Follow TV Tropes

Following

Western Animation / Minoriteam

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/minoriteam.png

Minoriteam was a low-budget animated series that first aired on [adult swim] in 2005 and ran for a single season.

The story revolves around five super heroes, consisting of Dr. Wang, El Jefe, Jewcano, Fasto, and Non-Stop, each based on a racial or ethnic stereotype, who join up to fight discimination. Their main opponents are The White Shadow, headed by the White Shadow, a man with the Illuminati pyramid as a head. The show only lasted one year, but being a racially charged show, was crammed with racial tropes, played straight, subverted, and averted. All members of the team, with the exception of Dr. Wang, have non-stereotypical civilian identities.


This show provides examples of:

  • Ambiguously Human: White Shadow looks like a human with a pyramid with a single eye on it for a head. It's unclear if he is wearing a mask he never takes off or if it is really his head. In "Tax Day", a woman who is presumably his sister looks like a normal human.
  • Amoral Attorney: The White Shadow employs one called Loophole, who is a literal loop of string.
  • Anachronism Stew: An In-Universe example in "His Story". A time-travelling Corporate Ladder mentions Jesus to Moses. Except since Jesus hasn't been born yet, Moses has no idea who he is talking about. It is also Played for Laughs in the rest of the episode.
  • Asian and Nerdy: Dr. Wang, Chinese Human Calculator represents the stereotype that Asians are highly intelligent.
  • Asian Buck Teeth: Dr. Wang is an offensively stereotypical depiction of a Chinese man, and that includes having noticeable buck teeth.
  • Badass Israeli: Jewcano
  • Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: The Mirror World from "And Justice For Some" operates on this. So, Minoriteam ends up on trial for doing good deeds.
  • Bizarro Universe: The Mirror World is a dimension where everything is backwards. The characters repeatedly poke holes in the idea. This proves to be the undoing of White Shadow's plan to hold Minoriteam trial because, in the Mirror World, "minorities are actually tried by a jury of their peers" meaning ethnic people who are sympathetic to Minoriteam.
  • Black and Nerdy: Civilian Fasto is a book worm, and a college professor.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Racist Frankenstein loves to party.
  • The Cameo: Master Shake as an alarm clock.
  • Captain Ethnic: All of the Minoriteam. Played for laughs.
    • Humorously, their civilian identities subvert this completely. It's only in their hero identities that they become walking stereotypes (with the exception of Dr. Wang, who's just like that.)
    • And most of the White Shadow's group, white Captains Ethnic.
  • Captain Ersatz: Balactus.
    • The Weatherman is based on the original Ted Baxter.
    • Jewcano is a jewish Thor.
    • Racist Frankenstein is more or less based on Solomon Grundy from Challenge of the Superfriends.
  • Catchphrase: White Shadow will often say, "I won this time, Minoriteam!" before escaping a battle with Minoriteam, whether he was winning or not.
    • "Racist Frankenstein hit Blacks with hands!"
  • Chinese Launderer: Guess where the team meets?
  • Clueless Aesop: This is arguably the main problem with the series. Basically, the series is trying to talk about racism. However, the presentation is so garbled that it can be unclear what the actual point is supposed to be. For a specific example, "El Dia Gigante" is about how El Jefe's dad, El Yo, views El Jefe as promoting negative stereotypes of Mexican culture. Given the fact El Jefe is a combination of various Mexican stereotypes by design, you think the story would take El Yo's side. However, he unleashes a Kaiju on the city to kill people for praising El Jefe and attempts to murder Fasto and Jewcano. This seems to suggest we aren't supposed to agree with him. So, this just begs the question of what the story is trying convey.
  • Dumb Muscle: Racist Frankenstein - body of a monster, mind of a racist!
  • Enemy Mine: In "Illegal Aliens", Minoriteam is kidnapped by aliens. White Shadow rescues them because of how boring life is without them. Everyone is very uncomfortable about this.
  • Ethnic Menial Labor: El Jefe's greatest fear is becoming a stereotype like this... despite already being one.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Parodied in "Tax Day", where the White Shadow Organization is opposed by the IRS, who are said to be even eviler than White Shadow.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: White Rapper is a white rapper, Dirty Cop is a policeman made of filth and grime, Loophole is a rope tied into a loop, Racist Frankenstein is... well, you get the idea.
  • Five-Token Band: The Minoriteam, natch.
  • Frankenstein's Monster: Racist Frankenstein is a Frankenstein monster who hates black people.
  • Full-Body Disguise: Jewcano uses one to disguise himself as an IRS agent in "Tax Day".
  • Genius Cripple: Dr. Wang is confined to a wheelchair, making him a spoof of Professor X of the X-Men.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: El Jefe's dialogue is all in Spanish, but slowly and in very simple terms - like someone who barely spoke Spanish wrote his dialogue. This is probably intentional for the sake of parody, though.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Fasto is extremely irritable as per his personality.
  • Homage:
    • The general artstyle is clearly a homage to Jack Kirby.
  • Hidden Depths: Other than Dr Wang, the members of Minoriteam's civilian counterpart averted their persona's stereotypes.
    • Fasto (Landon K. Dutton) worked as a college professor in Woman Studies.
    • Jewcano (Neil Horowitz) is an accountant who dated a black woman—Fasto's cousin—and is interested in black culture.
    • El Jefe (Richard Escartin) is a handsome billionaire.
    • Non-Stop (Dave Raj) is an extreme sports skateboarder that complimented his superhero's magic carpet ride.
  • Hulk Speak: Racist Frankenstein. "Raaargh! Me hit blacks with hands!"
  • Jerkass: Most of the Minoriteam are jerks especially Doctor Wang. How jerkish they are depends on the episode. The most infamous example is from "Tax Day" where they consider accidentally getting White Shadow's niece and nephew killed a victory.
  • Kaiju: "El Dia Gigante" features a giant, rampaging pinata that spews salsa.
  • It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: In "Heaven Can Wait", Fasto ends up in Vahalla and learns he is the prophesied "man of charcoal" who will open the 10,000 doors of Vahalla. It turns out that the Norse Gods were expecting Fasto to burn himself alive so the Norse Gods can use his bones to make the keys to open the doors. Needless to say, Fasto is not pleased.
  • Kirby Dots: Show is rife with them, which makes sense since it is a homage to Jack Kirby.
  • Large Ham: The White Shadow.
  • Masked Luchador: El Jefe's father, El Yo. He even challenges his son to a match with the fate of Jewcano and Fasto at stake.
  • Mighty Whitey: Parodied. In "His Story", a time-travelling White Shadow manages to convince the Atzecs to make him their king by showing them a lighter. Later on, the Corporate Ladder convinces the Moses he is the ladder of Jacob.
  • Mirror Universe: Subverted. The Mirror World is more of a Bizarro World than this trope.
  • Mistaken for Gay: When El Jefe explains he can't El Yo because El Yo is El Jefe's dad, the kid assumes this is a "gay thing" much to El Jefe's anger.
  • Money Fetish: Jewanco has one, which is best shown off in "Illegal Aliens". He may or may work for the IRS, who the narrator says is eviler than White Shadow.
  • Monster Clown: Halfpint, the evil gangster clown.
  • Morton's Fork: In "Illegal Aliens", Minoriteam are kidnapped by aliens and forced to go through a "labyrinth of terrors" that in 99 percent of case leads to death. Anyone who survives will be made slaves of the aliens. White Shadow ends up saving them because Victory Is Boring.
  • My Brain Is Big: Dr. Wang, Chinese Human Calculator has a high forehead, both because he's the brains of Minoriteam and to reinforce his nature as a representation of the "intelligent Asian" stereotype.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "Tax Day", Jewcano pretends to be an IRS auditor in order to get the financial information of White Shadow. In the process, he accidentally causes White Shadow to be late in picking his niece and nephew leading to their deaths. The heroes don't seem too broke up about this.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Doctor Brilliant is clearly a parody of Stephen Hawking.
  • No Indoor Voice: Jewcano.
  • Odd Job Gods: Valhalla has a god of incoming faxes, a god of produce, and a god of refurbished waterbeds.
  • Oireland: Seamus McFistycuffs, a member of The White Shadow, is this shade of racism.
  • Plant Person: The Plant is an anthropomorphic houseplant who plants evidence to frame innocent people.
  • Playing with Fire: Jewcano has this power.
  • Politically Incorrect Hero: Despite fighting an organization devote to keeping minorities down, Minoriteam can also be quite bigoted themselves. For example, Fasto is racist against whites ("His Story") and Inuits ("And Justice For Some").
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: White Shadow and the White Shadow Organization's entire shtick is that they're racist villains. They are a Legion of Doom-styled super villain team devoted to keeping minorities down.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Racist Frankenstein is a violent brute with the mind of a child.
  • Robo Speak: The Standardized Test, though occasionally he busts out colloquialisms and contractions.
  • Sassy Black Woman: Jewcano is dating one in his civilian disguise - Fasto's cousin Tamika
    • "Illegal Aliens" reveals Fasto's mother is like this.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: The plot of "His Story" is Minoriteam trying to undo the meddling of White Shadow's time travelling.
  • Shiksa Goddess: Jewcano's girlfriend again.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shown Their Work: Some of their villains are based on real obstacles to minorities in the real world that aren't immediately apparent, such as the Standardized Test and Corporate Ladder.
  • The Starscream: The Corporate Ladder is constantly plotting behind the White Shadow's back.
  • The Stoner: Non-Stop's secret identity is that of a slacking burnout former pro skater.
  • Stop Being Stereotypical: El Yo became a villain because he views his son as a corporate sell-out who promotes sterotypes of Mexican culture.
  • Super-Speed: Fasto is the fastest man alive
  • Time Travel: "His Story" revolves around the members of White Shadow travelling through time to undo events important to minorities.
  • Twofer Token Minority: Dr Wang, an Asian confined to a wheelchair.
  • Where da White Women At?: Fasto's weakness is white women. He just can't control himself around them.
  • Who Writes This Crap?!: Fasto calls the ending of the episode "And Justice For Some" a "bullshit ending".
  • Victory Is Boring: In "Illegal Aliens", the White Shadow Organization finds this is case after they get rid of the heroes.
  • Villain Has a Point: El Yo from "El Dia Gigante" accuses his son of promoting stereotypes of Mexican culture and people. Even the fact that the entire point of the show is how all the main characters are over-the-top stereotypes of minorities, he's not terribly wrong.
  • Villainous Rescue: In "Illegal Aliens", White Shadow saves the heroes because Victory Is Boring.
  • Yellow Peril: Dr. Wang is based on this type of character.
  • Yes-Man: The Corporate Ladder


Top