Slippin’ Jimmy is an animated spinoff of Better Call Saul released on AMC+ in 2022. It focuses on the childhood of James “Slippin’ Jimmy” McGill, the man who would one day become Saul Goodman, as he grows up in the early 70s. Much Lighter and Softer than the series it was inspired by, the show was not well-received and only stuck around for one 6-episode season.
Tropes found in Slippin' Jimmy include:
- Denser and Wackier: Has no problem using Looney Tunes-style gags, despite being spun off from a much more serious show.
- Flanderization: Marco was never too brainy, but he's a full-on Fat Idiot here.
- Gross-Out Show: The first ten seconds feature a kid breaking off a booger that's frozen in the cold and using it to pick his teeth. There's a lot of gross-out gags throughout.
- Hairstyle Inertia: Jimmy's hair is combed the same way it was Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, though in this case it's not to cover up a receding hairline.
- High-School Hustler: Jimmy is effectively an elementary-school version of this, although it's not nearly as prominent a trait as you might expect.
- Lighter and Softer: Exaggerated. Better Call Saul was a gritty, adult-oriented legal drama with comedic elements, and Slippin' Jimmy is a straight-up cartoon comedy with no pretense of realism.
- Parody Episode: Every episode is one of these, tying into Saul's characterization as a film buff.
- Present-Day Past: The timeline of Better Call Saul puts this show around the late 60s-early 70s, but a lot of the styles worn by background characters seem to belong in the 21st century and the second episode has a character make a reference to cryptocurrency.
- Shout-Out: Each episode has references to works such as The Exorcist, as well as Buster Keaton comedies and spaghetti westerns.
- Spinoff Babies: The show is about the childhood of Jimmy McGill and Marco Pasternak. The frequent parody episodes call to mind the popularizer of the spinoff babies trope.
