The Brothers Grunt

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The Brothers Grunt is an animated TV series first broadcast in August 1994 on MTV. The series was created by Danny Antonucci (of Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy fame). It had a short-but-notorious life on MTV, which played the same few episodes repeatedly for a couple of months, then cancelled the series.

[edit] The Show

The series centered around an ensemble cast of pale, rubbery humanoids distantly related to human beings. They are cast out of a monastery (comprised of most survivors of their species) in a quest to bring back one of their kind, Perry, who has abandoned his involuntary position of "Chosen One" (leader of their order) and is now living the High Life among human beings (who seem to deal with the bizarre nature of the grunts by ignoring them and pretending everything is normal, a la muggles).

The main characters were named after members of the famous Rat Pack and their peers: Frank, Tony, Dean, Bing, Sammy, and Perry.

The characters that would become The Brothers Grunt were first seen in one of MTV's numerous 30-second promos. This particular promo consisted of close-up shots of the at-the-time-unnamed character's faces who seemed to be straining to do something (veins in their heads would bulge, the characters would squint and grunt) until the scene cut to the MTV logo landing in a pool of sludge followed by a satisfied "Ahhhhh" (suggesting that the characters were suffering from constipation and the MTV logo was the 'turd' as it were). It is unclear when this promo aired if the storyline and characters for The Brothers Grunt had been developed already or if it was developed into its own show after the success of the promo in the wake of Beavis and Butthead.

It was perhaps the climax of the trend toward genre-breaking, taboo-violating animated media, following in the footsteps of (sequentially) The Simpsons, Ren & Stimpy, and Beavis & Butt-head, and also including the later South Park. Typically these are shows which appear on the surface to simply be toilet humor descendants of The Benny Hill Show, but upon closer examination tend to have an agenda of exploring the arbitrary nature of taboos, social mores, stereotypes and the like. The Brothers Grunt did this to such an extent that it quickly alienated its own network and vanished from even rerun status, to be compiled on videotape by its cult following and exchanged in a sort of free bootleg system ignored even by its original makers.

The show began in 1993 when the MTV ad for The Brothers Grunt aired. At the time Danny Antonucci had animated several MTV ads in order to find work outside of International Rocketship Ltd., who he had worked for since 1984. Although Danny enjoyed the success of Lupo The Butcher, he wanted to leave International Rocketship Ltd. and start his own animation company. The result was A.K.A Cartoon, which began in April 1, 1994. The studio began as a way to locate his work for The Brothers Grunt after an MTV executive liked his MTV ad so much he asked him to turn it into a television series.

The show consisted of 7-minute segments which produced 45-minute episodes. The show, however, became a breeding ground for angry Beavis and Butthead fans, who did not realize that Beavis and Butthead was on hiatus for a few months when The Brothers Grunt began; that re-runs of Beavis and Butthead stopped airing made the situation even worse. MTV wanted to have more animated TV series after their success with Liquid Television and Beavis and Butthead. They seized the opportunity to hire Danny Antonucci, while Mike Judge had to put Beavis and Butthead on hiatus. MTV decided the shows would overlap each other, so when The Brothers Grunt was on hiatus they would air more Beavis and Butthead, and when Beavis and Butthead was on hiatus they would air more The Brothers Grunt. MTV's plan of having the shows overlap each other was MTV's original strategy for both shows. But the fans loved Beavis and Butthead so much that The Brothers Grunt was ignored by MTV viewers, although the show did build a small fanbase before it went off the air in August of 1995. At the same time, the show had pushed the envelope too much for even MTV, and the network's executives did not support the show. Faced with audience anger and confusion, and a lack of support from management, MTV immediately cancelled the low-rated series. The show is largely remembered by Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy fans, who enjoy watching it as a reminder of Danny Antonucci and his animated work.