The Brothers Grunt

"The Brothers Grunt" is an animated TV series first broadcast in August 1994 on MTV. The series was created by Danny Antonucci (of "Ed, Edd n Eddy" fame).

Overview

Premise

The series centered around an ensemble cast of pale, rubbery humanoids distantly related to human beings, all of them ostensibly male, wandering around in their underpants. Their main food staple is cheese; nevertheless they are able to eat other meals (at least potatoes: see episode #23 "Not My Potato"). Their single parent is a giant, mute aquatic individual, called "Primus Gruntus Maximus", to whom they are born as embryos inside skin warts, much in the way of the Surinam Toad (see "Pipa pipa"). They live in a monastery in an alternate universe. A group is formed, comprised of most of the survivors of their species, in a quest to bring back one of their kind, Perry, who has abandoned his involuntary position of "Chosen One" (leader of their order) and is now living the "high life" among human beings (who seem to deal with the bizarre nature of the "grunts" by ignoring them and pretending everything is normal, a la muggles).

Main characters

The main characters were named after famous vocalists of the 1960s: Frank, Tony, Dean, Bing, Sammy, and Perry all voiced by Doug Parker.

The characters that would become The Brothers Grunt were first seen in one of MTV's numerous 30-second promos. This particular promo consisted of close-up shots of the at-the-time-unnamed character's faces who seemed to be straining to do something (veins in their heads would bulge, the characters would squint and grunt) until the scene cut to the MTV logo landing in a pool of sludge followed by a satisfied "Ahhhhh" (suggesting that the characters were suffering from constipation and the MTV logo was the 'turd' as it were). It is unclear when this promo aired if the storyline and characters for "The Brothers Grunt" had been developed already or if it had been developed into its own show after the success of the promo in the wake of "Beavis and Butt-head".

The supposed climax of a trend toward genre-breaking, taboo-violating animated media

This series was perhaps the climax of the trend toward genre-breaking, taboo-violating animated media, following in the footsteps of (sequentially) "The Simpsons", "Ren & Stimpy", and "Beavis and Butt-head", and also including the later "South Park" and "Family Guy". Typically these are shows which appear on the surface to simply be toilet humor descendants of "The Benny Hill Show", but upon closer examination tend to have an agenda of exploring the arbitrary nature of taboos, social mores, stereotypes and the like. "The Brothers Grunt" did this to such an extent that it quickly alienated its own network and vanished from even rerun status, to be compiled on videotape by its cult following and exchanged in a sort of free bootleg system ignored even by its original makers.

Network run

The show began in 1993 when the MTV ad for "The Brothers Grunt" aired. At the time Danny Antonucci had animated several MTV ads in order to find work outside of International Rocketship Ltd., who he had worked for since 1984. Although Danny enjoyed the success of Lupo The Butcher, he wanted to leave International Rocketship Ltd. and start his own animation company. The result was a.k.a. Cartoon, which began in April 1 1994. The studio began as a way to locate his work for "The Brothers Grunt" after an MTV executive liked his MTV ad so much he asked him to turn it into a television series.

Controversy with "Beavis and Butt-head" fans

The show consisted of 7-minute segments which were packaged into 45-minute episodes. The show, however, became a breeding ground for angry "Beavis and Butt-head" fans, who did not realize that "Beavis and Butt-head" was on hiatus for a few months when "The Brothers Grunt" began; that re-runs of "Beavis and Butt-head" stopped airing made the situation even worse. MTV wanted to have more animated TV series after their success with "Liquid Television" and "Beavis and Butt-head". They seized the opportunity to hire Danny Antonucci, while Mike Judge, creator of "Beavis and Butt-head", had to put it on hiatus. MTV decided the shows would overlap each other, so when "The Brothers Grunt" was on hiatus they would air more "Beavis and Butt-head", and when "Beavis and Butt-head" was on hiatus they would air more "The Brothers Grunt". (Indeed, in episode #19 "Close Encounters of the Grunt Kind", Beavis and Butt-head make a cameo appearance aboard a flying saucer, where they have been rounded up with other bizarre creatures). MTV's plan of having the shows overlap each other was MTV's original strategy for both shows.

Cancellation

The show received low ratings and poor reviews. It did build a small fanbase before it went off the air in August 1995.

Episodes

# The Ceremony
# Make Mine a Grunt
# The New Fish
# Where Angles Fear to Grunt
# Viva Grunt Vegas
# Scrub Me Sammy
# The Detective
# If I Could Grunt To The Animals
# Paging Dr. Grunt
# Perry's Appliance Repairs
# Timmy's Best Friend
# No Quest Today
# Grunt Moments In History
# Perry Molo
# Tony and Salsa
# A Call To Grunts
# Clean Up In Aisle Grunt
# Land of the Midnight Grunt
# Close Encounters of the Grunt Kind
# The Scent of Grunts
# Eat My Grunt
# They Stole Tony's Veins
# Not My Potato
# Squeal Like A Grunt
# The Big Crapple
# Sammy In A Varicose Vein
# Grunt Fare
# To Hell With Bing

External links

*
* " [http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Other_Studios/A/a_k_a__Cartoon_Inc_/The_Brothers_Grunt/index.html The Brothers Grunt] " at the Big Cartoon DataBase