The Beat-Alls: Get Back
February 23, 2022 3:15 PM   Subscribe

21 years ago this month, Cartoon Network aired a very special episode of The Powerpuff Girls. Though nominally a harmless kids series about three adorable kindergarten superheroes, creator Craig McCracken attracted an unexpectedly diverse audience (50% male, 25% adult) by sneaking in a surprising amount of violent mood whiplash and adult in-jokes -- and on that last point, this particular episode was king. Broadcast on the 37th anniversary of their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, "Meet the Beat-Alls" was an extended and sophisticated metaphor for the rise and fall of The Beatles, cramming more than forty song references and dozens of visual jokes into only ten minutes of animated allegory. Catch the original episode here or read the transcript, but for the full effect, watch this remarkable YouTube mash-up (playable via the Wayback Machine!) that splices the referenced song clips directly into the audio track. Want more PPG goodness? You can start with the special "Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!", a sly, hyperkinetic celebration of the show's tenth anniversary directed by McCracken himself that features every character (and totally subverts an important one). But as far as weirdness goes, it's hard to top Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi, a long-running fan-made webcomic which stars the trio alongside Dexter, Samurai Jack, Invader Zim, and tons of other network icons in an unusually dark manga adventure. Oh, and don't forget your plate of beans.

Fun fact: The DVD version of the episode is nothing but Mojo Jojo deadpanning even more Beatles jokes.

A 35-minute behind-the-scenes documentary on the history of the show

Other incarnations: [This rebooted post brought to you by #DoublesJubilee!]
posted by Rhaomi (30 comments total) 50 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well damn, I just realized the most important link (the Wayback Machine archive of the episode on YouTube with all the music, which actually works!) was accidentally just the regular link, which is now dead. Here's what it should point to:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110107031722if_/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFLZjiYqZBs

The little MeFi video player button won't work, but if you visit the link the video should load and be playable after a few seconds! It's really something, I'd had no idea Archive.org could preserve YouTube videos before finding this one awhile back.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:24 PM on February 23, 2022 [2 favorites]


Mod note: I think I got that link fixed in the post, though without a flash player I can't actually tell if the resulting playback works. Lemme know if I need to tweak further.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:30 PM on February 23, 2022 [2 favorites]


Thanks! It actually doesn't even need a Flash player, IA does some sort of sorcery behind the scenes to make it playable on the page. It does seem to be temperamental though -- it takes a few seconds to load over the Flash message, and sometimes doesn't appear until after a refresh or two. It's definitely worth the effort though, amazing editing work.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:33 PM on February 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


OK, I managed to find the URL to the archived video file itself, this should play straight away for anyone who's having trouble.
posted by Rhaomi at 3:43 PM on February 23, 2022 [3 favorites]


Craig McCracken’s latest series, Kid Cosmic, just dropped its final season on Netflix. This last season includes a number of PPG references, including the original PPG voice actors (who were not re-hired for the recent reboot).

The whole Kid Cosmic series also has, of course, an outstanding soundtrack.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 3:44 PM on February 23, 2022 [2 favorites]


I was never into this show, but I am a huge Beatles fan, so many years ago a dear friend sat me down and made me watch "Meet the Beat-Alls." I loved it, but one joke in particular had me laughing so hard my friend had to hit pause and wait for me to recover. And ever since, I've sung that one line in "Michelle" as "Someday monkey won't play piano song, play piano song." Makes me smile every time.
posted by /\/\/\/ at 4:05 PM on February 23, 2022 [18 favorites]


I had no luck with any of the links so turned to usenet. For reference this is S03E22.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 4:07 PM on February 23, 2022 [4 favorites]


It so happened that I watched Yellow Submarine a lot as a kid. When I saw this cartoon, I knew it was something really special when they parodied Yoko Ono's actual artwork -- not (just) the jokes about her, but what she really did. And it was hilarious.
posted by Countess Elena at 4:24 PM on February 23, 2022 [8 favorites]


Speaking of Yellow Submarine, while watching this my seven year friend immediately recognized Fred from YS as the police guy in this video. It took me a minute thanks to his prompting. Never seen the PPGs. Quite good.
posted by njohnson23 at 5:04 PM on February 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


Cartoon Network back in the day was the home of wonders.
posted by JHarris at 5:22 PM on February 23, 2022 [9 favorites]


Also, I'm sad that oneswellfoop doesn't come around much anymore, because he would adore this post.
posted by JHarris at 5:22 PM on February 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


My girlfriends. When I moved into my apartment before going out to get a real bed, I got an air mattress. And a set of Power Puff Girl sheets. Still have the Heroes & Villains CD on the car player. And three remixes/mashups. Sigh.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:47 PM on February 23, 2022 [3 favorites]


Just realized... yep, the 24 episodes of Powerpuff_Girls_Z.
posted by zengargoyle at 6:57 PM on February 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


It's available to watch on megacartoons.net. You have to scroll down a bit, but it's there and I'm watching now.
posted by hippybear at 7:04 PM on February 23, 2022


And that was ridiculously entertaining. Thank you.
posted by hippybear at 7:12 PM on February 23, 2022


I wish the version with Mojo Jojo's DVD commentary track were viewable online somewhere.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:22 PM on February 23, 2022 [4 favorites]


Also, I probably can't be convinced that "Meet the Beat-Alls" quite supersedes The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash as Greatest Beatles Parody Thing Ever, but I'm willing to entertain arguments.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:34 PM on February 23, 2022 [4 favorites]


I haven't so much as thought of Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi in many years. Astonished it's still running.
posted by one for the books at 7:35 PM on February 23, 2022


Cartoon Network back in the day was the home of wonders.

There was SOOOO much going on with their shows, it was astounding. They rarely reached this nearly Animaniacs/Freakazoid! level of frenzy, but there were so many episodes of so many different series that were really masteripieces.

I fear much of the current animation has left me feeling left behind, but for a while there, it was an amazing ocean to swim in.
posted by hippybear at 7:40 PM on February 23, 2022 [5 favorites]


I met one of my best friends on a personal ads website (remember those?) when she said she was Bubbles and I replied that I was Blossom.
posted by matildaben at 8:09 PM on February 23, 2022 [3 favorites]


On Cartoon Network, while I don't think their branding and promotional game are what it once was (it used to be as entertaining to watch their commercials as their shows!), there are still some great shows from them. I'd put Steven Universe, Adventure Time, OK K.O., Regular Show, Clarence, Flapjack and shows of that ilk up with the greats. And truthfully, at the time now-classics like Johnny Bravo and Cow and Chicken were considered a little less than shows like Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls, although they've aged okay. Johnny Bravo, in particular, has a weird kind of staying power, possibly related by just how well the character is designed. His look is really iconic.
posted by JHarris at 11:37 PM on February 23, 2022 [1 favorite]


Great post! (Though there seems to be a mistake – there has been no reboot of PPG – that would require the original voice cast of the girls (not to mention Ms. Sara Bellum)).

I remember seeing the pilot episode on What A Cartoon! back in the day and being floored by it. A heady mix of ultra-cute, ultra-violent girl power with clever writing, and stylish graphics & character design.

I had the good fortune to meet Tara Strong at BronyCon in 2012, and she readily demonstrated that she still could do the incredibly high pitched Bubbles voice.
posted by bouvin at 2:07 AM on February 24, 2022 [2 favorites]


Love this, if only that it allowed someone to reference The Rutles, which is GREAT
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 5:32 AM on February 24, 2022 [6 favorites]


Even if I wasn’t a PPG fan, I’d still recommend the Powerpuff Girls: Heroes & Villains album, worth it alone for the Frank Black tune “Pray for the Girls.”
posted by etc. at 6:21 AM on February 24, 2022 [4 favorites]


PPG music fans should also check out "The City of Soundsville", which took a bunch of voice clips and background and interstitial music from the show and turned them into highly entertaining dance tracks.
posted by hanov3r at 8:14 AM on February 24, 2022 [3 favorites]


That was amazing, but I'm slightly disappointed they couldn't get in a joke about "Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey" at the end. But even so, it's perfect.
posted by YoungStencil at 8:28 AM on February 24, 2022 [4 favorites]


I remember this episode! I especially remember cracking up so hard that I missed half the references and trying to find when that episode would be on again to record it so I could watch it again - then trying to convince people they should try to find it and watch it too (harder to do back before YouTube existed) and mostly getting strange looks because why was I watching cartoons at my age?

The Powerpuff Girls were the best. I had a brief shining moment when my son loved them, before someone convinced him that boy shows were somehow better. Sigh.
posted by Mchelly at 8:55 AM on February 24, 2022 [4 favorites]


Also a bunch of years ago I had a round of IVF with three embryos that due to other circumstances I really thought had a shot at sticking (at least one of them), so I secretly called them my powerpuff girls - I was so sad when none of them took. But whenever I see the PPG or hear them referenced I think about that time and it's sort of bittersweet and also sort of powerful, like we had that one moment where we were all fighting together.

(Sorry if I made it weird. Cue the opening chord from A Hard Day's Night.)
posted by Mchelly at 9:19 AM on February 24, 2022 [11 favorites]


>Johnny Bravo, in particular, has a weird kind of staying power, possibly related by just how well the character is designed. His look is really iconic.
I'm with Daniel Lavery for having the headcanon that Johnny Bravo is a butch femme. Their look is really iconic.
posted by k3ninho at 1:24 PM on February 24, 2022 [3 favorites]


               😲
posted by y2karl at 4:42 PM on February 24, 2022


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