Adult Swim to the rescue!

The writers’ strike is still in effect. And besides the concessions made to late-night talk shows, this standoff isn’t showing signs of dissipation. Which is a shame, for my regular Thursday fix of 30 Rock has been replaced with Celebrity Apprentice.

It’s hard to live in a world where the comedy duo Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin has their time slot filled by a show featuring Stephen Baldwin battling for Donald Trump’s affection by seeing how fast he can sell hotdogs.

We now have some respite for this shitty mess. The striking Writers Guild of America includes only scripted, live-action, uh, action. Cartoons are still fair game for writers. And lucky for us, The Cartoon Network offers more than The Justice League. Their late-night billing, known as Adult Swim, not only offers re-runs of cartoons like Family Guy and Futurama, but also offers a hilarious lineup of original shows. And a few of them just started new seasons.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force is entering its fifth season, a surprising feat for a show that the people at Adult Swim thought wouldn’t last. It’s also the most popular show within the late-night bunch.

The show is comprised of three anthropomorphized-food roommates living in New Jersey: a milk shake (Master Shake), an order of fries (Frylock) and a wad of meat (uh, Meatwad). According to the show’s theme song, the rag-tag group are crime-solving superheroes.

Master Shake is a loud, ignorant ranter, and his superpower is emitting pistachio shake from his straw and the ability to ingest up to 85 gallons of liquid. He is mostly seen watching television or bothering Meatwad. Meatwad is na’ve, hopelessly cute and bears his might by morphing into a hotdog, an igloo and a statue resembling Abraham Lincoln wielding a samurai sword (it’s supposed to be hockey player Wayne Gretsky). Frylock is the sane one of the group. He often tries to get his roommates out of trouble. Frylock has the only utility of any real use: laser beams emit from his eyes.

Superheroes though they are, the characters never seem to get around to that noble cause, and the only heroics displayed recently are combating reality TV fatigue.

The band of fast food, instead of crime fighting, mostly bothers their neighbor, Carl Brutananadilewsi. He is a sarcastic Jersey cliche who idolizes Journey, has stacks of pornography in his room and wears only sweat pants. Despite his attempts to distance himself from the anthropomorphic food items, he is constantly entangled with their shenanigans. These usually involve Master Shake’s moneymaking schemes, or aliens who always seem to choose New Jersey as their place to make contact with Earth.

In the first episode of the fifth season, Carl looks to finally get his revenge by selling their house to a family of constantly procreating robots, while the Aqua Teen Hunger Force is MIA.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force takes the absurdity of animated series like Family Guy to a new level. The show has gained a cult following because of its surreal, slightly satirical and completely nonsensical humor. It will probably retain only cult status, though, because it’s one of those shows where people are totally on board, or reject it like Donald Trump at a board meeting.

Squidbillies

This story is about a family of squids living in the backwoods of Georgia. It’s written by one of the creators of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and a writer for Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

Squidbillies has the same type of humor as Aqua Teen but lacks distinguishable characters (they all sound like hillbillies) and memorable guest cameos. This is another example of the aforementioned “you either get it or you don’t” mentality, but this time I’m with the hater crowd.

The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume 5 DVD was released on Tuesday. It retails for $30.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force airs on Sundays at 11:45 p.m. on Cartoon Network.

Squidbillies airs on Sundays at midnight on Cartoon Network.