Joey To The World is a Animated Shock Comedy pilot created for Cartoon Network by prolific animator and character designer Craig Kellman. It was one of several pilots created for the station's ill-fated anthology, Cartoonstitute.
Joseph Eliot Roo (Mr. Lawrence) is an adult kangaroo still living at home in his mother's pouch. On the morning of his 35th birthday, he decides to leave home and live out on his own in the Alaskan tundra, but quickly discovers that he's nowhere near as much of a man as he thinks he can prove himself to be.
The short is notorious for being the only one created for its program to be unambiguously for adults only, rather than the station's usual brand of family-friendly Parental Bonus humor. Unfortunately, nobody informed Kellman that it had to be appropriate for children until it was too late, and the pilot was immediately rejected. It was eventually dumped online
with the other shorts.
This series provides examples of:
- All Just a Dream: It turns out Joey never went to Alaska. As soon as he left home, he huffed some glue and wandered into an arcade while high.
- And You Were There: Once Joey comes down from his glue high, he thinks back to all of the things he did and realizes that he was just playing video games the whole time: the train to Alaska was a coin-operated train ride, hunting wild game was Whack-A-Vole and playing an arcade cabinet game was playing a different arcade cabinet game. Unfortunately, he really did eat his own foot.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The abandoned trailer Joey commandeers in the tundra happens to belong to an abominable snowman, who's not happy with Joey's proposal that they move in together.
- Blatant Lies: Joey's mom angrily asks her son if he huffed glue on his way to the train station (which he did), but he sheepishly tells her that's ridiculous.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite being a dumb as a post and a Manchild to boot, Joey sure knows how to decorate a new home.
- By "No", I Mean "Yes": When Joey tells his mother that he needs to go to a place where every man goes just to prove he's still a man. Her response?Joey's Mom: A whorehouse?
Joey: No, silly goose! To the remote Alaskan wilderness, where I shall pit myself against nature's most challenging elements in a constant struggle for survival, and where, with any luck... there'll also be a whorehouse. - Casual Danger Dialogue: Subverted in that Joey doesn't realize that he's in danger, but he takes primal yells of the yeti who tries to kick him out of his home as his visitor simply being ill tempered and having a sore throat. Later, when the monster attacks him and they tumble down the hill together, they pause mid-tumble for Joey to threaten to take away the yeti's security deposit on the shelter he still expects them to share.
- Downer Ending: Not only does Joey fail miserably at being a man on an adventure he never even went on, by the time he realizes he's not ready to leave home, his mother's already rented out his room to the yeti who tried to kill him. Joey then dies of hypothermia and starvation. The end.
- Epic Fail: Pretty much everything Joey does. In his first attempt to get himself ready in the morning, he spends four hours letting the shower run while he sits in the toiled bowl and scrubs himself (fully clothed, mind you). Then when he sets off for Alaska to prove his worth, he gets high off of crazy glue and wanders into an arcade while freaking out.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Well, everybody except Joey, who is now homeless, humiliated and missing a foot.
- Gross-Up Close-Up: "...especially if you're so...naive." Cue a shot of an ugly version of Joey's head.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- The short begins with Joey berating his mother for babying him, after which he raises his arms and goes "Up! Up! Up!"
- Later, when Joey decides to leave."Mom, I'm going to be a real man and take care of myself and that's final! Now, if you'll just wipe my bottom, I'll be on my way."
- Innocently Insensitive: Joey tell the yeti that the previous owner of the abandoned bus that he found had "monstrous taste, simply abominable," unaware that said yeti is the current owner of said bus.
- I Want My Mommy!: Inches away from being slaughtered by a monster, Joey screams "MOOOOOMYYYYYY!!!!!" Thankfully, she comes to get him from the arcade he wandered into on a glue-induced high.
- Jewish Mother: Joey's mom has hints of this. Being played by Estelle Harris (aka Mrs. Constanza) doesn't help.
- Jump Scare: The last shot of the short is an unsettling close-up of Joey's frozen, decaying corpse.
- Large Ham: Joey himself is rather over-the-top and prone to Suddenly Shouting. Of course, do you expect anything less from the guy who played Plankton?
- Laugh Track: Recorded laughter is added by Rule of Funny.
- Mama's Boy: The short is about Joey realizing he's one of these and deciding to do something about it.
- Manchild: Joey again, thanks to his mother babying him well into his 30s.
- Meaningful Name: Joey is a joey kangaroo treated like a baby by his mother.
- Medium Blending: Live-action photos of kangaroos (Photoshopped to look like supermodels) adorn Joey's bedroom. Later, the establishing shot of Alaska uses live-action stock footage of the Alaskan tundra.
- Mind Screw: The yeti from Joey's Mushroom Samba ends renting his room out once he comes down from his high, with no logical explanation other than it's funny.
- Mushroom Samba: Joey's whole adventure in Alaska, courtesy of huffed crazy glue.
- My Beloved Smother: The reason that Joey never moved out of his mother's basement is that she continues to treat him like a baby. She straps him to his bed and buys him a baby monitor for his 35th birthday!
- Not Growing Up Sucks: The short's main conflict is Joey deciding he's had enough still living in his mother's pouch and letting her pamper him.
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: Of the "if one joke fails, there's another one coming in five seconds" variety.
- Shout-Out: Joey's mom's dad died in the Alaskan wilderness. But Joey says she said he died from Pac-Man Fever.
- Suck E. Cheese's: The arcade Joey goes to is called Dick E. Cheese.
- Suddenly Shouting: Joey embraces the peace and quiet of his new home in the arctic by randomly screaming about how much he loves it. And is promptly buried in snow as a result.Joey: Finally, some peace and quiet! SO PEACEFUL! SO QUIET!!!
