Retarded Animal Babies
Encyclopedia : R : RE : RET : Retarded Animal Babies
 The main cast of Retarded Animal Babies. From left to right: Cat, Puppy, Hamster, Donkey, Bunny. | |
| Retarded Animal Babies | |
|---|---|
| Idea by | David C. Lovelace |
| Voice acting | David C. Lovelace |
| Launch date | April 6, 2003 |
| Website(s) | [RAB on Newgrounds] |
Retarded Animal Babies (or RAB for short) is a Flash cartoon series created by David Lovelace in 2003. This series is modelled after children's cartoons, but throws in adult situations, nudity, drug use, and heavy profanity. There are currently 16 RAB cartoons available, and one commercial featuring the RABs was produced as part of a contest held by the Magic Hat beer company.
Contents
Major characters
- Bunny
- A yellow rabbit. His main gimmick in the series is that he is killed in every episode, (with a few exceptions) yet always comes back alive in the next one (similar to Kenny McCormick from the TV series South Park). In episodes 5, 13, and 15, he becomes possessed by Cthulhu, usually after "words of the elder gods" are spoken in his vicinity (In this case, the elder gods are Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon). He is arguably the kindest-hearted of the group, but has been known to frequently show an evil, angrier side.
- Cat
- An orange cat. He is probably the smartest and most articulate of the RABs, but isn't necessarily the straight man in the group. His ideas are generally dismissed by Bunny or Puppy. He and Puppy frequently have arguments over various things. Cat is also the only character shown to have a home. He lives with his drunken stepfather. Cat is a huge fan of the classic movie A Christmas Story. Cat also has a cousin who appears in some episodes. Cat's real parents are a hooker and Donkey (though this was only stated in one episode).
- Donkey
- A grey donkey. He is easily the stupidest of the RABs (in RAB 15, he says that "[his] mind is fuzzier than Puppy's ballsack"), as well as the one who gets angry the least. He also speaks in a Southern accent, even though, as Cat's Step-dad suggested in RAB 5, he is a Canadian. He commonly gets normal things confused, uses things incorrectly, and doesn't make a lot of sense when he talks, for example, in RAB 5, he suggests everyone catch thumbtacks on their bare eyes. The group did not follow his advice, but did in RAB 14 when he suggested that they "make a giant shit pie and eat 'em all upps." He frequently annoys Puppy, who resorts to beating him to get him to shut up, but Donkey doesn't usually die this way, unlike Bunny.
- Hamster
- A beige hamster. Lovelace has said "he is either the smartest or the dumbest of the characters." Much like Cat's obsession with A Christmas Story, Hamster has an unhealthy obsession with Bruce Willis, even going as far as staying a virgin because he was "saving himself" for Bruce Willis. Most RAB fans see him as being the "cute" character. He also has grammar problems, Some notable examples being
- Puppy
- A brown dog. He is the main focus of most RAB episodes. Puppy has a huge obsession with sexual intercourse and breasts, but has little success attracting women. He has a very short temper, which causes him to attack, and sometimes kill, the other characters. In one episode, his obsession with women was revealed to have stemmed from having no female role models (his mother died during child birth). He is the only character shown with a visible penis & testicles. His alter ego, The Fucking Fucker appears sometimes as well. Also he's the most foul-mouthed RAB, he often swears. In RAB 8 and a crossword puzzle "Easter egg" hidden in a future episode, it is revealed that Puppy's father is Sean Connery.
Recurring characters
- Satan
- The Devil himself. First appeared when Donkey brought him for Show and tell, he has appeared in almost all episodes in one way or another since. In most cases, he's not acting like he really should be. Some episodes didn't feature Satan until the end, where he complained about why he wasn't in the episode. He was also revealed to be Santa Claus, as well as a bartender named Stan in other episodes.
- Cat's Stepdad
- A notorious drunk and a closet homosexual. He sleeps a lot, smokes weed, and frequently threatens to beat or kill Cat. He also has a hatred for Cat's friends. During high school, he was an avid Dungeons & Dragons player, a fact he tried to hide from everyone and turned him to drugs and alcohol. His character was a half-elf paladin, which Cat's Cousin (see below) said was against the rules of the game. Also, he often calls Cat or his friends queer.
- Cat's Cousin
- She comes to visit Cat and his stepdad sometimes. Cat considers her very annoying. When she's hanging out with the RABs, she serves as the straight man of the group, but has little success containing the others. In RAB 13, Cat's cousin plays the role of Catmé during the RABs' parody of Star Wars. She plays Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon.
- Hamster's Gumpa (Grandpa)
- A centenarian and war veteran (presumably from World War 2) During the war, he lost both his hands. They were replaced with hooks. Due to this, he has mutilated his genitals while attempting to masturbate. According to Cat, he smells like cabbage.
- Leprechaun Aliens
- They are attempting to take over the world by getting everyone drunk, then stealing their souls so that no one will be able to stop them in their plan. They're invisible to the common eye, but sunglasses found by the RABs have the ability to see them. The aliens plan on returning in 2007 to try their plan again. Matt Groening was also revealed to be working with the aliens. The leprechaun characters were borrowed from another Lovelace cartoon called the Sci-Fi Guys.
- Matt Groening
- Creator of Life in Hell, The Simpsons, and Futurama. Considering the Retarded Animal Babies as a threat to his upcoming Simpsons movie, he disguises himself as a sheep in RAB 3 to interrupt their Show and tell day and kills them all (Hamster's death is not shown). They all came back in the next episode alive. Groening was revealed to be working with aliens planning world domination later in the series.
- Pico
- The unofficial mascot of Newgrounds. He appears in 3 episodes, noting that he thinks RAB is a bad ripoff of Happy Tree Friends. His speech used on the subtitles is always done in leet. He appeared in episode 2 and 3 complaining about RAB, and in 15 with no speech.
- Fucking Fucker
- Puppy's alter ego. First appeared as his superhero for playtime. He later reappeared in an attempt to have sex with a woman in a bar, and sang lead vocals as Fucking Fucker for the band "FUCK" in RAB 11.
- Böözy and Karen Böözeborne
- An obvious parody duo of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne, the heavy-metal duo host a contest in RAB 11 to join the Battle for Böözefest. The song by the RAB band "FUCK" ends up destroying Western civilization, but the Böözebornes never actually see Fuck's video because Puppy decided just to videotape his penis for a few minutes. Cat agrees with the strategy because the contest is hosted by MTV, and Cat says, "They hate music over there."
Episode outlines
All except RAB 9 and 16 are available for viewing on [Newgrounds].
- RAB 1 - Retarded Animal Babies: The RABs recite their version of the alphabet, which includes such inaccuracies as "E is for Pants," "XXX is for porno and beer," and "splunge is for splunge."
- RAB 2 - magic!: The RABs hold a magic show of sorts that has an alternate ending you can select by clicking on Hamster at the end
- RAB 3 - show and hell: The RABs hold Show and tell. This episode introduces many supporting cast members of the series, such as Satan (brought by Donkey, along with three potatoes and a bucket full of pelicans), Matt Groening (who comes disguised as a sheep to kill them all), Hamster's grandfather, and Cat's stepfather.
- RAB 4 - stupor heroes!: The actual episodes featuring the RABs are hidden among channels on an animated TV set. The main episode, on channel 9, shows the RABs playing superhero. Puppy's recurring "Fucking Fucker" alter ego is introduced as revenge for Cat's Purple Penis hero, which Puppy originally wanted. On channel 123, the RABs count to 10, a la their pilot episode.
- RAB 5 - dungeons and christwagons: The RABs meet Cat's cousin, play Dungeons & Dragons, smoke Cat's stepdad's stash of weed, and discover Cat's stepdad's embarrassing past. (Satan appears in the end credits, angry that he was not cast in an episode including Dungeons and Dragons). This is the first episode in which Bunny does not die.
- RAB 6 - fucky fucksgiving: The RABs attempt to kill a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but fail spectacularly. Donkey and Hamster, who gain expanded minds from the "endless parade of weed" that the characters are smoking, merge into one being to fight the turkey. In the end, the characters have to eat Puppy's & Cat's lower torsos instead, ironically leaving Bunny, who the turkey killed, alone.
- RAB 7 - shitty shitsmas: The RABs celebrate Christmas. A narrator follows Cat's quest for a Red Rider BB gun. Santa is revealed to be Satan, who grants Cat his wish. Cat, Puppy and Bunny all die: Cat kills himself and Bunny with the gun, and Puppy, who Santa gives an enormous penis, sucks himself into oblivion.
- RAB 8 - cunty cuntingstine day: The RABs go to a club to try and have sexual intercourse with hot women, Hamster's love of Bruce Willis is revealed after mentioning him in almost every prior episode, and Puppy's sad past is revealed -- his misogynistic attitude is a result of his mother dying in childbirth. Bunny is beaten by a woman, and Donkey is raped in prison.
- RAB 9 - pirate ship: Puppy goes around to his friends with a cool idea. He asks all of the other animal babies to hold their tongue and say "I was born on a pirate ship." This made it sound like they were saying "I was born on a pile of shit." Only available on the DVD "Every Little Something By DAVE" and "The Definitive Retarded Animal Babies DVD", available [here.]
- RAB 10 - fux0rrz: The RABs surf Cat's stepfather's computer for Internet porn, but get zapped into the World Wide Web, a la the movie Tron, when Puppy gets frustrated that he cannot find naked pictures and instead has sex with the computer's " 3.5 inch floppy dick" drive. They meet themselves from the beginning of the episode and create a time paradox that destroys the universe. Bunny dies when he accidentally decapitates himself with his Tron frisbee, but he is technically alive when the RABs meet themselves. Bunny notices he does not have a double and says, "Did I die again? God fucking damn."
- RAB 11: The RABs form a heavy metal group called Fuck and win the TV show Battle For Böözefest. They play a song of Rammstein, & the lyrics used on the subtitles are in English, even though the song is in German (It's an animutation, also see mondegreens). The song destroys Western civilization and the viewer gets to select which character goes on the tour bus with Böözy's virgins to repopulate Earth. Bunny only dies if you click on him (Puppy shoves a guitar up his ass).
- RAB 12: The RABs attempt to get gold from an Irish bar to score chicks, but end up stopping a world domination plot instead. They find some special glasses in the alley of "McFisticuffy's," a bar frequented by Cat's stepfather. The episode is a parody of John Carpenter's They Live, right down to Cat's line "I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum." Cat saves the life of his ungrateful stepfather, who tells the bartender that he drinks because of his "queer son and his fag friends." (Ironically, Cat's stepfather came out of the closet as a homosexual in RAB 5.)
- RAB 13: The RABs, Satan and Cat's cousin play Star Wars in the field. This episode breaks with the traditional start of RAB by parodying the introduction to the Star Wars movies. The game of make-believe quickly goes awry because Puppy has only seen Episodes I and II and Cat has only seen Episodes IV through VI. Bunny is killed with a shovel and Donkey is beaten senseless by Puppy for playing Jar Jar Binks, instead of "P-PPpu".
- RAB 14: Primarily set 50 years in the future. The lives of the RABs are explored, revealing them to have, for the most part, evolved into intelligent, revered celebrities. Cat becomes a renowned scientist, and Bunny an actor who wins a lifetime achievement award for playing Hamster, who becomes a military hero who saves Earth from a killer asteroid. The asteroid, however, was sent by Puppy, who is a cruel absolute ruler of a planet made entirely out of breasts. Donkey lives on a farm, is as stupid as ever, and is so morbidly obese that his grandchildren have to scrub him daily so he does not get maggots. Cat invents a dodecahedral Alternate Physical Law Usurper to send them all into an alternate universe where they can stay young and retarded forever. This is the Second episode in which Bunny does not die.
- RAB 15 - pendumbvirate: This episode marks the series third birthday. With the exception of Cat, the other animals reminisce about their past (much like a clip show) though, as Cat quite obviously points out, they're just an internet cartoon, and therefore did not exist before 2003. The episode makes fun of internet phonomena, most notably The Hamster Dance and Badgers, as well as the usual 1980s spoofs that appear throughout the series. This, RAB 5, and MAB are the only cartoons in the series where Bunny does not truly die.
- RAB 16 - Is said to be a sequel to episode 14. Only available on the DVD "The Definitive Retarded Animal Babies DVD", available [here.]
- Magic Animal Babies: A commercial made for a contest by Magic Hat Brewery. It depicts the RABs endorsing the various beer types made by Magic Hat. It is not considered part of continuity with the other cartoons in the series, & neither is there any profanity, sex (Puppy's genitalia are not hanging out, for instance) or much violence, it's much friendlier for children. MAB ended up winning the contest. Creator David Lovelace won a $6,000 bar set for his efforts. Bunny, however, is flattened by a large anvil.
Character Deaths
Bunny
- RAB 1: Hand bitten off by a clam, then hacked to death by the other characters
- RAB 2: Shoots himself in the head, later gets his body eaten and farted out by Hamster
- RAB 3: Cut in half by Satan
- RAB 4: Dies as the superhero "Infinity Lad" when the Fucking Fucker tricks him into multiplying himself by zero (infinity multiplied by zero equals zero). Bunny's skin, muscle, skeleton, and soul vanish layer by layer.
- RAB 6: A turkey plucks his eyes out
- RAB 7: Cat fires his Red Rider BB gun, accidentally killing them both.
- RAB 8: A woman at a nightclub punches his face in. It is unclear whether he lives or dies.
- RAB 9: Tongue ripped out
- RAB 10: Accidentally cuts his head off with a disk from the movie Tron. He later dies again when the time paradox created by the RABs destroys the universe.
- RAB 11: Only dies if chosen to go on the bus ride. Puppy shoves a bass guitar up his anus and through his mouth. However, at the very end, you see his silouhette with the other characters telling Donkey to shut up.
- RAB 12: Cat throws a beer mug at his head and knocks him out.
- RAB 13: Puppy accidentally slashes his face with a shovel while playing Star Wars.
- RAB 15: Commits suicide by jumping off a very, very tall building in 1984. Van Halen's Jump is played during the scene, but with minor key instead of major key.
- Magic Animal Babies: Crushed by a large anvil, but doesn't die
Cat
- RAB 2: Eaten by Hamster, then farted out
- RAB 3: Shot several times by Matt Groening
- RAB 5: Head explodes when he finds out the truth about his parents
- RAB 7: Shoots his eye out with a Red Rider B.B. Gun
- RAB 8: Face kicked in with a woman's heel at a nightclub. It is unclear whether he lives or dies.
- RAB 10: Killed when the RABs accidentally destroy the universe.
- RAB 11: Only dies if chosen to go on the bus ride. Puppy puts a bicycle pump into him, causing Cat to explode.
Donkey
- RAB 2: Eaten by Hamster, then farted out
- RAB 3: Set on fire by Matt Groening
- RAB 10: Killed when the RABs accidentally destroy the universe.
Hamster
- RAB 10: Killed when the RABs accidentally destroy the universe.
- RAB 4: Shot through head. It is clear he lives[somehow], for he is seen calling Puppy[who is covered in Donkey's feces]"mommy" at the end of the episode.
- Killed by Matt Groening. His death isn't seen, since he obviously rode off with David Hasselhoff in Knight Rider.
Puppy
- RAB 2: Eaten by Hamster, then farted out
- RAB 3: Head blown off by Matt Groening
- RAB 4: Gets covered in Donkey's feces (although he appears to react to Hamster when he calls him mommy at the end of the episode.)
- RAB 7: Sucks his new penis; this act causes him to vanish
- RAB 9: Is eaten by Donkey.
- RAB 10: Killed when the RABs accidentally destroy the universe
- RAB 14: Torn apart by a monster created by Cat. However, a younger clone of Puppy later appears at the end
Cat's Stepdad
- RAB 3: Gets his eyes poked out by Satan at Cat's request.
- RAB 12: Gets his soul sucked out by Cat after being saved by him.
Other information
- One of Lovelace's goals in life is to become an officially published comic strip writer. One of his attempts to attain this goal was a newspaper-style comic strip version of Retarded Animal Babies, renamed Friendly Animal Babies to avoid offending anyone. The comic features all the main characters, and far more family-friendly humour.
- It is not actually known if the RAB world was made up of animal citizens living like humans as suguuested in RAB 12 (Except for big breasted women as seen at the ending of the episode) when Cat mistakenly mentioned humanity then corrected the statement with Animals/Animality. Although as seen in RAB 14 (When the RABs bacame adults), the audience during the Lifetime Achievement Award Ceremony were all human. Also, the existence of such people in the RAB world such as Bruce Willis, David Hasselhoff, Matt Groening etc. have suggested that the appearance of Animal citizens and Cat's corrected statement are not canon. In RAB 15 however, Cat explains that the RAB world was just the RABs, the field and an occasional change of scenery which suggests that all appearances of Animality or Humanity are just part of the change of scenery.
- Many people have noticed similarities between Retarded Animal Babies and the Happy Tree Friends series. Though it is true that HTF debuted before RAB, and creator David Lovelace admitted he had seen HTF before he created RAB, he swore the similarities were unintentional. Spoofing the incident, Lovelace placed the Pico character from Newgrounds in RABs 2, 3, and 15. He is seen calling RAB a ripoff in RAB 2 and 3. He is killed in RAB 2 and cursed out by Puppy in RAB 3. In RAB 15, a figure similar to Pico is seen at the arcade. Also, in RAB 10, one of the webpages they passed by was the HTF homepage, which Puppy said was just "ripping us off", and called it gay.
- Lovelace has placed at least one easter egg in each RAB cartoon (except the Magic Animal Babies commercial). Each one involves clicking on an object or character during the cartoon. Lovelace has tied some of these in with contests. Others have had hidden games, pictures, and storyboards. An easy method of finding these is by holding the Tab key during the cartoon. A yellow box should start appearing over the clickable object/character.
- Character deaths aren't the only incidents that happen in the RAB series that discourage continuity. For example, in RAB 5, Cat's stepdad revealed he was gay, Cat's mom was a transvestite, Cat was adopted, and his real parents were a hooker and Donkey, who was also revealed to be from Canada (These secrets cause a stunned Cat's head to explode). None of this has ever been elaborated on in future episodes however.
- In RAB 11, the RABs form a band called Fuck, poking fun at KISS, as Bunny is made up like Gene Simmons. When KISS originally formed, they almost settled on calling their band Fuck.
- RAB 4 is one of many hidden goodies located on the TV featured in the cartoon. By clicking the correct numbers on the remote control, you can access a secret RAB episode (Channel 123), as well as hidden TV shows, commercials, and channels, some of which don't involve RAB characters.
- David Lovelace makes other flashes that have been submitted to Newgrounds, such as "'Sno Problem", "Sci-Fi Guys", "Jot and Jab" and "Farkman". 'Sno Problem features characters resembling Hamster, but none of these cartoons feature actual RABs themselves.
- RAB has used many TV, music, & movie references for storylines and episode features; among which include bands (Rammstein, Kajagoogoo and rapper LL Cool J), actors (Bruce Willis, David Hasselhoff, and Sean Connery), TV shows (Battle for Ozzfest, The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Man Show, The Twilight Zone, Saturday Night Live, Star Trek, Automan and Knight Rider), commercials (Verizon and Life Cereal), movies (A Christmas Story, Back To The Future, The Terminator, the Star Wars series, They Live, The Fifth Element, A Night at the Roxbury, and Tron), and internet phenomena (The Badger Song and The Hampster Dance).
- The voices of the adult RABs from RAB 14 were provided by the Hartford, CT based cast and crew of radio station WCCC, where Lovelace once was an intern and today draws a comic strip for them. Longtime WCCC DJ Michael Picozzi, who voices the adult Bunny in this episode, also provided narration for RAB 7.
- In RAB 15 it is revealed in the credits the pitch changes in Lovelace's voice to voice each character. Puppy and donkey change by one fifth, cat by one sixth, bunny by one seventh and hamster by one octave.
External links
- [Retarded Animal Babies on Newgrounds]
- [umop.com - David Lovelace's website]
- [Retarded Animal Babies on MySpace]
- [Magic Hat's website]
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