The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, created by Maxwell Atoms, is an animated series that currently airs on Cartoon Network in the U.S. The two main plot characters, Billy and Mandy, have obliged the Grim Reaper to be their best friend forever after having won a bet over a sick hamster. Billy is voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz, while Mandy is voiced by Grey DeLisle.

The fictional universe of The Grim Adventures

The GA universe, in addition to several violations of the laws of physics, also contains a number of historical variations. Abraham Lincoln is President and a personal friend of Billy. Also, the world police organization is not the United Nations, but the League of Nations (disbanded in 1946 in reality).

Related Topics:
Physics - Abraham Lincoln - President - United Nations - League of Nations - 1946

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A unique aspect of the show is that episodes often end with the destruction or alteration of the world, or with the disappearance or horrific transformation of the main characters. These changes do not carry over to the next episode, however. Often the episode will end with no resolution at all. For example, in Halls of Time, Billy, Mandy, Grim and Irwin all disappear forever when their hourglasses in the halls of time are turned upside down. In Chocolate Sailor, Billy is turned into a large quantity of chocolate syrup, and in Sickly Sweet, Mandy is turned into a giant monster by an evil mask. Because the producers can compromise the safety of the characters in each episode, the show can avoid the cliché that good always triumphs over evil.

Related Topics:
Cliché - Good - Evil

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The GA universe is also the Evil Con Carne universe: the characters meet, briefly, in the episode Chicken Ball Z (a parody of Dragon Ball Z.) In the third season episode Skarred For Life, General Skarr, at least, finally meets the GA characters in what could be seen as a full crossover.

Related Topics:
Parody - Dragon Ball Z - Crossover

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From time to time, the main characters surprise with aphorisms unusual for quick-draw (even semi-adult) type animation, such as: "Evolution takes no prisoners" (Mandy), "Money is the root of all evil" (Mandy), "Hope is wasted on the hopeless" (Mandy), "Romance is for the weak-minded" (Mandy), "Mind control doesn't work on people who think" (Eris), "Man's lonliness is but his fear of life" (Grim).

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The series is noted for its parodies, notably Harry Potter, and for quote references, like "Scooby-Doo" and "The Wizard of Oz". Another frequent subject of parody is the Dune series by Frank Herbert, from entire episodes to off-hand references to the Gom Jobbar in a beauty pageant segment. In "Big Trouble in Billy's Basement", the "Bad Book" recalls the Necronomicon of H.P. Lovecraft, with Billy needing Grim's scythe to summon "Yogg Sawhaw" (Yog-Sothoth). Also The Ring was fully paradoied in "Are you Chupacabra to See Me". Parodies of Stephen King have also been noted in the show; in the episode "Tricycle of Terror", Billy is given a possessed tricycle and is being made fun of. In King's novel "Christine", another nerdy boy buys a car at which he is made fun of.

Related Topics:
Harry Potter - Scooby-Doo - The Wizard of Oz - Dune - Frank Herbert - Necronomicon - H.P. Lovecraft - Yog-Sothoth - The Ring

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One controversial premise is the baseless sexism of the boys (a premise found in other shows like The Powerpuff Girls and many others): Billy and Irwin tell Mandy that she cannot do something with them because she is a girl; they then demonstrate their own ineptitude or she shows her superiority.

Related Topics:
Sexism - The Powerpuff Girls - Superiority

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• There are instances in which the fourth wall is broken:
• In Educating Grim, Billy says: "But in this episode, you do!"
• In the end of Wishbones part one, the wishing skull says: "Let's watch some commercials and get back to the show!"
• At the end of Look What's Coming For Dinner, Grim mentions that "This is a kids show" when Hoss Delgado kisses Eris.
• In He's Not Dead, He's my Mascot, Mandy walks out of the episode.
• In The Duck, Grim comments, "I predict this cell will be filled in about four hours!" When it's filled in two hours, Grim exclaims "Man he's working fast!" and we see Hector and Boskov from Evil Con Carne, and Hector remarks, "I'm not even on this stupid show anymore!", a clear reference to the fact that the two shows were formally tied into each other.