Web Video / Pokémon Talk

The hosts, Squirtle and Bulbasaur.

"Hi, I'm Bulbasaur."
"And I'm Squirtle."
"And this is Pokémon-"
Cue interruption

The usual intro

Pokémon Talk is a comedy series by Michael Groth starring Pokémon plushies. The pilot episode aired on April 15, 2012, but the series didn't properly pick up until episode 2 on July 6, 2014, after which it began a consistent schedule of one episode a month, barring the occasional break between seasons.

Bulbasaur and Squirtle are the hosts of Pokémon Talk, a talk show where they discuss the Pokémon world. They frequently interview other Pokémon, asking about their lifestyles and how they feel about their representation in the games. Things typically get out of hand fast. They also discuss upcoming/recently released games in the franchise, sharing their thoughts and often asking guests for their input.

The series was on indefinite hiatus as a result of Michael feeling burnout from writing. It eventually came back on TikTok owing to being able to make the videos much shorter in length, but compilations will be coming to YouTube eventually.

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Contains examples of:

• Adaptational Wimp: The canon Yveltal can siphon the life energy from all living creatures. This Yveltal admits that he left out the part about how he can only do so within a ten-foot radius.
• Analogy Backfire: Bulbasaur calls out Sir Pikachu for treating Squirtle like dirt, only for Squirtle to remind Bulbasaur that Ground is super-effective against Electric. Bulbasaur settles for "crap" instead.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: After a "Eureka!" Moment from a talk about whale puns and Squirtle's "army in sleeve-y" pun, Bulbasaur asks if Squirtle is thinking what he's thinking^note Getting the past guest stars as an army to stand up against Pikachu. Squirtle answers that yes, he is thinking about creating a genetically engineered whale boy band.
• Art Shift: For episode 24, the characters are CG rendered and fully animated, as opposed to still images of plushies. They naturally freak out, not used to real movement.
• Author Avatar: Michael Groth or MandJTV himself usually appears from time to time as, y'know, himself.
• Batman Parody: Zubatman. His secret identity is a millionaire named Bruce Wing, he lives in "Gothita City", he's got a black mask, uses grappling hooks, lives in "the Zubatcave", has a sidekick named "Grobbin, the Bug Wonder", and he's even got a deep, gravelly voice.
• Berserk Button: Solgaleo hates bags, traumatized from being forced into one by Lillie as Cosmog.
• Blatant Lies: Sir Pikachu declares himself the most powerful Electric type Pokémon, only for the hosts to point out others such as Zapdos, Zekrom, and Luxray.
• Broken Pedestal: When Ash's Pikachu, or "Sir" Pikachu, guest stars, Squirtle starts off gushing with delight. It goes away in less than a minute after Pikachu repeatedly insults and dismisses him until finally, Squirtle has enough and Mega Evolves to beat up Pikachu after the latter insults Bulbasaur.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Squirtle tends to blackout whenever he drinks even a little, much to Bulbasaur's annoyance. He is four inches tall, after all.
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Umbreon has a very loose grip on reality, often spouting nonsense and claiming that the "floor tentacles" are trying to drown him.
• Cutting the Knot: When Raichu appears for revenge again in episode 20, Squirtle immediately beats the crap out of him before he even finishes speaking so he and Bulbasaur can just skip the whole revenge scheme. It doesn't work.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Darkrai, the Nightmare Pokémon, is actually very nice. Unfortunately, his powers tend to go off whenever he sneezes.
• Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Squirtle attempts this, but Bulbasaur doesn't fall for it.
  Bulbasaur: "You've always talked like, 'Squirtle, Squirtle'."
  Squirtle: "No, I haven't!"
  Bulbasaur: "Yes, you have."
  Squirtle: "No, I haven't!"
  Bulbasaur: "Yes, you have."
  Squirtle: "Yes, I have!"
  Bulbasaur: "Okay, good! You admit it."
  Squirtle: "Blast, I thought that'd work!"
• Fantastic Drug: Dragon's breath is shown to have effects similar to marijuana, to the point that one whiff of Flygon's breath makes the hosts too stoned to focus on anything. As shown by Flygon, dragons lack the Required Secondary Powers to be immune to their own breath.
• Genius Ditz: Squirtle shows surprising insight on occasion, often surprising Bulbasaur, such as when they both wind up back in prehistoric time and he figures out much more quickly than Bulbasaur. He temporarily gets upgraded to a Ditzy Genius thanks to Shadow Lugia's presence outside of the Orre region causing a Reality-Breaking Paradox, able to quickly construct a device that can purify Shadow Lugia, but it wears off the instant they correct the paradox.
• Insistent Terminology: Ash's Pikachu demands to be referred to as Sir Pikachu, both to inflate his ego and to distinguish himself from other Pikachus
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Bulbasaur and Lucario begin dating in episode 15, and though the latter hasn't appeared on the show since, Bulbasaur has it clear that they're still together years later.
  • Squirtle's mother is, obviously, a Blastoise, but his father is revealed to be a Marill when they both appear in episode 47.
  • Squirtle used to date a Nidoqueen as revealed in episode 55, but broke it off three years prior.
• It's All About Me: The Pikachu of Let's Go, Pikachu! is so full of himself that, not only is the very idea that a second game (Let's Go, Eevee!) released alongside his own a completely alien concept to him, he wasn't even aware Eevee existed despite them both debuting in Generation 1, with Eevee in particular being the second most popular Pokémon ever behind himself, and Eevee being the rival's starter in Pokémon Yellow.
• Jerkass: Sir Pikachu, later Raichu, is extremely condescending of everyone he meets, and is very spiteful of the hosts for daring to talk back to him.
• Literal-Minded: The Oddish in Episode 28, voiced by special guest TheOdd1sOut, tended to act like this. When Squirtle said "hold the phone", the scene quickly showed the Oddish was holding a cellphone. Then, when Squirtle said his stories were "ringing a bell", the Oddish began to actually ring a bell.
• Musical Episode: Episode 36.5, the Christmas Special, features Pokémon (Talk) style parodies of public domain Christmas songs.
• No Fourth Wall: Even disregarding the fact that it's a talk show where they regularly address the camera, the characters frequently acknowledge the fact that they're just plushies. Bulbasaur fails miserably at trying to maintain the wall.
  Marshadow: "I've seen every episode of your show and you guys have broken the fourth wall more times than Ash has ignored type matchups!"
• Nice Character, Mean Actor:The Pikachu, later Raichu, that plays Ash's Pikachu isn't a pleasant individual outside of the character he plays.
• Once a Season: There are several of these:
  • At least once a season, Pokémon Talk switches studios, leaving Squirtle to scream: "What the f*** happened to the floor?!"
  • With the exception of Season 3, Raichu has appeared at least once per season, usually to get revenge on Squirtle and Bulbasaur.
  • Every season has an Eeveelution episode, usually resulting in a new member joining the Eeveelution brothers.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: From "Counting", in a Shout-Out to the "This. Is. Sparta!" line of 300, Squirtle's response to Bulbasaur's "This is madness!" line:
  Squirtle: This! Is! Squirtle!
• Required Secondary Powers: A notable lack of these renders dragons such as Flygon susceptible to their own breaths' drug-like properties.
• Retcon: Squirtle's "Mega Evolution", which is just him getting bigger, was a frequent gag throughout the show introduced back in episode 2, with other characters acknowledging that Mega Evolution doesn't work that way. Then Pokémon Sword and Shield introduced Dynamaxing five years laterinvoked, prompting the hosts to reveal that Squirtle, and other "Mega Evolutions" on the show, were actually the precursors to Dynamaxing the entire time. Squirtle in particular can Dynamax whenever he wants for as long as he wants without having to be in a battle. Piplup theorizes that Squirtle has access to an early Alpha version of Dynamax that was nerfed for other Pokémon, but Squirtle responds that the game devs don't affect them, and rather the show just doesn't make sense.
• Running Gag:
  • The amount of times Bulbasaur has been able to finish the intro without getting interrupted can be counted on one hand.
    • And every time they successfully finish the intro, Raichu appears to get revenge.
  • Squirtle exclaiming "What the f*** happened to the floor?!" whenever they change studios.
  • Whenever a new Eeveelution appears for an interview, expect Jolteon to show up and try to recruit them into the "Eeveelution Brothers".
    Jolteon: "Hi everyone, it's a pleasure to be on your show today!"
• Samus Is a Girl:
  • Bulbasaur and Squirtle are rather surprised that the Lucario they interview in episode 15 is a girl, mainly because they've never had a girl on the show before. (Not so much out of sexism but rather because they've been limited with the vocal talents of the actors.)
  • Inverted with Sylveon, who Bulbasaur mistakes for a woman before the former corrects him. He gets it a lot.
• Seen It All: After meeting other supposedly all-powerful harbingers of death and destruction such as Darkrai and Yveltal, Bulbasaur and Squirtle are thoroughly unimpressed by Shadow Lugia's boasts, telling him to his face that they won't take him seriously unless he proves himself a legitimate threat.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Squirtle may be one of the nicest characters on the show, but he's also by far the most foul-mouthed, casually dropping the F-bomb on several occasions.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: Squirtle puts on a pair when he gets a temporary intelligence boost from Shadow Lugia's Reality-Breaking Paradox.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Bulbasaur frequently has to put up with Squirtle's shenanigans, as well as whatever guest they're interviewing at the moment. He even uses the exact phrase in the second episode.
• Time Dilation: Solgaleo's yawn accidentally opens an Ultra Wormhole that sucks Bulbasaur away. Roughly a minute later, Bulbasaur returns, saying he had to watch a Buzzwole flex for two hours. Solgaleo admits that time wildly fluctuates in the wormholes. He blames Dialga for this.
• Token Human: Michael Groth, the creator of the series, occasionally appears. He is the only human in the series so far.
• Vocal Evolution: Squirtle's voice is considerably higher in later seasons than it was in the beginning. Bulbasaur has pointed this out more than once.
• Wham Episode:
  • "Finale" is a surprising shift from the series' more episodic structure, offering several major shifts to the status quo. After Sir Pikachu had bought the rights to Pokémon Talk and cancelled the show, Squirtle and Bulbasaur rally up all of their past guests to confront Sir Pikachu and ask for the rights back. Squirtle gets the idea of evolving Sir Pikachu into Raichu so that the rights aren't in his name anymore, and it's revealed that he got the Thunder Stone necessary to accomplish from Mew, who made a surprising appearance. Sir Pikachu is replaced with a much nicer variant, who gives Squirtle and Bulbasaur the creative rights to Pokémon Talk rather than the producers, which means that they're responsible for how the show progresses...
  • "Mega Duel": Bulbasaur finally learns to mega evolve and uses his power to defeat Raichu once and for all. Raichu claims that he's doing trying to get revenge on Pokémon Talk. However, Bulbasaur soon learns that he can only mega evolve when he's incredibly stressed...
• Willfully Weak: Squirtle has enough combat experience to evolve, but he chooses not to, preferring to keep his "boyish good looks".
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Bulbasaur actually manages to convince Squirtle to accept the newer generations, but briefly lets out an exasperated "Come on!" before realizing what Squirtle said.

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