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ThThere are many people who don’t catch the spotlight. TV overlooks the dim man-child who keeps a diary, college professors who wax poetic on the JFK assassination and a comedienne who had a nervous breakdown onstage. Super Deluxe gives a soapbox to these twisted minds and plenty more.
Superdeluxe.com hosts original Webseries and other comedy programming for the absurdist [adult swim] crowd. It began in January 2007 as an offshoot from TBS Networks and has since carved its own niche for demented humor.
Content is updated regularly, and most new Webisodes average around five minutes each. Super Deluxe also keeps an archive of all its past shows. After you get cozy with the ongoing mainstays then check out some of the shows that have already wrapped.
Two standout shows on Super Deluxe are both from Brad Neely, a comic book artist from Arkansas. He was also a consultant on the 11th season of “South Park,” including the epic “Imaginationland” episode.
Neely’s style is a crude yet charming stop-motion technique with washed out drawings. One of his shows, “I Am Baby Cakes,” peeks into the life of a 30-year-old man-child called Baby Cakes as he narrates his own diary entries. Baby Cakes gets philosophical about wizards, romance and the Brain Fuggler - a little orange guy dressed like a medieval executioner who “fuggles” everybody’s unsuspecting brain. Sometimes Baby Cakes freestyles about Christmas, therapy or role-playing games.
Baby Cakes has a pretty warped view of the world that gives him weird wisdom. He takes trips to the park with his “walking potion - 10 parts sugar, 90 parts whiskey.” He muses “until the stars put on their makeup” and decides, “Shit matters. Even if we can’t figure it out. Even if we are ruled by devils...I just hope that I die while hugging and not while in a wine-drinking contest.”
Neely is also the creator of “The Professor Brothers.” This show has a similar art style to “I Am Baby Cakes” and follows the lectures of two college professors, Frank and Steve. In a hilarious episode on Bible history, Frank tells the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Frank explains, in his nasally voice, that Sodom is named after sodomy and Gomorrah is named after “an even weirder move.”
Like Baby Cakes, Frank and Steve burst into song every now and then, like when they explain the real truth behind JFK and his death. They also teach film classes and deliver eulogies of Anthony Hopkins and his wrinkly pink skin. Fans of Neely’s asylum humor in “I Am Baby Cakes” are sure to love the slightly more restrained “Professor Brothers.”
Animation isn’t all Super Deluxe has to offer. There’s great programming with real people who are just as unbalanced as their animated colleagues. Comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim have a 20-minute talk show that’s full of strange surprises and crazy non sequiturs. You might recognize them from “Tom Goes to the Mayor” or “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” on [adult swim].
Comedienne Maria Bamford also has a show on Super Deluxe, which she recently finished. “The Maria Bamford Show” is all about Maria’s life at home with her parents in Duluth, Minn. after her nervous breakdown. She plays the entire cast of characters, including family members, former classmates and a sex-crazed priest.
If you’re looking to spice things up in the bedroom, Super Deluxe also hosts nerve.com’s “Position of the Day.” Get diagrams and deadpan narration on exciting new positions like “the unpaid intern” and “the accordion.”
Check out www.superdeluxe.com for all the bite-sized insanity.
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