TVSquad

(S19E19)"Mom, I can't believe you're here! You keep disappearing and reappearing and it's not funny! You're just like that show Scrubs" -- Homer to his mother after her unexpected return.

Over the past few Sundays this space has been reserved for deeper looks into The Simpsons. Despite the fact that it is an animated series there is usually an underlying base of themes, emotions, and psychoanalytical analysis that takes place amongst the Simpson family and those around them. In fact, one 22-minute episode can contain many layers of subtext that define each character further.

This week, though, not so much of that. What we may have thought to be a sweet story about the return of Homer's mother turned out to be a huge joke fest. Well, actually more a joke fest during the second half of the show than the first half. The first half was actually kind of sad as Homer couldn't take one more of Mona Simpson's promises that she had stopped running from the government and was now ready to devote her time to Homer and his family. The second half was a totally different Simpsons episode.

(S05E09) "Well... I'm about to update your "MyFace" page with my ass unless you get in there and read us a story!" - Shake

Well, not the best episode of ATHF, but I liked certain parts of it. The addition of new or temporary characters is always so touch and go on this show. Sometimes it's huge and repeat appearances are warranted. Think Mooninites, Plutonians, and MC Pee Pants. The Bible Fruit? Despite the extra points for being a well-done knock off of the openly Christian themed VeggieTales, I'll be glad if I never see them again.

(S05E08) "Listen, when we dock, I'm gettin' a tattoo of an anaconda that's coming outta my groin region!" - Shake

Every episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force should be this good. Hands down, the best and funniest installment of the current season. This is definitely not a show that I would ever expect to have even the slightest bit of relevant social commentary, but what do I know?

(S05E07) "You seen my fingers?" - Carl

Right from the beginning, I was ready to hate this episode. But I just couldn't. At first, it seemed so corny and felt like a rip-off of Chucky merged with a bad R.L. Stine novel. But the character of The Dummy (despite his limited vocabulary) was hilarious and the decision to knock on every horror movie cliché imaginable was well done too. It's always great when a show like ATHF branches out and tries to do something different like mocking an entire genre in ten minutes.

(S05E06) "The flames are tickling your buttocks!" - Shake

Frylock's eyes. Who knew they could become the basis for a whole episode? Heck, I didn't even realize that he wore contact lenses. I thought his eyes just launched laser canons naturally. I mean, he is a talking carton of french fries so I figure anything is possible. But leave it to Shake and his megalomaniacal delusions (remember The Drizzle?) to steal his good friend's "laser lenses."

(S05E05) "I shook it! Only processed meat makes that sound!" - Shake

Blame the President's Day holiday weekend, but I completely forgot about Aqua Teeen Hunger Force on Sunday night. If anything, it was a pleasant surprise when the lightbulb went off in my head this morning and I realized I had something funny to watch. Then... I watched it. Not so funny. To be honest, I thought this episode jumped around a lot. It actually felt more like a few different elements that got folded together to make one big mess.

(S05E04) "Women don't get turned on by "safe!" They crave danger!" - Shake

Back to normal. Markula is gone, the Aqua Teens are back in their house, and Carl is back to being Carl. It's like the first three episodes of this season never happened. As much as I enjoyed that little trilogy, this is the type of stuff that I've been missing: Shake shoving kittens into the microwave.

(S05E03) "...and how was your fix? Did you ride the white horse?" - Markula

Wait just a second. Last week was mind-boggling enough, but did we just witness the completion of a trilogy? An actual episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force that required you, the viewer, to have seen the previous two episodes to know what was going on? Inebriated college students around the country are surely cursing at their TVs in an effort to understand why their favorite drunken hobby has suddenly required them to think.

(S05E02) "Sing for him John Kruk!" - Chrysanthemum

Wait a second... I'm going over this whole series in my my mind. Did we just get a continuation of a story line? An actual episode that picked up where last week's installment left off? Is ATHF going serial? This is madness! Sure, there are recurring characters that come back now and then, but there's never been an on-going plot that warrants two whole episodes. The one downside (it's really not all that bad), is that we went another week without Frylock, Shake, and Meatwad. But I'm sure they're having plenty of fun with Marcula's military desert spiders or whatever the hell kidnapped them.

(S05E01) "Hey, you got kids? If I were married to her... we'd be pumping 'em out!" - Carl

The return of everyone's favorite talking fast-food crime fighters. Except... they weren't in the episode at all, save for a brief phone conversation Carl had with Frylock. Many may have already seen this episode. It was a special feature on the recently released "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am" video game. I never bought it, so it was new to me. Here's where it gets confusing though. In the grand scheme of ATHF, this is the 69th episode. However, if you reference the most recent Adult Swim TV schedule, the 70th episode was supposed to air tonight and this episode wasn't scheduled to have a TV premiere until March 23rd. Not like it's that much of a surprise. Adult Swim is known for just airing stuff whenever they feel like it. Remember last season's finale? Carl Wash? That one ended up airing almost a week early on a Friday night at around 3:00AM and it was never announced.

For those that haven't heard already, the MLB-commissioned Mitchell Report was released last week and it implicated numerous players with allegations of steroid purchase and use. Most notable? Roger Clemens. Carl Brutananadilewski is none too pleased.

His opinion? It's all a conspiracy to tarnish his beloved Yankees. Carl is an avid New York sports fan as evidenced in the episode "Bart Oates" and he seems to think the Mitchell Report is crap. Watch Carl defend Clemens, complain about the Red Sox, and admit to using steroids himself... in the butt. Best argument? Boston great Ted Williams must have been juiced. Click on the jump to find out why.

I'd forgotten all about this little online game until last week's freak-out in Boston over the Mooninites. As with many, many similar games, you can answer questions about yourself and discover which character from Aqua Teen Hunger Force is most like you.

Now, this isn't the best 'which character are you' game out there. It's pretty obvious by the options which one will make you Shake and which one will make you Meatwad. Still, it's a way to kill five minutes (ten, if you're a slow reader).

I was expecting to be Frylock but I ended up being Carl. Yep, Carl. The hairy, stupid neighbor with a cool car. I went very wrong somewhere.

(S04E13) Well this was a long time coming. I had been paying close attention to online schedules (for a while now), waiting for this episode to air. As far as I knew, it was supposed to play this past Sunday. Instead, it was a repeat airing of "Dickesode." Well guess what? "Carl Wash" already aired! Way back on December 22 in the 3:30AM time-slot no less. At least that's what the ATHF wikipedia page says. Can you believe that? I didn't think Adult Swim did stealth premieres anymore. Especially for one of their most popular shows. Wouldn't that kill any chance for ratings? Oh well.

Anyway, I feel like I'm last in on the joke though because after just a few minutes of searching, I found numerous discussion boards talking about the episode and then I found a site that was actually streaming it. Better late that never. It's a good one.

(S04E12) The thing with Aqua Teen Hunger Force is that it used to be probably the funniest show that Adult Swim aired. That was a few years ago though and now it's really just part of a line-up of shows that are equally funny. The problem with this is that the great episodes of ATHF don't stand out as much as they used to and the really bad ones? Well, they stick out like a grandpa who took too much Viagra.

This was one of those episodes.

(S04E11) Man, I love this show. Even more, I love how incestuous the entire Adult Swim family is. How funny was the cameo from George "Space Ghost" Lowe? He's been on the show a few times before, but never playing himself. It was a riot. Favorite part? When he tried to charge Meatwad forty bucks for an autographed picture. Meatwad said for that price, it better come with a hand-job. George's response? "Oh... it does!" Even funnier was when we found out that Meatwad had no idea what an HJ was.

This show could honestly go on forever. Anything could become a topic. ATHF is like the Seinfeld of animated shows. It really is about nothing and I love it.