It's me, Mugman!note .
Mugman was the first major web series created by Jacob Lenard. The series focused around the bizarre and/or mundane adventures of Mugman... and that's about it. It was originally animated using Paint.net and Adobe Premiere but from "Mugman's Trampoline" onwards, it switched to Flash. It premiered on October 29, 2014, over a year after the original pilot.
Following a long period of Creator Backlash, the series ended on November 4, 2017 with "Farewell!". The character of Mugman would return in "Welcome to Wedgewood", but that series would also abruptly reach its end after only one episode, with Mugman being retired for good not long afterwards.
Not to be confused with the second playable character of Cuphead.
This work provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: When he originally appears in The Dups, Mugman is a mugger, or at least attempts to be one. Here, he's a perfectly friendly guy.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: In the case of Mugman and Teanna, anyway.
- Amazing Technicolor World: Yup.
- Animation Bump: Later episodes and material would have a significantly more refined look
. - Art Shift: See above.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "Mugman's Headphones", after Mugman breaks Pementa's headphones, he think about what she could do, including making him listen to bad music, making him listen to bad music in a tree, or just plain get mad.
- Bewitched Amphibians: The Free Wizard has a tendency to turn Mugman into a frog.
- Character Development: In early episodes, Pementa was a borderline insane Stalker with a Crush who tended to ramble alot, with something of a sociopathic streak to boot. After her original voice actress, Emarie Pandebeer, had a heated falling out with Jacob Leonard, she was replaced by Zia Amador. Her character changed greatly: She ceased her rambling and ad-libbed monologues, and became more mellow and naive. Her crush on Mugman also went from creepy to more subtle and innocuous. In the 2017 reboot, Pementa went back to her rambling monologues, and also became a bit of a Granola Girl. In addition, her romantic dynamic with Mugman was now the other way around, with Mugman having the crush and Pementa being oblivious to his affections.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
- After the series was retooled starting with "Dollar Land Redux", the characters of Johnny, Papa, and the Free Wizard were retired, as Jacob Leonard wanted to eliminate all human characters from the series, and also thought
Johnny and Papa were never funny in the first place (later revealed to be actually due to controversial reasons seen here). Johnny and Papa, however, would resurface in an episode of Jacob's new series, Loose Ends, as a pair of angry patrons at a drive-thru. - Teanna also suffered this fate, mainly due to misunderstandings with her voice actress, and Jacob Lenard not being a fan of the character anymore.
- After the series was retooled starting with "Dollar Land Redux", the characters of Johnny, Papa, and the Free Wizard were retired, as Jacob Leonard wanted to eliminate all human characters from the series, and also thought
- Collector of the Strange:
- Mugman collects saucers from famous shipwrecks.
- Pementa collects knock-off toys.
- Continuity Reboot: In 2017, the series went under a drastic one, with the characters now appearing in standalone shorts with new designs. Among the changes were:
- Mugman now having a more conservative color scheme, two arms, and his limbs are more proportionate to his body, rather than looking like sticks.
- Pementa now being a human who is taller than Mugman, has defined breasts, and wears a sleeping cap. She was later further redesigned, with clothes invoking the original pepper shaker body.
- A few personality changes occurred, with Pementa's one-sided crush on Mugman being reversed, Mugman taking pride in the fact that he's made of porcelain (and as a result, is immune to many sources of pain), and Pementa becoming a stoner who regained her tendency to ramble (though Zia Amador still voices her). Also, much of the supporting cast was eliminated, including Teanna and Sunshine, in favor of characters from Jacob's other series.
- Crossover: A short one with Doodle Toons by cartoonlover98 was created as an April Fools joke. The video involves Mugman and Bellybutton commenting on each others' design oddities, before Pementa hugs Bellybutton and fanart of the crossover is displayed. Unfortunately due to CartoonLover98 having a falling out with Jacob Lenard as well as other controversies surrounding him, the crossover was taken down.
- Deranged Animation: A very good example of this trope.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Mugman's first appearance in The Mugger, though it doesn't count as being part of the series itself and is instead part of a series called The Dups.
- Insomnia Episode: "Mugman Can't Sleep".
- Impact Silhouette: In "Mugman's Headphones", Mugman creates a hole shaped like him when he bursts through Pementa's door.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Dollar Land, in the episode of the same name and its remake. The shop literally appears out of nowhere, just to give you an idea.
- Magical Star Symbols: The Free Wizard has stars printed on his hat and robe.
- Motor Mouth:
- The Big-Mouthed Bumbler.
- Pementa was also this prior to "Dollar Land Redux". In fact, quite a bit of her dialogue was ad-libbed, leading to some rambling monologues.
- Running Gag: Mugman's lack of a second arm is brought up quite often.
- Shout-Out: Johnny and Papa are an obvious reference to the classic nursery rhyme "Johnny Johnny Yes Papa". Jacob had previously made a parody animation with the characters before Mugman became an estabilished series.
- Stalker with a Crush: Pementa has an obvious one towards Mugman. As of "Dollar Land Redux", this was severely toned down.
- Stylistic Suck: While it becomes less pronounced over time, the series maintains a crude aesthetic throughout its run.
- Thick-Line Animation: The black lines are visible.
- Training Montage: In both "Mugman Gets Into Shape" and its remake.
