An interstellar creature grows a group of boils on its back that come to be 'The Grunt Brothers'.An interstellar creature grows a group of boils on its back that come to be 'The Grunt Brothers'.An interstellar creature grows a group of boils on its back that come to be 'The Grunt Brothers'.
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'The Brothers Grunt' (1994-1995)
Opening thoughts: Absolutely adore animation (something that most people know already) and have done as a child. Have always aimed to at least appreciate all kinds of humour, and have seen crude and gross out humour done well (the early seasons of 'Rick and Morty' for instances) and animated shows that broke boundaries and were ahead of their time (i.e. 'South Park'). Have though seen quite a number of bad and worse animated shows and too many instances of crude humour done terribly ('Breadwinners').
Really found it very hard to believe that the creator of the excellent 'Ed, Edd and Eddy' was responsible for this intelligence insulting rubbish that insulted my intelligence even as a child. As has been said a few times in the past couple of weeks or so, the lowest possible rating is an incredibly rare rating for me these days, as somebody who tries to be as encouraging as possible and tries to see some good in the bad. Which has mostly not been an issue. There have been times where something is so awful to an offensive degree that it is impossible to do that. 'The Brothers Grunt' is one of those instances. Actually tried to see it when younger and hated it even then, back when this reviewer had a number of contrarian opinions, it's even worse through adult eyes.
Good things: Nothing.
Bad things: Everything and where to start listing them. The animation is really horrod to put it as politely as possible. There is no colour vibrancy, everything just looks flat and garish, editing is not tight enough and is often dizzying, the backgrounds lack imagination or smoothness, almost always looking static. The character designs fare the worst, some of the ugliest easily of any animated show (with heads too big for their bodies, which in themselves are ridiculously and jarringly out of proportion) and they just look rough and animated with little care. The music has very little memorable about it, it's loud lazy, and often over-obvious and not particularly well-placed (too random) complete with an instantly forgettable theme tune that annoys rather than charms.
Every bit as awfully executed is the writing, which was bad enough to almost single handedly sink 'The Brothers Grunt'. It's very crude, random and oddly absurdist, but executes all three very poorly, going too overboard with the toilet humour and childish-ness, very often more disgusting than funny. This viewer has no problem with this type of humour, but here it constantly felt lazy and like it was trying too hard, which made every obnoxiously cheesy and countlessly witless line of dialogue even more forced and contrived. There are also puns that a vast majority of the time were so lazily obvious and lacking in taste it was groan-worthy and every increasingly predictable sight gag came over as forced. ItIt also depends whether any weirdness has a reason for being weird, but it came over very randomly more often than not and increasing in tastelessness.
Moreover, the target audience is constantly in question, because the constantly chaotic feel will see kids finding it too hard to take, and that it's embarrassingly juvenile and lacks any kind of edge or smart writing will irritate adults. The story lines, when they are ever distinguishable (the overload of childish and crude humour too often completely override the story), are also heavy in contrivance, randomness and predictability. While also being incredibly light in emotional resonance, fun or sense to the point all three are practically non-existent. With constantly uneven pacing, with some episodes in serious need of more breathing time and others feeling lazy as a result of the comic timing not being as sharp as it could have been. The characters are all extremely irritating and the voice acting is ear bleeding and like there was no effort being put into it.
Concluding thoughts: Summing up, absolutely terrible in every conceivable way.
1/10.
Opening thoughts: Absolutely adore animation (something that most people know already) and have done as a child. Have always aimed to at least appreciate all kinds of humour, and have seen crude and gross out humour done well (the early seasons of 'Rick and Morty' for instances) and animated shows that broke boundaries and were ahead of their time (i.e. 'South Park'). Have though seen quite a number of bad and worse animated shows and too many instances of crude humour done terribly ('Breadwinners').
Really found it very hard to believe that the creator of the excellent 'Ed, Edd and Eddy' was responsible for this intelligence insulting rubbish that insulted my intelligence even as a child. As has been said a few times in the past couple of weeks or so, the lowest possible rating is an incredibly rare rating for me these days, as somebody who tries to be as encouraging as possible and tries to see some good in the bad. Which has mostly not been an issue. There have been times where something is so awful to an offensive degree that it is impossible to do that. 'The Brothers Grunt' is one of those instances. Actually tried to see it when younger and hated it even then, back when this reviewer had a number of contrarian opinions, it's even worse through adult eyes.
Good things: Nothing.
Bad things: Everything and where to start listing them. The animation is really horrod to put it as politely as possible. There is no colour vibrancy, everything just looks flat and garish, editing is not tight enough and is often dizzying, the backgrounds lack imagination or smoothness, almost always looking static. The character designs fare the worst, some of the ugliest easily of any animated show (with heads too big for their bodies, which in themselves are ridiculously and jarringly out of proportion) and they just look rough and animated with little care. The music has very little memorable about it, it's loud lazy, and often over-obvious and not particularly well-placed (too random) complete with an instantly forgettable theme tune that annoys rather than charms.
Every bit as awfully executed is the writing, which was bad enough to almost single handedly sink 'The Brothers Grunt'. It's very crude, random and oddly absurdist, but executes all three very poorly, going too overboard with the toilet humour and childish-ness, very often more disgusting than funny. This viewer has no problem with this type of humour, but here it constantly felt lazy and like it was trying too hard, which made every obnoxiously cheesy and countlessly witless line of dialogue even more forced and contrived. There are also puns that a vast majority of the time were so lazily obvious and lacking in taste it was groan-worthy and every increasingly predictable sight gag came over as forced. ItIt also depends whether any weirdness has a reason for being weird, but it came over very randomly more often than not and increasing in tastelessness.
Moreover, the target audience is constantly in question, because the constantly chaotic feel will see kids finding it too hard to take, and that it's embarrassingly juvenile and lacks any kind of edge or smart writing will irritate adults. The story lines, when they are ever distinguishable (the overload of childish and crude humour too often completely override the story), are also heavy in contrivance, randomness and predictability. While also being incredibly light in emotional resonance, fun or sense to the point all three are practically non-existent. With constantly uneven pacing, with some episodes in serious need of more breathing time and others feeling lazy as a result of the comic timing not being as sharp as it could have been. The characters are all extremely irritating and the voice acting is ear bleeding and like there was no effort being put into it.
Concluding thoughts: Summing up, absolutely terrible in every conceivable way.
1/10.
To anyone trashing on this show, you're absolutely crazy!!! I died laughing at every episode, and while it aired, was one of my favorite programs to watch! There's pretty much no chance in hades of ever getting your hands on a copy of even one of the episodes, but if by some miracle anyone does, grab it! watch it! love it! Also, if anyone has a copy of any/all of the episodes, I will pay good money for them! Although in a genre all its own, if you like Ren & Stimpy, Beavis & Butthead, & Sealab 2021, you're sure to cherish each episode of the wondrous Brothers Grunt! I wish MTV hadn't cancelled all their really good shows, (i.e. Brothers Grunt, The State, etc) as they relentlessly air some of the absolute worst programming known to man nowadays...and shouldn't they really change the name of the channel by now??!!??!! I haven't seen anything music-related on MTV in 10 years.
The plot is simple: Five brothers are sent out to find their lost 6th brother in a world filled with over-the-top caricatures of human beings, only to get side-tracked and interrupted at each and every turn.
Beyond the basic plot the show's driving forces are the funny and weird situations the brothers get involved in. It's a simple setup for a comedy show but it doesn't really go anywhere and just kinda flatlines in the brief 4 minute runtime of each episode (some episodes are twice as long).
It's not really creative or surreal either. There's certain surreal elements, such as how the brothers are born and the ceremony that takes place in the pilot episode. But for the most part it's just the brothers stumbling through stock cartoon settings (night club, biker bar, prison, supermarket, suburbia, New York city, etc.) and getting harassed by every human in sight. It seems like a good setup for a comedy but only if the writing is clever in some way. There's only hints of clever ideas and jokes sprinkled throughout the series but they're so brief it's not worth sitting through the rest of it. It comes off as a collection of poorly thought out ideas and gags thrown at the wall to see what sticks. And then before it goes anywhere, the episode ends.
It's worth noting this series was created as a expansion of a set of MTV station IDs that just featured the brothers making weird faces and noises before showing the MTV logo, which actually works great as a 5 to 10 second station ID. Not so much for a series of 4 minute cartoons (unless you're looking for time to fill in your broadcast schedule). If you're into extended sequences of funny faces and sound effects and incoherent yelling then you might enjoy this. Even the gross-out humor is pretty tame, especially by modern standards.
Overall I couldn't get into it. I was mostly bored. It definitely doesn't deserve the "worst cartoon ever" reputation it's gotten over the years. I'd put it on the same level as the more forgettable Liquid Television shorts. This show probably would've been long forgotten if it wasn't made by the same guy who created Ed, Edd n Eddy.
Favorite episode: "Sammy in a Varicose Vein" was kinda funny. It's basically a series of elderly people gags set in a nursing home. The caricatures are so over-the-top it got a few laughs out of me. Honorable mention to "To Hell with Bing" for having some interesting surreal imagery that I wish the series embraced a bit more.
Beyond the basic plot the show's driving forces are the funny and weird situations the brothers get involved in. It's a simple setup for a comedy show but it doesn't really go anywhere and just kinda flatlines in the brief 4 minute runtime of each episode (some episodes are twice as long).
It's not really creative or surreal either. There's certain surreal elements, such as how the brothers are born and the ceremony that takes place in the pilot episode. But for the most part it's just the brothers stumbling through stock cartoon settings (night club, biker bar, prison, supermarket, suburbia, New York city, etc.) and getting harassed by every human in sight. It seems like a good setup for a comedy but only if the writing is clever in some way. There's only hints of clever ideas and jokes sprinkled throughout the series but they're so brief it's not worth sitting through the rest of it. It comes off as a collection of poorly thought out ideas and gags thrown at the wall to see what sticks. And then before it goes anywhere, the episode ends.
It's worth noting this series was created as a expansion of a set of MTV station IDs that just featured the brothers making weird faces and noises before showing the MTV logo, which actually works great as a 5 to 10 second station ID. Not so much for a series of 4 minute cartoons (unless you're looking for time to fill in your broadcast schedule). If you're into extended sequences of funny faces and sound effects and incoherent yelling then you might enjoy this. Even the gross-out humor is pretty tame, especially by modern standards.
Overall I couldn't get into it. I was mostly bored. It definitely doesn't deserve the "worst cartoon ever" reputation it's gotten over the years. I'd put it on the same level as the more forgettable Liquid Television shorts. This show probably would've been long forgotten if it wasn't made by the same guy who created Ed, Edd n Eddy.
Favorite episode: "Sammy in a Varicose Vein" was kinda funny. It's basically a series of elderly people gags set in a nursing home. The caricatures are so over-the-top it got a few laughs out of me. Honorable mention to "To Hell with Bing" for having some interesting surreal imagery that I wish the series embraced a bit more.
How in the world did this tripe managed to even get on celluloid is also beyond me! I knew there were serious problems, when they started canceling music video shows to show junk, like Road Rules for example! And when they watered down the classic animated show, Liquid Television with mild crap. How could they allow this to be animated, thinking they could bank on the success of Beavis and Butthead? They started showing various music videos through out with the ugly creatures farting and grunting, or staring for no good reason. None of these creatures were ever funny, not even when they made chicken like noises! They also seemed to try and bank on the success of Ren and Stimpy, with gross out gags and dung jokes. But alas it didn't work! The animation was too crude and poorly done, the plot didn't go anywhere (if there ever was really one), and none of the characters were likable. The mutants were bad rip offs of The Killer Clowns From Outer Space, which shows the cartoon also lacked originality! Why didn't MTV simply stick with Liquid Television and leave it alone, instead of toning it down for kids? I hope they won't do something like this ever again. I give it a zero!
Just don't watch this...at all! It's nasty, and there's no plot...I THINK there's not plot? The series' plot is the show's main characters...are looking for their brother Perry...using mindless, grotesque noises while saying "Perry" every so often...All the while, if you watch this, besides wondering what the point of the existence of such a pointless cartoon is, your eyes will be watering while breaking out in hives from whatever diseases these disturbingly ugly undead abominations possess.
If you want to watch a good cartoon, watch The Simpsons or watch a Transformers movie for goodness sake! God knows 30 minutes of this is MUCH worse than nearly 3 hours of mindless action and explosions from Transformers 4.
If you want to watch a good cartoon, watch The Simpsons or watch a Transformers movie for goodness sake! God knows 30 minutes of this is MUCH worse than nearly 3 hours of mindless action and explosions from Transformers 4.
Did you know
- Trivia10 episodes went unaired, but many years later in 2019, 7 of the unaired episodes were discovered and uploaded to YouTube.
- ConnectionsFeatured in PhantomStrider: Top 10 Worst Cartoons of all Time (2015)
- How many seasons does The Brothers Grunt have?Powered by Alexa
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