"We're Just Like You!"
Greg the Bunny was a Sitcom set in a world where humans and puppets coexist as sentient races and interact freely. Greg the Bunny is the starring puppet of Sweetknuckle Junction, an Alternate Company Equivalent to Sesame Street; the show focuses on various backstage shenanigans. In this case, Greg and the others in the cast are much less innocent offstage than on, contrasting with both The Muppet Show and other puppet shows fully on the cynical end of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism. (The series was something like Who Framed Roger Rabbit.)
Extra drama comes from the fact that Greg is a relative newcomer to the cast, having replaced another rabbit because he was much cuter.
Despite the relative cynicism, this show did have heartwarming moments and good spoofs thereof.
This show was greatly respected by critics but didn't get enough of an audience. It aired for one season (2002) on FOX and two (2005–06) on IFC. Greg and the crew returned in MTV's Warren the Ape, which aired for one season in 2010.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Parody: Made up almost the entirety of the IFC series.
- The Alcoholic: Warren is not shy about his drinking, and Rochester hits the bottle hard when he reappears. In the latter case, it turned his wake into a landlocked version of a Viking funeral.
- Alternate Company Equivalent
- Ascended Extra: Tardy Turtle was originally only supposed to appear in one scene, but got a big laugh (and made one of the cast members mess up by laughing on-camera for the first time)and was then featured in nearly every episode (in fact, his scene in the first episode was added later in production). For the first six episodes, Tardy was often only in one scene, but during the second half of production, he's used a lot more.
- Berserk Button: Do NOT call Warren fat, or even compare him to a chocolate cake with eyes...Warren: I am NOT FAT!!!
- Brick Joke: Greg is at Dottie's house for a rehearsal that's really a date, and Greg brought a cute gift.Dottie: Most guys bring me tequila!Some more small talk...Greg: What do you have to drink?Dottie: LOTS of tequila!
- Buried Alive: Greg gets nightmares about Rochester burning him alive in his on-set rabbit hole after replacing him.
- Captain Ersatz: Several, the most obvious being Count Blah, a parody of the Count from Sesame Street (whom Blah accuses of stealing his act and his chance to be a regular on Sesame Street).
- In the first episode Alison lampshades Greg's parallel role on Sweetknuckle Junction to Elmo's on Sesame Street, hoping to garner similar appeal when hiring him.
- Susan the Monster is a gender-flipped parody of Sweetums from The Muppet Show, down to having a similar voice despite being female.
- Chekhov's Gun: Sammy Davis Jr.'s eyeballs in "The Jewel Heist."
- Chekhov's Gunman: In one episode, Gil tells a songwriter that Allison had him fire him (in actuality, Gil hated the song). This leads to that songwriter stalking Allison, who had thought Jack was stalking her over not allowing him to appear in a movie that would damage the shows reputation.
- Chirping Crickets: Parodied in one episode. When Gil tries to tell jokes as Rochester's roast, he's met with unamused silence from everyone, and the sound of a chirping cricket. The camera then cuts to a puppet cricket, who looks at everyone else and says "Yo, back off! The guy's funny!"
- Classically-Trained Extra: In-Universe, Warren the Ape, who isn't particularly fond of being second banana on a children's show.
- Dirty Old Man: Count Blah occasionally comes across as this, though he's really all talk and no action. Turns out he's a widower who still misses his wife and feels he'd be cheating on her if he actually did anything with anyone.
- Disproportionate Retribution: When Warren thinks Allison has rejected his request to work Shakespeare into the show, he pees in her car.
- Warren even attacked a little girl just because she compared him to a chocolate cake with eyes and even asked why he’s so fat.
- Subverted in another episode, in which Allison refuses to approve of Jack starring in a movie that would make his role on the show look bad, and she starts getting stalked by who she thinks is Jack. It ends up being a songwriter who Gil fired but put the blame on her... And she ends up being saved by Jack, who reveals that he actually WAS stalking her, which is how he knew to stop him.
- The Ditz: Tardy the Turtle. So much so that you can say Tardy the Turtle's non sequiturs in Ralph Wiggum's voice and it wouldn't seem out of character.Tardy: Crayons taste like purple.
- Dumb Blonde: Dottie is viewed as this, to her great frustration, but the trope is subverted — while she's not the brainy girl she sometimes tries to present herself as, she is a lot smarter than she's given credit for.
- Engineered Public Confession
- Executive Meddling: Both In-Universe and out. The network insisted on toning down the show's edgier aspects, making it much more "sitcommy" than the creators wanted.
- Fake Nationality: In-universe, Count Blah accuses Count von Count of posing as a Romanian.Count Blah: He's not even Romanian, he's freaking Italian, and he knows it, blah!
- Fanservice: Dottie in her new outfit in "SK 2.0".
- Fantastic Racism: Greg the Bunny mentions in the first episode that puppets ("Fabricated-Americans") have trouble finding work and dating outside of their species because of their appearance. In fact, a lot of episodes (particularly "Sock Like Me" and "Greg Gets Puppish" on the FOX series) hammer this point home.
- Fantastic Slur: "Sock" has the same racially offensive weight as, say, the n-word for black people. Greg at one point explicitly compares his usage of it to Richard Pryor's usage of the n-word.
- Freudian Excuse: Junction Jack's mild anti-puppet prejudice comes from his mother running out on his father and abandoning him for another man... who was a puppet. Notably, the character in question acts like it's an explanation but not a justification.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Count Blah, though his vampirism is brought up about as often as Count von Count's.
- Furry Confusion
- Gambler Groupies: Warren and Greg attract arm candy at the blackjack table after Warren learns Greg is a Rainmanesque card counter.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Greg and Jimmy are roommates who do pretty much everything together.
- Human-Focused Adaptation: The FOX series, thanks to
Executive Meddling. - Hypocritical Humor: When a mediator asks Jimmy to name a stereotype about puppets, he says "You all like tartar sauce," which all of the puppets object to... before every single one admits that they do. As a Brick Joke, the fake PSA for puppet-human acceptance at the end of that episode gives a website that mentions this as well.
- Jerkass: Warren, who does get the occasional Pet the Dog moment, and who may have a Hidden Heart of Gold somewhere in there... but you'd have to spend some time actually looking for that heart of gold. Mostly he's just completely self-centered and more than a little spiteful.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's buried in there, but the actor for Junction Jack has his nice points - in fact, he can act like a mentor for Greg at points.
- In one episode, Allison refuses to let Jack star in a movie that would put his character in a bad light. Allison then gets stalked. After she learns she is being stalked by somebody who is not Jack, Jack shows up and stops him, before revealing that the reason he knew she was in trouble was because he actually was stalking her. Though it is possible he only saved her in the hopes that she would approve of him being in that movie.
- Loud of War: When Jimmy refuses to use his connections to help Greg get a job on the set of Sweetknuckle Junction, Greg says, "Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy" incessantly until Jimmy relents.
- Manchild: Dottie's public persona; Her actual personality bounces between this and an average girl frustrated by Typecasting due to uneven characterization.
- Mooning: Count Blah moons his boss in a clip shown as part of the opening credits.
- Nephewism: Greg is introduced to Sweetknuckle Junction as being Rochester's nephew.
- Nice Character, Mean Actor: Both Junction Jack and Warren have traits of this, being friendly and jovial on-screen but being far less so off-screen.
- Nice Guy:
- Greg, while not as sweet and innocent as his Sweetknuckle Junction on-screen persona, is still the nicest, least cynical person on the show, bordering on Wide-Eyed Idealist at times.
- Dottie is also very sweet-natured. In the pilot episode she borders on Extreme Doormat, but she gets better.
- Noodle Incident: Several with Greg and Jimmy. Frequent references and flashbacks only giving snippets of what might have happened to their lives before and even during the show.Jimmy: You're the king of phases, Greg. Remember that time you tried Bhuddism?Greg: I achieved enlightenment, didn't I?Jimmy: Yeah. And then you traded it. For a clarinet.
- On the episode featuring Guest Star Corey Feldman, upon discovering himself chased by cops in Warren's car, he panics and states "I cannot be caught with puppet porn again!"
- Oh, Crap!: The look on Warren's face when he bends over and hears the distinct sound of tearing.
- Operation: Jealousy: Jimmy attempts this by flirting with Susan (while female, similar in build and voice to Sweetums from the Muppets) to hopefully get Alison's attention. It doesn't work quite like he expected.
- Out of Order: There was a break in production between the sixth and seventh episodes produced, at which point changes were made (most notably changing Greg's eyes), and yet the show was broadcast out of order, so in one episode Greg will have button eyes, and in the next he'll have much different eyes.
- Paint Ball Episode: "The Jewel Heist"
- Paste Eater: Tardy the Turtle has eaten everything from crayons, to drumsticks (the musical kind), to paintballs.Tardy: "The green ones make me horny!"
- Said quote is a Shout-Out to an Urban Legend about green M&Ms.
- Put on a Bus: Parodied In-Universe as Rochester is replaced by Greg on Sweetknuckle Junction.Greg The Bunny: "I have a letter from my Uncle Rochester. 'Dear Everybody, I'm never coming back. Goodbye forever, Rochester.'"
- Really Gets Around: Dottie certainly has this reputation, though it's probably exaggerated.
- Real Men Wear Pink: on the episode, "Surprise!" Junction Jack comes to his own surprise party dressed as a woman after a fellow member of his gun club recommends cross-dressing to him as a way to be a better gunman.
- Revenge Porn Blackmail: In one episode, one of Dottie's ex-boyfriends asked that she talk to the producers of "Sweetknuckle Junction" to get him a job. When Dottie refuses to help him in any way, he threatens to leak a Home Porn Movie videotape of her to the press, so she talks up her ex to the producers. But when his acting is not up to par, she considers quitting the show because her show-business career will be ruined if he leaks the tape.
- The Roast: Rochester gets roasted, in all senses of the word, at his funeral. The planned roast that actually fits the trope includes a blooper reel "starring" him.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Greg is alot more dumber in the IFC series
- Shout-Out: By the truckload, but most notable is the Reservoir Dogs bit in "The Singing Mailman".
- Show Within a Show: Sweetknuckle Junction. We don't see much of it, but we're not missing much; it's just a saccharine kiddie show.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Warren DeMontague, due in no small part to being a frustrated classical actor.
- Smelly Skunk: In the episode "Father & Son Reunion", Blah gets sprayed by a puppet skunk.
- Speech Impediment: Greg speaks with a slight lisp that makes his "esses" sound more like "eshesh," and that accents his youthful character.
- Verbal Tic:
- Count Blah typically ends his sentences, with "blah".
- Not quite verbal, but Tardy usually makes a squeaking sound at the end of his sentences... or just if he's intimidated or amused.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Jimmy shows shades of this in his more vulnerable moments.
- Who's on First?: When Greg first meets Count Blah, Blah tells him "just call me Blah, blah". Greg thinks this means to call him "Blah Blah", and Blah has a hard time correcting Greg, until he tells him "Just call me Blah, and leave it at that. Don't turn this into some Abbott and Costello routine."
- Would Hurt a Child: Played for Laughs with Warren towards a little girl. See Disproportionate Retribution above.
- Younger and Hipper: Alison wants to make Sweetknuckle Junction this, and part of her reason for hiring Greg is to "appeal to a younger audience." Gil points out that the show's already targeted at four-year-olds.
