English Dub Review: Africa Salaryman “Africa Mascot Characters”

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The day starts out normal enough with Big Cat enjoying a pint of the new Haagen-Dazs flavor. In the episode, they call it Haagen-Duck, similar to how they use knockoff names like Fakebook, but we’re going to use the actual names because we’re not the now-defunct MAD Magazine. Anyway, as that pain in the ass Toucan pesters him for a bite, the ice cream hits the lion’s tooth in a bad way causing him to freak out.

Lizard determines it’s a cavity and advises the big guy to go to the dentist. The lion agrees much to the chagrin of the local dentist and his assistant, a meerkat, and bunny, respectively. Because Big Cat is such a big damn cat, they don’t want to go anywhere near his mouth. But, since he’s a professional, the doctor gets to work. BIG MISTAKE. Any time Big Cat gets riled, he bites down onto the doctor’s head. And then, when Lizard and Toucan stop by to confess which of the lion’s treats they stole from the fridge, he bites the doctor even more.

The next day, President Turtle shows his dour face and asks the guys to create a mascot for the company. While Lizard and Big Cat have no idea what the old fool is talking about, Toucan schools them in the three rules for mascot characters. He also informs them that they likely have old acquaintances who are now mascots. It turns out they all do, so the trio separates to meet with their old friends—on the company dime.

Lion’s old buddy became a mascot after his head was transformed into a giant melon due to his stealing a bunch of that magical fruit for his own benefit. The old, grouchy bear is pretty bitter about the whole situation. Lizard’s high school friend used to be the shyest kid in school. But after a bit of heavy-ass plastic surgery, he went from timid bunny to an obnoxious bunny/apple hybrid who shouts “Apple” all the time and squirts his juices every which way but loose. Finally, Toucan’s pal is a terrible puffy penguin mascot who drinks, smokes, and is inappropriate around children. Needless to say, they’re all horrendous choices.

The next day, those same mascots visit the school where Big Cat’s daughter goes. Even though it’s daytime, and they should be sober, they’re rowdier and more annoying than they were at the bar. Even Lioness’s friend, Gorimi the gorilla girl, can’t stand these degenerates despite being quite rowdy herself.

In the end, President Turtle admits he lost interest in having a company mascot. So he basically just wasted everybody’s time—especially the audience’s.

 

Our Take

As sure as the great Africa sun rises heavy on the savanna, Africa Salaryman will forever become sillier and sillier.

The opening scene had the guys dressed all in pink and acting as secretaries for no apparent reason. Aye, this show is weird, but they’ve abided by a semi-reverent sense of normalcy up until this moment. Are we supposed to worry that the lion, lizard, and birdmen aren’t being “woke” at this moment? Because I don’t think I’m ready for such a commitment.

I’m not saying Africa Salaryman is dumb, but I recently saw an episode of Big City Greens—you know, that children’s show about the hillbilly family that likes to fart—and their dentist story was more highbrow than this! The fact that everyone is afraid of Big Cat even though they live in a civilized society is funny on its own. Having him eat his dentist’s head over and over again is really taking advantage of the good faith awarded to that particular joke.

So… I guess we have to talk about the mascots now. These guys were so humorless, I found myself hoping that Toucan would do something perverted. If I had to pick a standout—i.e. a not completely awful mascot—I’d go with Apple Bunny because he had the most compelling backstory. Begrudgingly, I have to hand it to Lizard for reaching out to the poor shy bunny back in high school. It’s a shame he didn’t take Lizard up on his invitation, because now we have to deal with him haphazardly squirting his precious bodily juices and passing it off as a certain fetishist delight.

At episode’s end, I asked myself if it was funny that the mascots showed up at a high school for a pre-planned visit. The inappropriate fare in front of children is usually funny, so long as it’s not explicit or just plain wrong. However, these mascots were so unfunny I couldn’t make an informed decision. It was an ending, anyway. I suppose that should be enough.

Depression, in general, is no joke. But the cleverest among us can make the art of depression relatable, and therefore funny. I’m saying this because its balance between depression and humor is top-notch, not because it’s coincidentally another show with animal/human hybrids, but BoJack Horseman handles that juxtaposition masterfully. In contrast, the balance in this episode was nothing more than a bothersome and uninspiring attempt at cheap laughs. But hey, did you like it?