Back to MetroidPrimeRib's Profile MetroidPrimeRib's Profile

Lets get real here - this show is really good. Its a lot like Gintama in a few ways - meta humor (that manages not to be annoying) with constant character specific gags, reference humor without it feeling like a crutch and extremely esoteric humor. But the things that are so fucking INSANE about HEYBOT! are...high in number. I think the first would be how good the show looks. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say how much effort the team puts into stupid gimmicks. I'm not kidding when I say that this show is surprisingly well storyboarded and animated.

Second, HEYBOT! is ... at times straight up nonsense. OK well its always nonsense, but sometimes the gags are so rapid-fire that they don't even bother to connect or make sense with anything. Its what I would call "stream of consciousness animation" where it feels like the animators are just doing whatever the fuck they want and slapping it together into an episode that is loosely connected and only held together by hopes and dreams. It feels like the people given key roles on the episode will just be given a summary of the episode plotline and then be sequestered to a locked prison cell where they will make the storyboards for the episodes without any communication with the rest of the team. Then they look at what they have and make some Frankenstein's Monster of an episode out of it.

HEYBOT! is like the ultimate evolution of anti-humor. Like an anime version of Tim and Eric. Jokes don't follow any real format. There can be a Die Hard quote in the pre-OP intro and then five minutes later they will finish the joke with Bruce Willis. HEYBOT! is a show for the Twitter memespamming age. Its a show made so that people can watch it on Twitter through me posting images of it on Twitter. Think about stuff like @dril and brain expanding memes - I used to find actual jokes with a setup and punchline funny or movies like Airplane, but now this is what I think is hilarious.

Third - and I think this is most important to its identity - HEYBOT! is a show made for no one but the people making it. HEYBOT! is a kids show, or at least its supposed to be. But it will have a reference from Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. And its not just a simple reference to Street Fighter, its a direct reference to when Akuma comes in on the final stage and kills M. Bison to become the secret final boss. And its like a direct copy of the scene. And he does a Shun Goku Satsu. And the scene after has the not-Akuma doing his exact fighting stance. When HEYBOT! wants to make a reference, HEYBOT! doesn't half-ass it. Also SUPER STREET FIGHTER 2 TURBO CAME OUT IN 1994.

I can't really stress how completely out there the references this show throws out can be. Kids wouldn't know what the hell this is referencing. Hell, sometimes I'm surprised a Japanese person even knows what the fuck something is. Key example - Zardoz.

I would like to say first and foremost - fuck this show. Don't watch it. Its mean spirited, morally empty and without a message.

You know anthology shows like The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents usually give a scenario where you are waiting for a character to "get theirs" or to see where a single mistake can lead you. The setups and endings are different - you could be following a character you want to see succeed or one you want to see fail, and the supernatural aspects they sometimes encounter vary wildly and the shows make good use of plot twists to throw you ... off the trail.

The issue with The Laughing Salesman is that it does none of that. Let me explain to you every single episode - every single story, of which there are two in each episode - of The Laughing Salesman.

All people in this world - young and old, male and female - are lonely at heart. My name is Moguro, they call me the Laughing Salesman but I'm no ordinary salesman I deal in peoples hearts, oh no I don't need a single yen the best thing is to see the face of a satisfied customer
Introducing our Japanese worker bee who will be ruined for no reason, ****-san
Something goes wrong
Moguro appears and does his shtick then gives them a device that solves the issue, warning them that if they misuse it or use it to much there will be consequences. Or sometimes he causes the issue himself?
Heres where you might see some variation! The customer either misuses it or is led into scenarios where they have to use it.
PUNISHMENT TIME DOOOOOOOOM
Uneven punishments that usually don't fit the scale of the crime or have an ironic Sisyphean nature to them


And thats it. The issue is that the show never bothers to stray from these tight confines. It is usually not a fulfilling show to watch either, as good people - some who Moguro purposefully creates a situation for them to be trapped into so he can punish them for misusing something he gave them to solve the problem he made - get punished through no fault of their own and for no moral reason. There are stories where the person is pretty shitty and gets whats coming, but I can't think of a single one where they would have ended up at that point without Moguro.

So is the issue that its far too depressing, bleak, pessimistic and fatalistic? Yeah a little bit. But I think the issue is more along the lines of the show just being not very good. Aside from the strong visual direction (aside from flashing to pictures of Hell all the time. Stop doing that its the opposite of clever.) I wouldn't classify this as a good show. It has plenty of things about it that seem interesting and I spent the majority of the season trying to decide if it had some deep commentary on Japanese society, fate or Bystander Syndrome locked in there but I really don't think so - its just a mean spirited show with no human soul. This is in no small part due to the series mascot - the ever smiling, fat and mysterious Laughing Salesman, Moguro. Moguro isn't a human, angel, demon or god. He's not anything. He's just a force, I guess. No story in this happens without his direct intervention, and he seems to have reality bending powers that require the viewer to just roll with it. Want a natural story about a fall from grace? Well fuck off because Moguro's only method of tricking people is to design most of the failure from the ground up. These people aren't bad, even the ones with bad tendencies or those who abuse the power because Moguro is always the one behind it all. Nothing happens without Moguro. Since he is essentially the narrator, I would say he is similar to the Cryptkeeper but with more direct impact on the story. But since none of these stories would happen without Moguro its like...whats the point here? Trying to make a statement about fatalism? Why have the direct hand of Moguro unnaturally steer people in the wrong direction then? Free will? None of these outcomes would have come together without Moguro setting them into a situation which causes the things to happen, and one of these people choose this. Moguro just leads them there, by force or foul play if necessary. If someone denies his requests he will just steal their purse or some shit and runaway until they listen and are connived into a scenario of shit. Its just...ugh. Have a message. The message is never "misuse of power is wrong" or "this is the morally wrong thing to do" its "Haha here is Salaryman Takamoto-san, drink this water that makes you feel better about your shitty life. But don't drink too much or else you'll be punished, probably in a way that doesn't reflect the theme of the episode at all BECAUSE WE HAVE NO THEME."

You know whats scarier then the Devil? The fact that there is no Devil, and humans don't need the help of any evil creature to be evil themselves.

I spit on this show.