Steezy's Nostalgic Novelties #1 - The Slim Shady Show

Here is another series of posts that I thought could be fun to do. I call it Steezy's Nostalgic Novelties. The basic gist is that I want to take a look back at some things that I find weird and interesting. These will be things I've come across and found myself scratching my head at their very existence. They will either be things I didn't know existed and wanted to give a look, or they are things I was aware of and still find the existence of the thing to be something fun to look at.

The first Nostalgic Novelty I want to look at is the cartoon The Slim Shady Show brought to us by Detroit rapper Eminem. When I first came across this show's existence, I ran into it in the wild. I found the DVD release in a used media store back when I was in middle school or high school. I don't honestly remember. It's been like 11+ years since I've been in grade school, so I don't remember when I picked this up. Just know, it's been awhile since I have had this DVD. I've been a fan of Eminem's music since the release of The Slim Shady LP album, so I decided to pick this up all those years ago. I like his music. I figured the idea of a cartoon based on his alter-ego could be fun.

To put this in perspective, the cartoon was released on September 16th, 2000 and November 5th, 2001. It's an older cartoon. It's nothing new. We are looking at Eminem around the time he's released The Marshall Mathers LP album. Think about how Eminem was during that time period. That's what we are looking at here in terms of content here. I mean, it's Eminem. It's going to be crude, crass, offensive, and full of explicit material. That's what the guy is known for.

So, what is the show about? What could a cartoon from the mind of Eminem entail? Well, naturally, we are going to have cartoon representations of some of Eminem's alter-egos here. Just a ragtag group of characters going on various adventures and getting into trouble.

The main character is Eminem's dark and violent alter-ego, Slim Shady, who sort of acts as the leader of the group. We have Marshall Mathers represented as the dorky, skittish kid who Slim Shady will often push into situations Marshall isn't brave enough to do himself. There is Ken Kaniff, the overtly homosexual character introduced on The Marshall Mathers LP. His character in the show is basically what he is on the skits on Eminem's albums. He's gay and he's always looking to have sex with men. Again, it's Eminem, this won't be politically correct by today's standards. Next we have Dave and his character is obvious from his appearance. He's the stoner character. His thing is that he's constantly high and barely aware of his surrounds. Next, we have Big D. He's the big guy with the muscle in the group. His thing is that he's always going around and picking fights with parody versions of celebrities. That's about it. We round out the group with the purple haired punk chick named Sue. She's the girl in the group.

I don't know if I'm correct or not. I theorize that Sue and Dave might be in reference to Eminem's song My Fault in which Eminem meets a girl named Susan and they do shrooms together. Susan does too many drugs and Eminem needs to locate Dave to ask him what do about it. Could be coincidence or could be a reference. I'm not entirely sure. Sue and Dave in the cartoon don't seem to share the same personalities as Susan and Dave from My Fault.

Alright. The episodes are pretty short. Most of them are about 5 or so minutes long and there are only 9 episodes. The DVD special features don't offer too much. There's a featurette on "The Making of Slim Shady World". There's a slideshow of animation cells and still shots. For some reason, they've got the music video for Fight Music by the rap group Eminem was a part of, D12. Now, let's see what the cartoon is actually about here.

• Episode 1. The Party Crashers
  The first episode has our characters together after having lost a basketball game to kids from Southwest Park (a parody of South Park characters). Marshall has a crush on one of the cheerleaders from the opposing team. The Southwest Park kids are having a party to celebrate their victory. So, Slim Shady decides the gang should crash the party, get some revenge, and get Marshall laid.

• Episode 2. Plexi Max Extravaganza
  Pristina Gaguilera (Yeah...) will be performing at the Plexi Max Amphitheater. Marshall has a crush on her and wants to have sex with her. He convinces the group to come with him. On the same day, there will be a gay tractor pull and fudge sale (...because, of course, there is...) at the same venue. This peaks the interest of the character Ken Kaniff. This goes how you might imagine it. Ken tricks the group into going to the gay tractor show and shenanigans ensue.

• Episode 3. Dyke Hills Mall
  It turns out Pristina Gaguilera will be signing autographs at the Dyke Hills Mall (...Yeah...) and Ken Kaniff met a guy in the previous episode that'll help Marshall get to meet her. Slim Shady gives Marshall some (bad) advice about how to approach Pristina and it leads to them getting kicked out of the mall. Slim Shady decides to force their way back in to meet Pristina and we get a shocking reveal.

• Episode 4. Movie Star Marshall
  The group goes out to a nightclub to party and a movie producer, Morty Schmuckslimer, approaches Slim Shady with an opportunity. Slim Shady decides he'll send Marshall in his place to make him famous. He ends up being cast in a movie calls Armofgetiton (...really?). Shenanigans ensue to give Marshall a confidence boost and, well, laid.

• Episode 5. Slimshank Redemption
  This episode is exactly what it sounds like. We have a Shawshank Redemption parody. The gang gets caught trespassing in a restricted area and find a secret cave with radioactive barrels full of terrible media the government is trying to hide. (Like Pauly Shore DVDs for example) They get caught and are sent to prison. So, yeah, the gang must survive prison life. We get a cameo from Eminem as a character and rapper Xzibit playing a character named Knuckles.

• Episode 6. Ouija Board Blunders
  Another episode that's self-explanatory. The gang decides to mess around with an ouija board and channel the dead. Shenanigans ensue. Sue contact the spirits of New Kids on the Block (despite not being dead). Dave contacts the spirit of Kurt Cobain and the gang starts a band with it. Ken Kaniff contacts the spirit of Gianni Versace and the gang goes shopping for new outfits for a Halloween party.

• Episode 7. Devirginization
  Slim Shady decides to get Marshall laid by setting up a profile on a dating website and sets him up on a blind date. Dave finds mushrooms growing in Marshall's bathroom and gets Marshall and Sue to eat them. They go to the bar to meet the girl, but Marshall starts hallucinating from the mushrooms he ate.

• Episode 8. Parent-Teacher Night
  It's parent-teacher night at the gang's school. We get to meet most of the characters' parents. Slim Shady doesn't have any parents. Sue's dad seems to be some shady salesman. Ken Kaniff's father is some rich asshole. Big D's dad is apparently a deadbeat and his mother seems to be just a female version of him. Marshall's mother was passed out and didn't make it. Dave's parents are apparently the farmer man and woman from the painting American Gothic by artist Grant Wood. The gang had detention for accidentally kills some animals on an escalator and we get an I Know What You Did Last Summer and Scooby-Doo parody at the end. That's about it.

• Episode 9. The Ass and the Curious (The Lost Episode)
  Dustin Diamond ends up ruining a sting operation for some government agents and they decide to use them for an infiltration mission ala 21 Jump Street. They show up at the high school under the alias Screech to find the most popular kids at school. The gang is selling drugs at a school bake sale. Screech tries to get in on the drug dealing schemes, but Slim Shady has a plan to solve the "narc" problem.

Nostalgic Novelty Review
I believe this is what the kids today might consider being "cringe". It's not good. It's not good at all. The animation isn't great. Character movements are stiff and awkward. The art style is okay. Nothing all that special to get excited about. The characters themselves are kind of one dimensional. There's no real plot to the show. The humor is juvenile at best, but I guess it's not surprising.

Like I've said, this is a cartoon made by Eminem in the early 2000s and it focuses on his alter-ego, Slim Shady, as the protagonist. I'm not really sure who this show is for. I guess it's for Eminem fans, but it hasn't aged well. It feels like it was made to just take the piss out of some celebrities he wanted to make fun of and make himself laugh with his characters. Some of the made up names are laughably bad. Some of the parodies don't even get made up names. It's just... not great. It's a really bizarre piece of media that I don't know if very many people are aware of.

Anyways, that's my look at The Slim Shady Show. If you want to check out some cringeworthy cartoons by Eminem, this certainly exists for you.