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Frisky Dingo is one of those shows that you love or hate, and I loved it but he HATED it. Sibling rivalry is one thing, but this is one of those times when my brother’s need to have a snarky opinion goes too far. Frisky Dingo is funny, no doubt. It’s just very… random. Random as in you’re laughing because just plain surreal elements are thrown at you with this show. You have to understand once you take the plunge into this show that that’s how the show rolls, and in this case instead of bros before shows, I’m going to go with shows before bros. Spoilers below.

Because Frisky Dingo doesn’t deserve the hate my brother gives it. The running gags are funny, and while it takes a while to build momentum even the ending didn’t disappoint me. To me it was the perfect ending to an early-canceled show – more than I could have asked for – because usually shows that get canceled end with plot details unanswered, conflict unresolved. Instead, we get a masterpiece of absurdist animation from a shaky beginning to an excellent end.

Before I go into specifics, Frisky Dingo is a hard to define show. It is not merely about the supervillain Killface – it is about how messed up America is in general. I should know – I’ve been there, and the food they serve is massive, their TV shows are loud and ridiculous, their cinema has been reduced to horror and other genre remakes in this uneasy economic time – and yet Frisky Dingo reflects a pre-Global Financial Crisis time when the GFC and Recession wasn’t a big problem. Global Warming however was, and is subtly satired as an issue because in the second season when Killface runs for President he claims his curing of Global Warming by his accidental Doomsday Device mishap propelling the Earth just barely away from the Sun instead of into it like he intended – it shows you just how fragile American politics becomes when neither side is committed to the issues at all, just bombarding each other with slander proving the sheer futility of what supposedly “civilised” democracy has become. Killface is a battler – a supervillain who can’t even afford to purchase media buys to broadcast his plan to propel the Earth into the Sun on every TV in the world – which pokes fun of every TV hijack signal you’ve ever seen in a comic book in a more realistic way, given that the universe of Frisky Dingo is fairly unrealistic – even amoral – that cynicism is a given.

It’s like so many Adult Swim shows produced under the same brand – reliant on slacker humour reflecting what is essentially the dangerous concoction of a Generation X raised on TV, and a generation after it forced to put up with Gen X’s resistance to grow up as it pillages its childhood memories for psychological validation – they’re getting old and they’re not going to let their childhood hopes and dreams die without a fight. Many Adult Swim shows reflect this battle against maturity – America’s equivalent of a Gen X version of their Civil War against their own aging into what will inevitably become the middle aged parents and bachelors of tomorrow. Adult Swim shows have specific themes they tend to dwell on, which isn’t really noticed by people like my brother who’s only twenty years old but doesn’t really get Kevin Smith even though on many levels Gen Y is just a younger version of Gen X with much more unclear memories.

You can easily dismiss Frisky Dingo as self aware trash designed for the lowest common denominator, but its satire packs a sharp edge into your skull. If Metalocalypse is what Adult Swim came up with to satirise the growing trend of death metal and where metal is headed in terms of extreme entertainment – Frisky Dingo, which I’ve heard is made by the same guys – exhibits the excesses of America becoming its own worst supervillain – Killface is positively charming in his naive joy in trying to destroy the world – he’s a bit evil – but nowhere near as evil as Awesome X, or his secret identity, Xander Crews. Xander Crews is essentially everything wrong that could have happened to Batman if he didn’t have any real commitment to fighting injustice – he’s more like The Comedian in Watchmen – which I’m guessing is his key inspiration when the animators set out to create a character. Sin is the evil henchwoman whose noble heart got broken and thus led to her doom at the hands of a friend she trusted. Killface’s son is manipulative and says little but his actions say a lot, he has his father right where he wants him, and is disturbingly a much more effective villain at being evil than his unwitting and naive father who just behaves like his alien species would expect him to. Or does he?

The show was canceled after two seasons but rather than being a convoluted mess of untied ends, the continuity maze set before you lets you know from Episode One what you’re in for, an absurdist cartoon that has a really black sense of humour.

I recommend it. But only if you leave your snobby pride on the shelf.

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