Former Heavyweight Boxing Champ Mike Tyson stars in a cartoon where he solves mysteries with a ghost, a talking pigeon and his Asian daughter, giving hope to convicted felons everywhere.
by Shimbo
After watching the first 11-minute episode of Adult Swim’s latest magnum opus, Mike Tyson Mysteries, the first thought that came to mind was the notion that has this cartoon come out 20 years ago, Tyson would’ve likely killed everyone involved with it.
Instead, Iron Mike himself is in on the joke, in a show that primarily exists to make fun of him, which is bizarre in and of itself, but the cartoon, the idea of Tyson along with producers Sam Register (Batman: The Brave and the Bold) and Hugh Davidson (Robot Chicken) manages to somehow make the absurdity of it all more than a little entertaining.
According to the accompanying press release, Mike Tyson Mysteries features our favorite boxer “taking the fight from the boxing ring to the streets … by solving mysteries! Aided by the Mike Tyson Mystery Team – the Ghost of the Marquess of Queensbury, Mike’s adopted Korean daughter, and a pigeon who was once a man – Mike Tyson will answer any plea sent to him. If you have a problem that needs solving, Iron Mike is in your corner.”
Essentially, the show is not only a send-up of Tyson himself, but a throwback to Hanna-Barbara cartoons of the 70’s, including Scooby-Doo.
Along with Tyson (who also has live-action sequences, likely to assure audiences that he’s aware of being the butt of the joke) the show stars Norm Macdonald (Saturday Night Live) as a talking pigeon, Rachel Ramras (MAD) as his adopted Asian daughter Yung Hee, and Jim Rash (The Way Way Back, Community) as the Marquess of Queensbury, a gentleman ghost that may also be secretly gay.
While it would be easy to breakdown the many ways in which Tyson is lampooned, it’s hard to deny that he does possess a wit of his own and an ability to sell many of the jokes that are pretty much all about him and his inability to pronounce words like “Chupacabra” (a running joke throughout the first episode).
There’s certainly enough in the first episode to warrant future viewings, but at this point, the actual reason to watch more is muddied between wanting to see how far Mike will let them go, and whether or not the material manages to get even more bizarre outside of the Champ himself. Really, there’s only one way to find out, and Adult Swim has yet to totally disappoint. At the very least, you’ll come away from with a song about not having time for bird sex stuck in your mind, so you got that goin’ for you.
It’s safe to say that Mike Tyson Mysteries may have more than one round in it. And there’s your boxing metaphor, try not to enjoy it too much.
Mike Tyson Mysteries premieres October 27th at 10:30 PM on Adult Swim.
Hashim R. Hathaway (Uncle Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and proud father to NeverDaunted.Net. You can reach him on Twitter @NeverDauntedNet