Psychotic Realism

Over the last decade, cartoons have appeared that are best described as psychotic. Sealab 2021, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, the Brak Show. By psychotic I mean, these cartoons do not do not develop a narrative in any form. They don't have a series narrative, a season narrative, or even an episode narrative. Things just kindof happen (I can't describe it much better than that) with no reason or connection to prior events. Oddly, the best comparison I can think of is magic realism. What these psychotic cartoons share with magic realism is a placement of otherworldly things in realistic settings. Aqua Teen Hunger Force is about a talking carton of french fries, a talking milkshake, and a talking wad of meat living in a suburban neighborhood. Harvey Birdman is about the visage of the old Birdman character working as an attorney. Of course, I won't put these cartoons under the genre of magic realism, because magic realism has a reason and meaning. That's what makes these shows psychotic, they have no reason and nothing that happens has meaning. Things just kindof happen.

The cartoon that started all this is called Space Ghost Coast to Coast and it aired in 1994.

Space Ghost C2C was a late night talk show hosted by the old Space Ghost character, his nemesis Zorak as the musical sidekick, and his nemesis Moltar as the producer. Again, otherworldly things placed in a mundane, realistic setting. Space Ghost C2C makes no sense. As a talk show, it's terrible. The guests are treated terribly, have jokes played on them, and have their responses taken out of context. Space Ghost is hated by both Zorak and Moltar. Space Ghost has a penchant for zapping Zorak. To this day I have no idea why anything that happened in a specific episode happened, but that doesn't matter because it's funny.

The latest of these cartoons is Archer. Archer delves into world made up of rival spy agencies that are absolutely terrible at espionage. The lead character Sterling Archer, codename "Duchess," is a mediocre spy, but exhibits some hilarious anti-social behavior including womanizing, manipulation, and a bizarre obsession with his mother. Archer, the character, acts like big time spy, but really he is the dregs of espionage world. In this way, Archer, the show, is a lot like The Venture Brothers, a cartoon that parodies Johnny Quest. Instead of the brilliant Dr. Quest, The Venture Brothers features the brilliant, but frail and pathetic Dr. Venture. The Venture Brothers and Archer are, if you want to go that far with it, about normal human failure in the fantastic worlds of mad science and espionage. Archer is also completely lost in time: the clothes are from the sixties, the computers are from the eighties, the spy tech is from the present/future. This creates a surprisingly interesting aesthetic. The strongest narrative in the show is the relationship between Lana and Cyril. After that, Archer doesn't really have a narrative. Things just kindof happen, and its's hilarious.