(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Newest animated show on Fox makes a mockery of socioeconomic injustice [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-09-10 Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an animated TV show that tackled socioeconomic injustice, such as maybe by focusing on a couple of recipients of universal basic income (UBI), and also had a some laughs along the way? Universal Basic Guys on Fox is not that show. Universal Basic Guys premiered on Fox this past Sunday in the coveted 8 p.m. Eastern slot generally occupied by The Simpsons. I watched for five minutes, and the casual cruelty towards a chimp was enough for me to decide to change the channel. With a better understanding of the show’s premise, I would have been even more offended by this crass first episode. Critics who’ve seen more of this show hardly think any higher of it than I do. The show revolves around the brothers Mark and Hank Hoagies, both voiced by Adam Malamut and for some reason none voiced by his brother Craig who also works on the show. Mark and Hank used to work at the hot dog factory in Glantontown, New Jersey. Were they laid off, were they fired? I’m not exactly clear on that important detail. And then somehow both Mark and Hank were enrolled in a universal basic income program, receiving $3,000 a month with no particular obligation to do anything creative, important or interesting with that money. For perspective, consider that a worker earning $15 per hour and working 40-hour weeks would earn roughly $2,400 a month. The concept of universal basic income is that it’s a basic amount for everyone. Recipients might include poets, composers, journalists, inventors, people who might do important stuff but not necessarily in the confines of a 40-hour work week. Recipients of universal basic income would obviously also include unlikable morons like the protagonists on Universal Basic Guys. But by focusing on that kind of recipient, the show discredits and insults the concept of universal basic income, painting it as unnecessary and wasteful. According to Aramide Tinubu writing for Variety, the pilot episode begins with Mark questioning the portrait he’s purchased as a birthday present for his wife, Tammy (Talia Genevieve). After Tammy receives a luxurious spa certificate from a doctor she works with at the hospital, Mark decides the only way to over-shadow the plastic surgeon’s gift is to buy her an exotic animal. He ropes in Hank to join this scheme, and the pair visit a Tiger King-like zoo where Mark buys an ancient, ailing chimpanzee. Things obviously don’t go according to plan. The chimp (of course) is no house-trained pet, Tammy isn’t amused and Mark ends up in the hospital. From the pilot forward, every episode follows this setup. The elder brother plots, and Hank idiotically follows his lead. Fred Armisen plays David, a neighbor described as an “aspiring writer.” Is David also a recipient of universal basic income? Then he might be the kind of character I would have preferred the show focus on. The show never strikes the balance between crude and comedic. Most of the characters are frustratingly stupid, and the comedy throughout isn’t sharp enough to compensate for the show’s dopiness and dated dialogue. I was not the only one confused by the show’s backstory, as the audience is thrust into the Hoagies’ lives without truly understanding what happened during the robot takeover at the hot dog factory, or what exactly UBI entails, viewers are left as directionless as the series. It is possible for an animated show on Fox to both be funny and cover important socioeconomic issues in a meaningful way. Family Guy has managed that from time to time, and also Krapopolis, The Great North and, I presume, Bob’s Burgers (a show I just haven’t gotten into despite the spiritual kinship with Great North and shared personnel). And The Simpsons even had an episode with Robert Reich as a major presence throughout the entire episode. Angie Han writing for The Hollywood Reporter reaches pretty much the same conclusions as Tinubu, though she elaborates more on the wasted opportunity of this show. The “basic” in that title actually refers to the concept of Universal Basic Income, which ostensibly drives the plot. As explained in the theme song that opens each episode, South Jersey brothers Mark and Hank Hoagies, both voiced by Adam Malamut, were enrolled in a pilot UBI program after their hot-dog factory jobs were made redundant by AI-powered robots. With a no-strings-attached $3,000 to burn each month and no gainful employment to take up their time, the Hoagies spend their days getting into wacky scrapes. Most of those are driven by Mark’s misguided ambitions or inflated ego, while the far mellower Hank is generally only along for the ride. Despite a premise that would seem to touch on salient political issues, Universal Basic Guys has no interest in pointed social commentary. If anything, UBI functions as an excuse for it to avoid talking about anything too real. You never have to wonder why Mark isn’t looking for a new gig or how he’s paying for all his harebrained schemes when UBI is there to hand-wave away your questions. (And if you’re wondering whether that money wouldn’t just be replacing the paychecks he used to get from work, or whether some of his ideas wouldn’t cost way more than three grand to execute — stop, you’re already thinking about this way more that the show has.) And Han also wonders why Tammy “wouldn’t want to leave a man who causes her so many headaches.” Of late the Family Guy writers have questioned why Lois would stay with Peter, but frankly I never questioned it and would have never questioned it if the writers hadn’t. But after five minutes of Universal Basic Guys, I think Tammy would do well to leave Mark. The universal basic income in this show is, as Manuel Betancourt for AV Club put it, a narrative crutch. Here universal basic income is not a way to improve community or the livelihood of working-class folks but a tired sitcom premise where men are encouraged to remain careless caretakers and couch potatoes who are all too happy to cash their checks and buy themselves exotic boa constrictors and expensive golf clubs. This is welfare as a punchline. Fox’s Animation Domination has much better shows than this. After the ignominious premiere of Universal Basic Guys, Fox aired a Bob’s Burger rerun and two new Great North episodes. New episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy are expected in a few weeks, as well as Bob’s Burgers and Krapopolis. In the meantime, it seems Universal Basic Guys will continue to air Sundays at 8 p.m. Eastern. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/10/2269261/-Newest-animated-show-on-Fox-makes-a-mockery-of-socioeconomic-injustice?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/