| My Gym Partner's a Monkey | |
|---|---|
Title card |
|
| Genre | Animated Sitcom |
| Created by | Julie McNally-Cahill Timothy Cahill |
| Written by | Tom Sheppard Mitch Larson William Reiss |
| Directed by | Timothy Cahill |
| Voices of | Nika Futterman Tom Kenny Rick Gomez Grey DeLisle Maurice LaMarche Phil LaMarr Brian Doyle-Murray Cree Summer |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 52 (Episodes) 96 (Segments) 13 (Shorts) 3 (Specials) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Julie McNally Cahill Timothy Cahill Jeff Prezenkowkski |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Cartoon Network Studios |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Cartoon Network (USA) Teletoon (Canada) Go! (Australia) RTÉ Two, The Den (Ireland) |
| Original run | December 26, 2005 – November 27, 2008 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
My Gym Partner's a Monkey is an American animated television series created by Timothy and Julie McNally Cahill and produced by Cartoon Network Studios. It premiered on December 26, 2005 and ended in November 27, 2008 following a marathon of its final regular-run episodes.
The story revolves around Adam Lyon, a human. After a clerical error listed his surname as "Lion", Adam is forced to transfer from Chester Arthur Middle School to Charles Darwin Middle School, a school for local anthropomorphic zoo animals. Shortly after his transfer, he is partnered with Jake Spidermonkey in gym (hence the title). While Jake enjoys having fun at the expense of others, he quickly becomes attached to Adam. The majority of the show's humor derives from Adam's attempts to reconcile his human limitations, as well as his outsider status, with the demands of an animal-centric school and social scene.
Much of Charles Darwin Middle School is modeled after specific habitats. There are fish tubes created so that the fish can breathe and swim around. There are also vines and bodies of water. Some animals like Bull Sharkowski use devices to allow them to live outside of their natural habitat. In Bull's case he uses what looks like headphones full of water that go around his gills. The main characters have been able to breathe in water in the early episodes for some mysterious reason.
Charles Darwin Middle School appears to be the only animal school around, as it is later explained in the episode "Uniformity." In the episode, there are high end east coast schools for animals. Also, there is a school for plants called Creeping Broad-Leaf Sedge Middle School (CBLSMS) where Jake is sent to due to a clerical error calling him a spider plant. The school competes against human schools in athletics and other events. In one episode where Adam signs up to return to his old school for a day transfer, all the teachers and staff seem to replicate their animal counterparts.
Adam is an immature 12-year old human who was transferred from Chester Arthur Middle School to Charles Darwin Middle School (CDMS) by an accidental misspelling of his last name from "Lyon" to "Lion". As the series title suggests, in gym class, Adam was paired up with Jake Spidermonkey and the two are now best friends. Jake's plans have them getting involved in situations which end up with Adam in trouble. Adam, being physically weak, is often preyed upon by the other animal students. His personality is downtrodden, due to being in an animal school and he also has a reputation of complaining about his daily experiences at the school. Adam can be selfish and strongwilled at times. Outside of school, he is often seen with a human girl named Kerry, with whom he has a secret crush. His efforts to impress her end up with Adam's embarrassment. Towards the middle of the series Adam seems to be on the borderline of sanity. Throughout the series, he has shown an extreme interest in clowns, for instance his favorite super hero is Captain Clowny, he eagerly hopes to attend a clown-based summer day-camp, and his college of choice is Clown College, as seen on his resume in the episode My Feral Lyon. Adam is voiced by Nika Futterman.
Jake, as his last name implies, is an Irish-American spider monkey who quickly became Adam's best friend. He is often very possessive of Adam and hates not having him around regularly. Jake is emotional and goofy who takes to heart some of Adam's comments and actions, leading to some overly dramatic and exaggerated reactions. He can be lazy and selfish, but at the same time he is also fairly sensible. Just as well, Jake tends to display feminine tendencies quite often. A running gag in the series is his obsession with the well-being of his butt, which he made grow so large that it blocked out the sun in one episode. Along with the majority of the other animal students, Jake lives close enough to the school that he can see it from where he lives. Jake seems to be very unintelligent. An example of his unintelligence is that once he believed that there was an aquatic animal named the "mer-monkey". When he finally "found it", it was actually a fishing lure. But he just said, "Oh, well. Nobody's perfect." Jake has an older brother who looks like a taller, more stretched out version of Jake. Jake is voiced by Tom Kenny.
Windsor is a highly intelligent African-American lowland gorilla who serves as the anti-bully at the school and often gives confusing wisdom to people. He speaks in a soft-spoken and nearly monotonous manner, often stringing together technical words as a matter of his normal speech. When he talks, only the side of his mouth closest to the camera moves and the rest of his mouth remains closed. He is usually seen with Slips and is generally shown to be the leader of the two. Windsor tends to relate with Adam's troubles better than the rest of the school, having a good grasp of both human and animal worlds, although he occasionally gives in to his animal instincts as well. Windsor has an older brother in high school who plays for his school's football team. Windsor is voiced by Rick Gomez.
Slips is an easy-going, street-talking half Korean-American and half Danish-American green tree python. He is an underachiever and excessive daydreamer who's gullibility allows him to believe anything he hears, which makes him a constant source of misinformation. As a snake he has no limbs, yet wears a T-shirt. Slips has an older sister in high school who, despite being a girl, looks like an older version of Slips with a deep manly voice. He is usually seen with his best friend Windsor. Slips is voiced by Rick Gomez.
Lupe is a female Mexican-American Keel-billed toucan, who is loud-mouthed, acerbic, dominating and materialistic, although she considers herself to be mild-tempered and low maintenance. Her best friend is Ingrid, who she dominates more than anyone else. Lupe loves popular culture, such as celebrities and fashion. She however doesn't like milk.[1] She speaks with a somewhat exaggerated, but fake Chicano dialect and is known to have some issues involving what she sees as her overly large beak. Lupe has a big sister who's in high school. She has a boyfriend named Corey Vulture, who is seen in the episode Lupe in Love. Lupe is voiced by Grey DeLisle.
A female Jewish masai giraffe, Ingrid is the tallest student in CDMS. Her towering height only adds to her feelings of insecurity as she tries desperately to blend into the background. She is often seen with her neck going up then heading down on the screen in an exaggerated hunch since it is very long and is often seen from the neck down. Lupe, Ingrid's best friend, often hushes her when she gives advice and basically runs the whole "friendship". Ingrid has a crush on Adam Lyon, of which is he is mostly unaware, or he chooses to ignore it. She's also considered to be the weakest in the group. In the episode "Sidekicked", Ingrid tries to talk street by using the phrases, "word," "word up, yo," and "plus we can be all talkin' street, and ain't no one's gonna be all up in our grills, yo," but everyone told her to stop.[2][3] Ingrid is voiced by Grey DeLisle.
Henry is a Scots-Irish American nine-banded armadillo with a Texas accent wearing large glasses (which magnify his eyes). is socially insecure and struggles making friends and is portrayed as the stereotypical. It is likely though that he may be the most unintelligent in the school.[4] He is also a reporter in the school media.[5][6] Voiced by Tom Kenny.
Dickie is an English sugar glider, as mentioned when he is first introduced to the series in the principal's office.[7] with stereotypical British mannerisms. There is some controversy to his species, because of his name, yet in one episode, Mrs.Warthog said his last name was a typo. He made a successful career as a writer for the school's greatest class clowns.[1] His notable catch phrase is "Hello! How's your trousers?"[1][8] Voiced by Tom Kenny.
A group of nerds who reside in a special class above the rest of the school and take great pride in the spelling bee. Because of this, they hold a grudge against Adam who once cost them their victory during his brief tenure in their class. the Spiffies are led by Phineas Porpoise (Phil LaMarr), a African-American bottlenose dolphin with a nasalie voice who despises Adam and loves winning, be it the bee or by cheating at carnival games. the Spiffies seem to be a kind of mafioso group within CDMS often offering kids help with various problems in exchange for mysterious favors later down the road. Aloysius Elephant (Grey DeLisle) a Polish-American elephant, Nestor Parrot (Phil LaMarr) a Chinese-American green parrot, the German-American pig, Marvin Hammy (Tom Kenny), and Daniel Calamari (Rick Gomez) the Puerto Rican giant squid.
Are a group who make scams of petting, stomach rubs, and hugs for Food Pellets. One's a French-American Goat (Rick Gomez), another is an African-American Sheep (Nika Futterman) and the last one is a Native-American Mustang or a wild horse (Grey DeLisle). They, Slips, Jake and Winsor had their fur shaven except for the fact that Slips has scales, and then nobody petted, tummy rubbed and hugged the Cuddlemuffins.
A Congolese American elephant that resides as a student in Charles Darwin Middle School. Endugu is very large for a student of CDMS, being taller than Mr. Hornbill and Mrs. Tusk, though not as tall as Ingrid. Principal Pixiefrog once used his name as a fat joke, saying "Hey Endugu, eat much?".[9] He is sometimes seen as a bully like Bull, but at times seems to be a normal student. He is voiced by Phil LaMarr sounding like Hermes Conrad from Futurama.
A Norwegian-American Sumatran Rhino who is a friend of Latanya Hippo, who is African-American and Joanie Ox, who is Laotian American. Although her species is the rarest of the rhinos, Mr. Hornbill told Jake and Adam that the Vienamese Rhinoceros (not real) was the rarest. She is voiced by Nika Futterman. Latanya and Joanie are voiced by Cree Summer and Grey DeLisle.
An Indonesian American and African-American girl with dark hair, a pink shirt and blue jeans. She's one of Adam's friends from his old school before he was mistakenly transferred. Adam has a crush on her, although his plans to impress her mostly end in vain because of Jake's animal friends. She was also in the Chester Arthur Cheerleading Squad (the Peppy Pep Girls).[10] Voiced by Cree Summer.
An Italian-American red ant who is best friends with Henry and often gets crushed or hurt by other students or stuff at CDMS. Voiced by Rick Gomez.
CDMS principal, as his last name implies, is a Scottish-American Pixie Frog. As a strict but fair administrator he runs a tight ship, which is somewhat remarkable considering he could easily be squashed underfoot by most of his students and the rest of the faculty, for instance when he was forced to watch the cheerleading practice, he ended up being crushed under LaTanya Hippo's foot with the weight of the entire team. Principal Pixiefrog always dodges lawsuits, is terrified of lawyers and is scared when anyone in the school could get sued (He is shown to have Liticaphobia). He talks simaliar to Whidnsor only moving part of is mouth but is voice is much louder.Adam always asks him if anything bothers him, this frog principal will always help him to see. It is also revealed that Principal Pixiefrog has a mother who bothers him.[11] He once had a girlfriend named Lenore (This was a reference to Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "The Raven").[12] After Principal Pixiefrog screamed "LENORE!", a raven flew and smacked into his window. He won the Principal of the Year award.[13] Eventually, he was stripped of it due to a dispute and the title was offered to Principal Wolverine, a principal who temporarily replaced him once.[14] Voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
Principal Pixiefrog's assistant; she does all of the filing and is, obviously, a German-American warthog. Ironically, she never works. In The Big Field Trip, Mrs. Warthog was the bus driver. Completely fed up with her job and her employer, she always has an air of complete exasperation about her. Her voice is identical to that of Nurse Gazelle. In That Darn Platypus, it is revealed that she spends most of her time playing computer solitaire and gets very agitated when she is unable to play. It is shown in Little Mermonkey that she enjoys fishing, since it's "hardly work". Portrayed by Grey DeLisle.
An African-American mandrill who is the school's spiritual guidance counselor, the band director (being an expert on bongo drums) and an advisor to the student court. A stereotypical portrayal of "touchy-feely" guidance counselors, an aged hippy and ex-hobo. Voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
Adam and Jake's homeroom teacher, a Vietnamese-American Indian Rhinoceros, who also teaches math, science, geography, feeding frenzy, and stalking. As his last name implies, he is a rhinoceros, and a hornbill is a kind of bird. He appears to have a crush on the cafeteria lady, Mrs. Eugenia Tusk.[15] He is the weakest of the teachers, who got beat up by Principal Pixiefrog in wrestling,[15] and couldn't drive away a taunting bird named Ted who decided to stand on Cyrus' horn.[9] Voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
An Ecuadorian American orca who is Spiffies homeroom teacher. He teaches students about spelling to win a Spelling Bee. Like the Spiffies themselves, he also wears glasses. A sound of a whale song echos after his voice. Voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
A Moroccan American female chameleon drama instructor. As expected from a drama teacher, she is a drama queen, who speaks melodramatically and will often have stereotypical horror music playing when on-scene. She can blend into her surroundings and turn invisible. She holds class while perched on a twig located under a warming lamp. She is also Muslim. Voiced by Nika Futterman.
A female Russian-American goldfish; Coach Gills is the school's tiny, deep-voiced PE and health teacher who instructs her students from inside her fishbowl. Though she looks rather sweet, she's no pushover. She never hesitates to give Adam a hard time if he doesn't perform as well as his fellow students. In Le Switcheroo, she and Adam trade roles for a day. After experiencing some trouble, they at last reconciled. She has mentioned several times in the series that she has no friends. She once had a crush on Mr. Cheetah, an athletic individual who plans to succeed her and Principal Pixiefrog in their careers. Ironically, though she is a fish, she apparently cannot swim.[16] She is voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray.
Coach Gills' Ojibwe ferret assistant, who rarely smiles and never talks due to being mute. He has a "strictly professional relationship" with Coach Gills, in which he pushes her fishbowl around. He is also seen helping out with things such as smelling out students trying to get out of showering. However he does talk (and complain about his voice) in the special episode, Animal School Musical. He is voiced by Tom Kenny and Robert Goulet in Animal School Musical as his last voice-over role before his death.
CDMS's lunch lady, a female Jamaican-American elephant who speaks with a Jamaican accent, despite being African. She is a greedy person, who cares more about making money than she does for the students whom she serves. Sample cuisine at CDMS includes dirtnuts, dirt tarts, grass sandwiches, peanut burritos, twigs n' berries, mud squares, bug soups and wormy joes. She is a married elephant (which she had to point out to Mr. Hornbill when he revealed his crush on her), though her husband has not yet appeared on-screen. She also appears to dislike Adam for some reason. Voiced by Cree Summer.
A Danish-American gazelle who serves as the school nurse of CDMS. She has blond hair and blue eyes. She also has a brain the size of a soy nut (she mentions they're really tiny and dry) and that she can't tell between a mirror's reflection and the animal looking into the mirror or the difference between two slightly similar but not identical animals.[17] Surprisingly, when Adam and Jake created nasty clones of themselves, she was able to differentiate them just before Principal Pixiefrog, who was with her, did.[18] She's also a cosmetologist.[16] voiced by Grey DeLisle.
A female Norwegian-American and Swedish-American Blue Jay who teaches the students of CDMS about art, English, and creative writing. Like Mr. Hornbill, she has a last name of another animal, despite not being a loon. Ms. Loon, being an animal and not understanding human art, believes that human art is bland and boring, and that tearing up paper and drawing random shapes and objects is real art.[19] Voiced by Cree Summer.
An African-American bear who teaches the students at CDMS how to hibernate. She is mostly seen in her cave. Voiced by Tom Kenny.
The school's bully, Virgil "Bull" Sharkowski is an African-American bull shark who enjoys beating up smaller kids and stealing their lunches. His intimidating presence, however, is offset by a high-pitched, squeaky voice that sometimes lessens the impact of his verbal threats. Despite being a bully, he also has a soft humane side that he doesn't usually realize he's revealing. Due to Bull being a water creature, he wears water-filled headphones over his gills to help him breathe; when he talks, he'll stop as his gills suck up the water with a loud noise. His nickname is a mildly obscure reference to the fact that bull sharks are known to be the most aggressive of all shark species. Bull has a big sister, Euripedes, who graduated CDMS prior to the beginning of the show and left a lasting impression in the school; a fact that has caused Bull to develop an inferiority complex at the mere mention of her name (despite the fact she is not only half Bull's size, but bullies via feminine taunts instead of physical abuse). Both Bull and Euripedes are voiced by Phil LaMarr.
Chad is a mature German-American hall monitor from Adam's old school, Chester Arthur Middle School. He hates Adam, cause of his immarturity. Voiced by Tom Kenny.
The biggest fan for Adam who pretended to be raised by possums so she could be with Adam forever. She ended up getting arrested at the end. She is Swedish-American. Voiced by Sarah Hagan.
A Chinese-American raccoon who was the only student to be expelled from Charles Darwin Middle School. As he stated, he just wanted a quality education but chose the delinquent path instead.
The human counterpart of Mr. Hornbill who is similar in hairstyle and clothes but sports a big nose with a bandage on it.
The human counterpart of Mrs. Tusk. It is unknown if she has a relationship with Mr. Thornbill at all.
Chester Arthur's football team who serves as the rival of Charles Darwin's Mad Cows.
A fictional female singer who both Jake and Adam adore. Her songs are mostly heard in an MTV-parody channel called "Yo Mama" as it has mentioned that she sang in several episodes. Jake is a fanatic of her work. She used to have a sidekick named Dela Royes Jippy who left the band for an unknown reason. She's a parody of Hillary Duff.
The host of Wacky Pet Tricks (parody of America's Funniest Home Videos). He thinks that all of the cheezy phrases that the production staff make for him to say on live are tedious. He is known for the gap on his teeth, his slick haircut and his glasses. He is a parody of David Letterman or Jerry Spring.
A samurai-esque chef who works at a sushi bar in the Animas episode. He gives wisdom and advice to many people and want people to call him "SAM". His name is a parody of Samurai Jack.
A scientist who made his appearance in "Pants in Space". As his name is close to the phrase "i didn't", Principal Pixiefrog refers to him as Larry. He works for a fictional space program looking for monkey acrobats called MASA (Most Amazing Simian Acrobats). He also appeared in the episode "The Morning Zoo". His appearance is based on Samurai Jack, an ended Cartoon Network series. He is voiced by Phil LaMarr who also voiced Jack.
A documentary filmmaker who came to Charles Darwin Middle School and planned to capture Adam Lyon, thinking him as a three-eyed creature dubbed as "Pants". She only appeared in "Docu-Traudma".
A mysterious talking tumbleweed who informed Adam about him wearing periwinkle. His voice is based on many popular movie trailer voiceover actors such as Joe Cipriano and George DelHoyo. He appeared in the Animas episode.
A bear handpuppet created by Windsor Gorilla who is used to make puns and jokes. Teddy only appears in four episodes. His catchphrase is "woo-hoo". His name parodies to that of the two Presidents of the United States; Harry S. Truman and Theodore Roosevelt.
Two DVD volumes of the series have been released in Australia, the first on April 4, 2007 and the second on January 23, 2008. As of January 2010, there have been no further volumes released.