Last month, The Meth Minute 39 concluded with a hokey, self-deprecating, We are the World autotribute, badly sung by its ragtag cast of oddball characters born from the bowels of animator Dan Meth’s wonderfully troubled inner psyche.
The number reminds us of the similarly hokey melody that made the series a relative hit even before the first episode aired. Both are cute, but both belie the true crazybananas nature of a show featuring parodied pop stars populating a world dictated by a whimsical lovechild beget by Ren & Stimpy and your local classic rock radio station.
Cruise the archives and see for yourself. Here’s one of my favorites, you know, for kids (not really for kids)!
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Unfortunately, barring bonus episodes, we won’t be seeing any more of Meth’s Minutes. Fortunately, there’s a spinoff series.
Out of Meth Minute 39’s smoldering ashes rose two phoenixes by the name of Penalty and Lloyd, destined to carry on with irreverent, animated comedy for at least 20 more episodes in a poppy, Crossfire spoof that’s way more entertaining than The Big Debate.
Sponsored by Starburst, Nite Fite first appeared in an early episode of Meth Minute, where it was a fly by night success. Dan Meth told me how it happened and why he decided to give Penalty and Lloyd their own show:
“The original idea came from some ridiculous and real arguments I had with my friend Mark Vitelli years ago. We recorded ourselves arguing in a Fox News-esque manner and I animated the original episode from that. People liked it as a Meth Minute so we spun it off into a series.”
With limited action and the same characters and sets every week, it’s also relatively easy to produce, giving Dan extra time to work on future series, and maybe even that animated feature.
Check out new weekly rumbles at NiteFite.com and be sure to click the neat-o graphics to show what team you’re on. Personally, I’m a Penalty man. Mostly because the name is way cooler than “Lloyd” and partly because he doesn’t yell as loud, which makes it seem like he’s losing arguments, which makes him the underdog. Everybody loves an underdog.
