{"id":1468,"date":"2007-04-23T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2007-04-23T10:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/its-science\/"},"modified":"2007-04-23T05:01:29","modified_gmt":"2007-04-23T10:01:29","slug":"its-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/its-science","title":{"rendered":"It’s Science!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The thing that always struck me about Jonny Quest is: What kind of parent brings his kid to the Amazon so that yetis can throw boulders at him?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s just a sampling of the bizarre quotes you’ll find in this interview with Jackson Publick<\/a>, one of the creators of The Venture Brothers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amy & I discovered this show last summer when we were visiting her family. We clicked around on Sunday night, found Adult Swim, and saw a guy in a butterfly costume confronting man in a one-piece leisure suit, as two butterfly-suited henchmen fiddled with toys like Hulk-Hands and a Magneto helmet:<\/p>\n

The Monarch: You f—ing idiot! What are we supposed to do with this crap? Make them laugh so hard they blow malt liquor out of their noses?<\/p>\n

Dr. Venture: No, I think you’ll have that covered when you storm the room in butterfly costumes.<\/p>\n

The Monarch: Oh, ha ha ha heh heh. Nice onesie, dick. Does it have snaps in the back, so you can make poopies?<\/p>\n

Henchman 24: Ohhhhh snap!!<\/p>\n

Dr. Venture: This is a speedsuit, mister. Not a ‘onesie’!<\/p>\n

The Monarch: Oh hey, maybe they’ll think you’re a 3-year-old with progeria, and take pity on us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was hooked. The first season of the show wasn’t fantastic (like all of these Adult Swim shows, it seemed to spend a chunk of its first season trying to find itself, but was way too genre-specific), but the second season’s a blast (and now out on DVD<\/a>, hence the interview<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Beyond the non-sequitur insults, one of the aspects of the show that I really dug was the lost promise of the (early) 1960s. Publick talks a little about that, how Dr. Venture “is a boy genius who didn’t grow up to be what he should have been”:<\/p>\n

Reason:<\/strong> And I suppose you’re not just talking about the failure of superheroes, because these fantasy science stories were produced by a culture that was high on superscience — beating the Russians to the Moon, curing every disease, etc.<\/p>\n

JP:<\/strong> That’s the deeper thing behind it — it’s me voicing my disappointment that we don’t have that kind of magic going on any more, that level of enthusiasm and hope. That extends to the kind of cultural stuff that was going on in the ’60s, a youthful generation thinking they could change the world. I’m voicing my displeasure at having been born in a time when some of that magic, for lack of a better word, is gone, and some of those promises that were made in all of our pop culture were never met. My laptop is the coolest thing that’s come out of that. I’m still waiting on my jet pack.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And Patrick Warburton’s pretty funny as the bodyguard of Venture’s cloned sons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The thing that always struck me about Jonny Quest is: What kind of parent brings his kid to the Amazon so that yetis can throw boulders at him? That’s just a sampling of the bizarre quotes you’ll find in this interview with Jackson Publick, one of the creators of The Venture Brothers. Amy & I … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “It’s Science!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-nG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":567,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/all-things-considered-id-rather-be-in-philadelphia","url_meta":{"origin":1468,"position":0},"title":"All things considered, I’d rather be in Philadelphia","author":"Gil","date":"June 20, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm off to the BIO conference down in Phila., PA. We likely won't have as many protesters as last year's BIO, which was in San Fran; you'd figure anyone dressing up as a giant monarch butterfly is likely to get his ass handed to him on these streets . .\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pharmaceuticals"","block_context":{"text":"Pharmaceuticals","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business\/pharmaceuticals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":912,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/bio-followup","url_meta":{"origin":1468,"position":1},"title":"BIO followup","author":"Gil","date":"April 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"As I wrote, the BIO conference was \"a singles bar for CEOs and venture capitalists.\" Just add governors.","rel":"","context":"In "Pharmaceuticals"","block_context":{"text":"Pharmaceuticals","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business\/pharmaceuticals"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2343,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-deadliest-pick","url_meta":{"origin":1468,"position":2},"title":"The Deadliest Pick","author":"Gil","date":"August 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't venture into politics too often on this blog, but here's my prediction for the Sarah Palin effect: it backfires on McCain because women will actually want to vote against her the more their husbands point out how hot she is.","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13001,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-peter-kuper","url_meta":{"origin":1468,"position":3},"title":"COVID Check-In with Peter Kuper","author":"Gil","date":"March 28, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show COVID Check-In: Peter Kuper \"The line of demarcation was that Oval Office speech; the day before that was one thing, the day after it was another.\" A few days ago, political cartoonist Peter Kuper returned from Oaxaca, Mexico to the Upper West Side of New York City.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidkupercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidkupercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidkupercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidkupercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidkupercomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12022,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-303-peter-kuper","url_meta":{"origin":1468,"position":4},"title":"Episode 303 – Peter Kuper","author":"Gil","date":"January 14, 2019","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 303: Peter Kuper \"Art has been my saving grace, in terms of having an outlet so I'm not just having today's news run around in my head and make me scream.\" Political artist\/illustrator Peter Kuper rejoins the show to talk about these Kafkaesque times and his new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kuperbw.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kuperbw.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kuperbw.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kuperbw.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kuperbw.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5290,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/weakly-may-4-skokie-the-germans-and-the-lost-ugandan","url_meta":{"origin":1468,"position":5},"title":"Weakly – May 4: Skokie, the Germans, and the Lost Ugandan","author":"Gil","date":"May 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"[This is the second in a series of long-ass rambling posts about my travels from May 3-9. Part 1 is over here.] I woke up earlyish on Tuesday (6:30 a.m. constitutes 'sleeping in' for me), took care of a little work, ironed my suits and shirts, and made an early\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}