Sealab 2021
Season 2, Episode 6: “Bizarro,” 2002
Dan Says:
When Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block started back in
2000, much of its programming was dedicated to repurposing old Hanna-Barbera
animation, via Space Ghost: Coast to
Coast, The Brak Show and this
early work about an incompetent underwater marine research unit from the
animation team that would eventually bring us FX’s Archer.
In this episode, art for which mimics the cover to Uncanny X-Men #100, Sealab is under
attack by doppelgangers from the Bizarro dimension. They don’t speak in
inconsistent opposites like the Superman foe, but they do use the word
“Bizarro” a lot, like Smurfs use the word “Smurf.” They claim to be after a
Destructo-Beam (or maybe diamonds?), but as Capt. Murphy protests, “We don’t
have any damn beans!”
The Bizarros don’t pose any real threat to Sealab. Bizarro
Stormy shoots his own head off, Bizarro Debbie interrogates her victims via sex, and Bizarro Quinn is a turtle-headed bird creature that hatches from an egg and
doesn’t do much but hop around and utter the most “Bizarros” of anyone. He also
drops the floating head of Bizarro Sparks on the ground, shattering its
protective jar, then proceeds to poor salt on it and declare, “Bizarro! I’m
helping! I’m helping you!” Then the whole Bizarro squad accidentally hypnotize
themselves using Bizarro-Vision and get tricked into leaving.
It’s 11 minutes of rapid-fire dumbness, but that’s exactly
what Adult Swim excelled in back in the early 2000s, and it’s easily the most
memorable episode of the series, next to that one where Hesh turns into a
giant-headed monster.
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