Follow TV Tropes

Following

Series / Mr. Meaty

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/d3459afc_d4e8_42bc_8f17_9f47497a6600.jpeg
Left-Right: Josh and Parker.
All of God's creatures
fresh off the grill...
So come on down to Mr. Meaty
where friends meet to eat meat!
—Theme song

Mr. Meaty is a teen sitcom puppet series, debuting on Nickelodeon and CBC in 2006. It's about two teenagers, Josh and Parker, who work in a mall at a fast food restaurant called, well, Mr. Meaty. Josh is snarky, and tall, often scheming to get money, get girls to notice him, or just in general. Best Friend Parker is a lovable moron who's also The Pollyanna and is incredibly nice. They work for Mr. Carney, the thawed-out (but not completely, as he still looks like a frozen corpse) Texan CEO of Mr. Meaty. They also have to deal with a roving gang of "Gangsta" kids, a Girl Posse named the Ashleys, and other general weirdness that pops into their restaurant.

Folks be warned, this is a very oddball show.


Mr. Meaty provides examples of:

  • Alpha Bitch: Ashley.
  • Ascended to Carnivorism: An unusual human variation occurs when a group of soy-centric vegetarians are supposed to eat their new employee, as part of a plan that even they don't really understand. This is mostly because their "circle of life" chart makes no sense and is really confusing.
  • The Atoner: "Flinga Flonga" shows the main duo's childhood bully, Brent Butcher, has long since mellowed out and gotten a job at the burrito place across from them. He honestly means it when he says he was misguided and tries to make things right with Parker by giving him back his beloved robot toy. This throws a wrench in their revenge plans, as they already made a birthday cake for him meant to thoroughly humiliate him for all the dirty tricks he did when he was younger.
  • Bad Future: Josh and Parker accidentally end up in one in "Suburb of the Apes." While attempting to time travel 2 months to get a new game console, they end up in the year 2676, where a race of baboons has taken over the planet and the mall is an overgrown ruin littered with human skeletons. And then through a series of events, the boys inadvertently cause the bad future when they bring the baboons with them to the present.
    Josh: Nice going, Parker! We were supposed to go two weeks into the future, not six hundred years!
    Parker: I said I could make a time machine, I never said I was good at math!
  • Bare-Bottomed Monkey: Invoked in "Suburb of the Apes". When Josh and Parker are at the mercy of the baboons, Parker knows from doing a report about baboons that displaying their butts to the alpha is the best way to avoid getting killed by them. Later, when they manage to usurp the alpha as troop leaders, the rest of the baboons promptly show their colorful behinds to the duo, much to their revulsion.
  • Berserk Button: Parker seems to have a new one for every episode.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: After years of emotional repression, Parker turns into a monstrous Jerkass.
  • Brainwashed: The hypnotized customers and partially Mr. Wink, the manager who was given an electric chip, turning him mean, bitter, and robotic.
  • Big Eater: Parker.
  • Body Horror: When Parker turns into a girl.
  • Bratty Half-Pint: Several of the kids usually seen hanging around the mall qualify.
  • Butt-Monkey: Josh, usually due to Parker's or his own stupidity. Parker has his moments as well.
  • Chest Burster: The lizard-face alien dressed as a new employee in "I Love Lizzy" is implied to be a facehugger alien type, as she traps Parker in a snot-like web and promises him that once she impregnates him with her eggs everything will be fine...until they hatch and burst out of his chest.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Josh, often due to his own selfishness.
  • Crapsack World: It has shades of this, as many manners of dangerous or supernatural threats do exist; the adults rarely do anything else but contribute to the madness that inhabits the mall and beyond.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Josh usually reacts in sarcasm when it comes other people's quirks.
  • Death by Irony: Wedgielor, a demon that gives people wedgies, is defeated and seemingly destroyed when he himself receives a wedgie...from Parker!
  • Drives Like Crazy: Josh, who has been barred from getting his license for the better part of his life as a result.
  • Dumb Blonde: Ashley 2.
  • Exact Words:
    • One episode had the Parker try to be the new Josh, leading to a contest by the two, with Doug as the judge. The first two rounds had this trope in effect. (The third was a wrestling match; Doug had run out of ideas for challenges, and decided to settle it 'the old fashioned way'.)
      • The first round had the boys try to get rid of all the hungry customers. Josh simply tossed them free meat. Parker knocked them out with a massive fart. Doug gave the round to Josh since A) Josh didn't 'get rid of them' so much as 'knock them into a state of semi-consciousness', and B) they were still gonna be hungry when they woke up.
      • The second round had the boys get the most girl's numbers. While Josh worked up the charm, Parker... grabbed a phone book. Doug allowed it, since technically, it had all the girls numbers.
    • After Josh frees the demon Wedgelor, he promises him one wish. Josh wishes he had a big strong body, which Wedgelor gives... but leaves his head small and dinky.
  • Fat Idiot: Parker, on several occasions.
  • Gasshole: Parker.
  • Grand Finale: Extremely rare for a Nicktoon; especially their comedies, but Mr. Meaty had one. The special Dream of the Dead ties up every loose end, sets the duo towards their successful future shown in Geezers, and notes that they never return to the titular fast food restaurant again until they become rich enough to buy it out solely for the purpose of shutting it down. Also half the town's brains are eaten by the zombified Bugosi, but no one notices this.
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe: An lizard-faced alien dressed as a new employee tries to attract the duo so she can impregnate them with her eggs.
  • Grossout Show: Oh boy
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners:
    • Josh and Parker, especially on Parker's side.
    • Ashley and Ashley 2 may also count.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Wedgelor can only be defeated by being given a wedgie.
  • Hulking Out: In "The Incredible Jerk", years of repressed anger causes Parker to explode with anger and turns him into a Hulk-like monster who goes around insulting everyone in the mall.
  • I Call Her "Vera": Doug's baton is known as Sarah Jane.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: Doug, the mall cop, seems to like hanging out with the boys.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Josh can be incredibly selfish and is not above taking advantage of or ditching Parker, but he always comes around to make up for it in the end and is shown to value their friendship.
  • Karmic Transformation: When Josh insults a magical unicorn, the unicorn turns him into a pink horse but with his head remaining human.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: The boys are often on the receiving end of this for their antics; In "Moochmaster P" Parker mooches off of everyone, prompting him to eat a raw burger containing a tapeworm that steals his food. In "The Fries That Bind", Josh slacks off at work and causes Parker to quit, leaving himself at the mercy of an angry crowd when he refuses to do his job properly.
  • MacGyvering: Parker made a time machine out of a microwave, jumper cables, and sausages.
  • Meaningful Name: Edward Carney's last name is a pun on "carne," the Spanish word for "meat."
  • MegaCorp: Arguably the Mr. Meaty fast food chain, which is controlled by Edward R. Carney, the founder who was previously cryogenically frozen and will not rest until man, woman and child has a Mr. Meaty meal 5 times a day.
  • Nasal Trauma: In "Schnozzola", Josh and Parker burn off Ashley's nose in a failed attempt to remove a zit from her face.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: In the episode "Day Of the Dead", the character Lucas E. Romero is based on George A. Romero who directed The Living Dead franchise and the character Karlof Lugosi is based both on Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.
  • No Name Given: Goth Girl is just a nickname for Josh's main love interest. We never do hear her real name.
  • Only Sane Man:
    • Brittney, easily the most fair and sensible of everyone in the mall.
    • Zig-Zagged with Josh, since sometimes he's just as sensible as Brittney, Other times, he's too selfish to be considered an Only Sane Man.
  • Our Demons Are Different: Wedgelor, a wedgie demon found in a muscle powder can.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Doug.
  • Sealed Evil In A Muscle Powder Can: Wedgelor.
  • Ship Tease: Goth Girl and Brittany, whom Josh is stated to like in one episode. She becomes his girlfriend in a later episode.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Skewed Priorities: Often seen with many of the characters, Josh in particular.
  • Stable Time Loop: In Suburb of the Apes, when the boys bring some future monkeys with them to beat up some bullies, Josh wonders if these are the same monkeys who overthrow humanity. Parker is more interested in getting a new game console.
  • Superhero Paradox: When Parker gets super powers in one episode, other people around the mall inexplicably start becoming supervillains to attack him.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: When Doug is injured, Parker takes over and it takes two seconds for the power to go to his head.
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Almost Once an Episode.
  • Verbal Tic:
    • Britney frequently opens up with "Basically" when she speaks.
    • Ashley and Ashley 2's constant scoffing.
  • Weirdness Magnet: The two boys.
  • Zombie Gait: Josh and Parker hypnotize customers into becoming zombies. The zombies substitute "meat" for brains.

Top