature of this show, but it certainly is well done. They even got the rights to play songs such as Working for the Weekend and Footloose. I couldn't really believe when I first heard it but apparently they got the rights to play these songs. I really appreciate this recognition of old school 80's rock that the show uses and think that it could broaden the musical horizons of the viewers of this show.
      "But wait," you may say, "what does anything in this show amount to? It still doesn't make sense at all with the cast, and no situation in this show makes sense in the context of the dialogue!" Some may say these things, but you know it's okay. With this show, nothing is meant to make any sense whatsoever. The situations, characters, and personalities are meant to be one big surreal mess that is not meant to be taken seriously, but is meant to simply enjoy for the audience with its characters and surrealist situations. Still, even with the surreal nature of the series and odd characters, this show is still somewhat for kids since it actually, shockingly, does promote some morals. Okay, the demographic is mainly 11-15 year olds, but whatever. Anyway, the morals of the stories in this show are not often explicitly explained, but they are there. Morals and themes of this series include friendship, brotherhood, reaping what you sew, and trust; hell, a moral in one episode is to not lip synch and be true to your music. So, while Regular Show may represent a generation of younglings' new sense of humor that is not necessarily as good as our humor from the 90's and early 2000's, the show actually implies some very good parody, humor, and characters, all blended together very well into one big surrealist tribute with its own original animation and style. This is by far a welcome show to the new Cartoon Network, and while some may disagree as to whether or not it is good, I'm sure both sides of the argument can agree on one thing: at least it's not Hole in the Wall.
       I'm TheWildeOne, and I could use a catchphrase. See ya!