While Bobcat Goldthwait's a well-established stand-up comedian, and in more recent years a filmmaker who's covered several different genres, including documentaries, horror and comedies, he is probably best known, especially outside of America, for appearing in the Police Academy films.
Goldthwait has also directed numerous tv shows, including Community, Maron and 267 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. So when TruTV commissioned his anthology series it wasn’t going to be your standard Twilight Zone kind of affair.
Let’s take a look at the episodes…
Bubba the Bear
Seth Green stars as a voice actor who’s being stalked by the character he plays, a bumbling buffoon bear named Bubba, on screen at least. The episode lands somewhere between Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Cape Fear, and a clear analogy for Goldthwait’s struggle to shake the comedy persona that made him famous.
Face in the Car Lot
A 70’s set political satire about a used-car salesman running for president of the United States, who also happens to be a werewolf, and the plucky young reporter trying to expose him. Anyone who doesn’t see the blatant mirroring of Donald Trump’s ridiculous rise to power has clearly been in coma for the last few years.
Stars David Koechner (Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Dave Foley (Kids in the Halls) and Tara Lynn Barr (Goldthwait’s film Good Bless America)
Devil in the Blue Jeans
A found footage mocumentary about a documentary filmmaker who goes missing while making a documentary about a pop star who went missing during the height of his fame, and who it would appear made a deal with the devil.
Side note: Pop star Caleb Faustini is sporting a Bubba the Bear tattoo on his upper left arm.
The Goatman Cometh
On the behest of his mother (Melissa Joan Hart) a geeky kid takes part in a camp-out sleepover with a group of other social outcasts. But after the boys neighbour tells the kids about the myth of the murderous Goatman the night takes a dark turn.
This has all the hallmarks of your classic loser kid adventures like The Goonies or The Monster Club, the tough guy, the coward, and kid who’ll eat anything.
Mermaid
Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks) and Karan Soni (Deadpool) visit an aquatic park where people perform as mermaids, Levine’s character has a crush on one particular performer who turns out to be a real mermaid. The two go on a date, there’s a musical number, and then an underwater fight with Neptune.
The Patsy
Idiot solider Herbert Smalls is recruited for a secret mission. Smalls must travel back in time to kill Lee Harvey Oswald before he can assassinate JFK, only to discover his commanding officer is the Man on the Grassy Knoll, and Smalls is there to take the blame. If this had been made twenty-five years ago it would have starred Jim Varney and called Ernest Saves Time.
Better World
Danny Pudi (Community) stars as a computer programmer working with super computers and believes humanity is doomed. He decides to make two of the machines talk to each other with the hope they will be able to come up with a solution. It’s essentially Bobcat Goldthwait does Black Mirror
The Buzzkill
Shortly after he decides to quit his band to raise bees musician Ben is electrocuted, he then wakes up in a world where he and bandmate Leo are bees. Ben had dreamt of a simple life where everyone lives in harmony, much like a beehive, but things escalate quickly when Leo starts hitting on the queen bee who resembles his real-life girlfriend.
The Buzzkill takes on a very different feel than the other episodes because the majority of the episode is animated, bookended by live-action sequences. The animation is very reminiscent of Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera animations, all be it with a more adult sense of humour.
The episode features the voice of Goldthwait’s long-time friend, and SpongeBob creator Tom Kenny. There’s also another little Easter egg in this one. During the first live-action sequences Ben can be seen eating Bubba the Bear brand cereal.
Did You watch Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters? Which was your favourite episode? Let me know in the comments below.
