Venture Brothers

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by BrotherMan

Nobody see Now Museum, Now You Don't? Another pretty funny episode from this pretty funny season. (Nothing in my mind can approach season 1. Nothing.)

I've seen all of them, so I can't have missed it, but I don't know which one this is off the top of my head.

The Lepidopterists is probably my favorite so far this season, but that could be recency bias.

[BrotherMan]

It was the one just before The Lepidopterists.

A Summary

Determined to honor the father he never knew, Jonas, Jr. converts Spider Skull Island into a Team Venture Museum. Unfortunately, he invited all of his father's surviving friends and enemies to the grand opening. There's nothing like a party to stir up decades worth of sibling rivalries, bitter regrets and half-forgotten hatreds.

And I forgot to mention Tears of a Sea Cow.

Bored and under-whelmed with his new Guild-assigned arch-nemesis, The Monarch seeks to re-spark his old hatred by secretly visiting the Venture Compound while Dr. Venture is away at the Science Now conference. His passion for arching all things Venture may threaten to seriously cool things with his other love, Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, but does it really count as arching when there's nobody home? Or is there?

What you're not getting in the summaries are the reasons to watch the episodes. The Monarch humping a Venture protectobot. Kevin and Tim-Tom ogling Dr. Mrs. The Monarch (okay, you can get that any time they're on screen). More clues as to the parentage of that mysterious man-boy from earlier this season. The only thing missing as yet is more General Hatred or Dr. Killinger (though he's a spice best used sparingly.)

[Ensign Steve]

The Monarch humping a Venture protectobot.

Oh my god, yes. And giving it chlamydia. I totally forgot. I need to watch them sober one of these days. Thanks for the reminder.

[BrotherMan]

ORB!

Kano speaks! Crazy Billy! Jealous Alchemist! Useful Rusty! CHARGER KILLS!

This is an odd episode. Not because anything odd happens, per se, but that it's one of the few (if only?) kinda serious episodes. But it works, dammit! It works! Dr. Venture (Rusty) is from a long line of super scientists. Just as Brock is one in a long succession of bodyguards to the Venture doctors. A good episode (if not as riotously hilarious as others), plus a cliff hanger!

[Ensign Steve]

Oooh! I haven't seen it yet.

[Ensign Steve]

Okay, that was pretty damn awesome! I loved the DaVinci, Indiana Jones, Nick Cage style code decoding to find the orb. But who set it all up? Jonas Sr? Why, if he just wanted the orb to remain hidden anyway? So confused!

But, yeah. All those things you said were awesome. Also, Orpheus astralprojects! Fucking amazing.

[BrotherMan]

Orpheus also gets his corporeal self TPed.

I think the hiding of the ORB (let's not forget a smattering of Brisco County Jr.) was set up before, hence the bodyguard murderizing the senior Venture Sr.

[beyelzu]

I thought the bodyguard of the senior venture sr was like acting of his own volition and then passed down the rules and his story to others as like a reminder of the importance or some such shit.

[BrotherMan]

I'm sticking with my ORB conspiracy theory for the time being.

[Doctor X]

This is not some guild of calamitous intent.

--J. "SILENCE!" D.

[BrotherMan]

From conversations around the net:

I'd like to point out the members of the Victorian era guild:

Oscar Wilde
Professor Venture
His bodyguard (identified later as Eugene Sandow) (possibly Brock's ancestor)
Alistair Crowley (possibly Orpheous's ancestor)
Phantom Limb's ancestor
Mark Twain

This whole season was about legacies. The legacy of Dr Jonas Venture, the legacy of the Guild, etc. This is all going to come to a head next episode.

I would posit that the bodyguard (here) and Crowley are merely analogs, not direct ancestors.

"- The Victorian Guild, consisting as it does of the greatest minds and adventurers of the time, is reminiscent of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Guild-members Samuel Clemens and Oscar Wilde both created characters (Tom Sawyer and Dorian Grey respectively) who appeared in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen film. Several pieces of technology in the comics bear a logo indicating they were build by Nikola Tesla, and Fantômas has been referenced as belonging to a French organization known as Les Hommes Mystérieux.

- Tesla's appearance is likely yet another reference to David Bowie, whose fictional counterpart in the Venture Bros. series is the shapeshifting leader of the current Guild of Calamitous Intent. The real David Bowie played Tesla in the 2006 movie The Prestige."

So, add The League to our list of intended homage(s). I have to say, I giggled seeing the Victorian Guild onscreen. It was so fancy and proper! I've no doubt legions of devotees are all a twitter as well.

And in response to this:

I still think the most interesting part of it is that a cartoon from 70's contains the URL for Google Maps. I wonder if anyone's going to bring that up again.

Someone had the following to say:

A lot of people don't realize that the internet has been around for a long time. It's predecessor, the ARPANet was created 1969. It didn't grow into the internet until TCP/IP stuff started in 1983 and greatly expanded in 1988 when it was opened to commercial interests, but the foundation of the internet goes back to 1969.

However the most likely explanation for the show, time travel. Since they have traveled in time before (House of Mummies part 2) the premise is already there. My guess is at some point in time someone goes back in time and leaves the clues for Billy to find. And the person most likely to do that is Billy himself.

I found that quite intriguing and not unpossible.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by BrotherMan

And in response to this:

Someone had the following to say:

I found that quite intriguing and not unpossible.

I was thinking about that in the shower this morning (yeah, so? ), and while yes the internet has been around for ages, URL's didn't take parameters (such as "form_type=address" or "country=US" as we saw in the show) until relatively recently. I can't bother looking up the actual year, but I am certain it wasn't the seventies or even eighties. So, yeah, I'm going to have to go with Time Travel on this one, as well.



Edit: Really? House of Mummies was their time-travel example? What about 20 minutes to midnight? Duh.

[Ensign Steve]

Oh, also, why does Dr. Venture accuse Billy of watching too many cartoons? Wasn't Rusty's show a live-action show? Or was it a cartoon based upon Rusty's and Jonas' adventures?

The whole show-within-a-cartoon thing is super confusing, like Terrance and Phillip being real-life Canadian actors, but Eric Cartman saying that the "animation" on their show is all crappy. Too much!

[Doctor X]

Well . . . Rusty seemed to have discovered ethics . . . maybe it was playing himself as a boy that reminded him of the "Lofty Ideals."

--J.D.

[Ensign Steve]

BTW... half-Jackal?

[BrotherMan]

I was thinking about that in the shower this morning (yeah, so?

You were pretending you're Phantom Space Man, right?

Dean: What the- what's he doing with his-
Hank: Think about it, bro. What other weapon does he have? He needs his hands free for... stuff.
Dean: Uh oh, phantom spaceman somehow got on top! That's it Brock-o, shake him off!

[Ensign Steve]

Pretzel bender!

[BrotherMan]

The Family that Slays Together pt. 1

OMG. I thought the last episode was awesome. The first of this more than 1 parter is awesome wrapped in bacon.

Brock's car had a name
How to get the boys to buckle up, everytime!
What happened to certain special operations soldiers from various military disciplines?

All the questions you never thought to ask are answered!

[Ensign Steve]

[Ensign Steve]

Okay, that was fucking rad!

I like Brock with a shaved head. It's way hotter than I would have expected. Helper as landing gear was so tragic and hilarious.

I'm bummed there was no stinger after the credits, though.

Who the hell is Damian Hearst?

[BrotherMan]

As I soon found out, it helps if you spell the name rightly. Damian Hirst

[Ensign Steve]

Thank you!

Edit: Oh! I've seen that bedazzled skull on geekologie before.

[BrotherMan]

I was thinking he was the guy that developed the plastination process, or some artist who used that to showcase slices of various formerly living things between panes of glass.

[beyelzu]

I totally thought that I had already made a post about it, but I watched the ep and fucking loved it, I totally dug le teur being a comiccon fan, that was just good times.

[Doctor X]

SILENCE!

--J. "Damn!" D.

P.S. Worth going to Adult Swim to see the missing "teaser."