adult swim just cancelled the best show on television

- [Shannon] "The Venture
Brothers" is a cartoon

about a lot of things.

The go-to is it's a
show about failure,

but I would say it's about
abuse and emotional neglect

and the many failures
of masculinity

and the horrible reality of
lives we romanticize culturally,

the actuality of
these cultural myths,

how awful they would
be if made real.

[Rusty] The only people I get to
hang out with are grownups.

The only time I get to leave
the compound is to go someplace

creepy, like the
Bermuda Triangle.

And then I get
kidnapped by grownups.

- [Shannon] And what
it means to suffer

and to have no
control over your life

and to have your
dignity taken from you

and to make horrible
mistakes and hurt people

and then go on living.
To keep living.

I know "BoJack Horseman"
is described similarly

and I like BoJack all right.

But I like "The
Venture Brothers" more

and it's a very different show.

It's not just a
show about failure.

It's about how life is
failure, life is suffering.

Life is comprised of let
downs and indignities

and the brutality of the show,
the sometimes baseness of it.

[Hank] I also heard that he sliced
off a kid's hand and ate it.

Yeah, it was that big headed guy

that operated on
your balls Dean. [Dean] HANK!

- [Shannon] More often than not

lends it an uncommon honesty.

I can't think of a more sincere
TV show which if you've seen

it is kind of a
funny thing to say.

Plot wise, it's a show
about a pair of twins

and their former Jonny
Quest-esque boy adventurer

dad and his body guard.

[Brock] For a minute there I
thought you were gonna do

your killer hand thing. - [Phantom Limb] So did I.

- [Shannon] And his
arch supervillain rival

and his dead super scientist
father whose shadow

he can never get out from under.

- [Killinger] Do not call out to
your father to save you.

He is the one who tied you up

and buried your
dreams in this tomb.

He commands these
creatures of the dark.

Fear, self-loathing, stinkin'
thinkin', und dilly-dallying.

- [Shannon] And the world
that these people live in.

It's a world of super
scientists and supervillains

and mercenaries and government
secret agents and so on.

And it's like the truest
thing you'll ever see?

Out of fiction, out of TV,
movies, books, whatever.

I have never seen the truth

of the frustration and
the misery of existing,

especially existing
and experiencing trauma

the way it's portrayed
on this show.

I have never in my life seen
a truer and more enjoyable

expression and fictional
entertainment of human misery.

- [Jonas] Remember Rusty in here I'm
your doctor, not your father.

Now let's get back
to it shall we?

Now you were telling me
how you're ungrateful

for all the opportunities
your father's given you

and you blame me for
all your problems.

- [Shannon] Dr. Venture super scientist

and former boy adventurer
is a miserable person.

[Doc] So you can see why
I've been reluctant

to go back into therapy.

- [Shannon] He's not the main
character per se,

but he is the character

at the center of everything
else, kind of the anchor

that ties all the other
aspects of the show together.

And he's not a good person,
but he's not not a good person

the way Walter White is,

the way all these
cable prestige TV

morally ambiguous, middle
aged white men are.

You're never in danger
of thinking he's cool

or thinking he's
doing the right thing.

He's pathetic, and there's a
lot of surface level parody

humor derived from how deluded

and how pathetic
he is initially.

But every time the show
digs into his character

and why he is the way
he is and just how awful

celebrity and hero worship are.

- [Hatred] So I can see why he's
your best friend, I mean-

- [White] He's not my best friend.

I just work with him.

- [Hatred] And live with him and
do everything with him.

That's best friends.

- [White] Maybe.

But I always thought of
Rusty as my best friend.

- [Hatred] What?

You know what White?

You are a starf**ker.

You have the greatest
friend in the world

and because he's not
famous you don't care.

You should be
ashamed of yourself.

- [White] Rusty and I went
to school together.

We were inseparable.

- [Hatred] Starf**ker

- [Shannon] And the
difference between a life lived

and a life perceived
on television

and what would drive
people to act the way

they do in superhero shows.

Again, the reality of that
kind of universe as populated

by real human beings.

- [Doc] Brock and the boys
are still trapped,

probably dead by now.

- [Orpheus] We must help them!

- [Doc] No duh.

I have a zero point magnet
somewhere around here

that will take these
pyramid walls down on a jiff

so thanks for nothing.

- [Orpheus] Pyramid?

- [Doc] Yeah we were
trapped in a pyramid.

Some stupid cult
made a time machine.

- [Orpheus] What pyramid cult?

- [Shannon] And without
getting into spoilers,

how a person's cruelty
and selfishness

can have very far
reaching consequences,

sometimes Dr. Venture's, but
often from other characters.

But the show also celebrates
small victories and small joys

all the time and explores
how you find meaning in life

in spite of suffering
and how through accepting

the horrible circumstances
of your weird life.

I mean, what else can you do?

You can get through it.

And it's really funny.

- [Orpheus] WHO IS HECTOR MOLINA

AND WHY DO THEY KEEP SENDING ME HIS JUNK MAIL??

[GGI] Hello.

(baby babbling)

Someone left their baby.

- [Doc] Bill, bill,
bill, final notice.

(dramatic music) AAGH!

Oh, June 6th 2003.

I really got to get my
s**t together.

- [Shannon] Without
"The Venture Brothers"

StrucciMovies and Critical
Bits wouldn't exist

in the forms they exist now,
or wouldn't exist at all.

And I know I would
be a different person

if I had never gotten into
"The Venture Brothers"

and been aware of the
circumstances of its creation

of first one person,
then two people.

- Hello, viewers,
I'm Doc Hammer.

- And I'm "Jackson Publick".

- We're from "The
Venture Brothers".

- We made it up.

- Would you please join
us for a very special

venture brothers episode
tackling some of today's hottest

teen issues like teen swearing.

- And teen action.

- And Tina Turner.

- [Shannon] Who maybe second
only to like David Lynch

and Mark Frost are at
the top of their field

as far as getting their
specific vision onto television.

And through that, making
something so weird and brutal

and upsetting and uncompromising
and hysterically funny

and depressing, then touching
then mean and funny again.

And in later seasons gorgeous,

like especially later
on the backgrounds,

the production design, the
blocking with characters,

it's just, it's a stunning
looking show on top of being

written so well and
performed so well.

- [Red Death] The obsession
starts. The darkness.

A man can do terrible things
when he's lost his way,

terrible things.

- [Shannon] A lot of
early venture brothers

throws around the words
gay and retarded a lot,

and there's some homophobic
and transphobic stuff.

And if you're put off by that
or other offensive content

in the show, then fair, it's
worth giving a warning about,

and I'm not trying to
make anyone watch a show

they'd find upsetting,
but I never once felt

it was trying to be
deliberately offensive.

It's more presenting this
world with these people

not ever in an edgy way,
but in an honest way,

and they're immature sometimes
cruel sometimes bigoted

or ignorant people and a
lot of it is cleaned up

as the show goes along
though on rewatch,

not as fast as I would
have hoped or not as fast

as I remembered it being,

that stuff is in
the show for awhile.

And I'm not saying it's
perfect representation,

but the show goes some
interesting places

with disabled characters
and gay male characters

specifically, and has
a huge and very intense

queer fan base, which I
would include myself in.

I already really liked
"The Venture Brothers"

and had for years and
years and earlier this year

I finally caught up on
season six and seven

and was completely blown away.

"Hannibal" was my favorite
TV show and after watching

the Blue Morpho arc of
"The Venture Brothers",

I was just like,
wow, this is it.

What can compete with this?

Nothing.

This is so fun and terrifying
and funny and deeply sad.

It's not like, oh, I'm crying

at this tear-jerker
sad, it's like, oh,

this is tragic on a
level I feel in my soul,

I feel this as a human being,

while also being weird
and gross and pulpy

and referential and pay
off after years and years

of buildup venture
brothers is what you get

when a medium self actualizes.

I have multiple projects
in the works to go into

the show's history
and analyze it.

But in very brief here, Jackson
Publick was a storyboard

artist and a comic artist
and he came up with the show

and pitched it and got his
friend Doc Hammer involved

to help him and they've written
almost every single episode.

And I think Hammer edits the
show and Publick directs it

and they voice most of the cast

and it's been on 16 years
with only seven seasons

because of how much work
they put in individually

and how meticulous the
production of it is.

I'd highly recommend
the art book,

which has in depth sections
on the conception and history

of every episode
through season six

and is like 375 pages long.

I'm going to be more
active than I usually am

with this sort of situation

in trying to get
the show uncanceled.

I don't know how much
online petitions ever do,

but I'll sign them.

I'm going to write
letters and mail them.

I'm going to keep
tweeting depressing tweets

about how upset I am, whatever.

And I've read HBO Max,
maybe picking up the show.

But I also read a bunch about
how "Hannibal" was going

to be picked up by a streaming
service when it got canceled

and that was five years
ago and I'm still waiting.

If right after I
put this video up

it is announced that
"The Venture Brothers"

is no longer canceled and
will be taken care of by HBO

then like stellar,
I will be elated.

"The Venture Brothers" is just
such a perfect articulation

of what it means to be human.

Like I think of "Ikiru" and
I think of "The 400 Blows"

as these sweet moving
works on, you know,

these works on humanity

or like "Bicycle
Thieves" or something.

And I think through
it's darkness

and its cruelty
and its crassness

along with the earned
genuine sweet moments

Venture Brothers makes
me feel the same way.

And it's like these two New York

art weirdos doing
cartoon voices together.

- We have two voices that we
do that are almost the same voice

there's the guy from
the The Council of 13.

The one who speaks like this.

And then he does Ghost Robot

and they're really
long, horrible voices.

I want to do a whole episode
that is just those two guys

talking and just excruciating
everybody around them

not having a good time.

- [Shannon] Making
references to bands

I've never heard of that I
especially never heard of

when I was 13, when
the show started.

- We've been trying to get
into an episode since day one

and it's not even funny.

- It's really not gonna be funny
with all this build up.

- You guys won't even,
you won't like it

but we want Hank to go, "Stop
wasting all my time-time!"

which is like the world's w-

- [Jackson in Hank Voice] "Wasting
all my time-time!"

(audience laughing) - [Jackson] Little miss little miss can't be wr- I was gonna say that-

It's kind of based on, uh, little miss little miss cant be wrong

- But it's from a Cars song
and I just think it'd be

so funny if Hank for some
reason knows a Cars song.

'Cause he has this
like weird recollection

of crap that never
happened to him.

- [Hank] And they kill clean.

Don't let dames get in the way.

- [Brock] Honestly, Hank, where
do you pick that stuff up?

I never see you read.

- [Dean] It's weird, right?

- [Brock] It's like he channels
dead crazy people.

- [Hank] You think it's a cry for help?

- [Shannon] I'm around 30
now and it's been a part

of my brain for that
long, part of how I draw

and how I look at visual art.

And even more than that,
an inspiration to me

creatively overall, their
work showed me that something

so unique and so special and
so, so dense and sprawling

and so unconcerned
with popular appeal.

Some of the show is just
cruel and revolting,

one of the main
cast is a pedophile,

could exist and it
inspired me a lot.

I never get a lot of views
on my YouTube channel,

but I do make what
I want to make

with little regard to views
and I'm really proud of that.

And Doc Hammer and Jackson
Publick and their whole attitude

towards the art they make
is a big reason for that.

Even if I make dumb video
essays and not an adult

swim cartoon, I
mean, coincidentally,

I just quoted Hammer in a
video I put out last month,

the comedy one, the show has
been a creative influence

on me and an influence
on me as a person

since before I became
an adult a long time.

It's two art weirdos who
loved comics and loved movies

and loved music and had this
story they wanted to tell

and they told it until
because capitalism

has a stranglehold
on any art being made

in the country I live in,

I guess it was no longer
profitable enough,

just like "Hannibal" wasn't.

I don't know.

I don't know the circumstances
of it's cancellation.

I hope something happens
and they can continue.

If you can do something
to help make that happen.

Please do.

If you have Hulu, the
whole show is on Hulu.

First season is a little
rough, but by two or three

it picks up a lot and by four
and five it's really, really

good and by six and
seven it's transcendent.

Specifically like I said,
the Blue Morpho arc,

it's like a three episode arc.

And I think after
that, The Monarch

who was like Dr. Venture's rival,

I had always liked
that character

but after that I think he
became my favorite character

and everything that happens
in it is just incredible.

Also some of what I said
in the intro to this video

about the characters
changes as the show goes on,

I know that please don't be
a pedant in the comments.

I said what I said to
avoid spoiling people.

Speaking of spoilers,
here's part of a clip

I thought was really
nice that Ken Plume

tweeted to close out.

It's a song Publick and
Hammer wanted to use

for the ending of a
season three episode,

but weren't able to
get the rights to

and Plume edited
music over the clip.

I think I saw it before
when he had initially

tweeted it out a while ago,

but he tweeted it again
after the cancellation

and I've just been
like sitting here,

watching it over and over
and getting emotional.

The song is "Not The
First Time" by Neil Innes.

The episode is The
Invisible Hand of Fate

and here it is.

- [Hatred] Dismissed, Samson!

- [Brock] What about the kid?

- [Hatred] What, do you want to adopt him?

I said take it on the arches.

Psi-Ops needs guinea pigs for
the memory wipe project, okay?

So, unlike you, he
still works here.

(somber music)

♪ No, this is not
the first time ♪

♪ Or the last time
we shall meet ♪

♪ It's hard to understand
the circumstances ♪

♪ And so easy to be indiscreet ♪

♪ Of all the chances
we are given ♪

♪ Which one can we take? ♪

♪ And after all the indecision ♪

♪ Do we have a choice to make? ♪