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Squidbillies

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Squidbillies is an animated television show produced by Williams Street Studios, the creators of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Adult Swim, about a family of hillbilly squids that live in the north Georgia mountains. The show revolves primarily around two squids, Early Cuyler and his son Rusty Cuyler, living in abject poverty, and trying to reconcile their relationship following Early's fifteen year incarceration for armed robbery.

Contents

Cast

Story

The pilot episode begins by introducing the residents of a poverty ridden town in North Georgia, including an emphysemic sheriff with an affinity for jazzercise, a giant snake, and corrupt businessman Dan Halen, the owner of a sheetrock conglomerate that dominates the local economy and also deals in international espionage, third world regime change, and tools for infanticide. The Dan Halen corporate logo resembles the logo of the rock band, Van Halen.

Fifteen years prior to the present day, Early Cuyler twice robbed a store to obtain gifts for his ill-mannered, philandering, and obese (human) girlfriend. After the second robbery, Early was arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Unbeknownst to him, in his absence his girlfriend had given birth to their son, Rusty, and abandoned him to be raised by Early's sister, Lil. Rusty became a ward of the state after the discovery of a crystal meth lab in Lil's hair salon, and was placed with his grandmother, but fled out of boredom. At the end of his father's sentence, the two reunite, and now live with Lil. Both Rusty and Early sport mullets (though Early's has thinned out), wear ever-changing trucker hats (see below), appear to have a lack of any formal education (though Early attempts to home school Rusty), and are fans of NASCAR.

Initially after his release, Early had trouble seeking employment, in part because of his overt racism (Early is especially racist toward white people, although he considers the Sheriff "one of the good ones") , penchant for outbursts of brutal violence, and complete lack of reliability. He is eventually hired by Dan Halen as CEO of his sheetrock company in part to comply with federal equal opportunity employment standards, and also to deflect liability from Halen, whose business faces many lawsuits resulting from its increasingly dangerous products. Early is completely oblivious to Halen's machinations and is unaware that he will likely be scapegoated into prosecution for the company's offenses.

Themes

The show uses dark themes along with crude animation. After his abandonment and early childhood spent working amongst illicit drugs, Rusty harbors violent revenge fantasies, sometimes injures himself (when he is not being abused by his father) and appears to be sexually deviant, much like his father. The squids face alcohol abuse, total poverty, themes of betrayal and abandonment, family abuse, and more. Though each of the Squidbillies are often associated with negative white trash stereotypes (not limited to portayals of racism, misogyny, and incest), Early harbors a deep hatred of white people, frequently using the racial slur "chalky" to describe them, possibly out of a deep seated resentment towards the mother of Rusty, after she left him before he went to prison. Which is ironic since the squids are portrayed as white trash and are seemingly white.

Behind-the-scenes difficulty

The show's first episode was promoted extensively to air November 7, 2004, but Adult Swim aired the pilot of Perfect Hair Forever instead. Perfect Hair Forever was followed by a panel discussion of the episode; this panel included Space Ghost, Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Early Cuyler, and Sharko from Sealab 2021. Many fans believed Squidbillies to be an elaborate hoax, but the pilot was real, and after changes in producers and writers, segments of it aired on April 1, 2005, with the full pilot airing October 16, 2005, after appearing on AdultSwim.com two days earlier.

The nearly year-long delay was partly the result of severe doubts about the pilot on the part of Squidbillies' writers, who had subjected it to multiple re-writes between the show's commission and its scheduled debut. When they decided the episode was unairable only days before the premier, the panel discussion was hastily thrown together as a replacement.

The Trucker Hats of Early Cuyler

This is a brief list of the lines/images that are found on Early Cuyler's trucker hats.

Trivia

See Also

List of Squidbillies Episodes

External links

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