Code Monkeys

*Code Monkeys*
Code Monkeys
	Code Monkeys title card
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Adam de la Pena
Country of origin	U.S.A.
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1 (season 2 airs on April 20, 2008)
No. of episodes	13
Production
Running time	22 minutes
Original release
Network	G4
Release	July 11, 2007 –; Present

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

Code Monkeys™ is an original 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 two video game programmers in the early 1980s.

Jonathan Coulton’s song "Code Monkey" serves as the theme song of the show. Other music prominently featured in the series includes music by Los Angeles heavy metal group Tinhorn.

Show Overview

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. Many of the references in the show suggest that it is set sometime around 1982 (in episode five, Clare states that "it's the 80s!"), during the Atari-era video game boom and E.T. for the Atari 2600. However, the show is full of so many (possibly intentional) anachronisms that the actual date will probably never be made clear.

The animation in Code Monkeys is unique in that all of the characters are rendered with an 8-bit color palette and all of the backgrounds are in 16-bit, close to the graphic capabilities of the SNES. The sprites used for the characters have many similarities to those in the NES game River City Ransom. The look of the show is also supposed to mimic the structure and appearance of a classic video game. The beginning of the show begins with a screen flashing "PLAYER 1 START!" and the end of show closes with a black "GAME OVER" screen. The top of the screen is occupied by a health bar consisting of seven heart containers (a la The Legend of Zelda), though it does change in certtain situations, such as a list, and a point counter which randomly dispenses points throughout the episode. At each commercial break, a small pause box appears in the middle of the screen which freezes the show (although this was sometimes replaced with a box that read "An error has occurred. Please wait while Code Monkeys reboots", a la pre-OSX Macs).

A screenshot from "Code Monkeys"; the framing of the screen is meant to mimic the classic *Excitebike* NES game.

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 1980s video games, including Castlevania, Mega Man, Contra, Ikari Warriors, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, and others. This also extends to cameos from well known video game developers, who appear in the show pitching their ideas for the games that would later make them famous to GameaVision, only to be rejected, insulted, and sometimes injured or killed off: for example, a child prodigy version of David Jaffe got his face kicked in after pitching the idea for God of War, and Lorne Lanning got electrocuted and tossed in a well after pitching Oddworld then later being eaten by a bear.

Several months before Code Monkeys was released, 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.

Characters

Dave (voiced by Adam de la Peña): Jerry's best friend and office-mate, with whom he designs games. It was stated in one episode that he was adopted by Jerry so that he could remain in the country. However, unlike Jerry, Dave is irresponsible, messy, rude, constantly stoned, and focuses his attention more on playing games than making them. A rampant hedonist, the only things that seem to motivate Dave are money, weed, and sex. In fact, 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. Throughout the series, Dave has the running gag of making statements that are unintentionally paradoxical by today's standards; for instance, Dave states that he doesn't believe the home computer will be successful in the future, saying it will be a "passing fad, like MTV". Another running gag is Dave's habit of humping random things and/or people, which has been shown in almost every episode aired thus far. There is also a possibility that Dave is not legally residing in the US, indicated by the fact that Jerry adopted him to avoid getting deported.

Jerry (voiced by Matt Mariska): Dave's best friend, co-worker, and office-mate. It was stated in one episode that he adopted Dave so that Dave could remain in the country. Unlike Dave, Jerry is hard-working, responsible, and tidy. However, usually under Dave's negative influence, Jerry will succumb to sinful pleasures, such as strippers and caffeine, 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) and his tendency to involuntarily wet himself in stressful conditions.

Mr. Bob "Big" T. Larrity (voiced by Andy Sipes): Larrity is the current head of GameaVision, a Texan millionaire 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 his ignorance, Larrity is violent, manic, bigoted, possibly insane, and treats his employees with no respect but still cares about them to some degree, particularly for Dave, Jerry, and especially Benny. He spends most of his time lounging in his enormous, ostentatiously decorated office. He has been married at least seven times and even had one of his wives stuffed and kept in his secret vault (as seen in "Super Prison Break-Out"). Similar to shop keepers featured in The Legend of Zelda series, his desk displays 3 random objects that change from episode to episode. Amongst Larrity's many federal offenses are graft, running a psychic hotline scam, illegaly adopting an elephant, a shampoo factory accident, running a white slavery ring, a torture academy, a wombat mill, inebriating eagles, involvement in the Three Mile Island accident, vehicular manslaughter, and having meth being cooked up in the back of his bondage club (which he denies any knowledge of happening). Also, the episode "Vegas, Baby!" points out that he can fly a plane, and the episode "The Revenge of Matsui" mentions that he was a 3-time Texas all-star linebacker.

Dean Larrity (voiced by Andy Sipes): Dean is Mr. Larrity's extremely built but extremely dense son (the episode "Vegas, Baby!" indicates that his GPA is 1.2), 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 (his office consists entirely of a weight machine and a cardboard box he uses as a desk). When his father dies, Dean will inherit GameaVision and his dad's wealth; he plans to buy a luckdragon. He is likely to utilize violence to solve problems; for example, in order to turn a stereo off, he destroyed it by repeatly slamming Dave onto it. While at first it seemed as though Dean is Mr. Larrity's only son, Mr. Larrity states in "E.T." that he has another son (Dean's brother) who is in jail. In the episode "IPO", Dean hints that he was in a fraternity and was accused by a woman of an unnamed crime, likely sexual assault. (His dad paid off the D.A. to get him off the hook.) Dean never finished college.

Todd Friedman (voiced by Dana Snyder): Todd is a fellow game designer, an obese, 33-year old nerd who's always seen wearing a horned helmet for some roleplaying, or egomaniacal purposes. Although all of the other designers look upon Todd with contempt, Todd continues to have delusions of grandeur and considers himself to be the greatest and the sexiest of the designers at GameaVision. Todd is one of the more disturbed characters of the show, often confusing the lines between reality and his Dungeons & Dragons-fueled fantasy world (in which he takes on the alter-ego Pardue), and apparently engaging in an incestuous relationship with his mother. According to G4tv.com/gameavision, Todd is the son of Gameavision's founder, Ivan Friedman.

Black Steve (voiced by Tony Strickland): Black Steve is GameaVison'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 inanimate objects, taking any chance to pull his semi-automatic pistol at anything that angers him. Despite his position, Black Steve's contributed a number of games for the company, including "Honkey Killer" and "Cracker Barrel". Black Steve's character is also one of the most secretive. Although seemingly violent, he is accomplished in Japanese and wrestling, and went to Dartmouth.

Mary (voiced by Gretchen McNeil): Mary is GameaVision's sole female programmer, and subsequently isn't taken seriously by any of the other misogynistic employees, with the exception of Jerry, who has major (although unrequited) romantic feelings for her although she rebuffs his advances mostly because of Jerry's association with Dave. In the episode, "Just One of the Gamers", Mary disguises herself as "Mitch" who is her "brother" in order to gain respect from her male co-workers and it is also revealed that she can breakdance.

Clare (voiced by Suzanne Keilly): Clare is GameaVision's promiscuous receptionist; the absolute antithesis to the feminist-minded, self-respecting Mary. She's extremely self-centered and considers herself the prettiest female employee in the company as well as being oblivious to the fact that she is in most cases a whore. Most of the time, she's treated with disrespect by the other GameaVision employees, and is most often subject to physical harm and bad luck.

Benny Lee (voiced by Dana Snyder): Benny is a 10 year-old Korean child, illegally adopted by Larrity to test the company's games. Fed on a diet of cigarettes, Pixy Stix, and amphetamines to keep him game-testing nonstop, Benny is constantly hyper and usually spends his time roaming through the building's air vents and making money selling candy and drugs to the other employees. He boasts of Korean superiority often, such as in "Vegas, Baby!" when he stated that, "once again, Koreans rule the world!" after beating Gill Bates in a game of poker for control of GameaVision. Benny is also very flippant and foul-mouthed to most of his co-workers, due to the unlikely power he wields. Without Benny's approval, no game can be shipped, leading to the staff bribing him repeatedly.

Clarence (voiced by Lionel Tubbins): Clarence is GameaVision's audio designer. Flamboyantly gay, Clarence wears sparkly jumpsuits, sings all of his dialogue, and constantly makes blatant references to gay sex. Like Black Steve, despite not being a designer, Clarence has made a number of games, including "Clarence's Balls" and "Fruit Planet". Clarence has demonstrated the abilities to levitate and pass through walls (using 'gay magic' which can be toggled on and off), this is probably a play on the "fairy" pejorative of homosexuality.

Minor Characters

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

Wendy (Voiced by Julia Rose): Wendy is an intern at Gameavision. Dave has an infatuation with her, more because she is physically attractive than any romantic feelings on Dave's part. At first she didn't mind Dave's attraction, but is later repelled over his oddities and perversion. Wendy has been a silent, unnamed character up to the episode "IPO," and had a speaking role only in "IPO" and "Wrassle Mania."

Hank Summers: Hank is Benny's silent bodyguard. He has a cameo in every episode, seen at least in the background, but he doesn't have any lines or more than a few seconds of screen time per episode. Hank always has his army fatigues, his arms folded, and a pair of sunglasses. Hank is very strong and is apparently military trained. He shares a bunk with Benny in Benny's room, probably to better take care of him.

"The Unknown Employee": The "Unknown Employee" is an apparently Asian character that has been featured in the background of every episode, but has yet to have any speaking lines or even be identified. He has been seen talking, but this is only when every other employee is speaking or arguing in the conference room, thus rendering his words inaudible.

Locations

Game-A-Vision - The show's chief gaming company and main location. Its name and logo are references to Activision.

Bellecovision - Gameavision's chief rival. Dave describes it as "the ass of the gaming industry" or "where awesomeness goes to die". One of their buildings was attacked in E.T. The company is still in operation apparently, as they are shown to still be selling games in Stonervision. Its name is a reference to ColecoVision. Bellecovision is shown to be very vicious, even having a slave driver.

Protendo - Japanese video game company. Tried to merge with Gameavision in "The Take Over". The company is a parody of Nintendo. Protendo is also one of Gameavision's rivals. It is apparently destroyed in the first season finale when the CEO of the company activates a bomb that destroys Protendo's headquarters.

Stonervision - Dave and Jerry's game company. It only released one game, and was funded by a drug lord. Its name was a reference to Dave's frequent use of marijuana. Stonervision went out of business due to the extremely poor sales of its only released game. Contains Dave's Garage (this was where Dave and Jerry conducted all their business. Features "a bean bag chair shaped like tits."

U.S.S. Notajetski - The submarine the Game-A-Vision staff uses to travel to Japan in the episode "The Revenge of Matsui". Larrity claims he stole it from the Russians in Vietnam. After they arrive, Larrity blows it up.

MoneyBank - The bank that Dave and Jerry try to rob unsuccessfully in Stonervision. The bank's slogan is visible over the counter on a sign that reads: "MoneyBank, A Bank for Money".

"The Purple Nipple" strip club - A strip club that Dave frequently visits. The name is most likely a variation of the schoolyard bullying technique "The Titty Twister" which results in "Purple Nipples".

The Branded Calf - A country style steakhouse. It was seen in Just One Of The Gamers as a staff party location.

Jerry's Apartment - It appeared in IPO, filled with hookers and Chinese organ thieves. It was also seen that Jerry possibly drives a DeLorean that highly resembles the one seen in the Back to the Future movie series.

Rapeville State Penitentiary - The prison where Super Prison Breakout takes place. The original warden, James Tiberius Shank, was killed by John Hondo during his breakout. Clarence recorded a live album there. All the guards there also look like the main character of the "Marathon" series of games.

Shermer High - This high school is shown in the episode "Todd Loses His Mind". Thinking he is Pardue, Todd arrives here to complete the first of his three tasks: to abduct Molly Ringwald.

Gary Gygax's House - Shown in the episode "Todd Loses His Mind". On the outside, it looks like a gigantic 20-sided die for Dungeons & Dragons. Here, Todd (or rather, Pardue) drops off his abductee Molly Ringwald in order to complete his second task: to have Gary Gygax grant him more power (which consists of 3 points of strength, 5 points of dexterity, 6 points of sexual stamina, and 200 points of charisma).

Hitler Castle - Shown in the episode "Third Reich's the Charm". The Hitler family castle where Hitler's grandchildren have been trying hard to remove the negative image associated with their family name. It also contained Adolf Hitler frozen in carbonite, a reference to The Return of The Jedi. Though he was subsequently unfrozen by Dave and Black Steve, Hitler committed suicide after being defeated by cowboys in a Final Fantasy-esque fight sequence.

The Purple Helmet - A strip club located in Las Vegas. It has the same basic layout as The Purple Nipple, but reversed, with its logo looking similar to "Halo's" Master Chief's helmet but purple. It also features male strippers instead of female. Mary and Clare visited this club in the episode "Vegas, Baby!"

The Movie Theater - The movie theater where Dave was supposed to see E.T. in the episode "E.T."

The Hospital - Shown in the episode "Larrity's Got Back". Here, Larrity finds out that he has butthole cancer, so he needs his butthole removed. Later, he returns here for an ass transplant (which turns out to be an enormous ass from a lady named Lakeisha Addams). Later still, he is sent back here because of "total ass failure" from the transplant. Finally, he ends up here one more time to receive a transplant from Dave's ass (which turned out to have herpes).

The Mysterious Room - At the very end of every episode, this appears to be a collage of negative versions of various images used in that episode. It bears a striking resemblance to a kill screen from old arcade games. However, at the end of the first season finale episode "The Revenge of Matsui," it turned out to be an actual upper-level room in GameaVision.

Featured games

Throughout the series, the GameaVision staff always references or creates games on the show. Some of the games can be found on the GameaVision website.

Episode list

EP#	Prod. code	Title	Original Airdate
1	101	"Wizard of Woz"	July 11, 2007
The Gameavision staff's lives are turned around when CEO Steve Wozniak (providing his own voice) sells out to a crazy oil tycoon.
2	102	"E.T."	July 11, 2007
Steven Spielberg sells the rights to make the E.T. video game to Gameavision. Based on E.T. for Atari 2600.
3	103	"Stonervision"	July 18, 2007
Dave and Jerry quit Gameavision to start their own company with funding from a drug lord, Tony Dakota. Special Appearance by Nolan Bushnell.
4	104	"Super Prison Breakout"	July 25, 2007
Mr. Larrity sends the Gameavision staff to visit Rapeville State Pen after he learns that one of his employees has stolen some of his money. Guest starring Matt Hullum, Joel Heyman and Burnie Burns of Red vs. Blue
5	105	"Just One Of The Gamers"	August 1, 2007
Mary gets an idea on how to move ahead after having another game idea shot down; guest star David Jaffe as himself. Jerry develops a gay crush on Mitch, who is Mary in disguise.
6	106	"The Take Over"	August 8, 2007
The staff scrambles to save their jobs when Gameavision is sold to a Japanese video game company.
7	107	"Larrity's Got Back"	August 15, 2007
Larrity is diagnosed with "butthole cancer", and is in need of an ass transplant.
8	108	"IPO"	August 29, 2007
The staff pursue their wildest dreams when Gameavision's IPO makes them instant millionaires.
9	109	"Todd Loses His Mind"	September 5, 2007
Todd's Dungeons and Dragons inspired alter ego, Pardue, exacts his revenge on Larrity. Gary Gygax, creator of Dungeons & Dragons, guest stars.
10	110	"Third Reich's the Charm"	September 12, 2007
Dave pitches a game and gets Gameavision mixed up with the Hitler family. Guest Starring Lorne Lanning, Creator of Oddworld.
11	111	"Wrassle Mania"	September 19, 2007
The Gameavision staff teams up with professional wrestlers Bulk Brogan, "Manly Man" Ricky Ravage, Sergeant Murder, and Sergei the Giant to beat arch rivals, Bellecovision. Guest starring John Romero, creator of Doom.
12	112	"Vegas, Baby!"	September 26, 2007
The Gameavision staff spends a wild weekend in Las Vegas at the annual Video Game Convention. Featuring a second guest appearance by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak.
13	113	"The Revenge of Matsui"	October 3, 2007
Benny is kidnapped by Protendo's Ninjas. First Season Finale.

Season 2

G4 has ordered 13 new episodes. Season 2 is set to premiere April 20, 2008. Not much is known about the new season.

Trivia

In E.T the game wouldn't be sold because Benny would have needed to check it out.
In "WrassleMania" Jerry said his mom died when he was a eleven, but in "Vegas, Baby" he said it was last week.
A person has died in every episode
Each episode begins with a gag disclaimer, that is unique to every episode.
Dave has a poster on his wall of the popular Canadian rock band Rush. In one episode Todd says "Now I know how Rush felt when they recorded 2112."
Black Steve listens to the rap group M.W.A., which is a parody of N.W.A
On the Code Monkeys official website, there are job posts. The first one says that Gameavision needs a secretary, only females need apply. The next job is being Todd's assistant. They must have 2 years experience, must like nachos and Dungeons & Dragons. The 3rd job is being the corporate ass kisser. The person must do whatever Mr. Larrity says, even kill. The pay is $5 an hour. The final job is being Dave's assistant. The person will get no pay, and will not get credit for programming the game.
Whenever a game is advertised on the show, its release day is usually July 11th, the day the first episode of Code Monkeys aired.
The show has a long-running gag about making references to real-life celebrities or events that have yet to happen:
- In episode one "The Woz", Dave mentions to Woz that the home computer won't be as successful as he hopes or claims, just like MTV, and also asks 'Would Morrissey leave The Smiths?' in which he was proven wrong on all accounts.
- In the episode "Stonervision", when Larrity is being interrogated by the feds about his illegal activities, he shouts at his personal string instrument players to, "Play me some Queen so's I can think".
- In the episode "E.T.", Dave meets a young Indian boy and tells him his idea for a movie where the main character is dead but doesn't know it. When asked his name the boy says it is Manoj, and Dave says he won't remember that. The boy is supposed to be M. Night Shyamalan, and the movie Dave pitches (but quickly forgets) is The Sixth Sense.
In the second battle scene of Larrity and Matsui, Yogetsu can be seen.
On the first episode, "The Woz", before Woz leaves his office on a jet pack while talking to Dave and Jerry, he puts on a mask and then takes it off, that is the Majora's Mask from the Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
Incidentally, in the episode "The Revenge of Matsui", during one of the intermissions, there is a reference to Super Mario Galaxy in regards to the "U R MR GAY" incident, which shows a video game case depicting Clarence levitating around in space. The game is also made by Protendo, and had a release date of November 12th, poking towards Super Mario Galaxy's US/CAN release, and straying from their usual July 11th pun.
Larritys desk is arranged somewhat similar to how the merchants locations in The Legend of Zelda were arranged with 3 items each with a number(price) attached
In the end of "The Take Over", Mr. Larrity is standing far from Mr. Matsui on the left side of the crate and when the Protendo employees killed themselves, there was one Protendo employee that didn't kill himself, looked around confused, and walked away. In the beginning of "The Revenge of Matsui", during a flashback, Mr. Larrity is now in front of Mr. Matsui and the one confused Protendo employee that had walked away was not there at all.