In "Ketchup with Uncle Grandpa", I described Cartoon Network's defunct live-action shows as "shrill" - I officially take that back. This is shrill bloody defined. Replace "butts" with "aliens", "robots" or "monsters" (for that matter, butt-shaped aliens, monsters and robots make almost-immediate appearances here) and this could easily be one of any number of Canadian-produced half-hearted, overloud grossout action-comedies. Like too many of its contemporaries, there's also no effort made to conceal that it's bad Flash animation - something which never bodes well.
The Day is based on the beloved children's books that I really don't have the inclination to research. Given the pedigree and general presentation of the show, I'm going to assume they feature similarly-named characters, but with more ambitious storytelling and less reliance on stock slapstick and strained pop-culture references, as seen with Scaredy Squirrel.
The basic premise is that humanity's sorely mistreated buttocks have gained independent sentience and mobility, and now seek to overthrow their former masters - in short, these asses are revolting (I'm willing to bet that joke's already in one of the books, but a gimme's a gimme). Except, that is, for the protagonist's - teenage hero Zack and his benevolent butt Deuce (as distinct from Buhdeuce) are part of an elite society of "butt fighters", with entirely predictable bathroom-accessory-based weaponry and, confusingly, Bottom Biting Bug-like theming.
Much like Bug, everything from the obvious (chairs and pillows) to the inspired (cymbal nuts) and downright unappetizing (drink lids) - is shaped like a highly stylized butt. In this case, though, society is fighting the same buttocks they honour. Is this an attempt at re-appropriating a symbol, or was this society butt-themed before the uprising? If the latter, perhaps the butts' actual motivations are even less noble than presented...but that's getting pretty far into speculation. If the former, it's sort of like XCOM replacing their emblem with the iconic Grey face, while Ikea redesigns their furniture and dinnerware in simliar fashion and architecture sees a renaissance of the tapering oval. The international strikethrough symbol exists precisely to avoid confusion in circumstances like this.
"Public support seems to be waning since the rebranding, sir." |
The human protagonists bear more than passing resemblance to those of similar Nelvana-Corus property Grossology, and the action segments could have been ripped directly from it (though narrowing the focus from a whole range of hilarious biological processes to butts alone).
Grossology didn't set the bar extremely high, but it was committed to the disgusting factor where The Day pulls its punches. I can also say with absolute certainty that adding Coconut fucking Fred to the situation cannot possibly improve it in any way.
My god...the butt is the coconut! The metaphysical implications are staggering! |
I still remembered this line twenty-four years later...what does that say about me? |
Teletoon is apparently showing The Day My Butt Went Psycho with no concern for order, debuting the series with the first half of episode 3 and the second of episode 7. Said network has never been particularly diligent about continuity, and honestly I don't think it's going to matter that much with this show. Save for potentially explaining the aforementioned butt-theming, any backstory that could possibly be needed is covered in the title theme. As well, this led to an unintentionally (but insightfully) meta joke where the evil leader (the mountainous derriere above) has grown completely cynical of the usual proceedings and is able to call them out step-by-step...in what, to the Teletoon viewer, is the first time he's encountered them. Ouch.
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