I started with the pun and worked backwards, and I am not ashamed.

Cartoon Network went through what can generously be described as a "lull" (but accurately be described as "one tremendous run of crap") between 2008 and 2011. This started with the cancellation of the excellent Camp Lazlo, with Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and Chowder following it in the subsequent years. This exodus of top-tier animated shows was aggravated by the most recent (and already thoroughly discussed by others elsewhere) attempt to populate the schedule of the Cartoon Network with shrill and asinine live action programming.
Adult Swim could at least be counted on to provide new episodes of one of The Venture Brothers, Metalocalypse or Aqua Teen Hunger Force in any given season, and the quickly eviscerated golden goose that was The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack was a brief standout, but generally anything worthwhile on CN was already strictly in reruns. You may notice I'm only referring to comedy here. I have minimal interest in the superhero cartoons of the past two decades - while this may just be yet another bold step into geezerhood, nothing seems remotely comparable to the '90s X-Men and Batman, despite (or perhaps not so despite) relative freedom to depict violence and frightening scenes not requiring imagination to work.
2012 saw marked improvement - Adventure Time and Regular Show started hitting their strides, the live projects failed and fell aside, and creative and bizarre animated shows (however short-lived) were given their spaces instead. There was more positive development in 2013, where not only were all debuting shows animated, some of them were actually funny. Steven Universe (which I have every intention of watching more than one episode of), Uncle Grandpa (which I already watch too much of), and others (with their awful models, Clarence and Grojband are really going to have to sell me with comedy, and I don't have enough spare viewing time to give them many chances) are if nothing else signs this trend is continuing.
The 2014 season's new offerings seem as though they will continue this trend. Pat McHale-helmed miniseries Over the Garden Wall sounds the most promising; built on a combination of folk music, surrealism and cartoon sensibilities, I'm hoping for the visual equivalent of Beck. New entries in the Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo franchises represent a more literal return to CNs roots, more revivals of classic Hanna-Barbera franchises. These have at least some promise, if the temptation to go in the direction of Loonatics (or, shudder, Yo Yogi!) and force the venerable characters in to a focus-grouped template is resisted. Other newcomers are less interesting - a starkly CGI Sonic series, extensions of Total Drama and Beyblade, and Numb Chucks - which Canadians have already been subjected to for months on YTV, and which I never would have sat through a full episode of if my blog didn't specifically have "Groundhog" in the title - but every one of them is animated nonetheless.

2013 did not yield anything on the level Adventure Time, Regular Show or even The Amazing World of Gumball, but of the debuting Cartoon Network shows, Uncle Grandpa has been consistently funny and deeply odd, if given to derivative plots and occasional throw-everything-at-the-camera wackiness. I'd fallen several episodes behind in what was intended to be an ongoing review of the series, though, with the next season fast approaching. Fortunately, I had a day off, a selection of unusual Ontario beers, and I actually came up with an idea no-one on the Internet already took - to take on the five remaining episodes of Season One and my own hipster off-menu A&W Canada item, the Uncle Grandpa Burger. By their naming scheme, an Uncle Burger is a heavily dressed third-pound burger, and a Grandpa Burger is a three-patty sandwich. Topped with peanut butter...

...these combine to form the Uncle Grandpa Burger; completely unlicensed merchandise, utterly unreasonable food choice and linchpun of today's feature...

The Uncle Grandpa Burger was of excellent quality for a fast-food sandwich, a satisfying meal in itself - honestly, I'd expect nothing less from a burger that costs $11.75. With a suitably 'weird' beer - Creemore Springs' Hops and Bolts India Pale Lager, a transparent attempt to capitalize on Flying Monkeys Brewery's success but sharp and refreshing nonetheless - lunch was served.

The sirloin patties actually taste like the meat originated from a cow - itself a considerable achievement for chain take-out - with a slight coarseness that gives them a superior mouthfeel to their overground competitors. The 5 oz. patty is also thicker than A&W's regular quarter-pound one, and juicier inside. On their "regular" burgers (those which don't include cheese, bacon and multiple kinds of all-concealing sauce) the smaller can be somewhat dry.

With triple the meat of the menu version - I learned that any sandwich can be customized in this way by means of a universal meat multiplier key on the till - the Uncle Burger's toppings (mayo, mustardy mayo, lettuce, onions, and tomatoes which were removed at the outset of the project) were stretched thin...

...but the addition of thematically-appropriate peanut butter and pun-enabling ketchup more than compensated.

Take note that is emphatically not Heinz ketchup, as I'm boycotting that condiment to protest unfair and anti-Canadian practices (ask me about my McDonalds boycott, too. Caution: inquiries may be answered at length).

I also must stress that peanut butter on a hamburger is outstanding! I'd seen it done before, and have had many a peanut butter and onion sandwich in my day regardless of the judgement of friends and relatives, but I'd never been brave enough to try what proved to be a bold and satisfying flavour/texture combination.

I expected overwhelming fat (a sacrifice for journalism!), but instead was reminded more of a cheeseburger made with exceptionally rich cheese, with the sweet, slightly earthy crunch of the chunky peanut butter perfectly complimenting the beef (although peanut butter and lettuce, in isolation, did seem sort of odd together).

"...and I contend that hamburgers are for cats."

The stock A&W bun was never meant to accommodate three Uncle patties, however, and the bottom bun disintegrated into streaks of mush after the first few bites. It generally doesn't hold up on a sensible burger, let alone this creation, and soon I was just sitting there holding my meat.

It's a careful balance creating a hamburger bun that isn't overly dense but still has the structural integrity to cohere until the last bite of sandwich, and A&W has yet to strike it.

They do lightly toast the buns, complete with decorative char marks, which provides a nicer texture for the bread...while it exists.

Despite a Sunday afternoon staff consisting entirely of teenagers, the assembly was near-faultless. The UG Burger (and doesn't that abbreviation sound tasty?) was carefully wrapped in a sheet of oversized wax paper instead of the standard burger 'envelope', that within its own paper bag, and remained suitable for trendy food photography even after transport.

Once logey with protein and in a proper Uncle Grandpa frame of mind, I began the marathon in earnest with Season 1, Episode 22, "Future Pizza". You may have noticed the episode onscreen in the photos is actually Episode 23, "More Uncle Grandpa Shorts" - afterward, I realized I had also missed reviewing the previous and re-started from there.

"Future Pizza" explores Uncle Grandpa's time-travel abilities (and deeply flawed decision-making involving them), earlier demonstrated in "Uncle Grandpa for a Day" and "Uncle Grandpa Ate My Homework!". It also provides a study in the superhuman level of tolerance and ease of impressedness required to stand being near a early-'90s "cool guy" character, once presented as - if not the pinnacle of social grace - the top of the social order.
It's a risky move making (fundamentally) a take on Poochie into a core character, but Pizza Steve's self-centered abrasiveness provides a perpetual source of low-level conflict - particularly with the mellow, laconic Mr. Gus, his opposite number and, by the laws of comedy, constant companion.

Pretty much the '90s in a nutshell.

The other characters are generally too kind-hearted (if given to constant and thorough lapses in judgement) to generate more than wacky misunderstandings, and to fold Pizza Steve's tendencies into the (already troll-prone) main character would risk making him an unlikeable nuisance. This leaves Pizza Steve as close to said unlikeable nuisance himself, though, and requires positively heroic in-world suspension of disbelief from Uncle Grandpa to justify his continued association with the Posse.

Uncle Grandpa's short memory and general immunity to damage are crucial characteristics in any friend of Pizza Steve's, but in "Future Pizza", the limits of these are tested. Uncle Grandpa's brutalized future self has been subject to something so grievous that he "lost all respect" for Pizza Steve, and consciously violates "Time Law" by travelling back in an attempt to alter history. Uncle Grandpa's motives are difficult to place on a moral spectrum here - it is unclear if he is acting out of concern for Pizza Steve, aware at least on some level of the empty and depressing life behind his facade, or out of self-interest, as Uncle Grandpa does clearly believe he's benefiting from this friendship in some way. Pizza Steve has exclusively selfish motives, worried if he loses Uncle Grandpa's respect he won't be invited "on any of his super-cool adventures any more", only concerned about said respect as a means to an end.
The rest of the episode focuses on Pizza Steve's conflict between "impressing" Uncle Grandpa alternating feeble stunts and imagination spots of his anticipated failure. The ending, which leaves to question whether the situation was actually resolved (although we can presume Uncle Grandpa will forget about it anyway - moments before this he says in all seriousness "I've never broken anything...except wind", a statement contradicted in nearly every episode) and more importantly sets up a time loop more pronounced and equally untenable as the one in series premiere "Belly Bros", this time the crux of the plot rather than a throwaway piece of backstory.

This episode was also a reminder of just how far Duckman was ahead of its time, and how that series' lack of closure is one of the greatest injustices ever perpetrated upon the viewing public in the history of television. Duckman gave a Masters' class in time-duplicate chicanery in 1996, years before Futurama took up the art, in the form of "The Once and Future Duck".  The ending of this episode invokes the Terminator 2 "no fate" theory of time and predestination, though it does a marginally better job of isolating the time-travel plot and attempting to work around the paradox.
"Future Pizza" falls into the same loop as T2, wherein nothing can take place without the relevant events having already taken place, as the cause is in the future. To further explore this would require far more speculation on the nature of causality than space or intelligence allows, and has strayed far from the intended point of "Duckman was awesome" besides, so I will continue on to the next episode before this becomes as ungainly as my Bottom Biting Bug review. (Edit: dammit).

The influence of gaming on animation becomes ever more obvious, as video game references are now a go-to throwaway joke - though if this isn't the main selection screen of the inevitable Uncle Grandpa 3DS game, it will be the definition of opportunity wasted.
"More Uncle Grandpa Shorts" begins with a timely (ahem) parody of MTV's Cribs, which gives us the most thorough look at the inside of the UG-RV so far. Multiple layers of the interior are viewed, notably the (sterile-looking for something with so many material-gathering bends) sewer line as we follow Uncle Grandpa's detached, flushed head in cross-section.

To digress with yet another comparison, when I first encountered Uncle Grandpa, I described the title character as having characteristics of Uncle Fester and Felix the Cat. After a full season, I'm ready to declare him their direct evolutionary descendent. Uncle Grandpa bears a passing physical resemblance and a very strong similarity in character to Uncle the 90s animated version of Fester. He bears no ill will toward those whose lives he impacts, because from his perspective he's not only being helpful, he's showing everyone a great time. Uncle Grandpa is also unaware of collateral damage until it is directly pointed out to him, and nigh-invulnerable himself. Destruction follows both of them, but either will take any and all measures to repent when they realize they've caused actual harm (this particular trait is, obviously, not common to all incarnations of Uncle Fester).

Felix the Cat shares a common tendency with both - he's more used to weirdness and destruction than the mundane "civilian" population (in Uncle Grandpa's case, even his close companions) but is blissfully unaware not everyone shares his outlook and constitution. Confident in his own ability to deal with the consequences, not realizing this is an inherent privilege of being the main character and not extended to everyone, Felix simply cannot resist pushing the proverbial (sometimes literal) big, red button.

If there's something that would be best left alone, it's only a matter of time before Felix pokes, activates, agitates or otherwise engages it. Felix will torment actual villains with inventiveness and deliberacy rivaling Bugs Bunny, but even a rival (mutual or perceived) or bystander is at risk.

Both can also spontaneously generate objects (within the limits of comedy - remember the Roger Rabbit rule, toons can only break the laws of physics when it's funny), and remove, reposition and generate appendages at whim.

Both Felix and UG operate in Newton's blind spot and do not realize that, even within their bizarre realms, others are under slightly closer scrutiny then they are.

"Homez" is more of the same "look how weEeEirRRrD Uncle Grandpa's stuff is!" comedy we've already seen earlier in the series, but touring the extra-surreal 'other rooms' (seen in passing in the title sequence) successfully ups the oddity level. "Homez" is followed by a near-speechless one-minute short full of old-school flair, including the vintage limb-pump idle (above), and a finish as funny as it is nonsensical (which is considerably so).

The second story-short is either an underplayed joke or a flopped premise. The latest issue of Uncle Grandpa's favourite 'weird' comic book, Weird Man, is read aloud and proves considerably less outlandish than Uncle Grandpa's day-to-day life. If this is a joke, Uncle Grandpa's opinions may have a typically cartoonish polarity to real-world norms, wherein the more mundane something is, the odder it seems to him. Weird Man is moderately strange, however - if Uncle Grandpa found ordinary things titillatingly weird, logically his favourite weird comic should be something like the comic store supply order guide. I suspect this is an almost-inevitable issue when trying to invent "weird" entertainment for a "weird" character - anything less bizarre than himself isn't "weird" in context, but anything moreso would upstage him.

Weird Man is basically Powdered Toast Man crossed with Freakazoid, and "Discomfort Man" would be a more apt monicker. The sketch's punchline, if it can be called that, is a mere scene transition - Uncle Grandpa flies into the next room in the same spinning, knees-held pose as Weird Man...really no stranger than Uncle Grandpa's usual modes of locomotion.

The short isn't without merit, as it contains an archetypal example of the golden age cartoon/comic book "thug" - everything about this mug, from his low-class hat to his "whaddaya got?" diction is timeless toon goon.

This reveals an interesting facet of Uncle Grandpa's design - his moustache (and relative diminutiveness, I suppose) is apparently the only thing that keeps Uncle Grandpa from looking like he should be pounding Daffy Duck or Ren into an accordion. The style of facial hair is crucial, too - replace the avuncular goofy moustache with a villainous Van Dike, and you've got The Crusher.

Even the propeller beanie, single buck-tooth and cheerful demeanor - all contributing to his friendly, loopy appearance with 'stache in place - strongly suggest the haymaker-throwing simpleton when clean-shaven.

Uncle Grandpa has never been shy about its Kricfalusi influence, and nowhere is it more evident than its gratuitous 'bikini girl' shots. The final segment, "Italian Karate Tournament", features a recurring panel of John K-esque ingenues, though the third woman from the lower left oddly has a more Gravity Falls-like design.

This scene, like the entirety of the story, is a depiction of Pizza Steve's fantasy, packed with food puns and an action sequence the animation style doesn't completely seem up to.

In the grand tradition of budget anime, this doesn't stop them for a second. As it turns out, the is actually Steve's elaborate lie to Mr. Gus - who he has once again cruelly exploited. Uncle Grandpa not only confirms Pizza Steve's story despite being present seconds ago when the contradicting real events took place, he then does the exact same thing to Gus (clearly established as this show's butt monkey from the outset). Though this has the same result for him - his food is stolen - it illustrates an important difference in character. Pizza Steve cheats Gus out of selfishness and pure antagonism, where Uncle Grandpa does so out of ignorance of the situation and unthinking disregard for those who can't create the objects of their desires from thin air.

"More Uncle Grandpa Shorts" definitely has its moments, but it also embodies a problem common to anthology episodes - it always feels like they're made up of the collected material that couldn't be padded out to entire stories, but was too long for bumpers or one-shot jokes. Uncle Grandpa is sketchy to begin with, though, so these aren't as obviously out-of-place as in Futurama or non-Halloween episodes of The Simpsons.

The exact location of Uncle Grandpa's fourth wall has never been easy to follow, and "Viewer Special" confounds things further by not only presenting Uncle Grandpa as a fictional show produced by the character - a situation which has been implied or outright shown repeatedly - but as a show that's fictional within its own setting. Uncle Grandpa has "viewers" in-universe, implying we're watching an extant children's show from another dimension, rather than one produced with us as the intended audience.

Accompanied by a brilliantly gross 'squidge' sound effect, Uncle Grandpa selects the name of a lucky viewer to draw the new episode. He draws the name of 'Kev', cartoon interpretation of an 80s metalhead and general UG detractor. Why someone who clearly hates Uncle Grandpa would have entered the draw in the first place is an excellent question, as if he'd done so to troll the show, he wouldn't have needed as much convincing to deface it.

Kev is drawn in a style reminiscent of animator M. Wartella's work on MAD - background characters have been rendered like this before, and later episode "Future Pizza" has the best examples, complete with the appropriate contorting animation.

A much more prominent influence is Homestar Runner, specifically the Teen Girl Squad cartoons (these in turn clearly inspired by Looney Tunes short "Duck Amuck"). 'Kev', the selected viewer, immediately starts casting UG and posse into dangerous situations in the manner of Strong Bad, complete with props suddenly gaining eyeballs, mobility, and a vicious temperament to threaten the protagonists.

Kev subjects Uncle Grandpa and co. to an ever-changing hell complete with post-apocalyptic landscape, animate musical instruments, and bloodless gore.

Uncle Grandpa is brilliantly suited to said gore, as the cast includes a magic man who can add and remove extremities at will, an inanimate object with random junk for innards, a reptile capable of regeneration and a slice of pizza - all of the main characters except Giant Realistic Flying Tiger can be subjected to considerable mutilation without things becoming inappropriate for the target audience, and the characters themselves can believably recover by the time the shot changes.

On the subject of Giant Realistic Flying Tiger, where the other characters are creatively vandalized (and "Pizza Steve-Rat" is hilarious)...

...Tiger is hurriedly scribbled out.

Although she's the only consistently competent member of the Posse and the most likely to save the day, as a non-speaking character Tiger all-too-often gets short shrift on screen time and development. Hopefully, she'll receive some much-deserved focus in the second season.

The short ends with Uncle Grandpa emerging from Kev's television to exact karmic revenge, turning his own drawings against him. At this point I think it's safe to say that no fourth wall affects Uncle Grandpa, although I'm more confused than ever regarding exactly what tier of reality we're seeing.

The closing sketch is a follow-up to Episode 9's "Xarna: She-Warrior of the Apocalypse", and is most notable for the heroine taking a long huff from an open gasoline truck and contentedly sighing "that's the stuff", and for some very careful centering (specifically lack thereof) that allows the depiction of a human-shaped, ostensibly male alien growing a third leg without generating angry emails.

I mentioned before that Uncle Grandpa was always sketchy - the show now has an entire stable of recurring shorts, almost in the vein of Animaniacs. I'm eagerly anticipating new installments of "Evil Wizard" and "New Experiences" as well as the promised conclusion of "Xarna".

The next episode, Bad Morning, serves as a reminder of the power puns command in the Uncle Grandpa universe. Normally the epitome of chipper right from daybreak, UG instead storms into the room fuming and destroying everything in his path, to the consternation of his companions. Using his "rewind" feature, Mr. Gus is able to determine that Uncle Grandpa got up on the literal wrong side of the bed, and must be returned to sleep for a proper reset of his personality.

No-one's ever going to top Red Dwarf's take on this bit, but kudos for even attempting it.

From there, the episode is largely a chase sequence, with Uncle Grandpa loose in the city in a high-performance racecar bed, and the rest following in the RV desperately trying to put him under. Unsuccessful attempts include a lullaby by Mr. Gus which ends in a classic schoolyard cuss-cut-short (with a cringe-inducingly convincing vocal sell from Kevin Michael Richardson)...

...and what I at least like to imagine is an intentional Belle and Sebastian reference.

As Gus deduces, Pizza Steve has the solution available all along, but is pettily withholding it (despite having caused the situation in the first place). After all other options fail, Pizza Steve "relents" (by force and begrudgingly) and Uncle Grandpa is saved. This is accomplished with surprisingly minor damage to their surroundings, in a happy ending for most.

Uncle Grandpa's rage-induced "I hate kids!" early in the segment called my attention to something I hadn't noticed before - it's been five episodes since the "Uncle Grandpa disruptively but (arguably) successfully helps a child address a life-problem" structure was last used. The setting allows for domestic and adventure plots outside of his genie duties, and these have tended to be the better stories - Uncle Grandpa was going outside of its formula soon after establishing it, and this has helped prevent the show from becoming repetitive, despite what seemed at first like a limited premise.

The final minutes of the episode are devoted to Uncle Grandpa's deep-sea diving bathtub adventure in pursuit of his kidnapped modem-screech-making rubber duck Email (while Gus waits for the bathroom). Uncle Grandpa shines with short absurdist stories, and this one does not disappoint.

Email, of course, was nabbed inadvertently by a bathtub octopus who thought he was foiling his own son's abduction. Said son, you see, has an unsettling rubber-duck-shaped head growth, and Father is apparently rash or shortsighted.

All is resolved with only a few good scares being exchanged, and we even get a brief glimpse into Pizza Steve's tragic hidden depths (yar har yar har).

While the shorts compilation was lackluster, the two episodes that followed both took new risks with the format and demonstrated the real comedic strengths of Uncle Grandpa. The final episode of Season 1, "Prank Wars", is somewhat less original, beginning in the well-treaded territory of an escalating prank contest.

While the "prank war" portion of the episode doesn't break any new ground, this seems more a commentary on Pizza Steve's in-character lack of creativity and Mr. Gus' stodginess than a fault with the writing. Even though the only practical jokes Pizza Steve can devise are the oldest ones in the book (screwing with the shower water, sneaking hot sauce into his food, a freaking joy buzzer and whoopee cushion), Mr. Gus still dutifully falls for all of them, showing a surprising gullibility in this area for someone who's been on Earth for 200 million years. Pizza Steve declares himself "Master Prankster" for these achievements in jocularity, but in response is hit with a devastating pun, probably the best/worst of the series outright...

"I was prankin' fools before you were even delivered!"

That Pizza Steve doesn't even react to this gut-wrenching groaner suggests he may have a stronger mental constitution than has been previously implied...or that he didn't get it.

Mr. Gus, who doesn't have the firmest grasp of humour when not being actively provoked, immediately goes too far, having Tiny Miracle impersonate a phone call (and the phone!) to lure Steve to the site of a pizza eating contest. It's a tiny miracle in its own right we were able to see this character without an overlong Rube Goldberg gag, and it suggests he may have comic potential beyond what I've given credit for.

At Uncle Grandpa's insistence - and after a failed television teleport which by all rights should have worked for UG - Gus, Grandpa and Belly Bag saddle up Giant Realistic Flying Tiger to stage a rescue. The overreaching prank-gone-wrong is an all but mandatory element of a practical joke-based plot, but that in turn mandating a full-on commando mission is a unique escalation. The contest itself features Uncle Grandpa's most Wartell-like character design yet, with the pizza-eating competitors a dual shout-out to MAD and the Three Stooges. Shots of the stands briefly reveal the unusual spectators for this event, demonstrating that the animators' adept touch with background freeze-frame gags.

Standouts here include a chicken-man, the Gritty Kitty announcer from Ren and Stimpy looking profoundly drunk...

...pre-rhinoplasty Cousin Itt, Dracula, a decrepit late-middle-ager in a Flash t-shirt (possibly a lighthearted jab at the periphery demographic?), a moustacheless goon of the aforementioned fashion, a cyclops, and a robot beatnik with a reel-to-reel deck for a body. None of these oddities are seen outside brief crowd pans or have any impact on the plot - the only audience member interacted with seems completely mundane, especially among this company - they're simply there, providing a little extra strangeness for those paying attention.

Due to spectacularly poor planning on the organizers' part, the pizza supply runs out almost immediately, leaving the competitors tied and Pizza Steve the last morsel available. Then, with the positions fully established, the battle begins. Mr. Gus takes the initiative, again demonstrating a crucial difference between him and Pizza Steve - Gus is (ultimately) willing to address the problem he created, even at risk to himself, where his counterpart would not so much as share a sundae to undo harm he caused. The chase sequence subtly plays with expectations as an obvious joke is set up, then subverted. Early crowd shots show a woman with a very bowling-bag-like purse, conveniently seated in the first row. This outsized caddy is seemingly her "wacky" characteristic (given that she's not a robot, mutant, supernatural creature or old) and stands out even in passing. As anticipated, the action ends up directly in front of her, Mr. Gus grabs and  upturns the bowling-bag and...purse cruft.

There is eventually a bowling ball bit, but it has nothing to do with the purse - a different competitor is stuffed into that and later thrown overhand, bag and all, in decidedly non-bowling fashion.

The ending is somewhat more predictable, with Gus single-handedly disposing of the crazed pizza enthusiasts and rescuing his "friend". What follows is either a reference to or outright crib of the ending of "Sweet Seymour Skinners Baadasssss Song" , with a parting hug obscuring a double back-sign exchange.

Naturally, neither learns a thing.

The last moments of Season One are remarkably subdued for Uncle Grandpa, with our hero waiting for a microwave burrito while informing all nearby of same. This feels almost like a quiet backstage moment after the hectic main story, and also cleverly incorporates a curtain call for the main cast.

Uncle Grandpa had an uneven first season, but - especially in later episodes - established itself as a cartoon comedy of the oldest school. Slapstick, wild takes and punning drive the comedy - Tex Avery by way of Spongebob Squarepants - but Uncle Grandpa is so deeply and commitedly strange that it presents something unique. Like the burger that bears its name, it's made of familiar ingredients - even the peanut butter is available at A&W itself if one hasn't already gotten self-conscious about one's special order - but in combination there's nothing quite like it on the menu.

The recent debuts of Breadwinners and Numb Chucks serve to cast light on one of Uncle Grandpa's subtler achievements - it takes genuinely smart writing to do good dumb. Mike Judge is the current unquestioned master of this art, and while Uncle Grandpa is hardly equal to Beavis and Butt-Head or Idiocracy, it does have moments of similar sublime foolishness (as distinct from slapstick and old "how dumb IS he?" gags).

With its "fairy godfather" premise and screwball magic-user main character, Uncle Grandpa also had the potential to be a straightforward Fairly Oddparents clone. Fortunately, it avoids that show's most irritating practices by maintaining a clear distinction between poor judgement and malice, completely skipping the tired "kid with a problem" aspect of stories more often than not, and having morals generally so odd or inapplicable they can't really self-contradict or have unfortunate ethical implications on reflection.

The writers also seem well aware that the interactions and baffling adventures of the Uncle Grandpa posse are a lot more interesting than what amounts to his day job. This is what I hope to see expanded on in the second season, along with more Giant Realistic Flying Tiger, further exploration of the considerable powers of Belly Bag, and new installments of the stranger non-UG shorts.

In lieu of a proper closing sentence, here's the groundhog again. I think I'm going to name him 'Gordie'.