The Worst Oh Yeah! Cartoons Short

 So recently MrEnter did a review where he talked about 10 of his favorite Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts. Admittedly some choices were kinda predictable (obviously Mina and the Count would place very high, but I never heard of Protecto 5000 until now so maybe he found some untouched territory), but he was more or less going by how the shorts would've had potential to be actual shows. Some I kinda expect, given his previous experience with a pet project that only leeches care to bring up.

I'm here under the assumption one day he will do a list of the worst Oh Yeah! Cartoons shorts. I imagine Zoomates, that one short a pre-Family Guy Seth MacFarlane (just a reminder he used to work at Hanna Barbera) and Butch Hartman will place somewhere there, and though I wouldn't like it, he may place any short by Guy Vasilovich on there because of their more niche nature.

But if he does make a worst of, I really hope he includes this on there.

Tales from the Goose Lady

Tales from the Goose Lady was created by Dave Wasson, who is best known for creating Time Squad for Cartoon Network and assisting on Making Fiends, but he is perhaps best known for his work on the beloved Disney show The Buzz on Maggie. Oh, he also worked on some crappy cartoon about a magical girl who wants to bone a guy and go all Hiroshima to do so.

This was actually one of two shorts Wasson worked on, the other being Max and his Special Problem. Well one of two shorts is generous, this is one of the special exceptions on Oh Yeah! Cartoons, where a short series came of it. As there are multiple episodes of something, we'd get to know the characters more and adjust to the atmosphere the shorts are going for. I.e., it is fair to judge it as a whole.

The series is basically like a satirical collection of fairy tales. Satire is always good... if you have something to say, and satire is a generous term to use for this. Basically just a collection of stories that have 25% of a connection to the tales they were meant to be. Oh, and these tales are handled by a demented Mother Goose parody who terrorizes two kids who don't want anything to do with her, him, how far does the joke go? Goose Lady has a Lazloian grasp on life.

Lazloian (Las-löh-ee-hn), noun: To express overt optimism to mask naivety or ignorance. Often used as a coping mechanism or to intentionally mess with people in a less obvious manner.

Each of these shorts follow a very basic outline, two kids, Dot and Randy, two very well behaved kids, encounter Goose Lady at the worst possible times. She tunes out what's going on to tell her crazy stories, often ending with a bunk moral that the two are quick to debate, then they get in trouble. If this was a one time short, I can forgive it, it was just a one time deal for a quick laugh. I can forgive multiple episodes being made, had the shorts had more variety and didn't end with some variation of the same dire conclusion.

Normally bad circumstances would come as a form of karma or have some kind of payoff or twist. Just the fact that they're self aware of the situation, and Goose Lady deals the first blow, and the fact we know she'd get away with it levies any suspense, and that she herself is self aware and actively hunts down the same two kids. Once was enough, I can remember the wraparounds in finer detail than the stories she has to tell.

Now look, if we can't change the circumstances, why not have Goose Lady visit different kids every time? That way we won't have time to be attached to her usual haunts. Honestly, maybe the idea of Goose Lady actually having good intentions could help make for a good series, where she is incompetent and winds up either telling the wrong story to the right kids, or vice versa. Heck, for a little variety have some stories turn out to help whether it be by stupid luck or genuine luck. Keep people guessing.

It's not that it's a joke I happen to not like, but it's the same payoff every five episodes, and goes to show how little every episode has to offer. Something pleasent, sudden intrusion, in one ear out the other, story, cockamamie moral, consequences. Something like Mina and the Count worked better because you never knew what you'd get out of it, thanks to how it handles its basic framework. Heck, why else did Fairly Odd Parents and ChalkZone ultimately get picked up?

Nepotism, and ChalkZone was actually a good show.

The only thing I like about these shorts is the art direction, it boasts some decent quality animation, thought it could be digital ink and paint for all I know. It automatically gets points for not following similar design aesthetics to shorts helmed by Butch Hartman and Bob Boyle, once you notice it, you can't un-notice it. Another plus is that Tara Strong and Grey DeLisle are nowhere to be heard in this.

Final Thoughts

Every showcase has its duds. Random Cartoons had Adventure Time, What A Cartoon had Ignoramooses, Shorty McShort Shorts had 90% of its episodes and this and the Fairly Odd Parents shorts were Oh Yeah! duds. Nothing could've saved these shorts, honestly. Better shorts were one-offs, less Wasson's were quicker to produce and fill air time. Course some prefer one time deals.

It seems Fairly Odd Parents and ChalkZone were destined to get their own shows regardless, one because it was a legitimately great series, another because of reasons I've yet to weather. My Life as a Teenage Robot got on lucky from a one-off short, though it could've been an alternate to Renzetti's Mina and the Count, which also had some serious luck going from a Cartoon Network showcase to a Nickelodeon one.

I feel like Wasson wanted this to be a one off, but the producers kept wanting him to do more, maybe the repetition was a cry for help? Maybe a bigger statement was lost on poor execution? Maybe this was doomed from the start and we should leave it at that?

Sure.