Yakkity Yak

One of many international acquisitions for Nickelodeon, it seems this was intended to fill space for low-priority hours, best I could guess. I was able to catch this show when it was new, and yes I understand why people wouldn't like it. It's not groundbreaking and its humor is an acquired taste, but it's honestly not that bad.

I've had two perspectives on this, one seeing it as a kid, the other seeing it as an adult. I really enjoyed this show as a kid, whether it was for its humor or visuals, and for better or worse I had tried to catch it whenever it aired.

As an adult, revisiting the series through YouTube uploads, I found myself watching more episodes than I expected to. If it was purely nostalgia for why I liked it I would've not bothered with the show after one or two episodes, but the fact that I can still watch and enjoy the episodes really says a lot.

If your standards are low or you're just looking to kill a few minutes, Yakkity Yak is the perfect show for you to just shut off your bran and enjoy. I also really like its art direction, it has a UPA-type style, and certainly looks distinct compared to other cartoons from the time.

You can do far worse, especially compared to other shows from the period.

Yakkity Yak himself is an preteen yak. He lives with his grandmother in Onion Falls. His grandmother is a human. His two best friends are a little girl, Susie, and a Kio, a boy that is half pineapple and half human. Kio's dad is a pineapple that lives in a fruit basket. Yakkity wants to be a stand up comedian and goes to do stand-up regularly; however, he always gets booed off and no one thinks he is funny. The three kids love to go to the candy shop owned by Mr. Highpants and visit Mr. Crazyhair, the local mad scientist.

To some this may sound contrived, and the writers milk it. The humor in the show will appeal to children and those with an off sense of humor. It does teach lessons about being a good friend and doing your chores, just like most other cartoons. These little morals aren't so sickeningly sweet that it spoils the show for adults, though. It's almost like Super Milk Chan (on adult swim), except it makes sense and is appropriate for children.

Yakkity Yak is a good late night laugh for those who enjoy weird cartoons and like characters that aren't so average.

I've never heard about this cartoon before because Nickelodeon shows it at hours I don't watch TV (i.e. too early). Yesterday I accidentally zapped into it and immediately liked it.

Usually I'm more into cartoons meant for grown-ups (Rocko, Ren & Stimpy, Simpsons, Futurama, Cow & Chicken and so), but I also do like stuff like Spongebob. Yakkity Yak seems to have children as a target group, but the humor is quite "sophisticated" for that. Not only that the verbal jokes are funny, but also the drawings are silly enough to make my flat mate laugh who isn't into cartoons at all.

I guess I'll be spending more time at noon in front of the TV the next weekends to watch this one.

I don't see what everyone sees in Yakkity Yak because it is the worst Nick show I have ever seen and it's an insult to Happy tree Friends. I mean it, it's WAY overrated and I Will tell you why: 1) Highpant. Need I say more? I will anyway, Mr. Highpants is the worst Yakkity character who has ever been created. He's just really annoying and he ruins the show.

2) The voice acting. The VA in this show is horrible, especially Highpant's VA. He sounds like he has absolutely no personality what so ever. Rondo sounds like a dead elephant, Lemony voice is just high-pitched and annoying, The Robot mime sounds too sexy (which is stupid), and so on and so foreth. This bugs me in CatDog too. Why would Satain the Bunny (I refuse to call him Rancid Rabbit) change his voice when he yells at a person (Cat)that he hates most? LAME!!! CatDog just got stupidder

3) I hear that in one episode, Lemony made fun of Yakkity at school.

4) How is it that Yakkity goes to school? pelswick was a great Nicktoon show but this one is just terrible and I don't recommend it to anyone. Sorry CatDog, but I can't give it to ya this time.

Nickelodeon is a very mixed bag when it comes to their animated shows. There are classics such as 'Rocko's Modern Life', 'Ren and Stimpy', 'The Angry Beavers' and 'Doug'. As well as prime-'Spongebob Squarepants' and prime-'The Rugrats' (the early episodes in both cases). It also boasted some very bad shows like 'ChalkZone', 'Tak and the Power of Juju', 'Fanboy and Chum Chum' and 'Rocket Power', am also someone who has personally never cared for 'The Fairy Odd Parents'.

While not quite as awful as the bad shows listed above, 'Yakkity Yak' is still very bad in nearly every aspect. With the worst aspects being truly terrible and that's being kind. As far as Nickeldeon's animated shows go, 'Yakkity Yak' is one of the worst. This is not being said with pleasure, none of my negative ratings and reviews are given with malice (always regret), this is coming from a 30 something female who still loves animation and appreciates all styles and decades as well as humour styles.

The best thing about the show is the intro, actually think the song is catchy and the opening credits are designed quite well.

Everything else is really poorly done and worse. The animation is very ugly to look at, actually appreciate this style of drawing when it is done well but this looks as if it was animated when the animators were suffering from having too much to drink the previous night or something. The very off model and rushed looking character designs especially. All the characters are either really bland or incredibly irritating or both, especially Highpants in the third group. The voice cast have all done good work elsewhere, but hearing them here was honestly depressing. It was as if they knew the material was bad and weren't trying.

Outside of the intro, the music is bizarre and never really gels. The writing has no wit or sophistication whatsoever and nothing is funny, it all sounds incredibly childish to the extent that even children themselves would be insulted hearing what is trying to pass for humour here. The storytelling is random-ness overkill and is incredibly predictable, lacking in energy and overly simple. The messaging sounds inspiring and relatable on paper, but is executed too simplistically and heavy-handedly. Nothing educational here either, what the show tries to teach are things a lot of children would already know except done in a more illuminating and genuine way.

Summarising, very bad. 2/10.