Code Monkeys

For the phrase on which this program's title is based, see code monkey.

Code Monkeys
Code Monkeys title card; main characters from left to right: Black Steve, Dave, Todd, Clare, Jerry, Mary, Mr. Larrity, Dean and Benny.
Genre	Animation Comedy
Created by	Adam de la Peña
Voices of	Adam de la Peña Matt Mariska Andy Sipes Dana Snyder Tony Strickland Gretchen McNeil Suzanne Keilly Lionel Tubbins
Opening theme	"Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton
Composers	Al Kaplan Jon Kaplan
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Adam de la Peña
Producers	Jennifer Saxon Gore Tony Strickland
Running time	Approx. 22 minutes
Original release
Network	G4
Release	July 11, 2007 – present

Code Monkeys is an American animated series on the video game-oriented television channel G4. The show was created by Adam de la Peña, the creator of Adult Swim's Minoriteam and Comedy Central's I'm With Busey, and follows the adventures of fictional video game company GameaVision in the early 1980s. The show first aired on July 11, 2007 and so far, two seasons have aired and the show has yet to be renewed for a third season.

Production

In a moment of boredom, while working on the pilot for Minoriteam, Adam de la Peña began writing a script for what would become Code Monkeys. After making a seven minute animation test, he began shopping for a network to broadcast the show. He settled with G4 because he thought they understood the premise of the show the most. G4 allowed him to make a full-length pilot and subsequently picked up the show for 13 episodes and after a successful first season ratings-wise, the show was picked up for a second season.

A screenshot from "Code Monkeys", showcasing unique elements of the show: the health meter (upper-right), score (upper-left) and text box (bottom)

Several months before Code Monkeys began airing, G4 launched an elaborate advertising campaign for the show in which GameaVision was presented as a real game company. There were two commercial advertisements for the fictitious games "Crosswalk" and "Barfight", the games "Sir Eats-A-Lot" and "Floating Space Rocks" were featured in a "Cheat! G-Spot" segment, and "Barfight" was featured in an episode of Attack of the Show. G4 even created GameaVision's own website, featuring two playable games: "2 Card Monte", which cannot be won; and "Hangman", which contains fewer than 10 words, all of which are meant to insult the player.

Code Monkeys is presented as though it were an 8-bit video game. In keeping with this unique format, characters, backgrounds and other objects are rendered with an 8-bit color palette, occasionally leading to trouble animating specific objects. Each episode begins with a screen flashing "PLAYER 1 START!", although at the start of "Psychological Problems", this screen was preceded by a screen that was similar to the multicart loading of a game, which, in this case, resembles the 3-in-1 Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet, and the end of the show closes with a black "GAME OVER" screen, with a "kill screen" appearing after the production company logo in the first season. Before each commercial break, a small pause box typically appears in the middle of the screen which freezes the scene. On the two occasions when Jerry "died", a "Game Over/Continue?" box appears, with the "player" comtemplating on selecting "No", but selects "Yes" to continue the episode anyway. Near the end of "Todd Loses His Mind", the episode "crashes" abruptly, forcing the "player" to eject the "game cartridge" to blow dust off the cartridge connectors and reseting the episode to its beginning, thus negating everything that happened in the episode. The show also features status bars at the top and bottom of the frame, which display a running counter of points earned by the characters doing video game-like actions in each episode, a health meter for the current characters, narrative asides based on certain characters' actions or dialogue, and other humorous sayings or pictures based on an episode's story line. The show is entirely computer animated and done in-house at the G4 studios in Los Angeles, with the exception of the game crash segment of "Todd Looses his Mind," which is done in first person in live-action. The original music for the show, video game-styled underscore, is composed by Jon and Al Kaplan. Other music prominently featured in the series includes music by Los Angeles heavy metal group Tinhorn. Jonathan Coulton’s song "Code Monkey" serves as the theme song of the show.

Plot

Main article: List of Code Monkeys episodes

The plot of Code Monkeys revolves around the fictitious video game company GameaVision (a play on companies like ActiVision and ColecoVision) and its eccentric employees, mainly the slacker Dave and his high-strung friend Jerry. The entire series takes place in the city of Sunnyvale, California, one of the major cities that comprises the Silicon Valley. The humor in Code Monkeys is mostly grounded in toilet humor and black comedy, but some of the show's jokes stem from its numerous references to video games, past and present, but mostly those from the 8-bit era including Castlevania, Mega Man, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, and Super Mario Bros. This also extends to cameos from well known video game developers, who appear in the show pitching their ideas to GameaVision for the games that would later make them famous, usually to be rejected, insulted, and sometimes injured or killed off.

Characters

• Dave (voiced by Adam de la Peña) — Dave is the de facto lead programmer at GameaVision. Immature, irresponsible, and constantly high, he focuses his attention more on playing games than actually making them. Dave often grosses out his co-workers by either throwing up in front of them, having his pants down at inopportune moments, humping random people or objects, or performing any other lewd acts. A rampant hedonist, the only things that seem to motivate Dave are money, marijuana, and sex. Most of the show's and characters' predicaments are caused by Dave's erratic and impulsive actions. Despite all this, Dave has flair to all of his actions and is a competent game programmer.

• Jerry (voiced by Matt Mariska) — Jerry is Dave's best friend, fellow programmer, and office-mate. Unlike Dave, Jerry is hard-working, responsible, and tidy. However, usually under Dave's negative influence, Jerry will succumb to sinful pleasures, often with disastrous outcomes. Jerry's running gags throughout the series deal with his unrequited crush on fellow programmer Mary, who can't stand him, mainly because of his friendship with Dave, fixing the damage Dave causes, wetting himself when nervous or threatened, and his tendency to be quite effete at certain times.

• Mr. Larrity (voiced by Andy Sipes) — Mr. Bob "Big T." Larrity is the current head of GameaVision, a Texan billionaire who bought the company from Steve Wozniak, despite the fact that he knows nothing about video games, only that they're sure to make him rich. In addition to being ignorant, Larrity is violent, manic, bigoted, and possibly insane. He treats his employees with no respect, but still cares about them to some degree, particularly for Dave, Jerry, and Benny.

• Dean (voiced by Andy Sipes) — Dean is Mr. Larrity's extremely muscular, but stupid son. He is appointed by his father as GameaVision's Head Supervisor and occasionally, the company's official corpse disposer. However, Dean rarely interacts with the other employees and doesn't participate in any of the programming. He is likely to utilize violence to solve problems.

• Todd (voiced by Dana Snyder) — Todd is GameaVision's resident fantasy game designer, an obese, 33-year old nerd who is always seen wearing a horned helmet. Although all his co-workers look upon Todd with contempt, he remains oblivious to all of it. Todd often speaks in a very arrogant but eloquent way and often uses esoteric phrases and diction. He often has delusions of grandeur, considering himself to be the greatest and the sexiest of the designers at GameaVision. Todd is also one of the more mentally unstable characters on the show, sometimes blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, in which he becomes his alter-ego Pardue, as well as having an extremely unhealthly relationship with his mother.

• Black Steve (voiced by Tony Strickland) — Black Steve is GameaVision's accountant and, as his nickname would imply, is the only known black man working at the company. He is foul-mouthed and ill-tempered towards both white people and any inanimate object that is colored white. He relishes the opportunity to use his semi-automatic pistol against anything that angers him, especially against the aforementioned. Despite his position, Black Steve has contributed games to the company, mostly themed to his prejudice towards white people.

• Mary (voiced by Gretchen McNeil) — Mary is GameaVision's sole female programmer, and subsequently isn't taken seriously by any of the other sexist employees, with the exception of Jerry, who has a major, although unrequited, crush on her. Compared to her co-workers, Mary is considered to be the most level-headed employee at GameaVision. Due to her being a strong feminist, she is often accused of being a lesbian. A majority of the games she designs are targeted at girls or revolve around women's issues in some way.

• Clare (voiced by Suzanne Keilly) — Clare is GameaVision's receptionist. The antithesis to Mary, Clare has many mannerisms common to a valley girl: she is airheaded, self-centered, self-conscious, and especially sexually promiscuous, even going as far as taking unconscious men back to her house and practicing in BDSM-related activities. Most of the time, she is treated with disrespect by the other GameaVision employees.

• Benny (voiced by Dana Snyder) — Benny is a Korean child, illegally adopted by Larrity to test the company's games. He is fed a diet of cigarettes, Pixy Stix, bags of pure sugar, and amphetamines to keep him game-testing nonstop. As a result, Benny is constantly hyper and usually spends his time roaming through the building's ventilation and plumbing systems, making a side living selling things to employees. No game can be shipped without Benny's approval, which causes the programmers, namely Dave and Jerry, to repeatedly bribe him with, often illegal, treats and toys.

• Clarence (voiced by Lionel Tubbins) — Clarence is GameaVision's audio designer. Flamboyantly gay, he wears sparkly jumpsuits, sings all of his dialogue, and constantly makes blatant references to gay sex. He has also demonstrated the abilities to levitate and pass through walls, using "gay magic" which can be toggled on and off, possibly a play on the "fairy" pejorative of homosexuality. Occasionally, Clarence contributes homosexually-themed games to the company.

Minor characters

The minor characters are people at GameaVision that are physically present at the company, but have yet to have a significant role in the plot.

• Wendy (voiced by Julia Rose) — Wendy is an intern at GameaVision. Dave seems to have a sexual interest in her, introduced in the episode "IPO" and revisited in "Wrassle Mania" and "Drunken Office Party".

• Hank Summers — Hank is Benny's silent bodyguard.

• "The Unknown Employee" — The "Unknown Employee" is a background character that has been featured in every episode, but has yet to have any speaking lines or even be identified. He is often seen taking pictures, usually when the main characters are being physically hurt or humiliated in some way.

• Todd's Mother — Though never seen nor heard, Todd's mother has been referenced in most episodes. Todd has a relationship with her that for all intents and purposes seems to be incestuous.

Notable guest stars

These are people, whether related to video game culture, culture of the 1980s, or to a lesser extent, stoner culture, who either appear as themselves or as other characters. Guest stars either have a cameo appearance, serve a role in the plot of a single episode, or in some cases, both.

• Steve Wozniak — Co-founder of Apple Inc. He appears in "The Woz", "Vegas, Baby!", "Car Robber Sunnyvale", and has a nonspeaking role in "Trouble in the Middle East". He was beloved CEO of GameaVision before he sold the company to Mr. Larrity to fund a fictional version of Apple Inc, believing that the personal computer is the wave of the future, although Dave strongly disagrees. In "Car Robber Sunnyvale", he references the "Get a Mac" ad campaign when he compares the superiority of the Apple IIe to an IBM PC.

• Nolan Bushnell — Founder of Atari & Chuck E. Cheese's. In "Stonervision", Dave hires him to work/hang-out at Stonervision for a $1,000 a day. Bushnell is later carted off into a moving van when Stonervision goes under. Chuck E. Cheese's is parodied in "The Great Recession" with a restaurant called "Stink E. Cheese".

• Burnie Burns, Matt Hullum, & Joel Heyman — Creators and cast members of the web cartoon Red vs. Blue. They appear as prison guards in "Super Prison Breakout", with Hullum using his "Sarge" voice for the Red Guard and Burns and Heyman using their "Church" and "Caboose" voices respectively for the Blue Guards.

• David Jaffe — Game developer famous for Twisted Metal and God of War. He appears as a child in "Just One of the Gamers" and "Valley of the Silicon Dolls". In "Just One of the Gamers", he pitches God of War to Mr. Larrity, but his idea is rejected and is "fired" by Larrity. In his later appearance, Jaffe and his partner Scott Campbell were hired to develop a teddy bear for GameaVision, but they are later killed by their creation, Jaffe by decapitation and Campbell by electrocution, when Dave and Jerry reprogram the doll.

• Gary Gygax — Co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons. Appearing in "Todd Loses His Mind", Todd, believing that he is his D&D persona Pardue, forces Gygax to grant him more power in exchange for a "virgin offering", so that he can destroy GameaVision. Gygax knows about Todd and his weird habits; it is apparent when Gygax states "Not again!" when Todd shows up at his house, which looks like a giant 20-sided die.

• Lorne Lanning — Game developer famous for the Oddworld franchise. Appearing in "Third Reich's the Charm", he pitches Oddworld to Mr. Larrity, but his idea is rejected and he is subsequently electrocuted and thrown in a well by Dean. Somehow after escaping the well, Lanning later joins the staff at Hitler Castle, but he is mauled to death by a bear.

• John Romero — Game developer from id Software famous for Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, and Quake and notorious for Daikatana. Appearing in "Wrassle Mania", he pitches DOOM to Mr. Larrity unsuccessfully. He is also a womaniser like Dave, wanting to see Mary, Clare, and Wendy wrestle in gelatin.

• Tommy Chong — Actor famous for his stereotypical portrayals of hippie-era stoners. In the 420 episode, he appears as Laird Boony, who searches for the "magic weed" with the GameaVision staff.

• Howard Scott Warshaw — Game developer from Atari famous for Yars' Revenge and Raiders of the Lost Ark and notorious for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In "Dean in Charge", he was hired by Mr. Larrity to work for GameaVision, but Warshaw would later leave because of Jerry’s obsession with him.

• Ron Gilbert — Game developer from LucasArts famous for Monkey Island, Maniac Mansion, and Graphics BASIC. At the GameaVision office party, Dave insults Graphics BASIC and the fact that Gilbert's leaving GameaVision for LucasArts, to which Dave calls "LucasFarts".

• Eugene Jarvis — Game developer from Williams Electronics famous for Defender and Smash TV. In "Drunken Office Party", Dave insults Defender, because he claims it was too complicated, and Jarvis physically retaliates during the party. When Jerry attempted to apologize for Dave's actions on the day after the party, as Dave had convinced Jerry that it was him who wrecked the party, Jarvis attacks the duo with the enemies from the game.

• Ed Boon — Game developer from Midway famous for Mortal Kombat. In the episode "The Great Recession", Boon interviews both Dave and Jerry for entry-level jobs at Midway after GameaVision closes. However, when Dave plays hardball, Boon has Goro throw both Dave and Jerry out the window. The show incorrectly spells his name "Ed Boone".

• Steve Wiebe — Former world record holder for Donkey Kong and the protagonist in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Appearing as a younger version of himself in "The Great Recession", Todd, while working at a restaurant in the Sunnyvale Mall, attempted to make Wiebe his protégé when he noticed that Wiebe was setting records with the games that Todd had created. He is even seen playing a parody of Donkey Kong titled "Monkey Dong".

• Kevin Pereira & Olivia Munn — Hosts of the G4 program Attack of the Show. They both appear in "The Great Recession" as employees of a Sunnyvale Mall food court stand called "Pink Pretzel". Kevin serves as the stand's chauvinistic manager while Olivia portrays a 16-year old female employee who has relations with Jerry and insults Mary by calling her "old" when the two GameaVision employees work at the stand.

• Jason Zumwalt — Voice of Roman Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV. In "Car Robber Sunnyvale", Zumwalt appears as Boris, an Eastern European voice actor who is paid five dollars for his work in the titular game. However, when the game becomes a huge hit, he attempts to collect his due royalties by forcing Dave and Jerry to do GTA-style "odd jobs".

Recurring cultural references

The show also contains many references to past and present TV shows, video games, movies, music, and historical events. Since this is the basis of much of the show's humor, this list only contains repeated references in the show.

• The Legend of Zelda — The Legend of Zelda series is referenced in almost every episode. Mr. Larrity's office desk has three items with prices next to them, a reference of the merchant in the original game, and in the episode "The Woz", Wozniak has several masks from Majora's Mask hanging on his wall. He even puts on Majora's Mask while talking to Dave and Jerry. A picture of Majora's Mask is indicated as "Player 1" in the top left corner of the screen in the short time he is talking to them. Also, "The Unknown Employee" has a picture on his shirt that looks like the Master Sword.

• Mario — The Mario series is a common reference on the show from the use of warp pipes to the characters' jumping animation and sound effect. In the episode "Stonervision", Jerry tries to give Mary a flower, which looks like the Fire Flower power-up, while asking her on a date. In the episode "Psychological Problems", Benny was flashing different colors, similar to Mario or Luigi when they collect the Starman power-up, suggesting he was "invincible" when he took Black Steve's brown M&Ms.

• Nintendo — In addition to the aforementioned Zelda and Mario references, Nintendo itself is a common reference on Code Monkeys. GameaVision has a Japanese rival, a Nintendo parody called Protendo; in "The Take Over", Protendo attempts to buy out and liquidate GameaVision, but the GameaVision staff breaks the one-day efficiency record in order to prevent the take over, and in "The Revenge of Matsui", Protendo kidnaps Benny as revenge against GameaVision's actions in the earlier episode. In "Trouble in the Middle East", the ImpalaVision console looks similar to the North American Super NES. The Power Glove and NES Zapper are shown in the window of the video game store in the episode "Car Robber Sunnyvale".

• Mega Man — In "The Woz", Dave and Jerry fight enemies that are from the game while jumping over a spike pit. Also, when Jerry failed to jump over said spikes, his death has a similar animation to Mega Man's death. The death animation also occurred in "IPO" while Jerry was working for a trash collection company to pay off his loan from GameaVision's failed IPO. Also, Needle Man is used as a drill in both "The Woz" and "Larrity's Got Back".

• Final Fantasy — Final Fantasy VII's main protagonist Cloud Strife can be seen as a background character in the episodes "Just One of the Gamers" and "The Revenge of Matsui". In "Third Reich's the Charm", Clarence calls in some cowboys to fight Hitler and his army in a Final Fantasy-esque fight sequence. In "Trouble in the Middle East", the pants-wearing cacti in the fictional country of Khakistan look similar to Cactuars.

• Ikari Warriors — In "Super Prison Breakout", Dave and escaped prisoner Hondo embark on a shooting rampage Ikari Warriors-style while Jerry whines about them shooting everyone. This also happens in "Trouble in the Middle East", when Mr. Larrity, Dean, Mary, Black Steve, and Jerry travel to Khakistan to save Dave and Todd.

• Defender — In "Drunken Office Party", creator Eugene Jarvis guest stars on the episode and gets insulted by Dave's assertion that Defender is too hard to play. The next day, Jarvis sends the enemies from the game after Dave. In "The Great Recession", the game is referenced by Ed Boon as one of the hit games Midway made.

• Spy Hunter — The show uses Spy Hunter's top-down perspective for car chase sequences, such as when Dave and Jerry attempted to stop a tractor-trailer containing several thousand units of the doomed E.T. video game in the episode of the same name. The game itself is referenced in "The Great Recession" when Ed Boon mentions it as one of Midway's hit games.

• Grand Theft Auto — The Grand Theft Auto series is the central theme of the main plot in "Car Robber Sunnyvale". In said episode, Dave and Jerry create the titular game, which parodies the controversial gameplay of the series, the episode-centric character Boris is based on Roman from GTA IV, Jerry's arm is cut off by Boris, a reference to the character Phil Cassidy, and when Boris sends Dave and Jerry on missions, the view switches from Code Monkey's typical isometric perspective to the top-down perspective found in the early GTA games.

Reception

According to the president of G4, the first season was a huge success for the network. During its first season the show was watched by more than 20 million people. Since its inception, Code Monkeys has received mixed reviews. Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times said the premise of the show is a "promising idea," but that the show's "sensibility is too narrow" for "the funny nerd network [G4] should be." Concerning the 8-bit graphics, she noted that "[s]oon you want to see something that looks more human, or at least more cartoon." Scott Jon Siegel of Joystiq agreed, saying that "Code Monkeys has potential, [but] squanders it." He went on to say that "there was hope that G4 could deliver something actually watchable. [Code Monkeys] isn't." Jake Swearingen of Wired magazine stated that the show would appeal to "anyone who spent their youth blowing dust out of Nintendo cartridges and developing Contra-induced carpal tunnel syndrome." Furthermore, he compared Code Monkeys to arcade games of the 1980s, stating "[m]uch like the classics it riffs on, Code quickly veers into the wildly surreal." Andy Grieser of Zap2it called the show "the funniest ... animation this side of South Park." He called the graphics "[i]nstant nostalgia for thirtysomethings." Will Harris of Bullz-Eye.com gave the show a 3.5/5 and commented that "Code Monkeys is a twisted little show, [but that] it’s not for all tastes."

DVD release

Shout! Factory, partnering with G4, released a two-disc DVD set of the first season of Code Monkeys on August 5, 2008 in Region 1.

Code Monkeys: Season One
Set Details			Special Features
13 Episodes 2-Disc Set 1.33:1 aspect ratio Subtitles: None English (Stereo 2.0)			"Adam de la Peña Interview" "A Look Behind the Scenes of Code Monkeys" "Daily Pranks" "GameaVision's 'Hangman'" "Original Commercials" "Gaming Tips from Kristin Holt" "GameaVision's '2 Card Monty'" Downloadable Wallpapers and Posters

External links

• Code Monkeys official page on G4's web site
• Code Monkeys at IMDb
• GameaVision on G4's web site
• G4's official press release for Code Monkeys
• G4's The Feed announcement for Code Monkeys
• G4TV's Adam de la Pena Chat Transcript