Talk about a weird title for a weird show. My Gym Partner’s a Monkey is a show that came out when Cartoon Network started going through what I like to call the Furry phase. Where almost all their shows had talking animals in it with little to no humans. I guess they were trying to relive those Hanna-Barbara days you know where all their shows center on talking animals and nobody in the world questions them they just accept it as a part of everyday life. I never really got that. Okay sorry, I’m getting off topic let’s focus on My Gym Partner’s a Monkey.
The show centers around this human boy named Adam who through a misspelling of his last name gets sent to a middle school for anthropomorphic animals. There he gets partnered in gym with a spidermonkey named Jake and the two become friends. Much like Robot Jones the show has only one joke. Adam is a human boy going to a school for animals but the difference is this joke actually works. Although I have to ask why doesn’t he just transfer out of the school? Nothing seems to be stopping it should be easy just tell your parents “hey, I’m going to a school filled with wild and talking animals. Get me out of here!”. Anyway this joke works because Adam does act like a middle school boy and the animals act like normal kids as well while still keeping their animal instincts and characteristics in check. The school has popular kids, nerds, bullies, jocks, and outsiders just like an average school which is what made the show work. Adam really does stand out in the crowd more so he has a hard time fitting in which is what a lot of people going through middle school and high school have a problem with. As I said before I like how the school has a variety of different students and we get to see them all. This is something Robot Jones messed up on. We never saw how different the students were from each other. All we ever was focus on Jones and his friends and the other students either had no personalities or were just standing in the background as extras. Here, they fully show the different personalities of your school stereotypes that make you say “yeah, I know people like that in my school or I am that person in school”.
Personally, while I applaud the show for placing an emphasis on showing the many stereotypes of a normal school setting I didn’t find the main characters all that enjoyable. They were kinda bland and forgettable and I often was annoyed with the Brazilian toucan bird’s accent. I don’t know something about it just annoyed me and I also found her to be a little racist to the people of Brazil. If anything I always liked the principle. The principle was a frog who was a money pincher and was always afraid about someone suing the school so he tried everything in his powers to avoid lawsuits and save money whenever he could but at the same time he does his best to look after all the students and make sure they receive they receive a good education so that they can become good zoo animals. No, I’m serious that’s what all the animals want to become when they graduate except for Jake who wants to an underwear model even though he doesn’t wear pants.
The moral of the show was just be yourself and you’ll be alright in life. So did I like this show? No, not really. Was it a bad show? No, from what I watched there was nothing really all that bad or degrading but at the same time there was nothing really catching my interest. However, it was reported that the overall reception of the show was positive so who knows maybe there’s more to this show that I’m not seeing so while this show seems okay it’s not for me but if you watched it and liked it good for you.