Toon Zone Talkback - "Duckman" Seasons 1 and 2: I'm Starin' at a Funny Series!

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Deven

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This is the talkback thread for "Duckman" Seasons 1 and 2: I'm Starin' at a Funny Series!.
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So yeah, in case the review didn't make it clear, I'm a fan of this show.
 
I also would highly recommend checking this series out. Sure the premise seems like a turn-off and a lot of the humor is strongly lowbrow, however the writing and the vocalizations (primarily Jason Alexander's) really help make this series standout.

I couldn't agree more on the fast pace of the writing, since it really does fly, especially with Duckman's very fast speech. I would also like to comment on the animation, which is surprisingly fluid in this series. The characters rarely seem static and Duckman in particular seems to have constantly changing facial expressions and movements, especially in the earlier seasons. I do recall the animation being a bit more dodgy in the third and fourth seasons, however.

Too bad about the edits, although I'm glad it's for music rights rather than it's racy content.
 
I third the opinion of this show being great. The review pretty much nailed it, but I have to reiterate how great this show is. It has everything you could possibly want in a comedy show (animated or not, but I love the animation style) and Jason Alexander's performance almost tops his George Costanza. Hell, the whole cast is great.
 
Luckily, from what I can gather, all the Frank Zappa background music is still intact. In fact, not being up on Zappa, I listened to some of the tunes used in the first season and was laughing because I recognized them. For instance, "Friendly Little Feedback" plays during the beginning of Duckman's hallucination sequence in "Not So Easy Riders", and in the same episode, we hear "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance" when Duckman and Cornfed are at the hippie commune.
 
Forgive me for bumping an old thread, but I've been watching my copy of Duckman, volume 1, and I had almost almost forgotten how laugh out loud funny that show was! Ironically, I wasn't impressed when I 1st saw the promos for Duckman before it premiered; like Rocko's Modern Life, Duckman initially struck me as being another run-of-the-mill anthropomorphic animal toon. I especially thought that I would dislike Duckman when I found out that the title character was a single father (I dislike TV families headed by single fathers because I like marriage humor and MILFs, and with single dads, you don't get either), but when I watched the Duckman episodes after the pilot (which was somewhat slow), I couldn't stop watching the series. To update that story, Duckman has since become one of my favorite cartoons of the modern era.
 
No it's quite all right. :D

So what does everyone think is the strongest episode in these first two seasons? I'd choose "Days of Whining and Neurosis", which has some good satires on psychology and celebrities who use rehab clinic visits to boost their careers. The exact replica of the crime scene that Cornfed produces (which is basically an endless mirror) gets me every time.

"The Gripes of Wrath" is another favorite, just for how surreal it is. The contrast between utopia and dystopia is visually striking. I love the moment when Duckman and Berniece act like the bitter married couple from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?", and Duckman thinking he's been in prison for years even though it's only been a day and a half is a good laugh. (pulls off fake beard) "WHO put this on him?!"
 
Strongest/favorite episode of the set? Hmm, it's hard to pick just one, since there are so many gems on this volume.

But to take a stab at it, I recently watched "Gland of Opportunity" with my family, and we all laughed our heads off. I love the way Duckman instantly switched from slack-off to A-list detective, while still retaining his usual braggadocio. Cornfed's hitting on the lady at the morgue to get in was hilarious (after his poetic pouring-on, he wins her over by saying, "What if I told you had a great rack?", then whips off his fedora to reveal an Afro and further impresses her by juggling chainsaws, priceless).

"Not-So Easy Riders" is another favorite of mine. It wins right at the first scene of Duckman (literally) chasing the almighty dollar, then goes into references to hippie culture, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces and Indecent Proposal, all in the span of 23 minutes. Add to that a hilarious vocal cameo by Bobcat Golthwait as a sarcastic Native American. To name just one good exchange in this episode:

Duckman: Did I ever tell you what my dad's last words to me were?

Cornfed: Yeah. "Careful, son. I don't think the safety's on."

Duckman was simply one of the best written shows of our time, IMO.
 
Of the first couple seasons, "Papa Oom M.O.W. M.O.W." is pretty strong; its commentary on the media ("We'll be staying with the story, not because it's important, but because our coverage makes it important.") is, sadly, still relevant.

Along with it, here are some other favorites:

Gripes of Wrath (if only for the "pretentious role-playing from a movie no one remembers")
In the Nam of the Father (Duckman's flashbacks are high-larious)
 
"You have no right to judge me. You have a right to kill me, but you don't have a right to judge me. No wait, reverse that, judge me, don't kill me. Yeah, that seems better. For no man is an island, the sum of roughly the same size as one, I coulda been somebody, I coulda been a contender. Senator Corleone, Governor Corleone! Props, we need more butter. General Zod, Krypton will be destroyed!"

Yeah, that's another favorite of mine. :D
 
It's weird, because I loved the show when it came out, but I seem to love it a lot more now than I did before.

I'm trying to choose a favorite, but it's really hard. I can't really think of a weak episode in the set. But I'd have to choose the moment in my sig as one of the funniest.
 
I rewatched the pilot on demand the other day. I was laughing at the references to Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Yogi Bear, and The Simpsons and laughing hard. I'm getting this set soon, but I wish that at least Adult Swim would rerun the show.
 
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