Where do these TV shows come from?
Follows the adventures of the Cuylers, an impoverished and dysfunctional family of anthropomorphic, air-breathing, redneck squids who live in a rural Appalachian community in the US state of Georgia.
Petréa Mitchell • July 23, 2010 5:13 PM
Well, it’s not like that’s the weirdest-sounding thing Adult Swim has ever aired.
I have a feeling the pitch for this show consisted mainly of repeating the phrase “redneck squids” a lot…
aikimark • July 23, 2010 6:23 PM
Sometimes it can be very funny. I thought the “God’s Bro” episode was hilarious.
As to its origins, I think the Early Cuyler character was developed by Stuart Daniel Baker (aka Unknown Hison) a comedic country musician. The show’s creators put the character into squid form and fleshed out the supporting cast of characters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_Hinson
Cartoon network’s adult swim block has devolved from cartoons for grownups to cartoons for drunk grownups to cartoons for high grownups to cartoons for high college kids.
Jack • July 23, 2010 7:22 PM
Awesome show. Loads of fun.
aikimark • July 23, 2010 7:44 PM
Here are links to the God’s Bro segments (in order). I wish I could have posted a single link to the entire episode.
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/the-collosal-subeteranian-particle-accelerator.html
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/yall-like-usin-science.html
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/makin-a-public-comment.html
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/righteous-protest.html
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/gods-stepbrother.html
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/alternate-universe.html
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/nothing-to-do-here.html
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/the-filmed-works-of-kirk-cameron.html
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/a-just-and-righteous-god.html
No One Really • July 23, 2010 9:00 PM
I can’t say I care for squidbillies much, I just don’t find that kind of stupidity funny. If you want southern-fried humor, King of the Hill is a better bet. I’d much rather watch sci-fi cop shows like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex or fantasy like Bleach.
Their other weird show is Aqua Teen Hunger Force which I find very disturbing. After watching A Scanner Darkly I can’t get the impression out of my head that everyone is completely insane on drugs an an unpleasant and sad way.
Clive Robinson • July 23, 2010 11:09 PM
@ Bruce,
Off Topic.
I do not know if you have been following the recent events in “reasonable Disclosure”?
Where apparently a break down in communications between a researcher and Microsoft, gave rise to the researcher going public.
Only for the researcher to be almost immediatly “Outed” as working for Google?
Well this has caused a bit of a furor and Google amongst others has “raised the bar” to just over three thousand dollars “bug bounty” for critical bugs in Chrome, and a 60day grace period between notifing the vendor and full disclosure / public release by the researcher proposal.
Microsoft have since brought out a mish mash of ideas that have been around for a while, the only bit that is new is they “want to change the name” and drop “responsible”…
MS also want (as in the past) an unlimited grace period claiming that their code base is far more complex than just a browser…
It appears to be an even bet between something actually constructive happening from the likes of Google etc and Microsoft turning it into a mud slinging match with the usual FUD counter attacks.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9179546/Drop_responsible_from_bug_disclosures_Microsoft_urges
circuit_breaker • July 24, 2010 6:01 AM
Bruce, Adult Swim is great. If you enjoy anything like absurdism or satire in cartoon form it is what you should watch.
I’m turning 30 in 2 weeks, and am an avid fan of a lot of their shows. SeaLab 2021 is also great.
Avoid Tim And Eric’s Awesome Show (Great Job) if you value your time. And I think you do.
Adult Swim is also really different in how they interact and address with their viewers. Their bumpers between shows and commercials are always worth paying attention to.
Morten • July 24, 2010 7:13 AM
Tipperary, Ireland. They’ve found an old trove of ideas for greek tragedies there, hidden since Roman times. Some of the ideas have gone off and they have to use them now, having used up all the not-off ideas. I saw it on Wikipedia, it MUST be true!
Petréa Mitchell • July 24, 2010 9:50 AM
“[…] has devolved from cartoons for grownups to cartoons for drunk grownups to cartoons for high grownups to cartoons for high college kids.”
Hey, now! If it weren’t for Adult Swim, I’d never have gotten to see Moribito, or a few other anime that can’t get played anywhere else because the other channels seem to be looking exclusively for anime that’s either aimed at selling toys to 5-year-olds or fits the psychedelic stereotype many people have of the form.
The Archon • July 24, 2010 11:03 AM
Ah, Adult Swim. Back when I got it (thank you C-Band!) it was great, though over time I became less and less impressed with their new programming. The new programs were all random-for-randomness-sake bleh and old-standard ATHF stopped being funny. When I started watching it I’d easily kill two hours a night on its programming. (So, 12 hours a week, since it didn’t air one night.) Around the time I lost access to it, the only original programming I was watching on it were the Venture Bros. (still a great show), Frisky Dingo (shame that’s gone), and some of the old reruns. So 1-2 hours a week.
Anime-wise, I enjoyed Ghost in the Shell and Eureka Seven (end was a bit cheap, but the epilogue made me cry).
grendelnavy • July 24, 2010 9:51 PM
“Don’t touch the trim…”
david t-g • July 24, 2010 10:08 PM
More squid blogging: watch for the squid gun in Despicable Me 🙂
HANW
😀
Lockheed_Tvr • July 24, 2010 10:09 PM
Hehe, “don’t touch the trim…” I laugh every time I hear that and a I actually laughed out loud just reading it!
Great show!
where do they come from? THE BONG OF CREATIVITY.
herve leger • July 26, 2010 1:36 AM
The new programs were all random-for-randomness-sake bleh and old-standard ATHF stopped being funny. When I started watching it I’d easily kill two hours a night on its programming
herveleger • July 26, 2010 1:39 AM
Their other weird show is Aqua Teen Hunger Force which I find very disturbing. After watching A Scanner Darkly I can’t get the impression out of my head that everyone is completely insane on drugs an an unpleasant and sad way.
herveleger • July 26, 2010 1:40 AM
Microsoft have since brought out a mish mash of ideas that have been around for a while, the only bit that is new is they “want to change the name” and drop “responsible”…
Bruce Schneier • July 26, 2010 3:09 AM
“More squid blogging: watch for the squid gun in Despicable Me”
It’s already scheduled for a future post.
utopia27 • July 28, 2010 5:08 PM
Adult Swim is truly an incubator. Lots of random stuff comes out. Most of it is bad. Blessedly, the bad stuff mostly gets killed off pretty quickly.
Most of the anime I own I was first exposed to by Adult Swim (Cowboy Beebop, Trigun, Paranoia Agent, Noir, Lain). I haven’t developed a good a priori filter for this sort of anime, but I’m working on it.
Boondocks is a huge Adult Swim contribution to world culture. Their licensing agreement seems different from the rest of their licenses – but whatever it takes for stuff this good.
ATHF, Squidbillies, Metalocolypse, Venture Brothers are acquired tastes of the absurdist variety. Robot Chicken takes a lot more getting used to. And it’s not consistently worth the effort.
Bottom line – it’s Seth Green’s fault. And if I ever run into him in person, I’m going to buy him a drink for his trouble.
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Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis.
bkd69 • July 23, 2010 5:10 PM
That’s a terribly underwhelming description. Joe Bob says check it out:
http://video.adultswim.com/squidbillies/index.html