Aqua Teen Hunger Force (season 5)

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Season 5
Volume Six DVD cover, which features episodes 2-10 from season five
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	10 (1 unaired)
Broadcast
Original channel	Adult Swim
Original run	January 20, 2008 – March 23, 2008
Home video release
DVD release
Region 1	Volume Six: December 16, 2008
Region 4	February 8, 2010
Season chronology
← Previous Season 4 Next → Season 6
List of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 episodes

The fifth season of the animated television series, Aqua Teen Hunger Force originally aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. Season five started on January 20, 2008 with "Robots Everywhere", and ended with "Bible Fruit" on March 23, 2008. Although ten episodes were produced for season five, only nine episodes aired. An episode entitled "Boston" was scheduled to air as part of season five, but Adult Swim pulled it to avoid further controversy surrounding the 2007 Boston bomb scare.

Production

All episodes in season five were written and directed by series creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis. All episodes in this season, except "Boston", originally aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim, and are rated TV-MA, with the exception of "Robots Everywhere", which was rated TV-14.

Season five is the first season of Aqua Teen Hunger Force to be produced in 16:9 High Definition. Aqua Teen Hunger Force was one of the first Adult Swim shows to switch to high definition, along with Metalocalypse, The Venture Bros., and Squidbillies.

Season five features guest appearances from various people and comedians. Paul F. Tompkins had an unknown role in "Boston". Diviya Roney voiced an unnamed woman, and Fred Armisen, Rachel Dratch, Vishal Roney, Diviya Roney, Sam Harrigan, Molly Harrigan, Sadie Willis, Max Willis in voiced various robots in "Robots Everywhere". In "Sirens" Neko Case voiced Chrysanthemum, Kelly Hogan voiced The B.J. Queen, John Kruk voiced himself. Scott Adsit provided the voice of Hoppy Bunny in "Hoppy Bunny". Vincent Pastore voiced Terry in "Laser Lenses", uncredited. T-Pain and Josh Homme voiced the Dummies in "Dummy Love". Alexander Katz and Scott Luallen both appeared in "The Marines". In "Bible Fruit" David Cross (credited as "Sir Willups Brightslymoore") voiced Bert Banana, H. Jon Benjamin (credited as Jon "the Hammer" Benjamin") voiced Mortimer Mango, and Kristen Schaal (credited as "Frannie Hood") voiced Tammy Tangerine.

Overview

A recurring story element in the first three episodes of season five is the gas leak in the Aqua Teens' house, which their landlord, Markula, refuses to fix. Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad are absent in "Robots Everywhere" and "Sirens", marking the first time the Aqua Teens did not appear in an episode. The Aqua Teens finally return in "Couples Skate", and have appeared in every episode ever since.

This is also the first season where Ignignokt and Err were added to the background frame, featuring Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad on the moon, in the closing credits. This also marks the first season Ignignokt and Err are not featured in any episode, outside of the credits.

"Boston"

An episode entitled "Boston" was produced and originally intended to air as the first episode of season five. It was pulled by Turner legal to avoid further controversy surrounding the 2007 Boston bomb scare. In a 2008 interview Dave Willis confirmed that the episode is a response to the 2007 Bomb Scare.^[1] In the interview Willis also revealed that three different versions of the episode do exist; when asked if the episode will ever air, or become available to the public, Willis in-directly said no. Besides it relating to the bomb scare, very little is known about the storyline or plot of "Boston", although in 2011 Willis hinted on Twitter that it also relates to the band Boston, but didn't confirm.^[2] Very little is known about this episode's production history, other than comedian Paul F. Tompkins made a guest appearance in it.^[3] In addition "Boston" was confirmed to be Matt Maiellaro's favorite episode.^[4] The only mention of "Boston", aside from it being mentioned by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, is an episode page on the official website, but the episode simply features a question mark, in place of an actual description of the episode .^[5] As of 2011 "Boston" has never been aired or released to the public in any format. This marks the first time an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force has been pulled, no other episodes have been pulled since.

Soul Quest Overdrive

Season five also features "Bible Fruit", an episode which in 2010, it was announced that an animated spin-off pilot featuring new versions of the characters from this episode, entitled Soul Quest Overdrive, was in production. In 2010, the pilot episode of Soul Quest Overdrive was made available on the "Big Uber, Network Sampling" page on the Adult Swim website. In a 2010 interview with staff members of Radical Axis, it was revealed that six episodes of Soul Quest Overdrive have been ordered.^[6]This would be the third Aqua Teen Hunger Force spin-off behind Spacecataz and Carl.

Episodes

See also: List of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 episodes

#	Total	Title	Original airdate	Prod. Code
1	69	"Boston"	Unaired	500
Note: This episode was pulled to avoid further controversy surrounding the 2007 Boston bomb scare. Guest appearance: Paul F. Tompkins
2	70	"Robots Everywhere" (Part 1)	January 20, 2008 (2008-01-20)	501
When the Aqua Teens are abducted by demons and cocooned by military spiders in the Mojave Desert orchestrated by their landlord Markula, Carl tries to sell their house to robots. The robots turn out to be terrible neighbors for Carl, especially when they try to kill him. Guest appearances: Fred Armisen, Rachel Dratch, Vishal Roney, Diviya Roney, Sam Harrigan, Molly Harrigan, Sadie Willis, and Max Willis. Note: This episode was originally released as an extra feature of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am video game.
3	71	"Sirens" (Part 2)	January 27, 2008 (2008-01-27)	502
A trio of Sirens (Chrysanthemum, The BJ Queen, and John Kruk) move into the Aqua Teens' house and catch Carl's interest. Guest appearances: Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, and former professional baseball star John Kruk.
4	72	"Couples Skate" (Part 3)	February 3, 2008 (2008-02-03)	503
The Aqua Teens must either escape the spider cocoons their landlord Markula has trapped them in, or pay the rent they owe him. Meanwhile Carl gets yet another new neighbor, a huge demon named Paul who is going through a difficult custody battle.
5	73	"Reedickyoulus"	February 10, 2008 (2008-02-10)	504
Carl's new male enhancement device produces some unsavory side effects, including radioactive human waste. Ground contamination leads the whole of Meatwad's deceased pets to come back for some sexually transmitted zombification laced revenge. Notes: The first episode to be rated TV-MA V.\
6	74	"Hoppy Bunny"	February 17, 2008 (2008-02-17)	505
Carl buys a recorder that has an ulterior motive. Seemingly unrelated, Carl's home becomes a haven for furries. We learn that Frylock's gem holds the power of 1,000 suns which Master Shake pawns. Special Guest appearances: Scott Adsit as Hoppy Bunny and Scott Fry as the Pawn Store Clerk
7	75	"Laser Lenses"	March 2, 2008 (2008-03-02)	506
Master Shake's megalomania soars to new heights once he steals Frylock's laser-shooting contact lenses. The Aqua Teens end up getting illegal medical treatment from Carl's cousin Terry. Guest appearance: Vincent Pastore as Terry (uncredited)
8	76	"Dummy Love"	March 9, 2008 (2008-03-09)	507
A murderous ventriloquist dummy makes a discovery and finds love. Master Shake finds a way to profit. Guest appearances: T-Pain and Joshua Homme.
9	77	"The Marines"	March 16, 2008 (2008-03-16)	508
Frylock flees to Canada when Meatwad unwittingly enlists the Aqua Teens into the US Marine Corps. While Frylock deals with a masochistic puppet, Master Shake and Meatwad go AWOL and pretend to be gay to escape the service. The episode ends with product placement advertisements for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume Five DVD. Guest appearances: Alexander Katz, Scott Luallen.
10	78	"Bible Fruit"[7]	March 23, 2008 (2008-03-23)	509
Frylock decides to invite his MySpace friends over for the evening. To Frylock's surprise, they too are anthropomorphic food; a meth-addicted mango, an abused tangerine, and an alcoholic banana. Though they are all Born-Again Christians, exposure to the Aqua Teens brings back their old habits. Guest appearances: David Cross (credited as "Sir Willups Brightslymoore"), H. Jon Benjamin (credited as Jon "the Hammer" Benjamin"), and Kristen Schaal (credited as "Frannie Hood") Note: This episode makes a joke about Futurama being removed from Adult Swim, as Comedy Central had bought the rights to the show.

Cultural references

Willis hinted on Twitter that "Boston" makes reference to the band Boston,^[2] and confirmed it satires the 2007 Boston bomb scare.^[1] "Robots Everywhere" references Rambo film series when Carl dress up like John Rambo and shoots the robots.^[8] In "Dummy Love" Meatwad wishes on a star for his two dummies to become real boys is similar to what Mister Geppetto did, in the 1940 film, Pinocchio. The storyline from "Dummy Love" is a parody of Night of the Living Dummy, from the Goosebumps series; as in both the books and this episode, a murderous dummy comes to life and no matter what anybody tries to get rid of it, the dummy always comes back to life. "Dummy Love" also references the Twilight Zone episodes "The Dummy" and "Caesar and Me".^[9] In the "The Marines" Frylock is held captive in Canada by a man who resembles Billy from the Saw film series, who wears a ski mask similar to Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th series.^[10] "The Marines" also self-references Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am, and the Volume Five DVD for the series. In addition "The Marines" satires the former law of gays being banned from serving in the military. Adult Swim losing the rerun rights to Futurama, as Comedy Central had bought the rights to the show is referenced in "Bible Fruit".^[1]

Reception

Jonah Krakow of IGN gave "Robots Everywhere" a 5.5 out 10, which considered "Mediocre", saying "We could get deeply psychoanalytical and say that Carl's confusion and annoyance with the robots is a metaphor for the audience's suffering and the robots are the staff of ATHF doing the torturing".^[11] Krakow gave the following episode, "Sirens" an 8, which is considered "Great", saying "Thankfully, this episode was much stronger than last week as Carl and his sexual desires were the focus of the comedy instead of annoying robots".^[12] Krakow gave "Couples Skate" an 8.3 and praised the return of Master Shake, Frylock, and Meatwad, calling it a "solid episode".^[13] Krakow gave "Reedickyoulus" gave this episode an 8.5, and gave this episode a good review, but said Master Shake killing kittens in a microwave was "going too far".^[14] "Hoppy Bunny" was gave given a 8 by Krakow, who praised this episode for originality saying "Not too many shows out there would touch Furries".^[15] Krakow gave "Laser Lenses" a 7, who noted that the episode didn't give any new information or insight about any of the characters saying "They simply ran around, pissed each other off and got themselves into disgusting circumstances. Sometimes, that's good enough".^[16] Krakow gave "Dummy Love" a 7.0, and said the episode had funny moments but wasn't as funny as it could be, and that the episode has a lot of potential, which it didn't live up to saying.^[17] "The Marines" revived Krakow's lowest score of the season with a 5.5. Krakow said the only funny parts of "The Marines" were Saw parody and the CGI gum commercial funny, saying "Unfortunately, the majority of this episode just didn't work at all. The jokes were old or non-existent, the plot made no sense and Carl wasn't there as an additional source of comedy".^[18] Krakow gave "Bible Fruit" the greatest score of the season, 9.5, which is considered "amazing; and gave the episode a good review saying it was a great way to end the season.^[19]

DVD release

With the exception of "Boston", all episodes from season five were released on the Volume Six DVD, along with the first four then-unaired episodes from season six on December 16, 2008. Additionally, the episodes are also available on iTunes and the "Build Your own DVD" feature on the Adult Swim website.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume Six
Set details [20]			Special features
13 episodes 2-disc set 16:9 aspect ratio Languages: English			Audio commentary: "Reedickyoulus" "Hoppy Bunny" "The Marines" All episodes from Carl from 2007 and 2008 Terror Phone - short film starring Dana Snyder and Carey Means All cut scenes from Zombie Ninja Pro-Am Radical Axis Presents Radical Axis - featurette profiling show animators, Radical Axis More Funny Pete Stuff
Release dates
Region 1
December 16, 2008

See also

• List of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 episodes
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force
• 2007 Boston bomb scare

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Exclusive Interview With Meatwad, Er, Dave Willis, Of 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force'". Star Pulse. http://www.starpulse.com/news/Dee_Doyle/2008/12/15/starpulse_com_exclusive_interview_with_d. Retrieved 16 April 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Message posted by Dave Willis on Twitter # 1 March 7, 2011.
3. ^ Message posted by Dave Willis on Twitter # 2
4. ^ "Episodes Picked by the Creators". Adult Swim. http://www.adultswim.com/americaloveslists/at_creatorpicks/. Retrieved 16 April 2011. 
5. ^ "Boston episode guide". Adult Swim. http://wiki.adultswim.com/xwiki/bin/Aqua+Teen+Hunger+Force/ep+69. Retrieved 16 April 2011. 
6. ^ Daniels, Hunter. "Radical Axis Interview Comic-Con; CEO Scott Fry, VP of Production Craig Hartin and Animation Director Todd Redner". Collider.com. http://collider.com/radical-axis-interview-comic-con-ceo-scott-fry-vp-production-craig-hartin-animation-director-todd-redner/41207/. Retrieved 16 April 2011. 
7. ^ "Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Bible Fruit". Adult Swim. http://video.adultswim.com/aqua-teen-hunger-force/bible-fruit.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
8. ^ "Robots Everywhere" Trivia and Quotes at TV.com
9. ^ "Dummy Love" Trivia and Quotes at TV.com
10. ^ "The Marines" Trivia and Quotes at TV.com
11. ^ Krakow, Jonha (17 January 2008). "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Robots Are Everywhere Advance Review Robots are everywhere, but the Aqua Teens are nowhere to be seen.". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/846/846145p1.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
12. ^ Krakow, Jonha (28 January 2008). "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "Sirens" Review Carl gets some strange new neighbors.". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/847/847971p1.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
13. ^ Krakow, Jonha (5 February 2008). "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "Couples Skate" Review The Aqua Teens return to their own show.". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/849/849605p1.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
14. ^ Krakow, Jonha (11 February 2008). "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "Reedickyoulus" Review As appropriate titles go, this one is spot-on.". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/849/849245p1.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
15. ^ Krakow, Jonha (19 February 2008). "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "Hoppy Bunny" Review Furries have come to town. Ewww.". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/objects/848/848225.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
16. ^ Krakow, Johna (3 March 2008). "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "Laser Lenses" Review Shake steals Frylock's laser contact lenses. What could possibly go wrong?". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/856/856256p1.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
17. ^ Krakow, Johna (10 March 2008). "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "Dummy Love" Review Some crazy-eyed, knife-wielding dummies are just misunderstood.". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/858/858031p1.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
18. ^ Krakow, Jonha (17 March 2008). "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "The Marines" Review Tonight's episode: FUBAR.". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/859/859970p1.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
19. ^ Krakow, Jonha (24 March 2008). "Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "Bible Fruit" Review The Aqua Teens get religion.". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/861/861410p1.html. Retrieved 1 August 2011. 
20. ^ "Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Volume 6". TV Shows On DVD.com. http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/releases/Aqua-Hunger-Force-Volume-Release/8245. Retrieved 16 April 2011. 

External links

• Aqua Teen Hunger Force season 5 at the Internet Movie Database
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force season 5 at TV.com

Preceded by Season 4

Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Aqua Unit Patrol Squad 1 seasons

Succeeded by Season 6