Hey, so apparently today marks exactly 10 years since Metalocalypse first aired on Adult Swim.

I know I’ve talked on and off about this show on this blog since, like, 2008, but that’s because this show is great. I also recently realized that it’s been on* for my entire college career, save the last few years since Doomstar Requiem, so it’s kind of traveled along with me on my journeys across North America. It sounds corny, but it was always nice to be able to have new episodes of Metalocalypse to chill to regardless of where I was/how stressed I was/how desperate I was to jump off a bridge.

ANYWAY.

Let me tell you how I found this show, because if you were to watch an episode of it, you probably would not think it’d be a show I’d like. And that was my first impression of it, too. Back in 2006, as a freshman at the U of I, I lived in the Literal Hellhole Wallace. I had a dinky little 12” TV that I hooked up to the cable there. I quickly became obsessed with Aqua Teen Hunger Force, since really the only channel I watched was Cartoon Network and ATHF was the weirdest shit I’d ever seen and was thus the best thing ever (also, Shake reminded me of one of my friends from junior high).

I would often watch ATHF, then keep the TV on but put it on mute. That’s something I do a lot, actually. But anyways. I saw the opening sequence for Metalocalypse a few times on my muted screen, since the show aired right after ATHF for awhile, but thought it looked like something that would be super dumb, so I never had the desire to unmute it. I actually remember glancing over to the TV and watching about three minutes of one of the muted episodes** and thinking, “why do people waste their talent by animating crap like this?”

Fast-forward to 2008. I’m now living in McConnell, a much nicer dorm, and still have my dinky little TV hooked up to the cable. Similar situation: I’ve finished watching ATHF and muted the TV. An episode of Metalocalypse came on, but I wasn’t really paying attention to it. But then I glanced over at it at some point and, for whatever reason, just decided to unmute it and see what it was really all about.

And I was right. It was the dumbest thing I’d ever seen.
And it was awesome.

You know that specific type of funny that’s just so ridiculous that it’s great? Metalocalypse is that for me. It’s so screwy. It’s so dark. It’s so messed up. They’re all such man-children. But it works, and it’s funny. I enjoy it.

It sounds like Adult Swim is being awful and not letting Metalocalypse have its much-needed 5th season, on Adult Swim or anywhere else. But I’ve still got the four seasons plus Doomstar that I can re-watch. And I will, because Metalocalypse is and always will be funny to me.

So yeah.

*when I say “on” I mean, more technically, “waiting 2+ years between seasons” because Adult Swim is a bunch of concrete farts.
**turns out that episode was the season 1 finale. Which is awesome, FYI.