I did a review on “Clone High” a little under a year ago and pretty much called it the only animated thing MTV did after the year 2000 with any value. That is still mainly true, but I was recently reminded that around the same time the show “3 South” came out as well. I had forgotten that show because, well, it wasn’t as great as the other one. Doing what I had to, I managed to acquaint myself with something I had forgotten for a decade, and I’m glad I did. It’s a little crude and stupid at times, but considering the people making also had hands in “Mission Hill” and “Family Guy”, that kind of makes sense.
“3 South” isn’t setting the world on fire with its wit or story, and it’s not even the best adult cartoon with the word south in it, but it’s a pretty funny show that the MTV audience then should have clung to. Sadly, they did not. It worked out though, because the main characters were seemingly used to develop the two guys from “Super Bad.” I know that’s not true, but it almost looks it at times.
Two long time pals, Sanford and Del, go off to college together. They’re both pretty stupid, so the school they go to is filled with people like that. It’s called Barder University. They get shacked up with the only smart guy in the joint, who do to Ivy League schools having to fulfill Affirmative Action quotas, is stuck with a bunch of other white guys at this dump. But since this is MTV, he’s the bad guy for being smart.
Meet Joe
Joe has to endure what I’ll dub the “Squidward Paradox.” This is where a nice, smart person is driven to the point of anger and insanity because he is surrounded by dumb and inconsiderate people. Joe wants to be a doctor, but has to endure constant idiocy in his living space and in the medical center. It’s hard to root against him, especially with our protagonists.
We’ll start with the “SpongeBob” of this duo, Sanford. He’s basically a fat idiot. He’s inconsiderate, self-obsessed and loves fart jokes. He is basically just an awful person to have to root for. He leads around his weak willed best friend and does dumb things. So in a way he’s the “Patrick” too, but he makes Joe the maddest, so there we are.
Del, on the other hand, is a nuisance on accident. This leads us more down the “Super Bad” route where the timid guy gets in trouble because of his fat friend, though I doubt Sanford went on to lose a bunch of weight and look super old because of it. Del is just an appendage of his pal. He shows signs of intelligence and some luck with girls, but it’s all for not. I mainly mean Felicity who is obsessed with him and has pictures all over her dorm room. She makes clothes for him out of her hair. Right.
There is almost nothing about this show anywhere, I'm just posting whatever pictures I can.
The best person to watch is Dean Earhart, who is voiced by the great Jeffrey Tambor. He’s a terrible man who tries to steal money from alumni while being pretty much just awful at his job. His failings are the best part about this show by a wide margin.
Of the many comparisons I’ve made, an adult version of “SpongeBob Squarepants” may be the best one; a greedy old guy running the ship, and two stupid guys ruining a smart ones life. It’s not a bad little comedy, it just seemed uninspired. I would wager because MTV is at the helm, but it could also be because it was made by a lot of the people from “Family Guy” while they were waiting to be brought back and made rich. Either way, it’s no “Clone High,” but it beats “Teen Mom” and day of the week. The real tragedy here is that no one remembers this. “Clone High” at leas has a cult following and Canada. “3 South’ has people like me who stumbled across it on MTV at 1 in the morning and even I forgot about it. I mean, it’s the only medium around to show that Brian Posehn can do more than his one voice. He’s half the cast for god sake. So hopefully the 5 people that read this review aren’t the same 5 people who have heard of this show, and we can get some more eyes on it.
How could you not be drawn to this?
Credit goes to: MTV.com, everyview.com, toonariffic.com, and coedmagazine.com.