The two brothers; Guapo (left) and Fraz
The Brothers Flub is a short-lived children's cartoon that aired on Nickelodeon note and was created by David Burke and Klasky-Csupo animator Laslo Nosek. It ran from January 1999 to January 2000 with 26 episodes.
The show focuses on a pair of blue alien brothers named Guapo (Jerry Sroka) and Fraz Flub (Scott Menville), both different shades of blue. Guapo is fat and cheerful, while Fraz is skinny and panicky. The two work as couriers for a company called Retrograde run by the tyrannical Tarara Boomdeyay who sends them to make deliveries to various worlds with unusual quirks. These include a planet so small that one of them swallows it, one that features a lifesize pinball machine, and one inhabited by beatnik aliens.
Not to be confused with The Brothers Grunt.
Tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight:
- "A Courier's Carol" is the only episode where neither of the brothers are the focus characters, instead Miss Boomdeyay is the main character.
- In "Talent Show Offs" Valerina is the focus, if Fraz and Guapo were taken out nothing would change.
- Aliens Speaking English: The entire cast comprises aliens who speak English.
- Alliterative Name: One of the main characters is named Fraz Flub, which repeats the letter "F".
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Guapo and Fraz are shades of blue. Their boss, Tarara Boomdeyay, is green. Other characters include the purple Valerina and the orange Squish.
- Ambiguous Gender: One of the three singing mechanics, the pink one, seems to change their gender in every episode. In "Big Business" he has a deep man's voice, but in "Family Outing" she has a clear feminine voice and her name is revealed to be "Mama Mia".
- Amnesia Episode: "Thanks for the Memories", which revolves around Fraz losing his memory by exposing himself to a strange gas, forcing Guapo to show him some old pictures of them in a photo album to revive his memory.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Tarara Boomdeyay keeps a vicious sentient pencil sharpener in her office.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Guapo's most defining trait. His annoying nature is what drives the plot in "Guapos Galore".
- Anthropomorphic Food: In "Pizza, Pizza", the brothers are shrunken down and wind up on an old piece of pizza they were fighting over. The pizza slice has aged so much that its toppings have become sentient and have even erected a town on the slice.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other:
- Fraz gets very irritated by Guapo and Guapo seems oblivious to what happens to Fraz. But, with them being brothers and all, sometimes they do end up making sacrifices for each other.
- In "Sloppy Sentiments" Miss Boomdeyay hangs a picture of Fraz and Guapo in her closet and calls them "My silly, silly boys".
- Big Ball of Violence: At the end of "It's a Mystery", Fraz pummels Guapo, creating a cloud of dust with their arms sticking out and moving around.
- Big Brother Bully: Fraz is this towards Guapo a lot. He insults in various ways including wishing he wasn't his brother.
- Big Brother Instinct: Even though Guapo gets on Fraz’s nerves, Fraz will risk his life to save Guapo from getting maimed.
- Big Eater: Guapo loves to eat. He orders a large breakfast in "Flubs Overeasy".
- Big Little Brother: Fraz is a little smaller than Guapo, despite being born a few seconds earlier.
- Birthday Episode:
- "Boys Toys" is about Fraz and Guapo delivering a birthday present for Billy on his birthday. He decides he wants to play with the Flubs' ship instead.
- In "Tarara Birthdeyay", the Retrograde staff celebrates Miss Boomdeyay's birthday.
- Born Unlucky: Fraz Flub says he's from the "unlucky" side of the family and boy does it show.
- Break the Haughty: Fraz, whose mindset of "pretty much anything could be your doom" causes him to be broken often.
- The Bully: Fraz becomes the target of a boy who constantly bullies him in "Teacher's Pest".
- Butt Biter: In "Operation Flubpossible", Fraz is bitten in the butt by Tarara Boomdeyay's pet pencil sharpener as he is searching her room for Valerina's files.
- Butt-Monkey: Fraz, again due to his paranoia about being doomed.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: In "For the Birds", Fraz is seen rolling around in an egg when he's sent to impersonate Hector the bird while Guapo looks for Hector himself. Only Fraz's eyes are visible in the dark interior of the egg.
- Catchphrase: Fraz. "It's all part of my master plan."
- Cloudcuckoolander: Squish says random phrases that make no sense.
- Cowardly Lion: Fraz, again. He's constantly convinced that something or other will doom him.
- Detectives Follow Footprints: In "It's a Mystery", Guapo and Fraz work as detectives to find out why Mr. X disappeared and follow a trail of chicken footprints as one of their clues.
- Disowned Sibling: Fraz constantly tells Guapo he wishes he wasn't his brother.
- Distressed Dude: Guapo puts himself in danger a lot due to his stupidity, needing Fraz to rescue him.
- The Dog Bites Back:
- In "Big Business" Miss Boomdeyay yells at Fraz and tells him if Huge Head Fred finds out about their illegal guacamole business, she will pin all the blame on him. Guapo actually stands up to Miss Boomdeyay when he usually obeys her with either a smile or fear.
- In "Sloppy Sentiments" Fraz angrily shouts "You!" At Miss Boomdeyay when she fires him and Guapo.
- Does Not Like Spam: Happy Jack hates pancakes so much he refuses to serve them at his diner.
- Doomy Dooms of Doom: Fraz used the word "doom" in nearly every episode. One of the show's video collections is titled "Doom Wears Funny Tights!"
- "Double, Double" Title: One of the episodes is called "Pizza, Pizza".
- Driven to Suicide: In “Paradise Shmaradise” Fraz is eaten and almost digested by a giant fish, but he is okay with it because he gets his “doom” over with. When Guapo saves him, he actually cries and begs for the fish to come back.
- Elmuh Fudd Syndwome: When Guapo was a kid he had trouble with his Rs.
- Establishing Character Moment: The first episode, "Scared Stiff", shows Fraz opening a fortune cookie and getting a fortune that "you are doomed". Yup, that's right, a fortune cookie is what kicked off his signature paranoia about being doomed.
- Eye Pop: In "Operation Flubpossible", Fraz is bitten by Miss Boomdeyay's pencil sharpener, causing his eyes to pop for a split-second.
- Fat and Skinny: The titular brothers. Fraz is the skinny one and Guapo is the fat one.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Guapo is foolish while Fraz is responsible. The roles are reversed in “Bad Judgement Day”.
- Funny Animal: Fraz and Guapo are probably the least humanoid of the main characters. They have long rodent-like noses and small tails, and they also literally hatched from an egg as shown in "Thanks for the Memories".
- Gag Nose: Both the titular brothers, Guapo and Fraz, have very notable ones.
- Good Parents: Fraz and Guapo's parents, Melba and Arnold are very sweet towards their boys and worry about them when they leave. Not only that, but Arnold actually stands up for Fraz because he worries about his problems of being scared.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Guapo sometimes lapses into this. Heck, his name is Spanish for "handsome".
- Green and Mean: Green-skinned Tarara Boomdeyay, while technically not an antagonist, seems to care more about the profit her company makes than the welfare of her employees.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Guapo and Fraz. Despite their constant arguing, they always stuck together. Being brothers helps.
- Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Valerina loves opera, but everyone hates her singing.
- Human Sacrifice: Or Alien Sacrifice, rather. Fraz nearly falls victim to this trope in "Heads Up" when the people of the Land of Easter Island Head People try to send him to the "Land of Happiness and Bliss"... which apparently happens to be right at the top of a nearby volcano.
- Humanoid Aliens: The aliens at Retrograde all have humanoid designs, but with brightly-colored skin and quirky physical features that are just enough to make it clear that they're not actually humans.
- In Another Man's Shoes: In "Sidekicked" Guapo and Fraz learn what burdens they can be to each other. Guapo has to deal with someone who just wants to play instead of work and gets in the way, while Fraz has to deal with someone who constantly works him to the bone and doesn't care about resting.
- Innocently Insensitive: Guapo in every episode.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: In "Pizza, Pizza", Guapo and Fraz are shrunken down and wind up on a pizza slice populated by sentient toppings.
- Inventing the Wheel: Referenced in "Prehysteria", where the people of the prehistoric planet are delivered big stone wheels. They don't immediately grasp the wheel's main use at first, though; they decide to use them as tables first.
- Jerkass Ball: Fraz is a bit rude and grouchy, but it's usually because he is under pressure dealing with Miss Boomdeyay's bossiness and Guapo's annoying behavior. However in "Bunches of Trouble", he is the tertiary antagonist behind the operation of forcing his workmates to become equal and work to the bone, the only ones who are arguably worse are Bad Boss Miss Boomdeyay and the Hidden Villain the raisin.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Valerina turns her nose up at the Flubs all the time, but she sings with them in "A Courier's Carol" and believes in Courier's Day's message about sharing and caring. In "Big Business" she says she would help anyone who has a problem.
- Fraz can be this as well. He's a big jerk to his brother and others, but he often has good morals.
- Guapo is a cheerful guy, but he sometimes cares more about having fun than his brother's well-being. However he admits he cares about Fraz and defends him when he's insulted.
- Karma Houdini: A non-villain example. Tarara Boomdeyay is usually pretty mean to the Flub brothers, but she never gets any comeuppance for this, and the Flubs actually like her despite this.
- Kill the Cutie: Mr. Doom tries to do this to Fraz in "Paradise Shmaradise".
- "King Kong" Climb: In the episode "Cookie Crumbles", the cookie king that the brothers bake ends up climbing a skyscraper with Guapo in his hand.
- Literal Genie: Fraz wishes he wasn't Guapo's brother, so the magic lamp turns him into a girl, making him his sister. Fraz then wishes Guapo wasn't his brother so he turns into his cousin.
- Living Ship: The Hoog, the spaceship that the Flubs drive, is addressed as a living being. It even has a tongue for a bay door.
- Lonely at the Top: In “Double Feature” Guapo becomes a movie star and a jealous Fraz abandons him. Guapo ends up missing his brother, so he gives up his movie career.
- Mean Boss: Tarara Boomdeyay is a cheapskate who doesn't treat her employees very nicely.
- Misfortune Cookie: "Scared Stiff" begins with the Retrograde employees eating fortune cookies and reading their fortunes. Fraz's fortune simply reads "you are doomed".
- "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop: Fraz does this in "Operation Flubpossible" to retrieve Valerina's file.
- Mystery Episode: In "It's a Mystery", the Flubs are assigned to deliver a package to a mystery-themed planet. They board a train and discover that Mr. X, the person they are delivering the package to, has gone missing and that they and the other train passengers will be considered guilty until proven otherwise. The Flubs then become detectives to find out what happened to Mr. X.
- Never My Fault: Fraz always blames Guapo for everything, no matter who's fault it is.
- No Hugging, No Kissing: The closest things to romance in the show are a few married couples and two lovers in a soap opera. But none of the main characters have love interests.
- Not So Above It All: Fraz always seems above the nonsense Guapo gets into, but in some episodes he joins in with his brother’s stupid antics.
- Out of Focus: In "Double Feature", Fraz, who is probably the most important character in the show, disappears for half of it as it shows Guapo lamenting about him.
- Overly Long Name: The new employee in "Cold Soreheads" gives his name as "Vincent McLa-Dee-Da Good-for-You Etcetera Etcetera Papa No Jones".
- Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Tarara Boomdeyay says this to Fraz in "Teacher's Pest" after he catches him trying to fend off the bully boy, who happens to be her nephew.
- Planet of Hats: Every planet that Retrograde makes deliveries to is a particular hat planet. For example:
- A planet of wrestlers.
- A planet of people with giant hands for heads.
- An arctic planet of snowmen who are prejudiced towards those with hands (Hand Shakers!).
- A prehistoric themed planet.
- Please, Don't Leave Me: Guapo begs Fraz to stay at the movie studio with him, but Fraz goes back to Retrograde because he's mad. Guapo spends the rest of the episode moping over Fraz. It's to the point he calls everyone around him "Fraz".
- Polar Opposite Twins: Fraz and Guapo are revealed to be twins in “Thanks for the Memories” but are still as different as almost any brothers can be.
- Product Delivery Ordeal: Retrograde is an inter-dimensional courier company that delivers everything from packages to people anywhere in the universe. And with Fraz and Guapo as the primary couriers messing around, every delivery is very difficult and often wrought with doom.
- Punny Name: Tarara Boomdeyay is named for a kids' novelty song.
- Rebound Best Friend: In "Sidekicked" Fraz and Guapo replace each other with friends who are much more like themselves.
- Red Is Heroic: Guapo is one of the main characters of the series and wears a red work uniform, and he often saves Fraz's life.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Inverted with Fraz and Guapo. Guapo wears red and is cheerful but is calm in every situation. While Fraz wears blue and is brainy, but he is not calm at all and is easily irritated.
- Rhymes on a Dime: The three mechanics speak all their dialogue in rhyming song.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Fraz has a high pitched girly scream every time he gets scared.
- Shout-Out: The episode "Shrinky Dinky" features a Show Within a Show called "Desperate Hospital".
- Sibling Rivalry: Fraz and Guapo argue quite a lot. It’s often one-sided on Fraz’s part, but Guapo does argue back a lot.
- Sick Episode: In "Sloppy Sentiments", Fraz and Guapo nurse a sick Tarara Boomdeyay back to health.
- Soup Is Medicine: In "Sloppy Sentiments", Guapo and Fraz give Miss Boomdeyay a pot of chicken noodle soup when she gets sick.
- Squashed Flat: In "Scared Stiff", Fraz is flattened by several giant pinballs that roll over him.
- Surreal Theme Tune: The theme song is nothing but off-key "na na na"s with an occasional "flub" thrown in.
- The Secret of Long Pork Pies: Happy Jack actually threatens to kill Fraz and Guapo and serve them to his customers.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Fraz and Guapo are small compared to their boss, Miss Boomdeyay.
- Title Montage: The intro depicts clips from various episodes interspersed with unique animation of Tarara Boomdeyay checking over Retrograde and getting Fraz and Guapo to wake up and get ready to work.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Guacamole for Guapo.
- Two Shorts: All of the 22-minute episodes contain two 11-minute segments.
- Unusual Euphemism: "Bejabbers!", which caught a second life on the also short-lived but much better regarded Dave the Barbarian.
- Visible Odor: In "Pay Dirt", Fraz and Guapo become "smelly messengers" with visible odors that are green in color.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Fraz and Guapo.
- Wheel o' Feet: In "Scared Stiff", as Fraz runs to save Guapo from the giant pinball game, his legs are rendered as circular shapes.
- Word, Schmord!: The title of the episode "Paradise Shmaradise".
- Work Off the Debt: In "Flubs Overeasy", the Flub brothers go to a restaurant to eat and tip the waitress with too much money, making them unable to pay for their food. They wind up getting jobs at that restaurant to pay off the debt.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: The episode "A Courier's Carol" is about Miss Boomdeyay getting visits from the Ghosts of Courier's Day Past, Present, and Future.
- You Mean "Xmas": The equivalent to Christmas in this show is "Courier's Day".
- Youngest Child Wins: Most of the universe’s residents praise Guapo for his talents and fun personality, while they hate Fraz for being a stick in the mud and a loser. Inverted in “Bard Brain”.
- Your Other Left: In "Boys Toys", Valerina is directing a bunch of gorilla-lizard hybrids, tells them to go right, and then corrects them by saying "the other right".
