The List: #17 The Venture Bros.

#17
Number of Seasons (To Date): 3
Years Active: 2004 - Present
Network: Cartoon Network (Adult Swim)

Did you ever watch Johnny Quest growing up? Did you read comic book? Scooby-Doo? These are just a few of the many things parodied in The Venture Bros. Make no mistake, this isn't a straight parody series, in the vein of those fucking awful "Movie" movies (Scary Movie, Superhero Movie). Instead, the series uses the boy adventurer motif of Quest to present a show about the worst team of boy adventurers ever. Hank and Dean Venture travel the world with their washed up father and half-crazed bodyguard looking for... new ways to get funding. Dr. Thaddeus Venture, their father, is the son of a great super-scientist, but has failed at every turn in order to follow in his dad's footsteps. To keep a steady flow of income, Venture resorts to shady dealings. Hank and Dean, meanwhile, believe that everything they do is "neat-o" and "supercool". Many of the characters in the series are anachronistic caricatures of stereotypes from different decades. Hank and Dean are reminiscent of 50's straight-edge boys, while Brock Samson, the nearly invincible bodyguard, is full of 70's cliches.

While the Venture family is a laugh riot, my favorite character is The Monarch, a kooky guy who dresses up in a butterfly costume and believes himself to be Venture's arch-nemesis. The butterfly motif has to do with him being "raised" by monarch butterflies after his parents died, while his hatred of Venture has no good reason. His over-the-top mannerisms are matched only by his and his henchmen's ineptitude. He is part of an organization called The Guild of Calamitous Intent, which serves as a sort of supervillain bureaucracy. The Guild represents numerous other hilarious villains, such as Baron Underbheit (a Dr. Doom parody), The Phantom Limb (his limbs are invisible) and Sgt. Hatred.

The ever-growing cast includes numerous absolutely hilarious characters who are all connected by one thing: failure. Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer, the creators and writers, have created a show about the "beauty of failure". Even the successful people, like Phantom Limb, and people who are competent, like Brock, still fail in certain important aspects of their lives.

The plots wonderfully satirize Saturday morning cartoon shows and comic books (in addition to music and old movies), and is always a joy to watch.

Up next: #16...