The Best Cartoon Not Enough Of You Are Watching: How Regular Show Is Anything But Regular

Though I have made my love for Adventure Time, as well as a few other cartoons, quite clear to the readers of this site, there is one show that has been curiously missing from these articles, and I am ready to change that all right now. Though it took some time for me to warm up to it, Regular Show (which follows Adventure Time on Mondays at 8 on Cartoon Network) is a divine dosage of retro love. On top of that, the episodes go from whimsical to bat shit insane with little warning, which is also one of the reasons it’s awesome. In one scene, they might be buying a sandwich, and in the next scene they could be fighting a bunch of guys with mullets and jean shorts while generic metal music shreds in the background. Silly and fantastic, all at once, The Regular Show needs more love, and that is why I am telling you all about it. Because, tonight, at 8, you are watching it. Seriously, you are. You’ll thank me tomorrow. Which you can do here.

My love for Regular Show came about in a strange way. Though many a friend had told me I would love, I discovered it while I was couch bound one day due to  heavy drug use a cold. I sat and watched a block of episodes, and my mind was blown. It is a show that pretty much gives props to all the things I love. Food, movies, video games, monsters, old school technology, and being a slacker. And all that served with a great deal of surrealism , too.Like the time Mordecai and Rigby had to judge a pie eating contest, and one of the pies became sentient and began eating the contestants. Wait, I am getting ahead of myself.

” Remy doing captions, Remy doing captions. YYEEEAAAAHHHHH!”

Regular Show is a show about a group of people  (well, one person, some anthropomorphic animals, and a mean gumball machine) that work at a park. Think Parks and Rec with more talking animals and one less Swanson and you have an idea of what is at work here. The show centers around the slacker exploits of Mordecai (a blue jay) and Rigby ( a raccoon) as they work for their ornery, gumball machine boss, Benson, who is looking for every excuse he can to fire them. Yes, their boss is a gumball machine. And no, I don’t know why and don’t care, Benson is like Squidward on crack, and it makes the interactions between the three a constant laugh riot.  And as great as the leads are, the secondary characters on the show are even more enjoyable.

First off, we have Muscleman and High 5 Ghost.

And yes, to get this out of the way immediately, Muscleman has boobs, but he calls them “pecks”.

Muscleman is a, well, green human (mutant?) who is always ragging on his Mom, and is best friends with a ghost who has a hand coming out of its head that it constantly gives high fives with. Muscleman prides himself on being the alpha of the group, and is often seen with his girlfriend (who is his exact twin only with bigger boobs) Starla.  Muscleman is a hilarious character, unlike any you have seen on any show before, animated or not. He is a bit of a bully, a bit of a douche, but under that tough exterior lies a heart of gold. And you know who likes gold, don’t you? MY MOM!

Next up we have Benson.

Pretty sure that slot that gumballs come out of is his pecker. Just saying.

Benson is the rigid, angry boss that provides us with our initial source of conflict in most episodes. He is just like most gumball machines you have met in your life, in the sense that he is always enraged and seems to have some issues with showing emotions other than anger. In reality, it is hinted that Benson may have once been a badass rocker, and that his contempt he often displays is the contempt he has for the life he found himself stuck in.

Here, check out his drum kit:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWxoKwRz2fU

The rest of the episode is a five minute drum solo/battle scene, I kid you not.

While Benson himself is not as funny as the rest of the cast, he often sets up the funniest scenarios on the show. From drum solos to eating a death sandwich, when it comes time, Benson can hang.

Now we meet the love interests, Margaret and Eileen.

Wait, I get the bird on bird action, but what is up with the human on raccoon action? Relax, she’s a mole.

So Margaret and Eileen are the love interests for Mordecai and Rigby. There really is not much to say about them beyond that. The show plays off that “will they admit they love each other, or won’t they” trope that a great deal of sitcoms have used, but it works here because they are animated, which makes that trope so much more endearing to witness. I will confess the first few times I saw Eileen on the show, I really thought she was a human who had an animal fetish and got a tail attached in order to seduce Rigby. She is just a tan mole, though, which is just as weird, actually. But hey, everyone needs love interests. Thankfully, these two are used just enough where the show doesn’t melt into some anthropomorphic animal rom-com.

Now onto the Yeti, Skips.

It is a little known fact Regular Show based his muscles loosely around my physique. 

Skips is the grounds keeping Yeti who skips everywhere he goes and sounds like a transvestite. I don’t even feel like I need to say anything else about that. Something that awesome speaks for itself. But if you need more, here you go:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebdDRWxdDEQ

He skips in honor of tragic love. Damn, that’s heavy.

And now onto the best character of all, Pops.

His voice is, quite easily, my favorite impression to do.

Ah, sweet, sweet Pops. I say that because he is most likely made out of lollipop, but some say she is just a lolli shaped human. Either one is a mindf*ck, really. Pops is pretty much the “Dad” to the characters on the show. Often sensible, and quite grounded and positive, the best moments of the show for me are when strange or messed up things happen to or around Pops. There is such a childlike innocence to the character, and that very innocence gets manipulated to no end. But it makes for great TV.

YouTube user Kintokellar uploaded this awesome supercut of some premium Pop’s moments. Sit back and enjoy.

httpv://www.youtube.com/user/kintokellar?feature=watch

The balloon scene never fails to crack me up. Most emo reaction ever.

And while that motley assortment is the cast of show, there are are great deal minor character references made to pop culture that will keep the most attentive viewer on their toes. My favorite being the Death character, who is OBVIOUSLY modeled after the iconic metal God, Lemmy from Motorhead.

Exhibit #1

Exhibit #2

And that is but a few minor observations on my part. There are so many wonderful things to be discovered on Regular Show from week to week, and half the joy comes from tuning in and seeing what wacky shit they are going to toss at you next.

My last real shoutout about the show here will go to the show’s creator (and the voice of Mordecai), J.G Quintel.  One key element to the show is all the nods to old technology that used to exist. From mix tapes to a video game system that looks like a Sega master system, he says he uses these obsolete things so that children watching with their parents will be curious, and ask their parents what an 8-track was, or a drum machine, therefore keeping that (awesome) stuff from truly becoming obsolete. How awesome is that?

So just take my word for it, an go watch Regular show. And make sure you eat your death sandwich right, or YOU DIE!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsNdx645FWU

Jeans shorts and a mullet for the win.

And when you are done enjoying your death sandwich, click here to read about the time I made out with Little Debbie.