Category Talkin’ Nerdy

Talkin’ Nerdy: The Dumb Donald/Mushmouth Conundrum

silverstar 7 Comments
NOTE: you must be over 40 years old or a classic TV buff to know what the flaming heck we’re taking about here.
Dumb Donald and Mushmouth
The character on the left is Dumb Donald from Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. He’s the Cosby Kid known for being as smart as a bag of rocks and wearing a ski cap over his head, presumably hiding a horrible disfigurement or premature baldness, or maybe just the total absence of a face altogether.
The character on the right is Mushmouth, also from Fat Albert. His chief claim to fame is that he spoke in a hee-larious (in the days preceding Political Correctness) speech impediment, putting “buh”s after each syllable.

“Pretty different, really. Not really the same thing at all, is it?? IS IT?!?

You’d be surprised, actually. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, which ran on CBS on Saturday mornings from September 9, 1972 to September 1, 1984 and then in syndication until August of 1985, was a wildly popular show among the Generation X crowd; the cartoon was so popular, in fact, that according to Tim and Greg Burke’s book Saturday Morning Fever (if you don’t own this book, you should; it’s a great read) a fan at one time wrote and performed his own twisted episodes of the show for his college drama group, boasting such titles as “It’s Not Cool to Mess with Satanic Ritual” and “Weird Harold Gets AIDS”.
Yet somehow, many of our collective wires have gotten crossed over the years. For some reason, fans of the show frequently tend to remember the character of Dumb Donald as Mushmouth, like they’ll spot your bitchin’ Dumb Donald tramp stamp and then start talking like Mushmouth, for example. It’s like how many folks who remember Charles Schulz’s Peanuts seem to confuse the character of Schroeder for Linus, possibly since both characters wore shirts with horizontal stripes on them and both characters spent a lot of time with Lucy, though in the case of both characters, it wasn’t by choice.
Schroeder: Blond hair. Plays the piano. Digs Beethoven.
Linus: stringy hair. Addicted to security blanket.
Know the difference.
*******************
Getting back to Dumb Donald and Mushmouth, there have 3 notable examples in popular media where these 2 characters have been confused for one another:
  • On an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Susan Dey, then riding high on her role on L.A. Law, not surprisingly, there were numerous jokes and allusions to the show where Dey got her start, The Partridge Family, throughout the broadcast, culminating in a sketch in which she reprised her role of Laurie Partridge to partake in a battle of the bands with the Brady Kids, led by Jan (played of course by then cast member Melanie Hustell, famous for her dead-on Jan Brady impression). In the sketch, the battle got quite heated, with the characters throwing barbs at one another (Bradys: “Go cryin’ to Mama! You guys don’t have a Daddy!”, Partridges: “Well, you’re all half-adopted! What’s really going on over there??”), until things were broken up by then cast member Chris Rock, who rushed on stage wearing a Dumb Donald costume, hat and all, but speaks like Mushmouth: “At-buh least-buh you can talk-buh plain-buh!” Dana Carvey (as Keith Partridge) even acknowledges Chris’ character as “Mushmouth from Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids“. Shame on you, SNL writers, you call yourself children of 70’s TV, and somehow that blunder made it to the air? No one put on the brakes?? Thankfully, the show made up for that faux pas a few seasons later in a later episode hosted by Bill Paxton, which featured a VH-1 Behind the Music parody of the gang’s Junkyard Band; here in separate vignettes, then cast member Tim Meadows played both Donald and Mushmouth, and this time they got the names and costumes correct. (Granted, Dumb Donald was depicted as having a drug-induced meltdown while wielding a pistol in a seedy hotel, and Mushmouth had served a dime in prison where he converted to Islam and changed his name to ‘Mustafa Mushmouth’ after discovering “A-buh-llah” in the joint, but hey, at least they got the characters’ identities right this time.)
  • In the South Park episode “Treehouses”, there’s a running gag of the character Stan watching a spoof of Fat Albert called Fat Abbot. Abbot, of course, is foul-mouthed, ill-tempered and violent, prone to telling people off and threatening to bust a cap in their asses, once even threatening to blow Rudy the Rich Kid away after Rudy questions his accusing him of being “like school in summertime”, a popular Fat Albert crack meaning you have “no class”. He is backed up by a Dumb Donald lookalike character, who again speaks like Mushmouth: “I’ll-buh pop-buh a cap-buh in yo’ ass-buh too-buh. Bitch-buh.”
  • In an episode of NBC’s NewsRadio, there was sub-plot in which quirky secretary Beth (played by Vicki Lewis) was attempting to make some cash on the side by designing and selling her own line of Dumb Donald hats. A running gag in the episode was that everyone who saw the hats would call them “Mushmouth hats” and Beth would have to correct them. “It’s a Dumb Donald hat!”
To add insult to infamy, for a while during the last years of the USA Network’s airing cartoons during the day, for a time Fat Albert ran on USA just after the USA Cartoon Express (I’m guessing the reason Fat Albert was never actually part of the Cartoon Express was because it had pro-social values and an edutainment factor, so USA didn’t want to lump it in with their other shows, either that or the Cos paid them big time to give his show special treatment), and in one promo for the show, a voice-over speaking in a less-than-stellar Bill Cosby impersonation referred to Dumb Donald as ‘Weird Harold’.
“AW, COME ON!!”

Talkin’ Nerdy: The Kids’ WB Blues

goldstar 3 Comments

During my time of internet surfing, I came across this old Kids’ WB! promo advertising the network’s airing the reruns of Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures.

Ah, the dubbing. So bad….

What I find interesting about this particular promo (aside from wondering why only 2 singing voices were heard in the variation of the Tiny Toons theme song if the entire cast of TTA was supposed to be singing) is how it’s acts as though Animaniacs is the seasoned veteran series and the Tiny Toons characters are treated like the new kids on the block, when in reality. Tiny Toons started and stopped before Animaniacs. TTA ran from 1990 to 1995, while A! ran from 1993 to 1999. Yet, on Kids’ WB, Cartoon Network and later The Hub, A! was always acquired first, and TTA wasn’t acquired until after the A! reruns got decent ratings. These weren’t even new episodes of TTA; they were only “new” to Kids’ WB because they never aired on that network before. It must be somewhat grating for the TTA characters to have a series that they helped to create go on to surpass them in popularity. It’s kind of like your little brother or sister constantly getting picked for a team before you.

The Warners didn’t know it yet, but the Tiny Toons were only harbingers to the coming horror. A far greater threat to their security on the WB network was looming over the horizon. A threat that goes by the name of…

Pokemon logo

If the Warners think that having to share a network with the Tiny Toons is bad, wait until all of the comedy cartoons are forced to share a tiny cubicle.

Talkin’ Nerdy: Tiny Toons’ Head Scratching Adventures

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By now, it’s no secret that I’m a Warner Brothers/Looney Tunes fan, and that like many WB/LT fans, that I’m also a fan of Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures. Although I personally like TTA’s successor Animaniacs a little more, TTA remains one of THE best cartoons to come from the 1990s.

Having said that, there are times when even a good show like Tiny Toons would deliver some moments that make you go “Huh?”. The Hub network’s recent acquiring TTA has brought to mind some such moments. Most notably, the episode “High Toon”, which contains no less than 3 head-scratching moments in a single scene.

HighToon-TitleCard

For those unfamiliar with the story, “High Toon” begins with Buster & Babs Bunny tunneling their way through the High Plains on the way to a theme park known as “Acmeland” (which we never see in the episode), but thanks to a mishap with switching signs courtesy of Beaky Buzzard, B&B are re-routed and end up in “No Man’s Land”, a lawless Western town whose citizens are are being terrorized by a gang of outlaws led by one Coyote Kid (who looks like Wile E. Coyote in a cowboy suit). After Babs and Buster (who initially think that they’re just watching a show) intervene and get their belongings stolen, they vow to bring the Coyote Kid and his gang of outlaws to justice.
The first “What the what?” moment occurs after one of the townspeople tells the rabbits that they would “need an army to beat the Coyote Kid”. Buster responds with “Then we’ll get an army!” He and Babs then leave and a minute later, they return with…….Hamton and Plucky (cue the ‘wah-wah’ musical sting). Now I realize that creatively speaking, this was merely done as a way to incorporate Plucky and Hamton into the story, which isn’t surprising, as the half hour TTA episodes typically focused on these 4 characters almost exclusively, but if this was just done to get Plucky and Hamton involved, then why not just have them there with Buster & Babs from the very start and not bothered with that whole “We’re going to get an army!” business at all? I’m surprised that none of the townsfolk said anything like “Hey, what gives? You said that you were going to get an army! That’s just 2 more people! That’s weak, man! We could’ve gotten 2 more people and saved you a trip! Four people isn’t army, it’s not even enough to be the starting lineup for a basketball team!” Trying to pass 2 more people as an army is no more logical than trying to pass off 2 more people as “The rest” on Gilligan’s Island. To quote comedienne Carol Liefer, “‘The rest’? Come on! It’s just 2 more people. They’re stranded on a desert island. At least let their families know that they’re still alive!”
The second head scratch moment occurs immediately afterwards, where we see Babs telling Plucky and Hamton the real reason why they were brought there; to help them bring in a vicious gang of coyote outlaws, only after they’ve arrived. So if Hamton and Plucky didn’t know that they’re brought there to bring down a gang of outlaws, then why were they both looking tough and menacing when they first arrive?
The third peculiarity is when learning about Buster & Babs’ intention to do battle with the Coyote Kid, Plucky typically wants no part of the skirmish and tries to leave, only for Buster to convince him stay with the promise that “There’s gold in them thar hills!” Plucky’s greed then takes over and now he wants in, but then the gold thing is never mentioned again anymore in the entire episode. This wasn’t the only time that Plucky’s greed was used as a motivation. In another episode, “Europe In Thirty Minutes”, Plucky at least twice plans to abandon the toons’ mission to stop the kidnapping attempt of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (the latter of whom was still alive when this episode was made), and each time this happened, either Buster or Babs would convince Plucky to stay with the prospect of him being knighted. This was a running gag throughout the episode; every time Plucky is about to bail, Buster and/or Babs dangle the porspect of knighthood under his beak and he’s back in.. And also in the episode “Hare Raising Night”, Buster tricks his buddies into accompanying him on his mission to stop the mad scientist Dr. Gene Splicer by telling them that they’re going to the Academy Awards. Plucky continues to believe this ruse long after Babs and Hamton have figured out that it’s false.  It’s not like Plucky to just forget about the prospect of getting rich.
Speaking of “Hare Raising Night”, it always struck me as being somewhat curious that Bugs would recruit 4 of his students to defeat a mad scientist instead of, you know, the police or a team of trained professionals. I know that it’s the Tiny Toons’ show, but still, it seemed odd that 4 toon students who aren’t special agents and have zero experience or special training in such matters would be selected for something that doesn’t directly affect them. Extra credit, perhaps?

 

Talkin’ Nerdy: Hydro Heroes Unite!

silverstar 3 Comments
Fire.
Earth.
Air.
Air symbol
Weak Sauce.
Really? Well, if you go by the jokes, riffs and barbs of comedians and cartoon writers, you’d think so. Take the scion of Atlantis, Aquaman:
Aquaman
 “Yeah, I’ve done plenty of sighin’ in Atlantis too.”
****************************************************************************
Here it is, 2013, and still the only way stand-up comics and the writers of Robot Chicken can think of to make Aquaman funny is to chortle, “Hur-hur. Aquaman’s lame. He’s a pansy who can’t fight, and his only superpower is talking to fish.” Seriously? The character has gone through numerous revamps and reboots, and people are still harping on the “Aquaman is useless” trope?? I get that many people base their opinion on Aquaman on the way he was portrayed on the old Super Friends TV show, where they downplayed his super-strength since they wanted Superman to be known as the strong one, and of course BS&P wouldn’t allow his to brandish his trident because they apparently were worried about kids on the playground stabbing each other with tridents, and of course, NO Super Friend could ever be shown punching anyone who could bruise, bleed or punch back. But come on, Super Friends was 40 years ago. Get current. Learn a new tune, already!
FTR, here’s a list of Aquaman’s current abilities:

Aquaman’s most widely recognized power is the telepathic ability to communicate with marine life, which he can summon from great distances. Although this power is most often and most easily used on marine life, Aquaman has at times demonstrated the ability to affect any being that lives upon the sea (e.g., sea eagles), or even any being evolved from marine life (e.g., humans). As per the 2011 DC continuity reboot, Aquaman’s telepathy has been greatly downplayed: acknowledging that most marine life doesn’t possess enough intelligence to carry a meaningful telepathic communication, Aquaman is now stated to simply add compulsions and needs in the mindset of aquatic life, compelling them to do his bidding by a subtle altering of their midbrain.

Aquaman has a number of superhuman powers, most of which derive from the fact that he is adapted to live in the depths of the ocean. He has the ability to breathe underwater. He possesses superhuman durability high enough to remain unaffected by the immense pressure and the cold temperature of the ocean depths, this also makes him tough enough to be invulnerable to machine gun fire. He also possesses superhuman strength. He can swim at very high speeds, capable of reaching speeds of 10,000 feet per second and can swim up Niagara Falls. He can see in near total darkness and has enhanced hearing granting limited sonar.

However, one point of interest regarding the Aquaman rhetoric can be found in the form of Aquaman’s sidekicks, the Aqualads, Garth (Tempest) and Kaldur’ahm.

In addition to possessing the usual string of Atlantean abilities, these stud-muffins can also perform acts of aquatic sorcery: making water constructs and weapons, forming water into ice and gaseous forms, etc. This begs the question: why didn’t DC just give all Atlanteans hydrokinetic powers from the get-go? If Aquaman and the other Atlanteans were water-based sorcerers, there may never have been the string of “Aquaman is lame” jokes.

Let’s move on to another water-based superhero who has received more than his fair share of abuse from comedians and cartoon writers: Zan of the Wonder Twins.

“Hello, ladies!”
***************

Like Aquaman, this guy has been the butt of jokes for decades now. The typical mode of thinking is, “Jayna’s power is cool since she can turn into animals, but Zan’s power is lame because he just turns into water”. Even the Twins’ parent company makes fun of Zan:

Come on, now. Are we all really that short-sighted? Let’s explore the true nature and extent of Zan’s power, shall we?

Zan can transform into water at any state (solid, liquid, gas) and add to his mass by incorporating water in his immediate area. In the case of becoming solid ice, he can also become any form he chooses, from a 5,000 foot humanoid ice giant to a cage for a criminal to complex machinery (such as a jet engine, as he did in the episode “Eruption”). He changes into a gelatinous form at one point. On another occasion, he transformed into liquid nitrogen. In addition, he can transform himself into atmospheric disturbances (usually very localized) involving water, such as a blizzard, a monsoon, waterspout or a typhoon. In the comics, the Twins’ powers were more extensive and Zan could transform into things like ice monsters, hurricanes and demonic looking sentient whirlpools. Beaten by a sponge? I think not.

There are no useless characters; only writers who don’t or can’t think of formidable or creative ways to use them. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Zan’s power. He just needs to be under the supervision of someone who can properly utilize it. Water can be unyielding, imposing and even deadly. The moon’s gravitational pull is controlled by the tides, lest we forget. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this water-wielder:

Katara

“Any moron with 2 working eyes can see that I’m not white. Got that, M. Night Shaymalan?”
 *****************************************************
Nobody’s calling her useless, are they? So don’t hate. Appreciate. Water powered heroes rock!
“Yeah. That means I’M cool too!”
Uh, no, dude. You’re just a big, dumb mutant fish.

Talkin’ Nerdy: Another Robot Chicken Epic Fail

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Once again, Twinsanity would like to give the ol’ thumbs down to one of Robot Chicken‘s attempts at “comedy”. While Robot Chicken can be hilarious when they get a good concept, when the show misses the mark it reeeeealy misses the mark. Such is the case with this Avengers skit, entitled “A Critical Component”:

The main “joke” in this sketch is obvious: The RC staff are implying that the 2 non-super powered Avengers, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are weak and useless in relation to the so-called Tier 1 Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor. The thing is, the 18-20 year old me would’ve agreed with this sentiment, but I see this sketch now, especially after having seen The Avengers at least 8 times now, that this skit fails all across the board. First, the obvious technical gripes (WARNING: lots of nerd nitpicking ahead):

  • First, it would seem that no major toy company ever bothered to produce a Black Widow action figure, since Natasha in this skit is just ‘Fantasia’ from RC’s “Beast and the Beauties” skit in a black catsuit.
  • Second, why is Hulk so tiny? In the movie, old Jade Jaws towered over the other team members, as he is supposed to, but here, he’s rail thin and actually looks smaller than the others. RC has a Savage Hulk action figure, so why didn’t they use it here?
  • Third, why was Hawkeye wearing his comic book costume rather than his movie costume? OK, that’s more of a personal nitpick, but I prefer Clint’s movie costume; I always thought his purple mask and cowl costume looked kind of silly, no offense to comic fans.
  • Fourth, what kind of ending was that? Black Widow is killed in battle, and the others are just “eh, whatever” about it?? Not only that, but the circumstances behind her death are ridiculous and illogical, but more on that later. RC has a tendency to get unnecessarily dark, typically ending sketches by killing off characters, etc., since we all know that darker = funnier. And so all of the male Avengers are bi-curious?? What the what?!?

-Now, on to the main reason why this skit fails, namely, this notion that Natasha and Clint are weaklings who serve no purpose on the team other than eye-candy. I know several people who share the belief that these 2 characters are useless; even comedian Bill Maher echoed these thoughts in an episode of HBO’s Real Time. He said, and I quote: “If Thor is a god, then why do we need the other Avengers? I especially don’t see why we need the 2 Avengers whose only powers are a bow and arrow and big (breasts) and a hand gun.” Now, far be it for me to question Bill Maher, but I’m not sure that Black Widow’s only contributions to the Avengers are a pistol and a rack. Let’s examine Black Widow a little closer, shall we?

HELOOOOOOO, NURSE!

That’s not what I meant and you know it, ya horn-dogs! I meant let’s look closer at her SKILL SET.

  • The Black Widow is a world class athlete, gymnast, acrobat, aerialist capable of numerous complex maneuvers and feats, expert martial artist (including karate, judo, ninjutsu, aikido, savate, various styles of kung fu, and boxing), marksman, and weapons specialist as well as having extensive espionage training.
  • She is also an accomplished ballerina.
  • Natasha has received the Red Room’s variant of the Super-Soldier Serum. As a result, her physical and mental abilities had been enhanced slightly beyond human limits.
  • The Black Widow has been enhanced by biotechnology that makes her body resistant to aging and disease and heals at an above human rate; as well as psychological conditioning that suppresses her memory of true events as opposed to implanted ones of the past without the aid of specially designed system suppressant drugs.
  • Due to the Super-Soldier Serum, the white blood cells in her body are efficient enough to fight off any microbe, foreign body and others from her body, keeping her healthy and immune to most, if not all infections, diseases and disorders. Also, it takes quite a bit for Natasha to become intoxicated.
  • Her agility is greater than that of an Olympic gold medalist. She can coordinate her body with balance, flexibility, and dexterity easily.
  • Her bodily tissues have been augmented to superhuman development. She possesses exceptional durability, strength, endurance, and stamina.
  • Natasha’s reaction time is similarly enhanced and functions with the peak of human efficiency and capability, bordering on superhuman level. It is possible for Natasha to dodge a bullet even at point blank range.
  • Natasha has a gifted intellect. She displays an uncanny affinity for psychological manipulation and can mask her real emotions perfectly. Like Steve Rogers, she possesses the ability to quickly process multiple information streams (e.g., threat assessment) and rapidly respond to changing tactical situations.
  • Natasha is an expert tactician. She is a very effective strategist, tactician, and field commander. She has led the Avengers and even S.H.I.E.L.D. on one occasion.
Useless? I think not.
Just to be fair, let’s also take a closer look at Hawkeye’s special skills. (So sorry, no more hot Natasha pics.)

While Hawkeye has no superhuman powers (with the exception of the period when using Pym particles to become Goliath), he is at the very peak of human conditioning; he is an exceptional fencer, acrobat and a grandmaster marksman, having been trained from childhood in the circus and by the criminals Trick Shot and Swordsman. This includes considerable strength, as a supervillain found out when he tried to use the superhero’s 250 pounds-force (1,100 newtons) draw weight bow and found that he could not draw back the string to launch an arrow.
Hawkeye has also been thoroughly trained by Captain America in tactics, martial arts, and hand-to-hand combat. Hawkeye excels in the use of ranged weapons, especially the bow and arrow, and carries a quiver containing a number of customized “trick arrows”. In his role as Ronin, Barton shows great proficiency with the katana and other melee weapons. He has gained a reputation for being able to “turn any object into a weapon”, and has been seen using items such as tin plates, coins, sticks and other debris to great effect against his enemies.

That’s pretty darn impressive I’d say. Furthermore, one of the so-called A-List Avengers, Iron Man’s special talents come from his genius brain, his enormous wealth and his teach armor. No super powers. Captain America is an enhanced Super Soldier whose been augmented to be as strong, fast, agile and durable as a human can get, but is still not technically superhuman.
It’s at this point where a DC fanboy (or girl) usually pipes in with this: “There’s another superhero who doesn’t have any super powers yet still manages to hold his own on a team of A-list heroes. maybe you’ve heard of him…..”

That’s right. This guy here is one of THE most popular and formidable superheroes in the world and he hasn’t got a single super power to his name. Now if you’re going to say or even imply that Batman is useless, then you’d better start running before you finish saying it. 
But, you say, that sketch wasn’t wrong, someone like Hawkeye or Black Widow would get pwned if they had to fight a ‘God-Eater’. You can’t beat someone like Ego the Living Planet or Thanos with an arrow or a karate kick. That’s true, but here’s the thing about that: anyone possessing half a brain wouldn’t send a non-powered human to go head-to-head with omni-powered cosmic being in the first place. There’s a statement that a friend of mine passed on to me: “Superman averts Armageddon while Batman takes care of the crazies”. You wouldn’t send Batman in to stop a giant meteor from destroying a nearby town, that calls for metahuman might. The same way you wouldn’t call in Superman to stop a serial killer who’s been picking off public figures one by one. That calls for detective skills and street savvy. So the skit’s line “You can’t beat a God Eater with a karate kick” is stupid and should be obvious to anyone with the IQ of a slice of pizza; Black Widow isn’t equipped to take on a threat like that head-on; she’s a spy who specializes in stealth, espionage, interception, infiltration and one-on-one combat with normal humans and operatives. Any team tactician worth their salt would know that and coordinate their team members accordingly.
So that’s why I say to the writers of this skit: