Oh, life on the outside ain't what it used to be You know, the world's gone crazy and it ain't safe on the streets Well, it's a drag, I know There's only one place to go I'm coming home, oh yeah, I'm coming home!
Part of the [adult swim] lineup, Superjail! is a surrealistic and verygory comedy series about a magical jail and its deranged staff. The show takes place in the titular prison, built inside a volcano inside another volcano, and home to an unclear number of ultra-violent Red Shirt prisoners. The first season started in 2009 and was animated by Augenblick Studios in Brooklyn, New York.In its first season alone, it easily trumped the death counts of all other Adult Swim shows by at least three times. The series's trademark is that by the end of each episode, there will be a long sequence of nothing but surreal carnage from corner to corner of the screen.Controlling the jail is the Warden (David Wain), an eccentric and twisted Willy Wonka lookalike with a flair for the dramatic and a face like Josef Mengele. Joining him are:
Jared: The Warden's vertically challenged, neurotic, and formerly alcoholic assistant. Often the Butt Monkey of both the prison and his co-workers. He harbors a crush on the Warden that he sublimates into sycophantic behavior.
Alice: The muscular, transsexual prison guard. The Warden has a crush on her (though is unaware of her trans status), but regulations prevent them from dating... not that Alice would want to, anyway.
Jailbot: The jail's Do-Anything Robot. He usually starts the episode off by capturing Jacknife.
Jacknife: A random, knife-wielding psychopath who gets captured at the start of every episode, only to conveniently escape by the end.
The Twins: Creepy Twins with a Eurobeat theme song, whose sole purpose appears to be to cause as much havoc as possible inside the jail for their own amusement, sabotaging everything the Warden cooks up.
Jean and Paul: Those Two Guys in the show, Jean and Paul are two gay prison inmates who, despite playing almost no importance to the plot or episodes at all, are still popular and important just enough to avoid being killed off.
Gary and Bird: The unofficial head of the prisoners. Gary is a surprisingly clean-looking man devoid of tattoos or facial hair and seems to be mute, only communicating with Bird, a small canary that constantly accompanies him. Although he hasn't shown it in the show, he appears to be quite dangerous. He's also an obvious Shout Out to Robert Franklin Stroud.
The Doctor: A Mad Scientist with a German accent, he is in charge of Superjail's scientific and technological advancements (mostly horrifying hybrids). He gets a much more prominent role in Season 2.
A second season began airing on April 4, 2011 at midnight, with animation this time being handled by Titmouse, Inc, in California, and the new Titmouse, Inc. branch opening in Manhattan, New York. This season focused more on the development of the characters, the animation quality was kicked up a notch, and the gore scenes were given more close-up focus instead of the rapid-fire massacres of season one. It introduced a new character to the cast: Lord Stingray, a super villain who once tried to take over Superjail but is now one of the prison inmates.Now has a character sheet in need of Wiki Magic
A Day in the Limelight: Jean and Paul, the gay inmates, get an entire episode dedicated to them in the second season.
Adobe Flash: The show is animated in a much earlier version of Flash, since the line quality was much better than the more recent versions.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Jared, reading off D.L. Diamond's rap sheet to the Warden: "...impersonated the handicapped, [sexually] assaulted a donkey, graffiti'd the elderly, swallowed gum..."
Art Evolution: The art and animation in Season 2 is noticeably more fluid than that in Season 1.
Mostly due to the fact that Augenblick Studios, the group that did Season One, is busy with Ugly Americans, so Titmouse, Inc., the animators for Metalocalypse, are doing Season 2.
The Alcatraz: The titular prison. See the trope entry for more details.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Alice certainly does. And Jacknife is, apparently, quite the charmer when he's not in jail.
Big Damn Heroes: Alice almost single-handedly saves Superjail in "Lord Stingray Crash Party".
Bizarre Alien Biology: One of the twins unexpectedly buds a lifeform, which they feed with bleach and other household cleaners. Once it grows large enough, if falls off his stomach then hatches like an egg. The two then proceed to eat it as a delicacy.
Breast Attack: Alice does this to Lord Stingray's wife by sticking her hands into her chest, grabbing her implants, then ripping her entire body in half.
Bury Your Gays: Inverted, as the gay couple are two of the few inmates that survive episode to episode.
Continuity Nod: The last two-and-a-half minutes of the season finale, as shown here.
"Mayhem Donor" includes a Freeze Frame Bonus when the drill robot is digging underground. It's the burned inmate chatting with the ghost of Cancer, who's reading a book.
The first episode of the second season features some characters seen in the pilot, such as the talking vegetables (who die courtesy of the Warden's ineptitude) and the canteen personnel.
In "Ghosts", The lost society of Pummelonia becomes a plot point along with Jacknife's father, Jarrel (Prisonmonger's accountant) and Cancer.
The Grand Prix episode has cameos of many bit characters, including dead ones such as the serial killer from "Cold-Blooded". It even includes the dinosaurs with firearms for heads which appeared in one of the intros.
Some of the inmates qualify. When things start going to hell, many of them show all manner of skills, from lassoing bugs with giant shoelaces and discus-throwing that would make Captain America jealous to improvising weapons to deal with whatever mayhem is coming their way.
It pretty much looks like they took what an 8th grader doodled in his notebook and animated it.
Provided that said 8th grader watched far too many slasher films and was a huge fan of the imagery of death metal.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: "I am Ghor, the war god of Pummelonia." Until Jailbot shoots him in the chest, at least. "Yep, I'm a goner..."
To be fair, he did say that he was reverted to his mortal state.
Distaff Counterpart: Ultra-Prison is a women's prison staffed by female counterparts to the characters, including a female-to-male transsexual counterpart for Alice.
It's kind of "blink and you'll miss it", but one of the Ultra-Prison inmates is a Distaff Counterpart to Gary (complete with Bird!)
Doom Magnet: Superjail itself, and possibly the Warden.
Don't Explain the Joke: "Hey, Gary! I've got a worm for you right here! I'm talking about my penis!"
Dream Land: The centerpiece for an entire episode, during which the Warden peeks into everyone's dreams on suspicion that someone is planning a riot. The dream world also happens to be the site of the once-an-episode brawl (in this case, the entire population of Superjail confronting the Warden), made supernatural by the fact that everyone knows they're dreaming and can do just about anything, including transforming into things like a human tank, a motorcycle, and Bill Rizer.
Family Friendly Firearms: Of course, they're not family friendly, just like everything else in Superjail!, but it should be noted that Lord Stingray's soldiers use laser rifles as weapons. Justified in that Stingray and his army are a send-up of typical "evil overlords" in Merchandise Driven cartoons.
Fantastic Racism: In Bunny Love, Jared tries to order bunny suits for everyone, but the Twins end up messing with the order so that half the prison population gets bunny suits and the other half gets wolf suits.
For Want of a Nail: The in-universe equivalent of a fast food hamburger results in the Wardenconquering Earth simply because he discovered the concept of franchises. Thankfully, the Time Police show up before it happens.
Freeze Frame Bonus: Many examples, mostly in the insanely detailed backgrounds seen in the intro sequence.
Fun with Acronyms: The Amphibious Secretly Constructed Rapid Ascape Craft in "Superbar".
"I ain't ridin' in no ASCRAC!"
And in "Ladies Night":
Warden: Women are nothing but a pack of hormonally insane vixens!
"Often bordering"? It's totally blown out. "Terrorarium" is one of the weirdest, at least.
To say nothing of "Dream Machine". Audible gasps were heard from this troper the first time it aired.
The first season finale's ending is the greatest example for the show.
Generation Xerox: Jackknife's briefly seen father looks exactly like grown up Jackknife, with no hair.
Gorn: [adult swim] has gone on record that Superjail has more deaths in one season than Metalocalypse did in its first two. In other words, it's pretty gory.
Amusingly, now that it's animated by the studio behind Metalocalypse, it looks like it's less gory than before.
Lampshaded in the episode "Ghosts", where it's said that the jail newspaper has 50 pages of obituary!
Heroic Comedic Sociopath: A possible case in the Warden. While dedicated to his job and perfecting the art of incarceration, he is AT LEAST a psychopathic sadist. Most of the people he ends up killing - generally indirectly - are dangerous inmates who pose a clear threat to society.
Hey, It's That Voice!: Given that he's been on both The State and Stella, David Wain as the Warden shouldn't come as that much of a surprise. The creators went on record to state that David Wain is the closest actor they have on the show to celebrity status.
Jackson Publick (of The Venture Bros.) voices some of the prisoners as well as a few other minor characters.
Christie Karacas is Alice. He is also Jackknife. In fact, they basically grab any co-worker they most closely work with in the studio for voices as often as possible.
Human Notepad: "Salty", the old captain seen in the "Vacation" episode, has the map of the floating islands tattooed on his back. Of course when he dies Lord Stingray rips the skin off of his back to keep the map.
Humongous Mecha: Superjail is revealed to have one in "Mayhem Donor" (made to look like the Warden, of course). It has two huge drills but it's almost completely ineffective against the Doctor's experiment.
Infant Immortality: Averted horribly. However, in one of these cases, it is babies killing other babies, so...
Ink Suit Actor: Put David Wain in a Willy Wonka costume and you've got the Warden.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Replace the Warden's top hat with a military cap and you've got Josef Mengele. Cane, gloves, haircut, gap between his teeth, and occasionally whistling a merry tune.
Jerkass: The Warden roughly. Alice to some extent.
Karma Houdini: The false health guru DL Diamond, after robbing Superjail blind and doping everyone up with hallucinogens, gets kidnapped by the aliens he claims to have been contacted with... who invite him to their awesome intergalactic party.
Kick the Dog: Oh dear God yes. From Jackknife stealing the crucifix from a little girl in the hospital, to everyone's treatment of Jared in "Terrorarium," to the casual brutality of the prisoners, to Jailbot's ever increasing proclivity for collateral damage.
Last of His Kind: The Twins. They're actually the last of their own race from another planet.
That was a lie to get the residents of Superjail to help them escape the hunter. They're just aliens who went on a year abroad, and apparently don't want to go back
Leitmotif: The Twins have a eurodance-esque beat every time they're onscreen.
Liz Lemon Job: Jared's job description in a nutshell
Lyrical Dissonance: The pilot uses the song "Rubber Bullets", which is very upbeat for a song about shooting people in a prison riot (although the guard it's sung from the perspective of is certainly enjoying himself).
Man Child: The Warden. He's even been called this in the show.
Mauve Shirt: Jacknife and the gay couple avoid death for pretty much every episode. In fact, the gay couple made up two of the 7 controls (Along with the Warden, Jared, Alice, Robot, and Birdie) of a Superjail Voltron-esque giant mecha in the current season.
A group of six or so inmates in season 2, including an Arab guy in a turban and sunglasses, an Asian-looking fellow and some guy with a goatee.
Mayincatec: In "Combaticus", they unearth the ancient city of Pummel-onia, a shrine to war and bloodsport, complete with typical Mesoamerican structures and a war god in traditional regalia trapped in animal form.
Nausea Dissonance: This happens a lot, as disgusting and violent deaths are commonplace.
Never My Fault: The Warden's general attitude towards Jared.
He eventually realizes that he's done something wrong after ruining Jean and Paul's wedding, thus causing the gang wars within Superjail to start again.
Negative Continuity (Partly explained by the supernatural nature of the jail)
No Celebrities Were Harmed: DL Diamond, who greatly resembled a glamrock David Lee Roth, including his voice, appearance, and his tendency to scat while he talks in a similar fashion to Roth's scatting in his cover of "Just a Gigolo".
His scam involving aliens affecting human emotions is obviously based on L. Ron Hubbard.
There's also the random Slipknot-looking inmates shown in one episode.
Insane Clown Posse makes an appearance in the same episode. The Violent J expy actually has several lines and a semi-important role in saving Jared from a malfunctioning Jailbot. "Yo boss! We got a way for you to beat that overgrown toaster!"
Off Model: The Warden compared to the other characters. Obviously intentional, to show how weird he is.
Once an Episode: Jacknife is captured at the beginning and escapes at the end of every episode, with some exceptions:
Jailbot accidentally brings in a serial killer wearing Jacknife's face as a mask
Jacknife is taken to regular jail in the season 1 finale when Superjail is out of commission.
Jailbot is shot down in the season 2 premiere while transporting Jacknife and later lets him escape.
Inverted in a later episode where Jailbot malfunctions and winds up taking Jacknife OUT of prison and to the streets, after which he proceeds to kill INNOCENT people.
Pac Man Fever: All of the "video games" the twins play in Cold-Blooded have 8 bit graphics or worse, and are single-screen games with minimal interaction. Clearly gameplay has not evolved much in this universe.
Or the twins are retro gaming enthusiasts. They seem to be able to "achieve the kill screen " with little effort.
Pet the Dog: In the first few minutes of the series, Jacknife is released from (normal) prison, and immediately hijacks a car, killing the driver... before noticing a little girl in the back seat. Seeing a bunny on her shirt, he drives up to a pet store and tries to steal one for her. Aww...(?) Somewhat ironically, Jailbot apprehends Jacknife for the first time as he commits what is probably the only good, unselfish act he's ever done.
Considering he was stuffing it down his pants, this troper wonders if he didn't have an ulterior motive...
Likewise with the second episode where he gives a girl, whose boat he stealing and whose parent (or rather her father and his girlfriend) he just kicked into the water, a stuffed bear during his attempted getaway.
Don't forget Jailbot's attempts to cheer up children.
Although considering how Jacknife crashed the car and shoved the rabbit down his pants.... it's more than likely he just wanted to fuck it.
Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Male: Averted. Only the Warden would be okay with Alice raping him. Inmates have killed themselves to be freed of her attentions.
Rape as Comedy: In Ladies' Night The Warden, Jailbot and the inmates don't seem too happy about the attentions of their female counterparts. As for what happened in the season finale, the Twins don't want to talk about it.
Refugee From TV Land: In one episode the Warden wakes up as a bum in the real world.
Reincarnation: Many of the inmates who were killed off by ghosts ended up being reincarnated as blades of grass. They ask themselves "Is this Heaven?" just moments before the Warden mows over the with a lawnmower.
Rodents of Unusual Size: Giant rats with cybernetic implants that Alice fights in "Jailbot 2.0".
Sequel Hook: after the cruise, the Warden and the inmates come back to Superjail at the end of "Vacation", only to discover that the Mistress took possession of the place with her robot army.
Softer And Slower Cover: The opening song is given a slower, softer acoustic treatment when Jacknife is being sent to real jail in the season finale.
Soundtrack Dissonance: While the opening song is suitably rocking, it's about going back to prison on purpose because "life on the outside ain't what it used to be" over Jacknife being forcefully brought back into jail. Funnily enough, the full version has three more verses that have the singer saying that it's not even as good as he remembers it inside jail, so he tries to break out, but that doesn't work out and he's going to be executed soon.
Stable Time Loop: One possible explanation for the ending of "Time Police, Part 2." After the space-time continuum shatters, the camera pans back to reveal a shot of a deep-fat fryer, which is identical to the first shot of part 1.
The Stinger: Jailbot repaired itself and went to the Warden's rescue after the credits of the second season finale.
Stylistic Suck: Those weird, gory cartoons the Warden is always watching in "Jailbot 2.0".
They Killed Kenny: Gary and Bird's fat, balding, lecherous cellmate (the one who wants to show you his penis) gets killed several times but is always shown as a recurring character.
The inmate who committed suicide to avoid going on a date with Alice in the first episode of the first series is shown being abused by Alice in the second season episode "Hotchick".
Jacknife is killed and reincarnated as grass and then mowed down in "Ghosts".
The second season is especially guilty of this, with Negative Continuity taken to the extremes and many characters always coming back from the dead.
The prisoner masterminding the mass escape attempt in the bar episode has become a recurring character in the second season despite dying like everyone else on the ASCRAC
Pretty much confirmed by Alice herself during "Mayhem Donor." When the blob monster grabs her by the crotch she tells him "Take it. You'll be doing me a favor."
Confirmed in "Jailbot 2.0". As a man, she looked like your typical '70s cop, complete with mustache.
When Alice is made the queen of a group of amazon warriors in "Vacation", she refuses to let the Warden and company go. Jared rips off her loincloth to let all the amazons get a good look at her junk. She admits she's not having it removed.
Triang Relations: Type 5. Jared has a closeted crush on The Warden, The Warden lusts after Alice, and Alice is too good for them.
Really Alice is only interested in rough and tumble vicious killers, i.e. the inmates.
Unfortunate Names: The explosive expert in the G.I. Joe-esque team featured in "Lord Stingray Crash Party" is named "Blow Job". Similarly, the Token Black member's nickname is "Black Face".
Wacky Racing: The Super Jail Grand Prix, held every year, promises the freedom of whoever crosses the finish line first. They just have to survive through a whole myriad of different deathtraps at literally every turn. To maintain status quo, Jackknife ends up crossing the finish line first when he wasn't even participating in the race. Jailbot immediately threw him out.
Well Done Son Guy: Jackknife, if his flashback to his childhood is any indication.
The Warden to, of all people, in is flashback in "Time Police" part 2. It crosses into Generation Xerox when his father is called The Prison Mogul.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Warden. He believes in "perfecting the art of incarceration", but uses less-than-legal methods of capture. As for what he actually does to the prisoners once he has them...
Weirdness Magnet: The Superjail, and every one and thing associated with it.
What the Hell, Hero?: In Gay Wedding, Jared rightfully calls the Warden out for running away with planning the Gay Couple's wedding when they wanted a simple affair after Jared warned him not to, leading to their break-up and going back to their old gangs, leading Superjail into chaos.
Wonder Twin Powers: The Twins can't be separated, as shown in "Hotchick".
Xanatos Gambit: A plan by the Warden to have the inmates kill each other was pulled off successfully in the Pilot. Turning inmates into werewolves is bound to kill at least a few of them, and so remove a few threats to society regardless of whatever else happens. I also believe he has one in many of the episodes.
Year Inside, Hour Outside: A couple of hours of being held by the Time Police is equivalent to many years in the real world.
Likewise, when the Warden is abducted by the Time Police in the season finale the inmates somehow manage to interbreed with a single bird and create a race of humanoid bird-people while at most only five years has passed outside Super Jail.
A single male bird.
Gary's bird is probably a female?
Hey, this is Superjail! Maybe the bird changed sexes.
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