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I don't think you need to get any of the references to old cartoons for the show to be funny.
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Jun 23, 2020 10:49
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Good comedy works on multiple levels. Take the (first 10ish seasons of the) Simpsons, for example. There was very frequently surprisingly high brow references because the writers room were all Harvard people, but they also played to general audiences just with the entertaining of the premises and the executions both in animation and voice acting. VB is similar.
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Jun 23, 2020 11:10
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Irony Be My Shield posted:I don't think you need to get any of the references to old cartoons for the show to be funny. I think there are plenty of jokes you could still get, but isn’t one of the huge draws of the VB, at least back when I was in High School and college, the vast breadth of references that many people in our own age group were already perhaps too young to remember? Not everyone grew up with Johnny Quest reruns like we did. In general I feel like so much of what I liked about this show is throw away lines and sight gags that reference other people hints and the actual jokes in the show itself were more of just window dressing, instead of the other way around with most shows.
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Jun 23, 2020 14:27
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I mean I am too young to get those, I never watched Johnny Quest or any similar cartoon. The only references I got were the Scooby Doo episode and I guess the Fantastic 4
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Jun 23, 2020 14:37
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It's more specifically a 90s/00s Cartoon Network thing, especially with Boomerang.
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Jun 23, 2020 14:38
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I mean, I grew up on those cartoons but I don't think you need to have seen Quest to understand a blond junkie with daddy issues.
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Jun 23, 2020 15:25
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Johnny Quest and Scooby Doo, all that poo poo got played as reruns when I was a kid. comic books are eternal. I get all the music refs because I have the musical taste of a goth 15 years older than me.
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Jun 23, 2020 15:30
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Yeah I don't get any of the music references but I still like them. I assume it's the same with, say, Sphinx Sphinx! agents even if you don't know that GI Joes had silly pun names. The jokes are funny even without understanding the references.
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Jun 23, 2020 15:38
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I guess the point I am failing to make is that the show was obviously crafted with all these references and gags in mind, so while Zoomers et all can still find humor in the liminal, face-value jokes, the actual series was designed and made specifically for the people who would also get all their weird 80's music references and bizarre fashion callbacks. The meta-textual Venture Bros stuff is a big part of what made the VB enough of a success to still be in production.
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Jun 23, 2020 15:42
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Don't forget, there's some jokes even most of us needed to look up or have explained which were amazing. I for one didn't get the Brick Frog pun the first time around, and being on the younger side of Generation X I knew drat little about Andy Warhol's entourage when the Doom Factory came to town even if I was familiar with the Superfriends.
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Jun 23, 2020 15:48
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I think even without knowing the character references to classic cartoons or comics, the characters in VB are interesting enough to stand on their own without the reliance on that awareness.
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Jun 23, 2020 15:54
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The obscure jokes are more bonuses than anything, and modern shows are full of those. Just look at Gravity Falls and DuckTales. Also, Henry Darger is mentioned.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:05
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The GCI being made up of musicians was so good. Eon and the Warm Jets is such a chefs kiss.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:09
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I wanna know what happened to ritchie valens.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:10
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To be clear, the jokes are written for Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer exclusively. They've said as much. They have no interest what so ever if NO ONE else gets the reference. So, to say it was geared toward a specific generation of people isn't really on correct and implies a marketing target that the show isn't really trying to hit. They are writing a thing to amuse themselves and if it happens to make the audience laugh, that's just bonus. So, as long as they want to keep making it and Adult Swim thinks it makes enough money, there's not much reason for them to stop.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:16
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I mean it's not really like Family Guy where if you don't know who the celebrity or whatever they're talking about is the joke is meaningless to you. Everything in Venture Bros is more contextual and actually relevant to the character or the story. Some jokes like "submit to my pleasure toast" are probably even funnier if you don't know what Hellraiser is than if you do.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:34
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What I like about the references in VB is not getting them and then stumbling on the thing that is being referenced. Even better is when a Venture Bros joke helps me to finally make sense of something else entirely. Like, the coke stuff in The Orb finally made me realize what "Coke in stock" (from the eponymous Tintin album) meant. Probably a good 15 years later.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:55
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That for sure, but also seeking out the references that I know I don't know. I have a much firmer grasp on Duran Duran now than I would have if I wasn't curious about the music video Pete and Billy were really into. Though I'm not entirely sure knowing more about Duran Duran is a good thing.
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Jun 23, 2020 16:59
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bull3964 posted:So, as long as they want to keep making it and Adult Swim thinks it makes enough money, there's not much reason for them to stop. And given that Doc Hammer was talking about how he was working on the show while hospitalized immediately after major spinal surgery, I think they're still pretty into it.
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Jun 23, 2020 17:04
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New Yorp New Yorp posted:And given that Doc Hammer was talking about how he was working on the show while hospitalized immediately after major spinal surgery, I think they're still pretty into it. Why do I get the feeling a good chunk of 'working on the show' is 'having conversations about random poo poo and writing it down for later'.
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Jun 23, 2020 17:24
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Why do I get the feeling a good chunk of 'working on the show' is 'having conversations about random poo poo and writing it down for later'. that's exactly what it is. how many yaz albums do you have on this thing? 
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Jun 23, 2020 17:33
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Bell_ posted:Don't forget, there's some jokes even most of us needed to look up or have explained which were amazing. brick frog isn't even a pun, in the art book it is confirmed that brick frog is just a random thing from one of the creators childhood
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Jun 23, 2020 18:28
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My only skills are brick throwing and frog being!
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Jun 23, 2020 18:30
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Ghost Leviathan posted:Why do I get the feeling a good chunk of 'working on the show' is 'having conversations about random poo poo and writing it down for later'.
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Jun 23, 2020 18:54
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Daikloktos posted:They talk in the art book about spending three solid days riffing on the idea of Colonel Gentleman entering the high-stakes backroom politics of dog pageantry The entire point of Venture Brothers was to have Colonel Gentleman say "AT-AT Imperial Walker". I crack up every time.
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Jun 23, 2020 19:50
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feedmyleg posted:That for sure, but also seeking out the references that I know I don't know. I have a much firmer grasp on Duran Duran now than I would have if I wasn't curious about the music video
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Jun 23, 2020 19:50
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I'm definitely glad I know about Roger Dean now because of this show.
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Jun 23, 2020 19:57
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Sankara posted:The entire point of Venture Brothers was to have Colonel Gentleman say "AT-AT Imperial Walker". I crack up every time. I did enjoy Action Man and Hank trying to explain the shared purgatory experience as either Barbarella or Star Wars.
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Jun 23, 2020 20:12
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I am Reverend posted:I mean it's not really like Family Guy where if you don't know who the celebrity or whatever they're talking about is the joke is meaningless to you.... One of my favorite cutaway gags on Family Guy is an old one... I think some Englishmen had taken over the main characters' bar, and Lois said something like, "He's charming, like all British men," cueing Peter to quip, "Yeah, that's what they said about Benjamin Disraeli." Smash cut to a 19th century guy sitting at a desk. The joke is that few Americans know who Benjamin Disraeli is, much less anything about his personality. But, we are conditioned to laugh at the cutaway even if we don't get the joke, so I started to laugh. Right then, 19th century British guy looks up and cooly says, correctly I might add, "You don't even know who I am!" And I stopped laughing for a few seconds, before I started again. Busted.
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Jun 23, 2020 20:25
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tarlibone posted:One of my favorite cutaway gags on Family Guy is an old one... I think some Englishmen had taken over the main characters' bar, and Lois said something like, "He's charming, like all British men," cueing Peter to quip, "Yeah, that's what they said about Benjamin Disraeli." Smash cut to a 19th century guy sitting at a desk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0lSI3jLxX8
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Jun 23, 2020 20:27
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Sankara posted:The entire point of Venture Brothers was to have Colonel Gentleman say "AT-AT Imperial Walker". I crack up every time. I watched Lego Masters with my kid and they had a Star Wars episode. They all called it the AT-AT Walker like Gentlemen but then said AyTee-EssTee for the other and I couldn’t decide if it was funny or irritating.
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Jun 23, 2020 21:02
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TK-42-1 posted:I watched Lego Masters with my kid and they had a Star Wars episode. They all called it the AT-AT Walker like Gentlemen but then said AyTee-EssTee for the other and I couldn’t decide if it was funny or irritating. What are you supposed to call it? at-sat?
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Jun 23, 2020 21:04
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Sankara posted:The entire point of Venture Brothers was to have Colonel Gentleman say "AT-AT Imperial Walker". I crack up every time. This is a timely discussion because since lockdown started and we all became that bit more weird and insular I've been rewatching the show and have found myself quoting Col Gentlemen whilst doing chores around the house; he's such a fun character to do impressions of. Current favourites are "Shcooby Doo Monster Game", "Blashted mallowmars! My tits are back!", "That's for calling Ook Ook a monkey!" and the entirety of his "Rodney killed a baby once" conversation. I should really watch the extended version of him riffing on his favourite toys and pick up a few new phrases. 24 is another fun one to try and replicate too. Anyone else find themselves randomly doing VB voices irl?
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Jun 23, 2020 22:05
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Even though I hate them more than any other characters sometimes when my GF comes out of the shower I talk like Tim Tom. “Oi miss... seems like you could use some help... with your body... your naked body” etc. And whenever I am actively procrastinating sometimes I’ll put my arms out and go “I feel FREEEEEE” and start dancing to the S2E1 opener
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Jun 23, 2020 22:09
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I'm trapped in quarantine with a confessed arsonist!
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Jun 23, 2020 23:37
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luxury handset posted:brick frog isn't even a pun, in the art book it is confirmed that brick frog is just a random thing from one of the creators childhood To be more accurate it's not intentionally a pun, but it does end up being one anyways which makes it even better Also in other news /co/ did a tournament to determine the best Adult Swim original show, and not surprisingly Venture Brothers won it(the other shows that made the top 4 are in order; Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Moral Orel, and Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law)
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Jun 24, 2020 00:17
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uber_stoat posted:that's exactly what it is. how many yaz albums do you have on this thing? Yaz only released two studio albums though!
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Jun 24, 2020 01:03
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Yes, but how many best of albums? was the joke I was going to make, but then I looked it up and there actually are multiple best of albums.
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Jun 24, 2020 01:09
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I bet Doc is totally the kind of music dork who would look down on you for having a "best of" record on your phone.
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Jun 24, 2020 01:12
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uber_stoat posted:I bet Doc is totally the kind of music dork who would look down on you for having a "best of" record on your phone. Didn't they have a joke about the police album synchronicity or am I missing shows in my head
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Jun 24, 2020 01:17
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