A Regular show

by Acosta Clenar Melina

Since its premiere, “Regular Show” has turned into a success. The programme has been watched by approximately 2.5 million viewers each week. Moreover, it has been nominated for several awards such as the Primetime Emmy awards. Regular Show, created by J.G Quintel for Cartoon Network, is a TV show directed to preadolescents. It revolves about the story of two friends, a blue jay called Mordecai and a brown racoon named Rigby. Both of them are the groundskeepers at a park and their attempts to avoid working lead them into very unreal situations. With a gumball machine as their boss, Mordecai and Rigby try to vulnerate their boss’ orders. Sometimes strange situations happen to them and that situations prevent them from working. In many episodes they are trapped by virtual video games. While discovering a way to go out of them, they escape from their daily routine and with that behaviour they shrink their unpleasant boss. Regular Show does not transmit values of responsibility to children and fosters lack of commitment.

There are many situations or even expressions that the characters use that might make children feel identified or attracted. Mordecai and Rigby use the vocabulary preadolescents speak. For example they say “hey dude, we have to get a job!” It’s like preadolescents and the characters speak the same jargon. What is more, there is a particular utterance similar to a shout these characters say when celebrating their “adventures” that is quite unbearable and it turns repetitive throughout the episodes.

In one of the episodes Rigby and Mordecai are in charge of mowing the park. Rigby is too lazy to do it so; he decides to look for a temporal replacement. Finally, he hires a replacement to do his job. As in this case, in many opportunities the characters solve their everyday duties by creating situations that are quite similar to those we may see in video games. In one of the episodes, Rigby is decided to ask for a rising of his salary to his boss. All of a sudden, he finds a magic keyboard which is the tool he needs to convince his boss, Gumball. After singing a song, the boss gives him some extra money but if we analize this, we might infer that this situation is quite ridiculous. It seems that the solution to their laziness is imagining unnatural contexts in which they win games and from one moment to another all their problems are solved as easily as singing a song. We know that this context is quite different from real life. When you turn into an adult you cannot say to your boss you don’t feel like working or that you have more important things to do than to earn a salary. Regular Show episodes represent an idea of life that does not reflect the reality which every children would have to face once grown ups. Although Mordecai and Rigby are 23 years old, they are not mature enough. They are lazy and childish. But what is worst, they are not respectful with their boss.

Regular show depicts its characters having irresponsible attitudes. As a result, we may see Rigby and Mordecai driving a car at high speed. It is common to all people that there are many victims caused by car accidents every year but still, this show promotes speed as something exciting and funny.

Although Regular Show has been censored in its Latin-American version, it still contains a big amount of obscene scenes and many examples of improper vocabulary. The characters talk to each other with the vocative “dude” which is extremely sticky so as a result we would have children who are talking about “dudes” and not Sir or Mrs. The fact that children may incorporate improper vocabulary would cause a problem with what parents teach and what “Regular Show” reproduces.

Regular Show TV programme might be appealing and funny for children, but in a deeper analysis; it’s just a promotion of a light management of life. Apart from creating very unreal situations in which the characters scamper from problems, they do not assume any responsibility. It’s probable that J.G Quintel did never grow up because of the behaviour he gives to his characters. Someday Rigby and Mordecai would have to maturate and act as responsible adults.