My Gym Partner's a Monkey

I actually love this show! It has a great premise and some creative re-imaginings of many tales from all our school days and even some new ones. Throw in crazy animal antics and you've got a winning formula. The voice acting is great and pays wonderful attention to the mannerisms of the animals. There is a plethora of wonderful character voices as well as those that recollect the usual suspects from school. (The deep, smart kid, the superficial popular crowd, the school bully, even the optimistically depressed guidance counselor).

Instead of having to just adjust to the rigors of middle school, poor Adam Lyon needs to adjust to an innumerable amount of different species that all have their own ins and outs that make day to day differences hilarious. Sure there are a lot of easy gags like fart or butt jokes, but I think I'm mature enough to admit that they're still funny....and always will be. Whether it's trying to fit in at the school dance, learning why it might not be okay to bring a hamburger for lunch, or competing against a dolphin in the school science fair, it will never be a dull day at Charles Darwin Middle School.---- Fart Jokes rule.

Too be honest I really don't have many memories the few I do have are OK. I re watched some episodes a week ago just to see if it was any good and it wasn't terrible but it wasn't great either. I love Tom Kenny in it but that about it. So if you're bored or want to try something new then maybe you should try this show.

The trailer for this show certainly caught my attention in my childhood because of the premise. I thought it was an interesting idea of a human going to an animal school, but when I saw the show, I was pretty disappointed in how the concept was handled.

You'd think a human attending an animal school would make an excellent social commentary, but instead it's just a barrage of stupidity and butt jokes. The humor in this show was very mean-spirited toward the protagonist, Adam Lyon, who always gets into trouble due to the antics of his "best friend," Jake Spidermonkey, who's always obsessing over his butt and generally being moronic and unreliable. Adam is also a frequent victim of physical abuse by his animal classmates, and the staff is too incompetent to do anything about it, not even bothering to fix the typo that got Adam transferred there in the first place.

While the voice performances were well-done, the writing for this show was far too ridiculous and mean-spirited, even for Cartoon Network, and I'm not a fan of the character designs. However, I still think more could've been done with the premise, and I'd love to see it explored again someday.

There are two things that go through my mind when I watch My Gym Partner's a Monkey: 1) It is a cartoon 2) Comedy. I suspect if I were living in some bizzaro cartoon universe, anything is possible i.e. my jaw dropping to the ground, and my tongue dragging on the floor.

Back to the cartoon itself. As Jake's last name is Lion; subsequently he is shifted from a human school to an animal school. Basically Charles Darwin School is used to educate young animals. Again, this scenario could be possible in a cartoon universe. Jake Spider-Monkey and Adam Lion are best friends, and they get up to all sorts of stuff. One of my favorite episodes is, when the animals from Charles Darwin School, stayed at Adam's house for the night.

For a cartoon that has been produced on the cheap, I like it, because it is funny. If you want realism, well go and watch Nat Geo, or Discovery. It is a cartoon, Jake Spider-Monkey and Adam Lion can do anything they want, ranging from a talking Spider-Monkey, to being transferred to an animal school.

Nevertheless, my Gym Partner's a Monkey, could be a metaphor for school. Looking back at my youth, there is one place that could come close to a zoo, and that is high school, as the kids are out of control, and all the students are tearing each other to bits.

I have to give the my Gym Partner's a Monkey 8/10. That theme song is going to haunt me, until the day I die.

This show admittedly did catch my attention during the point where I was just about still in its target demographic.

I didn't really get into it but it was years later when I came across it again.

One reason was that one episode was linked in a forum about a fetish of mine (it's not a great example of it though but it's when Pixiefrog becomes human).

The other reason which got me watching was Nikka Futterman <3

Her voice has been in my life for ever (in practice since Mike, Lou and Og) and I discovered the name after her performance in Deadspace: Downfall.

Adam Lyon as a character definitely showcases her talent even if the show isn't really worthy of her.

It's tiresome to keep seeing Delisle, Lamarch, Lamarr and Macneill's names in credits but yet I always have time for Tom Kenny and it was fun to get to hear him doing his Spongebob voice for Jake the monkey but an octave lower and a lot less optimistic.

The concept of this show does feel a little desperate but a show is all about the execution which isn't amazing either. They're self aware about it though; at one point in season 4 after a particularly off the wall episode Jake says what I'm thinking when he asks "Remember when this show was about a boy in an all animal school?"

The world this is in is oddly fascinating but they never shine a light into it. It's a world in which non-humans exist as a linguistic community alongside but segregated from humans. Even insects can speak and yet they are served in the cafeteria.

They went for the jungle aesthetic within the school and I can get that. I liked how there are water tubes going in and out of the corridors and pillars of water in the classroom. In a world with individuals of such contractive shapes and sizes and abilities, the accessibility would have been a fascinating thing to explore but that's not the focus at all and Beastars handles that angle a lot better even if they were tetrapods only.

It's not about world-building, it's all about hijinks. The humor is nothing to write home about but it's disposable entertainment for the last thing before bed.

Windor Gorilla really grew on me but it's Principle Pixiefrog that steals the show especially his dynamic with world-weary secretary Miss. Warthog.

The element of Ingrid the Giraffe having her one-sided infatuation with the human Adam (Adam...get it?) was also agreeable, giraffes are special. The visual gag where her head is just almost always out of frame added something and didn't get old. Her head poking into the frame from the side was also a nice touch. It was cute watching the all huddle poolside, terrified of entry in their assorted swimwear, her head still not visible.

Lupe the very loud hispanic toucan I dare say has not aged well but then again, they never mentioned exactly which country she was from.

It was a fun idea that Jake the spider monkey is transferred to a school for plants because they thought he was a spider plant.

Often quite irksome as Adam gets chided for trivial things, there is a malicious quality to the first two seasons as they're happy to just end it negatively with no real sense of irony or karma. I hate that. AND girl scouts!!!

Oh and it's also kind of gross too.