सनकी!

Freakazoid! is one of Spielberg's best executive-produced cartoons in the history of animation. It puts cartoons in a perspective of many different kinds of mishaps and spoofs galore. Think of it bad if you must, but I think it's a good stead of cartoons that should go on and on.

Why wasn't this on longer? All I have now are the insanely late showings on the Cartoon Network at 5 in the morning. I love this show. As someone who was late into my teens when this debuted, I could appreciate the obscure pop culture humor that makes this cartoon well above the average Saturday morning fare. This is not a show for kids, this is a cartoon for grownups who actually KNOW what Lost in Space was and get the vast numbers of jokes that go over the heads of most of our younger counterparts.

Oh, I miss this show. The script was so good, terribly well-written and ever so funny. Between this and them taking MST3K away, I really can't think of anything to live for anymore... *sigh*. At least they still rerun them.

"Freakazoid" is perhaps the most under-appreciated comedy series ever! Of course, aiming something like this to a Sunday morning audience of children will doom it from the start. Sadly, it lasted only 24 episodes before getting canned. On the upside, it did win an Emmy for its theme song! That's a good thing! Anyway, there are several types of humor. Slapstick (i.e. "The Three Stooges'), dry and sarcastic (i.e. "Daria"), that old Warner Brotherish humor that I'm still trying to put a name to.... and then there's "What?!?!?!? Why?!?!?" humor that comes out of no where and strikes us as funny because it doesn't make sense and yet it does make sense... does that make sense? Freakazoid is a delightful mixture of this kind of humor, the most obscure movie/historical/cultural references you could possibly imagine, and (lets face it) utter childishness. This is the only show you would be able to hear big-name actors like David Warner behave like a child throwing a tantrum, or hear deadpan Ed Asner say things like "Poo-gas", or even hear the world famous carpenter Norm Abram say something like, "You're and evil man!" All of this is brought to us by the comic genius of Paul Rugg (who not only writes but does the voice of Freakazoid himself because the part was too weird for anyone else to handle) and his partner in crime, John P. McCann. These guys wrote all the good, memorable episodes of the hit series "Animaniacs". I'm not sure if my rant is making much sense, so I'll stop. I cannot recommend "Freakazoid" to you enough. I'll put it this way: If you enjoy humor similar to "The Tick" comic book (the show is much tamer than what I'm talking about), the "Earthworm Jim" video game, or "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast", this is for you! ENJOY!!!

Freakazoid! is not as well known as Tiny Toons or Animaniacs, but was at least their equal in laughs and creativity. It was a great show with hilarious characters, a mix of sly, self-referential humor and utter absurdity. The quality of the animation varied wildly from episode to episode, possibly the latter shows were created more cheaply to stretch the budget when they found out they were not being renewed. Whereas the animation did fluctuate, the writing was never less than inspired. Highlights include the Johnny Quest parody, the running "poo gas" joke, and any episode with the Lobe. My favorite is a short piece featuring Freakazoid's new sidekick, a sock puppet. This episode is laugh out loud funny with innuendo I'm amazed got past the censor. Try and catch any episodes if Cartoon Network again reruns them, or if, miraculously, a DVD is released. They are well worth it.

Freakazoid! was a show I held (and still do hold) near and dear to my heart. Sure, some of my comrades tell me it's immature. Sure, they say 'it's on Kids WB, you fool.' But I love it, as well as all the other adults who are still naughty little children deep down.

This show will make you laugh so hard you'll most likely turn yourself inside out.