I see.

Guess who's back? Back again. PB's back, tell a friend...

Think the computer issues are finally settled and now I've got about ten days to rip through seven cartoons before I go on vacation, so should have the next up tomorrow. We're almost at 5,000 views!!!!

Cool, great to hear it Packer. Nice VHS gif by the way

There aren't a lot of cartoons I went out of my way not to watch when I was a kid, if nothing else was on, I'd watch almost anything. Cartoon #30 would be an exception.



The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley thankfully only last 13 episodes on NBC in the fall of 1988. Even the title was obnoxiously long. I couldn't stand this cartoon. I don't know what it was, the animation kind of had that British feel for it that I've said before I've never been a fan of. And for the most part, I really don't like Martin Short, especially as Ed Grimley. I mean jeezus, I'm 10 years old and ten seconds into the intro I'm waiting for Tevye to start singing about what he'd do if he were a rich man.



The whole manchild thing has been done before and to much better results but Ed Grimley tried to crank the weirdness up to 11 and 11 only works if you're in Spinal Tap. It's like Pee Wee's Playhouse was popular so they tried to make something similar but with a Canadian sense of humor. Hey, most Canadians are funny--Aykroyd, Will Arnett, young Jim Carrey, John Candy, Dave Foley, Michael J. Fox, Phil Hartman, Eugene Levy, Rich Little, Norm MacDonald, Howie Mandel, Mike Myers, Leslie Nielsen, Ryan Reynolds...I mean, O Canada! Our home and native land!--what the hell is in the syrup up there in that land, eh? Acid? (the person "acid dragon", not the drug--I'm not implying Canadians are on drugs. They're all on mooseses, d'uh!--or is it, d'eh?)



Why did the escaped convicts flee to Canada?

Because they had nowhere else Toronto.



Sorry, that should probably go in the Dad Joke thread. Don't know what that was all aboot.





Martin Short cut his teeth on SCTV before moving to Saturday Night Live where Ed Grimley continued on as character. I was a little young for SNL back then and don't remember watching it at all. I only stayed up that late on a Saturday night for three reasons, the American Gladiators, Roller Games, and to watch the MegaPowers explode!



I've seen episodes of SNL from those years, and honestly, I used to think of them as the least funniest seasons of SNl. At least until the last few seasons--woof! It wasn't until '89 or so when guys like Sandler, Myers, Farley, joined that cast that SNL got funny again. Or maybe I was just older then and stayed up later? Who's to say? But anyways, for some reason Ed Grimley was a popular character back then, allegedly, so NBC decided to make a cartoon of the character. Personally, I just don't like Martin Short in most instances, between his mannerisms, his facial expressions, even the way he speaks, I just find them all off putting. Except, for when he's in the greatest movie ever put on celluloid. Ok, well, I used that line before and it wasn't really true back then either, so actually it goes something like 1. Casablance, 2. Airplane!, 3. My Cousin Vinny, and 4...



Interestingly enough the original Three Amigos! were meant to be Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi, but Aykroyd and Belushi were both unavailable for very different reasons. At another point Stevem Spielberg may've made the film with Martin, Bill Murray, and Robin Williams, and boy would that have been a different film--but I can't imagine the movie without Chevy Chase who is just so good with dumb sight gags.



But, The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley (if you want to make a kid annoyed, give your show a really long, dumb, title!) involved the mandchild like character of Ed Grimley in cartoon adventures that often got weird, and weird with an annoying main character does not make for a good show (hey, it couldn't have been just me as the show only lasted one year). Interspersed in each episodes were some science lessons from the Gustav Bros. which always gave off the weird British cartoon vibe to me which might also be a bit of a Canadian thing too since Canada was ruled by Great Britain up until 1997 or so (my dates might be off a bit there) and another segment with SCTV's Count Floyd who was a horror movie tv host kind of in the same vein of Grandpa Fred in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (heh heh, in the same vein, I made a funny).



You wanna talk funny? Gremlins 2 might be #5 on that previously mentioned movie list. There's no sex in the Champagne Room and no Gremsters in the projection booth!



Wait, is this a cartoon thread or a wrestling thread? I don't know anymore. Ok, focus, PB. Deep breath...



Oops, I did it again. I played with your heart...



So, not sure if anyone else remembers Ed Grimley? Honestly, I wouldn't mind forgetting about it. Whereas Pee Wee Herman was weird and charming (unless it's a darkened movie theater), Ed Grimley was weird and obnoxiously strange for the sake of being strange--which, if I'm being honest, Is kind of Martin Short's thing. I can't even watch The Santa Clause 3 because of him. To think had he not been available for The Three Amigos! the next up would've been Rick Moranis. You wanna talk about hilarious Canadian comedic actors...



Anyway, the Ed Grimley cartoon (I refuse to continuously type that out) is available on DVD if you're interested, or check out episodes on youtube. You might like it I think I was just too young at the time and had no idea what SCTV was and the style of comedy just wasn't my thing. Looking back now, SCTV was pretty funny. Martin Short? Debatable. But maybe you guys like him?



Personally, I don't even think he's the funniest pants pulled up character, and if you can't even corner that market...?



Shake a leg, Uncle Jesse!



Hoser.



Ugh, Bo knows I'd rather watch more ProStars than that.

5,000 views!!!!

Great one Packer, this is a wild one. I had no clue about Ed Grimley and I've never been a big Martin Short fan. I loved the bits you put there with Hogan, brought back memories on both of them! the Gremlins 2 part 2 also did. Geesh, the Urkel was a suprise, haven't seen him in years...many years!

I don't know what else to say PB, good one is all I know

Ha, thanks. I hope the videos all work for you, I know you said you had some issues with them. Maybe PM Acid about it. I think there's something with permissions for the site you might have to look into that may prevent videos from playing back, or I might just have no idea what I'm talking about.

No time to stop now, moving on to cartoon #31...



Catchy ditty, no? I wanted to do some newer cartoons that mostly my kids watch but that I find amusing at times and Clarence fit the bill. Clarence debuted on the Cartoon Network in 2014 and ran for 3 seasons and 130 episodes, which sounds like a lot of episodes but an "episode" in this instance is only 11 minutes. Honestly, I have no idea how kids watch cartoons these days? What time is that show on? Hell if I know, a new episode might debut on a Friday night or a Saturday morning or a weekday at 9 AM. I guess it doesn't matter much because once an episode debuts it'll be air five times a day until you're absolutely sick of it. Maybe that's why they'll watch dumb things on youtube like other people playing video games. I don't get it.



When I was a kid, He-Man was on weekdays at 3PM. If you weren't around and didn't tape it on the VCR, you missed out until that episode re-ran months later. Saturday mornings cartoons aired on, strangely enough, Saturday mornings, and if you missed them they didn't re-air a couple hours later because that's when Bob Villa helped you build a door or Pete Weber took to the alley.




Speaking of old things on the television, RIP Ron Popeil, who passed away 7/28.





Clarence told the story of a 10 year old boy who lived with his single mother and her boyfriend in the made up town of Aberdale. Along with Clarence, most episodes involved his friends, Jeff, who looks like a Minecraft character (the art is weirdly disfigured characters--another pet peeve I have of modern toons), and Sumo (voiced by Tom Kenny). Speaking of MInecraft, no idea why Mark Knopfler never sued them for copying his video style. Or Roblox. I guess he's no longer in....dire straits? Ugh, sorry. That was a bad one. Probably gets his money for nothing and his chicks for free anyway.



The stories are a little on the odd side, but most of the characters are charming in their own unique ways.



I gotta say, there aren't a lot of current cartoons I really like. I don't mind Sponge Bob, Teen Titans Go! is good for a laugh, but a lot of newer cartoons I just can't stand the animation style or the stories are just weird and/or dumb. What the hell ever happened to drawing people so that they actually kind of sorta resemble people? Stuff like Adventure Time just doesn't do anything for me even though they're popular, I guess.



But Clarence was quirky but amusing, and in today's world, that's not a bad thing. You can find most episodes on youtube, and honestly, it's not a bad way to spend 11 minutes.



Or just stay home and slap your nuts, Jeff Jarrett.



Look at Vince, he's bangin on those walnuts like a chimpanzee.

Some older cartoons that I love:


Super Friends(especially the Challenge season)

The New Batman Adventures

Batman: The Animated Series

Justice League Unlimited

Masters of the Universe

G.I. Joe

Transformers

Gobots

Silver Hawks

Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends

Hey, there's a raucous Spiderman and His Amazing Friends post in here somewhere (page 9--Bob). Haven't done any of the rest...yet.