Western Animation / Evil Con Carne

Left to right: Hector Con Carne (and Boskov), Major Doctor Ghastly, and General Skarr

Our world is filled with incredible beauty

And that is why I feel it's my duty

To send armies of troops to invade the coastline

To crush, and destroy... until it's all mine!

— Hector Con Carne

Evil Con Carne was a short-lived Cartoon Network series created by Maxwell Atoms and the final show in the station's Cartoon Cartoons series. Originally one of Three Shorts on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (then called Grim & Evil), it was eventually spun off into its own half-hour series for a brief run, ending not too long after once the crew decided it was too difficult to work on two completely different shows at the same time.

Set in an Alternate History where the League of Nations was never disbanded and peace and harmony is the norm among the countries of the world, the plot concerns the misdeeds of Villain Protagonist Hector Con Carne (Phil LaMarr), a billionaire Hispanic arms smuggler reduced to brain and stomach in jars status after an assassination attempt destroyed his mansion along with most of his body. Rescued by Major Doctor Ghastly (Grey DeLisle), a perky female Mad Scientist who had fallen in love with him, and implanted into the body of a Russian circus bear named Boskov (Frank Welker), Hector now reigns over an arch-criminal organization named Evil Con Carne, which combats the League of Nations' forces in a grandiose attempt to conquer the Earth. The cast also features the sadistic General Skarr (Armin Shimerman), a competent military strategist and Hector's second-in-command, who constantly plots to overthrow Hector and seize ECC's reins for himself.

The series takes place in the same universe as Billy and Mandy, with General Skarr moving to Endsville sometime after the events of this show's last episode. Other ECC characters frequently had cameos for one-off gags, and eventually got a Fully Absorbed Finale in the episode "Company Halt".

---

Tropes:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The shot of Bunny Island in the show's opening is blatantly made using computer animation.
• Accidental Misnaming: Dr. Courage keeps getting his older son Rick's name wrong.
  Rick: It's RIIIIIIIIIIIICCKKK!!!!!
• Action Girl: Major Doctor Ghastly, Kablammity Jane.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Phil LaMarr, who voiced Hector Con Carne got his head blown off first in Pulp Fiction.
  • "Son of Evil" begins with Hector Con Carne watching a parody of Samurai Jack. Hector's voice actor Phil LaMarr also voiced the title character of that show.
• Affectionate Parody: The song at the end of the Musical Episode seems to be at least partially based on Afroman's "Because I Got High".
• Alternate History: The League of Nations has not disbanded, there is peace and harmony among the nations of the Earth, and Abraham Lincoln is still president. The show takes place in the year 2002, but it has a sort of 1960s chic to it.
• Amusingly Awful Aim: Ghastly grabs a machine gun and opens fire on Hector after he calls her fat. She somehow misses every shot despite her target being a giant bear confined in the back seat of their car, which he lampshades.
• Animate Body Parts: Hector's Brain and Stomach are both able to speak. And despite their jars flashing when they do, they still are able to speak without them. Oh, and the stomach has a mind of its own.
• Arch-Enemy: Hector and Cod Commando, to each other.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "Evil on Trial", a news report states that Hector is wanted for plotting world domination, robbing banks, and destroying gumball machines.
• Art Evolution: The drawing style in the last few episodes became greatly more colorfully detailed and less flat looking, likely to look more different from Billy and Mandy. Hector's design becomes less stylised and more like an actual brain, whilst Boskov becomes bulkier and has much darker fur.
• Bad Santa: Hector's scheme in "Christmas Con Carne" involved taking over Santa's body so he could give the children toys that contained mind control devices.
• Bears Are Bad News: Seriously averted with Boskov—while he's not entirely "harmless," per se, Boskov's likely the least dangerous character on the show.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Kid's show host Uncle Bob from the episode "Everyone Loves Uncle Bob" is understandably pissed when Hector Con Carne tries to take over his show and corrupt his audience, eventually gaining muscles and encouraging the children to beat the stuffing out of Hector and his minions.
• Big Eater / Extreme Omnivore: Boskov and Hector's stomach.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Con Carne" is Spanish for "with meat".
• Blah, Blah, Blah: Cod Commando speaks entirely like this.
• Blank White Eyes: General Skarr, who is blind in one eye.
• Bloodless Carnage: Subverted; as Cod Commando attempts to teach a group of primary-school children how to cross the street, he's instantly run over by a passing car. Cut to a surprisingly gory scene of him in a bloody mess on the road...right before he sits up, winks at the audience and gives the thumbs-up sign.
• Brain in a Jar: Hector, post-explosion.
• Brainy Brunette: Major Dr. Ghastly.
• Butt-Monkey: General Skarr (and how).
• The Cameo: Hector and Boskov appeared in the Billy and Mandy episode "Duck!" as one of the people the ghost duck got thrown in jail. Doubles as a nice little gem relating to the two shows splitting apart:
  Hector: I'm not even on this stupid show anymore!
• Call to Agriculture: What Skarr does in Billy and Mandy. In fact, when Hector restored Evil Con Carne (the organization) and hired Skarr back, Skarr's obsession with his garden turned him against Hector when the Evil Con Carne forces damaged it.
• Card-Carrying Villain: It's called Evil Con Carne. Hector and Skarr are the only ones who care however.
• Casting Gag:
  • Estroy, an Expy of Destro from G.I. Joe, was voiced by Maurice LaMarche, who voiced Destro in the DiC Entertainment-produced continuation of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
  • "Christmas Con Carne" has Michael Dorn and Charlie Adler voicing the heroic Rupert the Green-Nosed Reindeer and the washed-up Snowman respectively, mimicking their previous role together on I Am Weasel.
• Chekhov's Skill: In the pilot, Hector orders Doctor Ghasty to create a mechanical body so he'll no longer need to use Boskov. Ghasty tries to convince Hector to give Boskov another chance by showing him the skills Boskov developed during his time as a circus bear. Hector sees no use for them but they later become what enables Boskov to save Hector's life.
• Christmas Episode: "Christmas Con Carne", where Hector Con Carne attempted to distribute toys containing mind control devices to children by taking control of Santa's body, only to be thwarted by a green-nosed reindeer named Rupert.
• Colliding Criminal Conspiracies: Hector decided to start the League of Destruction because there were too many villains trying to take over the world at the same time.
• Crossover: Three times with Billy and Mandy.
• Dark Lord on Life Support: Hector con Carne is a Brain in a Jar (and stomach, in a separate jar) set atop a bear. He's a possible parody of Brain from Doom Patrol.
• Depraved Kids' Show Host: Hector Con Carne's scheme in "Everyone Loves Uncle Bob" involved taking over a children's show in hopes of corrupting the children of the world and making them into his future soldiers. Unfortunately for him, the kids liked Uncle Bob better and Uncle Bob himself was unwilling to give up without a fight.
• The Ditz: A common complaint Hector has about Boskov is his stupidity.
• Ditzy Genius: Major Doctor Ghastly is a highly skilled scientist and makes a lot of useful creations for Hector's plans, but also has a tendency to goof up by making silly mistakes.
• Don't Tell Mama: Hector's blind mother doesn't know he's the head of a terrorist organization trying to take over the world and he wants to make sure she remains ignorant of that fact. Subverted in that she only pretended she didn't know.
• Dressed All in Rubber: Dr. Ghastly's jumpsuit is a prime example of this.
  • Agent Heidi from "Jealousy, Jealous Do" also embodies this trope, though her outfit is less mad scientist and more Swedish maid fetish.
• Dumb Muscle: Boskov and Estroy's two sons. Hector (pre-explosion) was pretty muscular and, as we see him post-explosion, not very bright.
• Enemy Mine: Hector and Cod Commando had a situation like this once.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Hector is so terrified of disappointing his elderly mother, all these years he's been pretending to be an oral surgeon as opposed to an international arch-criminal. Apparently, his mother never watches the news, because Hector's charade works for far longer than it should, even when his mom visits his lair. Except it didn't.
  • Averted with Skarr, who hates his mother.
• Everyone Can See It: Ghastly and Hector. Hector didn't even realize Ghastly had feelings for him until meeting their future selves and their son.
• Evil Lawyer Joke: Used in "Devolver", when one of the lower life forms Skarr turns into is a lawyer.
• Evil Versus Evil: Hector versus Estroy. Also, when Hector decided to reunite the world's villains to form a League of Destruction, the league destroyed itself because nobody would accept anybody else as leader.
• Expy:
  • Dr. Courage and his sons, Max and Rick, are obvious parodies of the main gang from Jonny Quest.
  • Hector's "neighbor" Estroy, an equally obvious parody of Destro from G.I. Joe, right down to their names both being a letter away from "destroy".
  • Not to mention that General Skarr is an obvious homage to Herr Starr of Preacher, with a uniform that looks a lot like Fearless Leader from Rocky and Bullwinkle.
• The Faceless: Hector's face, pre-explosion, is never shown; even old photos of him cut off at the neck. However, we do see that he was a very tall and very well-muscled man with flowing black hair tied back in a ponytail.
• Genius Bruiser: Hector's future son Destructicus is both intelligent and strong.
• Hartman Hips: Major Doctor Ghastly has big hips.
• Hero Antagonist: Cod Commando. (Clearly a case of Good is Not Nice, however, seeing as he's the reason Hector's body was destroyed.) Of course, a lot of antagonists on the show are just as villainous as Hector.
• Hostile Show Takeover: One of Hector's plans to take over the world consists on taking over a kids' show called "Everybody Loves Uncle Bob".
• Humongous Mecha: Hector's short-lived B-1000 Suit.
• Ignored Enamoured Underling: Poor Major Doctor Ghastly. She's in love with Hector, but he doesn't seem to notice.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Destructicus Con Carne, a good guy.
  Ghastly: So what do you think? He's not too bad, is he?
  Hector: That's just it! He's not bad at all!
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Hector Con Carne and General Skarr.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Rupert the Green-Nosed Reindeer tries to talk Santa Claus into resisting the influence of Hector's control in "Christmas Con Carne". He is successful.
• I Was Quite the Looker: Hector was an undeniable Hunk back when he had a body, embodying the Latin Lover stereotype through and through.
• Kid from the Future: Destructicus Con Carne, son of Hector and Ghastly.
• Latin Lover: Hector before losing his body.
• Legion of Doom: Hector once decided to unite all villains and form the "League of Destruction". The villains argued among themselves about who'd be the leader. By the time The Hero arrived at the Headquarters to stop them, the League of Destruction had lived up to the name by destroying itself.
• Leitmotif
• Made of Iron: Hector is regularly removed from his tank and acts perfectly fine despite having no life support. General Skarr is also prone to large amounts of punishment.
• Musical Episode: "The Pie Who Loved Me" consists almost entirely of the characters singing. (see page quote)
• Mad Scientist: Major Doctor Ghastly uses her scientific genius to further Hector Con Carne's evil schemes.
• Meaningful Name: True with Skarr (who does have a scar) but not with Ghastly (who doesn't seem very ghastly at all).
  • "Con Carne" means "with meat." Eventually, Hector would wind up as a few assorted meat scraps. More amusingly, when he had a body, he was a tall, sexy slab of muscle.
• Noodle Incident: Hector once conquered Canada but this was never seen onscreen. It was just mentioned when Hector tried to convince the other villains to accept him as the leader of the League of Destruction. Cataclysma gave a retort that implied that every villain has conquered Canada at some point.
• Oblivious to Love: Hector on Ghastly's feelings for him.
• Obviously Not Fine: In "Devolver (Part 1)", General Skarr is hit with a Transformation Ray, and Major Doctor Ghastly suggests he get to the infirmary. Skarr refuses, insisting "I've never felt better in my life", right before his transformation really starts to kick in.
• Only Sane Woman: Major Dr. Ghastly is often the only reasonable member of Evil Con Carne.
• Opening Narration: Got one after being split off into its own show.
  Hector: Once upon a time, there was a jillionaire playboy who was blown up in a tremendous explosion. His brain survived—
  Stomach: Stomach, too!
  Hector: —and was attached to the body of a stupid circus bear. I am that brain. My name is Hector Con Carne, and I will one day rule the world! [Evil Laugh]
• Organ Autonomy: Hector's stomach has a mind of its own.
• Origins Episode: "Bring Me the Face of Hector Con Carne" gives more detail on the circumstances under which Hector Con Carne was reduced to a disembodied brain after losing his body and also explains how Major Doctor Ghastly ended up working for him.
• Otaku: Hector adores Japanese culture.
• Overly Long Gag: In episode 10 (Tiptoe Through the Tulips, Part 2), Hector is out of his jar crawling in a corridor, when a mess call gets his entire army of minions marching over him.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:
  • Estroy once disguised a bomb as a Skarr-like girl to get back at Hector. Skarr fell for it despite Hector and Ghastly having pointed out the fuse. Skarr was the only one who fell for the disguise.
  • In "The Smell of Vengeance", Cod Commando disguises himself as Skarr simply by putting on his uniform. Hector doesn't see through the disguise until it's too late.
• Perky Female Minion: Major Doctor Ghastly tends to be more good-natured and chipper than Hector and Skarr.
• Power of Love: Think a villain can't use this? In "The Pie that Loved Me", apparently they can, as the plan involves pies that have love as the "secret ingredient". (The plan doesn't work, but Ghastly still tried.)
• Prim and Proper Bun: Major Dr Ghastly wears her hair in a bun.
• Punch-Clock Hero: Cod Commando and the guys at SPORK. The soldiers trying to capture Hector in the pilot are a bigger example. They interrupt a battle because it's lunch break and it gives Ghasty enough time to build a mechanical body that allows Hector to defeat them once they come back from lunch break.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Everyone at Evil Con Carne except Hector.
  • Special mention goes to Major Dr. Ghastly. She's not really interested in taking over the world. She really only seems interested in inventing things and getting close to Hector.
• The Rival: Estroy, Hector's fellow evil genius.
• Same Content, Different Rating: Some of the segments are rated TV-Y7 and the rest are rated TV-Y7 FV.
• Saving Christmas: "Christmas Con Carne" had a snowman enlist the help of a green-nosed reindeer named Rupert to stop Hector's plan of ruining Christmas by distributing toys that contained mind control devices.
• Screwed by the Network: Lampshaded in-universe by General Skarr in Billy and Mandy; while explaining to Billy why he's no longer a general in an evil organization, he mentions that the network executives bought out Evil Con Carne so they'd have less competition in their plans to conquer the world.
• Snowlems: "Christmas Con Carne" featured an animate snowman as one of the good guys.
• Supervillain Lair: As you might expect from a world-conquering supervillain brain, he has one. Just you might not be expecting it to be called Bunny Island and no, it's not ironic.
  • Estroy has his own called Skull Island.
• The Starscream: Skarr seems to think he'd be a better leader of Evil Con Carne than Hector, and in several episodes has tried to take over. However, in one episode, when Hector was incapacitated and Skarr took over in the mean time, he was completely useless. Seriously - he needed an instruction manual to figure out how to get the soldiers to stand to attention.
  • You have to remember, though, that this is more than Hector ever convinced those same soldiers to do. In an instant they knew perfect Drill and Ceremony, when seconds before they were useless.
  • Skarr managed to take over when Hector replaced the mooks with Dreadbots and Skarr reprogrammed them to be loyal to him. It was a short-lived victory, as Skarr-bot followed his "father's" example and re-reprogrammed the Dreadbots. Skarr was proud of him, however.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Hector's soldiers apparently can't even aim a weapon straight. Once when one of Evil Con Carne's airships is attacked, a guy is shooting holes in the deck. Not that the heads of the organisation are geniuses however...
• Terrible Trio: Hector, Ghastly, and Skarr.
• Time Skip: The series takes place seven years after Hector lost his body.
• Too Dumb to Live: Skarr was the only one who fell for the Paper-Thin Disguise (see above)
• Transplant: After Evil Con Carne was cancelled, General Skarr became a recurring character in Billy and Mandy. Canonically, after Evil Con Carne (the organization) was abolished, he decided to go straight and get himself a house in the suburbs... the one right next to Billy's, much to his chagrin.
• Tropical Island Adventure: The series is set on Bunny Island, a tropical island owned by Hector Con Carne and his minions. Estroy also has his own tropical island named Skull Island.
• Tuckerization: In an obscure interview, Maxwell Atoms mentioned that he'd caricatured his friends as ECC foot soldiers.
• The Unfavorite: Rick. In the end, he tried to drive the boat to win his dad's appreciation to escape the villains. Only to have all of them (the villains included) end up stranded on a desert island. Dr. Courage berates Rick who's just sitting there sulking.
  Dr. Courage: "I'm gonna make you proud, dad." Sheesh!
• Usurping Santa: In "Christmas Con Carne", Hector has his men invade Christmas land to launch an evil plan to take over Christmas, placing Hector on Santa's head to control of him.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Major Doctor Ghastly is shown pulling a steak out of her cleavage while feeding the dolphins in "The HCCBDD".
• Villain Protagonist: Hector Con Carne is the main character of the show and also happens to be a villain planning world domination.
• Villain Song: "The Pie Who Loved Me" has Hector get his own song called "Things I Adore", where he sings about his love for world domination schemes.
• Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: In the Max Courage episode, the kids are thrown into a cell that has gaps in the bars wide enough that they could crawl through them if they tried.
• Wingding Eyes: In "Bring Me the Face of Hector Con Carne", Ghastly's eyes turn into hearts when she meets Hector for the first time.
• Word Salad Title / Gratuitous Spanish: "Con Carne" means "with meat", which makes it sound like "evil" is the main ingredient in an entree. Perhaps Evil Tastes Good?
  • It could also be translated, "Evil with flesh."
• You Are Not Alone: "No No Nanook" ends with this. After destroying the planet's gravity and floating into space, Hector and Boskov are brought aboard a flying saucer crewed by various creatures that also have brains and stomachs in jars mounted to their bodies.

---