Melvins Macabre is an horror-comedy animated series made by MeatCanyon.
Melvin is a quiet, shy young man who seems to have the worst luck of running into horrifying and visceral monsters as he tries to go about his regular life - and balances his deeply repressed and hidden anger issues that bubble up every now and then. Just like many of MeatCanyon's work, Melvins Macabre leans heavily into Gross-Up Close-Up Deranged Animation, however it is one of the more story driven of his works.
There are currently three episodes out that can be watched on MeatCanyon's YouTube channel.
This web animated series provides examples of:
- Art Shift: When Melvin loses his temper, the art style shift to monochrome and becomes more fluid and sketchy.
- Asshole Victim: In the episode "Gutterball", Robbie spends the entire video badmouthing Melvin's father, as well as Melvin himself, and even points out to the Bowling Pins that Melvin was cheating at the game, therefore risking his and everybody else's lives for the sake of the sport. At the end, Melvin requests the pins take Robbie to Bowling Hell, where Melvin kills him by bowling a strike. It's rather telling that everyone in the bowling alley starts cheering when the Bowling Pins grab Robbie.
- Allegorical Character: In Earwax, the parasite appears to represent a manipulative friend/partner who provokes an otherwise innocent person to their Rage Breaking Point for the purpose of playing the victim, convincing Melvin's doctor to kill himself. In this vein, Angela, in taking pity on the parasite despite Melvin's warnings, is the exact type of person who would fall for this sort of manipulation.
- Bittersweet Ending: In "Earwax", Melvin successfully gets the parasite out of his ears, only for Angela to walk in on him lashing out at it. She falls for its manipulations and snaps at Melvin, angrily rebufffing him while letting the parasite into her ears and taking it to the concert, leaving a despondent Melvin behind.
- Butt-Monkey: Melvin finds himself having to endure unpleasant situations in which he gets belittled, insulted and terrorized by both dangerous monsters who threaten his well-being and regular people who are total assholes to him.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Melvin finishes his Reason You Suck Speech towards the collectors in "Nostalgia" by stating that he feels sorry for them, their leader Jeremiah angrily shouts at him to shut up.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The Pins in Gutterball were willing to send everyone in the bowling alley to their own personal hell had Melvin lost, but judging how they were pretty quick to take Robbie with them upon Melvin's request kind of signified they were tired of his crap as well.
- Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems: A Central Theme of the show is juxtaposing Melvin's personal issues with the weirdness of the world around him.
- EARWAX: A gullible person that Melvin liked believed Melvin's abusive parasite over him.
- GUTTERBALL: Melvin never got over the death of his father and is dealing with a bullying asshole.
- NOSTALGIA: Melvin's beloved pet died and he meets a group who encourage a bad coping mechanism.
- Gross-Out Show: While less reliant on this style of humor than Meat Canyon's previous works, the show still is this, with incredibly gruesome imagery, frightening character designs, and no small amount of the Gross-Up Close-Up.
- Hate Sink: Robbie in "Gutterball", he never demonstrates a single redeeming quality and spends his whole screen time being unpleasant to Melvin, shaming him and his late father (with implications that all of Robbie's accusations toward the latter are projection) and almost gets everyone killed by pointing out that Melvin is using the living bowling ball, therefor making it likelier that he will lose.
- Magical Realism: The world of the show is similar to our own sans the addition of some bizarre monsters, which usually act in tandem with whatever personal problem is being plagued by. Other characters often have muted reactions to these horrors and the rules of the Bowling Alley seem understood by everyone, with people booing Melvin as if he were playing a regular match and not gambling for their lives.
- Non-Human Head: Evoked with Robbie, as his head shape is an upside-sown bowling pin.
- Evoked again with Jeremiah, whose head is shaped like a Nintendo 64 controller.
- Nostalgia Filter: Jeremiah and his roommates in "Nostalgia" base their entire lives around this, believing that nostalgia is a far better choice than what Jeremiah perceives to be the constant misery of the world around them. They even go as far as to using a room-sized machine that Jeremiah claims can upload their consciousnesses to nostalgia itself. Melvin calls them out on this at the end, stating they're just using childhood memories, escapism, and their collections as nothing more than crutches so they can avoid having to face the complexities of everyday life.
- Rage Breaking Point: Melvin is typically rather anxious and soft-spoken, but every episode when he's pushed too far and goes into one of these.
- Shrinking Violet: On a typical basis, Melvin is soft-spoken and polite, but also anxious and non-confrontational, which often results in letting other people walk all over him. This is what makes his moments of wrath all the more unsettling.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Melvin delivers one to the collectors towards the end of "Nostalgia", chastising them for using collecting and nostalgia to avoid having to accept reality and move on from their trauma.
- Too Dumb to Live: Angela, who lets the parasite in her ears while telling Melvin off while completely oblivious to the fact it's clearly harmful.
- World of Jerkass: The world Melvin lives in isn't all bad, as it's rather mundane and ordinary when Melvin does not confront deranged entities, but many regular folk are still rude, self-serving jerks (like Robbie), or gullible and impulsive (like Angela).
