Axe Cop

I have never laughed harder at any cartoon I've ever watched in my life. The Amazing World of Gumball can really hit my funny bone, too, as it has several flashes of brilliance I don't often see in other cartoons. But for me, nothing holds a candle to Axe Cop. It's just so meteorically stupid.

It only takes one minute till I'm laughing like an idiot at the sheer naivety, imagination, and format-bending splendor that goes on in every single episode. Each one is ridiculously action-packed, action conceived only by a young boy whose imagination speaks for just about every young boy's imagination, ever. Now, I generally don't like action-packed shows or movies, because often times it's taken SUPER- SERIOUSLY by directors--directors who are adults, mind you. Eventually, the insane action becomes absolutely mind-numbing, and the only thing that can fix that is action that is MORE insane... it's like heroin to some people, maybe Michael Bay. But Axe Cop walks over all serious adult action, doing it better than everyone else, no less as a cartoon. It IS taken seriously, but by a kid. And because it's conceived by a kid, it's not just absolutely off-the-wall bizarre action, it's GENUINE.

Cheap philosophies aside, this show hits my funny bone, every time. The icing on the cake is its TV-MA rating: there's no bad language and no sex, just blood every now and then. That alone shows it was written largely by a kid, and what a lucky kid he is.

I won't go into details, because describing the plot line of any episode is exactly like trying to retell the story your son brought to his show and tell. It's just a gem. If you don't laugh at Axe Cop, you haven't lived: you have simply existed.

I managed to catch this a few times when it was current but it was on at a weird time so I missed most of it. I just got to watch every episode and I loved it. What a shame this show didn't go on forever. A cop that thinks women are dumb and refuses to help babies because they're dumb and random dinosaurs. What else could you want? Oh yeah, cutting off heads.

This show is a fantastic harbinger for future interaction between the internet and television. I've followed the Axe Cop web comic for years and to see it brought to life by Nick Offerman, Patton Oswalt and Johnathan Banks is pretty much wish fulfillment. If the plot seems childish to you, that's because it was written by an 8 year old, Malachai Nicolle. His older brother brought Malachai's stories to life and the animation style really syncs up well with the illustration style of Ethan's comic. If you can't handle the pure, unbridled madcap awesome that is Axe Cop, you may have lost the childish part of your soul. I, for one, am ecstatic that this show has made it to network TV and I pray that it goes well enough to prompt other networks or FOX to consider animating more web comics. Could we see Nathan Fillion voicing Dr. McNinja someday? We can only hope.

If I watched this show with absolutely no idea of it's premise, I would have thought this show is utter rubbish; I can understand how some of these reviews can be so scathing.

So if you haven't yet seen Axe Cop and are thinking of giving it a go, there's one thing you must know: The synopsis and story lines of the show were conceived by a 5 year old.

Once you know this fact, the craziness and lack of explanation for story development makes sense, and makes it so much more enjoyable. Characters will randomly develop new powers, superheroes will travel to different planets in monster trucks and on the backs of dinosaurs, and people's heads and limbs will be cut off with no clear-cut reason as to why.

But that is how the mind of a kid works; anything that they think is exciting, dangerous or cool will get a mention in the story. If they do need to justify a point to close a storyline, it is the work of magic, or secret powers, or it's from another planet. Don't expect stories to make sense, but it's not supposed to; it's the craziness of the situation that makes the show so great to watch.

It's not for everyone, but if you're a kid at heart, give it a go! You'll think this is fantastic.

Plus some great voice cameos.

I'm not really a big fan of the sort of meta cartoons you see on Adult Swim. Most of them just seem really stupid. The only one I ever cared for at all was Sealab Something-or-other.

But for some reason, I just *love* the very meta Axe Cop. I love it because it acts like it's the stream-of-consciousness ramblings of a hyper 8-year-old brought to life. It makes no sense, but it makes perfect dream sense. It is often quite heartless and always wildly funny.

There have been two seasons so far and only a handful of episodes per season, so while it is possible that this joke could get old eventually, at this rate I could watch it for years. ADDENDUM: darn, cancelled after 2 seasons.