Videogame Theater is not for kiddies, featuring the depraved humor of BJ Guyer (Crank Yankers, Team America), Scott Cheroff (Adult Swim, Jimmey Kimmel Live) and Frank Meyer (On the Road with the Ramones, G5tv's Freestyle 101). Videogame Theater tackles the important issues, delving into the origin of the rivalry between Donkey Kong and Mario, the torrid love affair between a Space Jouster and his ostrich, Lara Croft's wild sorority days and the rise and fall of the great Pac-Man, as told by Pac-Man himself in a series of video blogs. You'll see topless showering puppets (Lara Croft) and full frontal nudity on Barbie dolls (Lara Croft's sorority sisters). There are also adult situations: drug references, spousal abuse and even murder. Keep the kiddies away! For that matter, if they're kids now, they can't appreciate the stories anyway, since they are definitely not "old skool" from back-in-the-day.
Much like all of the television programming aimed at kids in the eighties, the episodes that are not Pac-Man video blog episodes have a moral that is driven home at the end of the episode. They are typically attempting to fight prejudice, but they all come off as just wrong or, at the very least, self-defeating.
Maybe it's on account of the MTV-Europe connection, but there is a good bit of original music in Videogame Theater, from a Devo-esque intro theme to some decent videogame rapping by the "Defenders of the Universe" (Joust, Robotron 2048 and Missile Command), provided by Messiaz, Insane Poetry, Lord G, Neila and Thor. Also featured are cameo apperances by Steve Agee (Sarah Silverman Program), Andy Goldblatt (Kitten vs. Newboar) and Jeremy Carter (Ultrafarce, gosupergo.com).
All in all, there are fourteen episodes, half of which are Pac-Man video blog episodes, which is the one truly continuing plotline in the series. If you're a fan of Crank Yankers and Adult Swim types of comedy and you're a gamer from back-in-the-day, you ought to check out Videogame Theater. It's ridiculous, but pretty funny.
