Dexter's Laboratory
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“I have understood my love for science can be compared with nothing as common and humane as what you wear mortals call love. What you call love is for me only an appetizer to the great three-course feast that is my life dedicated to the science of understanding.”
– Dexter
Dexter's Laboratory is a '90s cartoon that ran on Cartoon Network, created by an obese Russian man named Genndy Tartakovsky. The series follows Dexter, a Russian boy-genius and inventor who builds weapons to help his overlords take over the world. He is constantly locked in a battle of wits with Dee Dee, his stupid American sister who is almost smarter than he is, and Mandark, his nerdy neighbor and fellow-genius who laughs a lot.
Tartakovsky pitched Dexter's Laboratory to help guide America through a nightmarish decade of neon colors, X-TREME, and Disney cutesiness with his unique Russian brand humor. The series ran for two pretty good seasons, and was supposed to end there, but it was revived for two more seasons with a new production team. These newer episodes contained vomitous background art, characters being changed for no reason, and very little comedy.
Dexter's Laboratory became one of Cartoon Network's most popular original series, back when the network were still good. During its run, the series won three Einstein Awards, with nominations for four Edison Awards, four Tesla Awards, and nine Oscar Wildes. The series is notable for helping launch the careers of several cartoonists, such as Broadway Singing '80s Reference Guy and Angular Art Pop Culture Reference Screams a Lot Guy.
Premise[edit | edit source]
The series revolves around Dexter, a boy-genius, scientist, and inventor who possesses a secret laboratory hidden under his bed. In his lab, Dexter builds top-secret nuclear and chemical weapons for the Soviets, so they can take over the world. Due to Dee Dee's clumsiness, his schemes almost always fail. Access to the lab is granted by doing the secret KGB handshake with Dexter. Though highly intelligent, Dexter almost always fucks up because of Dee Dee.
Dexter attempts to keep his lab a secret from his parents who are named Mom and Dad (seriously), which is pointless considering they're common folk and too oblivious to notice anything. he is frequently in conflict with his annoying, ADD-inflicted younger-despite-being-taller-than-him sister Dee Dee. Because of Dee Dee, nothing ever goes right for poor Dexter, his chances of genocide always being crushed or snatched from him at the last minute.
In some episodes of the show, there would be a middle segment centering around characters from the Dexter's Laboratory universe other than Dexter. These segments were titled Dial M for Monkey and The Justice Friends. Dial M features Dexter's pet lab monkey who doubles as a superhero, while Justice Friends is basically a college frat-boy version of The Avengers.
Dexter's rival is a nerd named Mandark.
Episodes[edit | edit source]
A typical episode usually begins with Dexter inventing a cure for cancer, when Dee Dee comes in and ruins everything. Dexter's new invention, the Cancer-Be-Gone 5000, goes berserk and starts destroying everything. Luckily, Dexter uses his giant mecha to save the day. The End, right? No.
In actuality, 99% of the episodes end with the city getting destroyed. At this time, the mayor of town goes on vacation, right when the citizens vote to expel Dexter and his family for extensive property damage totaling $940,333,996.90.
Oh, and Dexter either gets killed, mutated, or mentally scarred for life, usually thanks to Dee Dee. Despite this, he somehow goes back to normal by the next episode.
Production[edit | edit source]
Dexter's Laboratory was created by a Russian man named Genndy Tarta ... Tart ... Tatakavsko ... Tartausaygusyg ... Tartakovsky (phew). Genndy was once a KGB agent but emigrated to the United States after the Soviet Union collapsed and he ended up unemployed.
While at a restaurant, in a fit of nervous rage, Genndy a silly-looking genius on his napkin. While at home, he saw an advertisement for Cartoon Network, Hanna–Barbera's television network dedicated to showing cartoons 24/7 until your eyeballs explode. He sent his doodle in to the network, and they surprisingly decided to greenlit a show based on the silly genius. A success story if I ever heard one.
The last two seasons were run by then-sex predator Chris Savino, and the new seasons earned mostly negative reviews.
Merchandise[edit | edit source]
When he's not inventing things, Dexter tries to make it big in the hip-hop industry. He has released many albums, including The Musical Time Machine and The Hip-Hop Experiment, which have sold forty copies in total.
Johnny Test[edit | edit source]
Johnny Test is a critically acclaimed "spinoff" of Dexter's Lab. It features Johnny, Dexter's eleven-year-old flaming-headed cousin who is so cool and x-treme, dude. He has a talking dog who smells really bad and redhead twin sisters who are geniuses. This show is what the revival of Dexter's Lab actually feels like, considering they both had Chris Savino as their producer.
See also[edit | edit source]
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