This Just In review

 Did you know that Steve Marmel, former Butch Hartman protege and apparently the one who made Danny Phantom so great made his own cartoon show? If you read my Spike Animation retrospective you'd know about it by now, but that was just by one episode.

I would've talked about this sooner but a Coppola had to intervene.

A lot of people hate Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon. That show was my first introduction to Ren and Stimpy, then again it was only through commercials, and I did see an episode of the original show for a complete introduction on the characters. A key reason Adult Party Cartoon sucked was because it, like many adult cartoons, tries desperately to appeal to the adult demographic. It worked in the original because the writers had to work around the censors, leading to risque jokes we'd pick up on later down the line; APC was stripped of it.

I have to bring up Adult Party Cartoon because in spite of how bad it was, it wasn't the sour note that killed the block, or maybe it just wasn't the last original Spike animated show. Not to mention the worst episode of APC didn't even make it to air, hell, the show wasn't good but not as bad as many a goober would lead you to believe.

And that show

This Just In was created by Steve Marmel, a man who has assisted Butch Hartman on the likes of Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom. People say Marmel was the man who made Danny Phantom amazing and well... I wouldn't know, because nowadays I hate that show and Fairly Odd Parents.

I'd respect Marmel more, had it not been for the fact he is so political. It isn't just that he makes it clear what side he supports, but that it encompasses his entire Twitter, down to his banner. He isn't even doing anything of note these days to circumvent that. Hell, Danny Antonucci's political views I can forgive since it comes with the territory in Canada.

I bring up Marmel political views not because I want to smear this guy (okay maybe a little), but because politics was a focal point to this incredibly obscure show from 2004, and it wasn't liberal.

This Just In was produced for Spike TV's animation block in 2004, and wound up being the last new show to come out on it. Klasky-Csupo's Immigrants was in the pipeline but was passed over due to Spike closing the block by then. But don't fret, you can see every episode through a glorified compilation (and P.S., they made Duckman and the first three seasons of The Simpsons), back off kids who whine about an adult KC cartoon.

Marmel these days is staunchly anti-Trump, but this show features a different side to him. Marmel was always liberal, but back then he was more moderate and was able to poke fun at either side. It was a big contrast to where he is now, wanna know how? He voices a republican character in this, who happens to be the protagonist.

Somewhere down the line, Marmel turned from a moderate to a feverent convert. He is to politics what Steve Drain is to religion, becoming the worst of their respective paths while not having a big connection to begin with, though to be fair, their conversion is the kind that's fueled by a repressed corresponding feeling, like they needed validation and to see if they were right to feel this way.

Either that or Marmel's afraid of getting cancelled so is building a blue wall around him to avoid that and potentially convert crazed cartoon enthusiasts to his way of thinking. He really looks like that creepy uncle who's adamant on keeping of age girls from going into his basement.

Along with Marmel, the show was co-created by Kevin Kay, who was the president of Spike TV at the time. I'd call this corporate, given that a president would act as an executive producer while the other Spike shows were created by individuals outside the network.

So what did we get out of presidential supervision and a creator with a pedigree? Four episodes. I mean to be fair the block would be over short after. Unfortunately, one episode remains missing and it's unknown if it'll ever see the light of day, thanks to what I assume to be a lack of promotion. Given Marmel's hardcore conversion, I doubt he'd be willing to let resurface that he once played a sympathetic republican. At least Sammy's slowly starting to resurface so I don't have to wish this would've been lost forever in its place.

If I had to guess what the first episode entailed, it would probably be about the car accident involving senator Ted Kennedy in 1969. Given the show's political slant and the prevalence of what the title was, I'd have to assume... the worst.

Animation

The show was produced with flash animation. There was a point to this however, like South Park, the more limited animation format meant they could get episodes out faster, while the political topics they cover were still relevant.

It does stand out on its own art wise, but looks the cheapest amongst the four that aired. Stripperella and Adult Party Cartoon utilized expressive digital animation, the former looking absolutely gorgeous and fitting for the idea of a superhero who works at a strip club, the latter selling the disturbing nature of the show.

This and Gary the Rat were the only flash cartoons ever produced for Spike, and while I didn't expect it for Gary, it has a nice stylized look and feel to it and fit the nature the show was going for. This Just In somehow feels cheaper than you'd expect, even if it's by design. It really gives me Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi vibes in terms of a retro feel but very similar cheap movement. Funny how both came out around the same year.

Of the four, this show is the least aesthetically pleasing by far. I will say this though, if Steve Marmel designed the characters I can say he's still a better artist than Butch Hartman.

The Show

For a lack of an episode that would probably make it clear who the characters are and what they stand for, I won't get the complete context to the characters, if the first episode even did that. From what I can find, the show centers on Brian Newport, a conservative reporter going about his daily life and dealing with issues relating to a relevant political issue, like the Iraq war and female representation (really dropped the ball on that one)

Okay, so Brian Newport is the conservative side of politics, while a bartender, Sami, is a representation of socio-liberalism. Everyone else just so happens to be in the fold. Some political jokes are very straight-forward; so a Saudi-Arabian woman takes part in a game show and wants to solve the puzzle. Do the math. Also Homeland Security are dicks to non-whites, 

There are some allegories that you have to understand the context behind them. When it comes to obscure references, making them doesn't automatically make your show smart, it'd leave most viewers confused over something you found funny that others won't get without an idea for its reason for being. This is Elephant Man in a sports car-tier. Though to be fair, their jokes aren't proceeded by over-long setups which are ruined once you can piece together the homage or joke.

It's a problem because the gags are played as if we know what the punchline is or what event it's referencing. It's all about luck in understanding what the gags are, what I'm picking up on here is that women have bad taste in terms of shows, and The View sucked as far back as 2004 evidentially. Otherwise, it goes for the sarcastic "Shit you never heard of/forgot about" deal, which by then was starting to become predictable. Quick question, did anyone on The View sound like Elmer Fudd? Or what were they going for here?

One thing I find kinda funny, Marmel voices Brian Newport (to reiterate, the republican mouthpiece), and he throws in a stab at Hillary Clinton. Given the fact that Trump ran against Clinton in 2016 and that's where his anti-Trump hysteria began, I'd be a fool to not bring this up.

Political humor works best for the sake of taking stabs. For the most part it feels like the show plays these incredibly straight. I'll give it this, in a world where politics play a huge role everywhere, boy was this ahead of the curve. Good thing this was during the Bush administration, too bad John Kerry was such a douche.

What I get from this is that each episode is dedicated to showing the worst of one aspect of socio-political deals, and needless to say it got old fast; bonus points if Sex and the City, WE TV, Lifetime and Joan of Arcadia are thrown in, with one of them stated to be empowering. There is hardly any middle ground. If I had to guess, this was a prediction to how far women's rights would be run through the wringer and tainted by those who ruin the prospect by pushing further than necessary, ironically coming from someone from... well, who's Steve Marmel.

The point behind the episode I'm going by here is that the owner of a bar is brought in for questioning by Homeland Security (referring to the terrorism scare of that time and overlooking actual terrorists) and the bar is taken over by the hyper feminist Sami. There is also a gag where one guy is wed to an abusive woman... who happens to be asian. No statement on the race but that combined with the topic the episode addresses is worth bringing up for the sake of addressing the constant hammering.

I could base my whole review around one episode.

Only thing interesting about it is the references to TV networks long gone or in their prime. I think Marmel really hated PAX, why devote close to a minute of taking stabs at mormons? I'm just asking a question, okay fine pretend I am offended, sorry I bruised your ego by saying something wasn't funny. All I could get out of this is potentially finding references I could understand.

We got plenty of celebrity satirization here, but they feel kinda weak, all things considered. South Park, while venemous in many areas, had class, and built off of the over the top connotations of many celebrity parodies. Here, they just boil it down to the worst of everyone and go off of that full stop. The only parody that was interesting was their take on Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's voice is modeled after Jorgen Von Strangle, who if you forgot already is from a show Steve Marmel worked on.

Now let's address the elephant in the room, we have a republican-leaning man who makes it clear where he stands politically... who's name happens to be Brian. Now look, I'm no fan of what happened to Brian Griffin, I just wish he had better critics than Quagmire. I bring this up because, aside from the exact first names and focus on politics, both shows happen to have sociopaths that have black hair and love beating the shit out of people they don't necessarily like.

Okay I'm gonna level with you, this is going off of one episode. The humor is bound to be the same for the others, and I don't have the confidence to see more, at least not yet. I'm just finding it ironic that we're getting stabs at toxic feminism, CNN, Al Sharpton, Michael Moore, The View and countless others from someone like Steve Marmel. He knew. He dropped the ball, and when it all turned out to be true he shit his pants and pulled a 180 so hard I hoped he didn't twist his ankle because then he wouldn't do anything else related to his main profession.

Overall

I've been sitting on this for quite a while. This felt more like a back-burner deal, but going into it was not rewarding at all. Political humor is only funny for whatever side is getting made fun of, everyone else out of the loop will have a worse time. They make it very clear what side they're pushing against, it's all one extreme after the other and default sympathy. I had only seen one episode out of three available and I feel like I got the gist of it within half of the runtime.

Blasphemous as it is for me to say, watching all of Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon was a more fulfilling experience, for one it's just fundamentally flawed and didn't lose sight of what it once was, it was just more blunt and desperate to push the adult element.

I will admit, it's refreshing to see stabs at things that have only become a problem in recent years, this show was way ahead of its time in that regard, but again it's ironic this came from a man who would openly condemn this kind of creation these days. With that in mind it's one of the most depressing things to think about, and almost on par with Steve Drain and the Westboro Baptist Church, a fervent conversion build on basically nothing and both becoming complete assholes.

If you're political and want to take a break from sniffing the farts in the room you're in, there's some variation to be enjoyed. Otherwise the humor would wear thing. If you're non-partisan, well, not understanding the jokes here would be a hell of a dealbreaker.

I will try to check out the other two episodes and if anything comes of them, I will report back.