A Tribute to Regular Show

phillysports When I saw the previews to Regular Show in the summer of 2010, I knew immediately that it was going to be awesome. I was 11 years old at the time. I had basically moved on from SpongeBob and Nickelodeon at that point and was starting to watch a lot of Cartoon Network shows like Adventure Time and Chowder. For some reason, surreal humor always has appealed to me, and I was really happy to see that Regular Show's humor of choice was very out there. The series premiered on September 6, 2010 and earned a fan base immediately. And the show automatically earned a life-long fan in me.

What made Regular Show such a great show was its characters and its abundance of creativity. Mordecai is a character that feels very realistic to me. He could be goofy and slack off every now in then, but he also knew when to be serious and careful in the actions that he took. The reason why Mordecai appealed to me was because he's the embodiment of being half-child and half-adult. He's immature, yet mature. He's irresponsible, yet responsible. He can be selfish and rude, but can also be kind and helpful towards the people he cares about. Throughout the show's run, Mordo was the everyman of the group. He represented what it truly meant to be a 20-something in modern times, and he will always be one of my favorite characters in all of media.

Rigby is much more of a child trapped in an adult's body. In the earlier seasons of the show, he was a troublemaking scoundrel who didn't care much for anybody except himself. He was a lovable delinquent who's main purpose was to slack off. Despite his laziness, Rigby actually cared a lot for the people around him. He was very loyal to his friends and did everything in his power to protect them. As the show progressed, Rigby started to grow up. He started treating his job more seriously, found a girlfriend in Eileen, and even went back to school to get his diploma. He came to the realization that being a kid is fun and cool, but eventually you need to become an adult at some point.

Benson in the beginning of the show was the sour pessimist of the gang. As the manager of a local park, he was usually depressed and unhappy with his life, and took his pent-up rage out on his employees. However, at some point in the show, Benson became satisfied with who he was. He felt happy to be part of something with a group of people, and started to view his employees not only as his friends, but also as his family. Benson was able to turn something that most people would say is a boring and mundane job, into something much, much more.

Skips is a character that for his entire life has shown loyalty for the people around him and for the park that he works for, and is general a very cool and laid-back person. Pops was a fantastic and endearing character who viewed the world through a lens of childlike wonder. He was goofy and often didn't understand the situations that he was put in, but loved everything that he ever came across. Muscle Man and Fives were lovable delinquents who tried their best to not take life too seriously. In the beginning of the show, they were enemies of Mordecai and Rigby but through the experiences that they shared with them, they put aside their differences and viewed them as their fellow brothers of the park.

The very concept of Regular Show was very interesting. I don't think that many kids' shows exist that exclusively star adult characters who go through adult situations like working on a daily basis. The basic plot of a Regular Show episode involved something very normal (i.e. fixing a hole in the wall, setting up chairs, getting a refund, playing basketball, winning a food challenge, having a movie night, etc.), and how it escalated and escalated until it becomes a huge and crazy situation where even the fate of the universe is at stake. It's pretty much like a basic Seinfeld plot only a lot more surreal and the fact that it was a cartoon that starred a blue jay, a raccoon, a gumball machine, a yeti, a lollipop man, a fat green guy, a ghost with a hand sticking out of his head, a robin, a half-mole half-human, a cloud girl, a goat, Death, a legion of giant magic babies, a David Bowie like character, a giant bearded face, a jerky vending machine, a green grouchy old man, a bunch of baby ducks, and an evil version of the aforementioned lollipop man. The finale of the show was incredible, as well. I won't go deep into it, but it was the perfect way to end the series. There were laughs, emotional scenes, epic battles, callbacks to previous episodes, and every character's story ends in the best way possible.

Regular Show means so much in cartoon history. It along with Adventure Time and Gravity Falls ushered in a new age of animated television series that can appeal just as much to adults as it can to children. It was a creative and fun thrill ride that I was happy to experience for six and a half years of my life. Regular Show was one of the defining shows of my childhood. I guarantee you that when I'm an old man, I'll be looking back on it fondly and even I'll even be rewatching a couple of episodes now and again.

My Favorite Episodes:
10. Terror Tales of the Park
9. The Thanksgiving Special
8. Mordecai and the Rigbys
7. Slam Dunk
6. This is My Jam
5. A Regular Epic Final Battle
4. The Christmas Special
3. Caffeinated Concert Tickets
2. Eggscellent
1. Exit 9B

Regular Show (2010-2017)

It Was Anything But

Comments

Phenomenal tribute. This post was a great way to show praise and love for one of Cartoon Network's best modern cartoons. - visitor (3/18/2017)

I actually do not like Regular Show - visitor (5/14/2017)

I can't believe it's already been 5 months since the show ended, it feels like yesterday the previews started airing. - visitor (6/14/2017)

Cartoon Network has lost a masterpiece - TwilightKitsune (6/27/2017)