I was just wondering if there were any other Tick fans out there that could name some of the oddest relationships I’ve ever seen on a cartoon. I basically just love talking about this cartoon and hearing what other people like or hate about it. Plus I don’t think I’ve seen quite all of them but I’d love it if someone out there can stump me on a Tick question…Hmmm, that might have been a rather stupid thing to say, oh well too bad.
I also wondered, for those that followed the comic, if ya’ll thought the cartoon was a good representation of The Tick?
I used to watch this cartoon all the time!! My husband and I loved it…we love absurd humor like that. I remember one episode where the Tick went to some island and found a pig I think, and thought it was a dog and that it talked to him (?) And the Tick wanted to invent some kind of battle cry like other superheroes had, so he started shouting “Spoon!” Damn funny stuff… my husband and I still shout “Spoon!” for no reason at all. Or that superheroes training school the Tick and Arthur taught that had all those stupid novice superheroes in it…one was dressed as a squirrel, one had babydolls as a weapon, or something. For the life of me I can’t remember what their powers were. It killed me that American Maid (a spoof of Wonder Woman) threw her high heeled shoes at criminals to catch them. Oh Oh, and that episode about the killer moustache that escaped from god knows where and attached itself to the Tick and it tortured him, and no one would believe him? It would shove itself up his nose, strangle him, etc. Hilarious!!
I don’t think I have any specific Tick questions for ya. Except what those superpowers were for those novice superheroes in that class.
I would love to watch this cartoon again. Maybe I’ll watch the live action show. When does it start???
I really like the comic book. My favourite one, I forget the number (issue 9?), was the road trip story. Or the one with the monolith that Tick tries to throw into space.
The comics were all just really good (“I have the speed of ten men!”), solid laughs. The show… neh.
There are some episodes of the show I really like. The Little Wooden Boy in the Belly of Love was a good one. I kind of liked the one with the Swiss. I kind of liked the COPS/Pigleg ep. Ditto the moustache episode. For the most part, though, I think they’re pretty dismal. Most episodes have at least one cool moment (Die Fleidermaus pointing and yelling at the cops, “They went that way!”), but usually not worth sitting through an episode for. Some just disturbed me with how lame they were. The woman who could control furniture comes to mind. Ditto the one with Pinapple and Tick yelling, “Let’s hang ten for justice!”
That just doesn’t cut it. My friends and I sitting around on a bored Saturday night can think of zanier things to shout, and we rarely have commercials.
Just the odd sort of humor involved applealed to me.
Even if the execution of “the Ottoman Empress” wasnt the greatest, the MERE idea was funny (to me)
Part of me thinks a live action version is sacreledge(sp?)–esp with the name changes (Cpatain Libaery instead of American Maid, Bat Manuel instead of Die Fledermous) But I will hope for the best.
Brian
“not in the face! not in the face!”
“I’m the midnight bomber what bombs at midnight”
“I’m Agrippa(?), Roman god of Aqueducts”
Does anyone remember the Mr. Smarty Pants ep? It’s actually “Mr.” in french but I don’t know how to spell that. Did anybody else think the dolphin sounded suspiciously like Brain from Pinky and The Brain? Wierd ;p
I really don’t remember SuperLorie, except I think the Flying Squirrel guy just spread his furry wings and landed on people, oh, there was Static Electricity Guy or Carpet Man, something like that. He wore that full carpet suit and rubbed his feet really fast and then shot out static bolts that incapacitated the bad guys and made socks stick to them or something. Plus he gave himself the worst cases of heatstroke so he would always pass out on the way to the evil doings. I think the baby guy threw the dolls at people and the dolls peed on them or just scared them because well, it’s rather scary when babies are being hurled at you when your busy being evil.
Oh, what about El Seed!! I just loved it when that guy went, “Ha Haaaa” in that Pavaroti way! heh, heh
What was that mad scientists name that created Tongue Tongue…oh, Dr. Mung Mung, hahahahaha
“I can taste your back…”
Hey, Anal Scurvy, how many issues are there out there anyway? I don’t know of many good comic stores but I’d search one out if I could get my hands on a whole bunch of them at once. Are there any that stand out in your memory?
The comic was a riot! Especially #1 & #2. When the cartoon was due to come out, I was a bit worried that it would stink compared the comic. But it turned out to be very good. It has a different feel than the comic…not as dark…geared toward younger kids, etc…but still very funny as its own entity. Let’s see if the live action show does as well.
I really liked both the comic and the cartoon, but I don’t think you can really compare the two directly. The comic had the same sense of whimsy and absurdity that the cartoon did, but some of the humor was also darker. For example, in the first Tick graphic novel, there’s a sequence where the Tick basically wigs out and starts hallucinating, and is confronted by his inner demons, who basically reveal that the Tick had spent time in a mental ward and that he feared himself to be insane. It’s a pretty dark sequence; definitely not the kind of stuff you’d ever see in the cartoon.
That being said, both the comic book and the cartoon were worthy of note; Ben Edlund is absolutely hysterical in whatever media he happens to choose. And from what I’ve heard and read from critics regarding the new live-action show, it looks like the show’s going to uphold the comedic tradition started by the comic and the cartoon. I, for one, can’t wait.
btw, droolstic1, if you’re looking for old Tick comics, check out the New England Comics website – I believe the URL is http://www.newenglandcomics.com. They’re the publishers of the Tick comic and have as many issues as you could possibly ask for.
I was concerned when the cartoon came out, because I loved the comic. Although it was considerably less dark, I also loved the cartoon. Now, I am concerned about the live action show. Maybe I’ll be pleasently surprised.
As an aside, I loved the show enough to name my SDMB fantasy football team Not in The Face. Now I’ll have to start posting SPOOOOOOONNNN!
The comic and the show were both funny for different reasons, IMO.
Although the show missed one of the best characters from the comic… “Paul the Samurai”. The Tick also seems much more annoying in the comic, something that’s lost a bit in the show (think Road Trip with the Red Eye… “handy wipe? no? shoves in face I GOT YOUR NOSE!”). Overall the humor was much more subtle, something that probably just worked better in comic form.
I thought the concept of “the city” being infested with superheroes was something that worked well in the show, but was missing from the comic. “Bi-Polar Bear”, “The Human Bullet”, and “Crusading Chameleon” had me falling out of my chair every time. The Civic Minded Five, and the new superhero recruits that included Dollman (battlecry: “It’s OK to play with dolls!”) were all classic.
I think the Civic-Minded Five also had one of my favorite characters (though I could be confused on whether this was in the toon or the comic). I forget his name, but he would shock people with static electricity. His costume was that he was completely covered in shag carpet. His power was that he would drag his feet and then touch someone, giving them a shock. The drawback was, his costume was so heavy he kept passing out from the heat. Anyone remember this character?
One of my favorite bits from the cartoon was the episode with the ants swarming to the City, forming one giant ant. They talked to a scietist (based on Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove) whose plan was to make a giant candy bar because ants love nougat. As a results of this, my friends and I took to yelling the scientist’s line (complete with cheesy German accent), “Shmell ze nougat!” when we had nothing else to say.
The carpeted man was called…wait for it…Carpeted Man.
I have 30 episodes of the show on tape. I’m just praying that the live series will prompt someone to show the animated series again so I can pick up those last six. Two I’ve never even seen, the one with Monsieur Smarty Pants and the one with the novice superhero school. I think my favorite episode might be the one where Tick and Arthur follow Sewer Urchin into the sewer and find out what a great hero he actually is in his own millieu. Wow, two French words in one post, and I have no confidence either of them is spelled right! I suck! SPOOOOON!
“You can’t fight evil with a macaroni duck!”
“I’ll be the judge of that!”
From the superhero school where the Tick taught of course. I thought that was hilarious.
Also the evil little gingerbread men attacking everybody. Die Fledermaus boasted of overcoming the sweet little villains but as it turned out… they just went stale.
BwaHa![sup]*[/sup] Cracks me up every time…
*[sub]I don’t do sound effects very well. Sorry.[/sub]
There was this show in which he carved his name into the moon with a huge laser (during his birthday I believe). Of course, the Tick and American Maid stopped him, but not before he had carved Chai into the moon. From that point on, whenever the moon was on screen, it read chai
Isn’t comedy central airing the tick cartoon? Although its usually late at night and after the critic and south park
Actually the funniest thing about the cartoon was fox put it on right after x-men So you seen the “serious” treatment and the parody of it
As a side note if you liked the tick you should get a game called “superhero league of Hoboken” Its like the same humor of the tick there’s abandonware sites with it on it
