Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. It’s Animation Bang time! When it comes to religion in the media, particularly comedy shows, writers and actors have to be careful about what they say and do as one slip up is enough to piss off people of said religion and get you in a lot of trouble. Take South Park for example. In the two-part episode Superfriend, Matt and Trey teased the idea that they were going to show Muhammad on their show and all Hell broke loose. People of the Muslim faith were pissed, terroristic threats were made against Matt and Trey, and even Comedy Central bent the knee and forced the show to censor out the name Muhammad and even banned the episode from airing ever again. Usually, most times out of 10 it’s Christianity that’s the butt of religious jokes in the media. I’ve made it no secret in my blogs that I’m a Christian and I really don’t mind a good Christianity joke. I’m a very tolerant guy, Duckman’s speech about comedy is something I take to heart (scene here: https://youtu.be/knIroVvPZU4), and my philosophy on comedy is similar to Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s philosophy. There is some sense of humor in everything. If you watch any adult cartoons out there, I’m sure you’ll find a slew of Christianity jokes, but every once in a while you come across one that not only respects Christianity but is also funny, whole-hearted, and smart. That show is called God, The Devil, and Bob. God, The Devil, and Bob was a show created by Matthew Carlson a man best known for his writing on Malcom in the Middle and The Wonder Years. The show came out in 2000 on NBC where it only lasted for 4 weeks due to low ratings and other reasons that we’ll talk about later. However, in 2011, Adult Swim began airing the show where all episodes were shown entirely for everyone to see. While the show didn’t perform well in the U.S, it was received well in places like the UK, Latin America, and even the Philippines. In all honesty this is one of my favorite adult cartoons. It knew what is, what it wanted to do, how to do it, and did it perfectly. Let’s take a look at this show and see how good it was. This is my review of God, The Devil, and Bob.
The Plot
So the plot of the show is that God wants to wipe out humanity and restart the world but since God isn’t that kind of god who wipes out the world, he decides to have the Devil pick one human to show him that there’s still good in the world. The Devil chooses Bob Allman, an auto plant worker from Detroit who at the end of the first episode is able to show God that there’s still good in the world by just talking to his daughter and making her feel better about herself. After saving humanity, Bob finds himself becoming God’s “go-to-guy” whenever he has ideas to help out the world with the Devil being there to corrupt Bob.
The Main Characters
Bob Allman voiced by French Stewart
He’s the everyday blue-collar worker. He likes beer, porn, sports, and is under-educated. At his core he is a good man who loves his family, goes to great lengths for them, and despite failing numerous times always manages to pull through for God.
God voiced by James Garner
The creator of the universe. In the show he has a laid-back personality and has an appearance that’s visually similar to Jerry Garcia from the band The Grateful Dead. He’s normally invisible to everyone aside from Bob and children 12 and under. He’s friendly and patient with Bob often choosing not to give him the answer but instead drop hints and breadcrumbs for Bob to come to the answer himself. He also seems to have a good friendship with the Devil as the two are often seen chatting and hanging out with each other throughout the show.
The Devil voiced by Alan Cumming
Also known as Lucifer, The Devil is the main antagonist of the show who often tries to get Bob to stray from God’s path only to fail in the end and his actions only come across as a minor inconvenience. He has a neurotic personality often coming across as needy and co-dependent on his relationship with God. Originally, Robert Downey Jr. was casted as The Devil, but due to a relapse into drug addiction was forced to pull out and Alan Cumming was casted instead.
Minor Characters
Donna Allman voiced by Laurie Metcalf
Bob’s loving wife and mother of two. She doesn’t believe Bob’s claims about working for God and attends college part time.
Megan Allman voiced by Nancy Cartwright
Bob’s teenage daughter. While not focused on all that much, she’s your typical teenage girl. Unruly, stubborn, rebellious, confused, and a bit of hypocrite.
Andy Allman voiced by Kath Soucie
Bob’s 6-year old son who next to Bob is the only one who can see God. He’s a good-natured boy who looks up to Bob and is the only one who believes Bob’s story about God.
Smeck voiced by Jeff Doucette
The Devil’s loyal henchman. He supplies the slapstick comedy in the show with each episode and they get it out of him in a fun and unique way.
Episodes
The show only had 13 episodes. As I said before the first 4 episodes were shown on NBC before the show was cancelled. The episodes would later be aired on Adult Swim almost 11 years after it’s cancellation. Each episode was a self-contained story revolving around Bob trying to do God’s work or just going through life with God and The Devil intervening. The show truly shined when it came to it’s writing and even having a few clever jokes here and there.
I have 3 episodes that I feel were the best of this series. The first one is “The Devil’s Birthday”. After God forgets Lucifer’s birthday, Lucifer decides to return to Hell and he takes all the world’s evil with him leaving nothing but good in the world. At first, Bob and God don’t really care but they start to see the problems with no evil in the world. For Bob, with no evil in the world that means things that are considered evil are no more (that means no alcohol, porn, or conflicts and everyone is always happy). For God, it’s the spiritual growth of humanity. Without evil in the world there’s no point in being good and thus people will stop growing spiritually. People need to grapple with good and evil in order for their decisions to have weight (or as God puts it, it’s like when the Houston Rockets beat the Chicago Bulls for the championship when Jordan went to play baseball. Who cares?). God sends Bob to Hell to retrieve The Devil where he sees that Martha Stewart has taken over. Bob arranges for God and Lucifer to have a party at his house where he helps the two sort out their issues with each other and restore the world (scene here: https://youtu.be/40mHRRftjhg).
The next episode that I like is “Lonely at the Top”. Out of the three this is probably the weakest one of the bunch. In the episode God wants to live the life of an average person. So he leaves his divine powers in Heaven, gets a job working at Bob’s auto plant, and even joins Bob’s baseball team. It’s an interesting episode where God opens up to Bob about being lonely and how he too wishes to have a friend that he just hang out with and have fun all while enjoying a drink. As God lives the life of a normal person, we see Lucifer wreak havoc as he is now unsupervised only to find it pointless. This once again ties into the theory of good and evil as I talked about in the last paragraph. Lucifer describes his predicament as a game of chess, God makes the first move and Lucifer responds to it. This is all implying that Lucifer simply plots against God out of habit and a constant need for attention. If God’s not making a move than there’s no point for the Devil to make a move either because he has nothing to respond to.
The final episode that I like is hands down the best episode in the series. The episode is called “Bob’s Father”. In the episode, Bob flies out to Arizona to be with his dad on his deathbed. Despite not having a good relationship with his dad, Bob still goes to be with him. We get a short scene between the two where they quickly establish their relationship. Bob’s dad was one of these people who was never satisfied and belittled Bob at every possible chance he got. Nothing that Bob did was ever good enough in his eyes. When Bob finally hears enough, he tells his dad to go to hell right before he dies. Feeling bad about what he said, he tries to talk to his dad one last time. Believing that his dad is in Hell, Bob gets Lucifer to send him to Hell to look for him only to discover that his dad is in Heaven. Bob is of course pissed about this. While he doesn’t want his dad to suffer, he doesn’t think he deserves to go to Heaven for how bad he treated Bob. Near the end of the episode, God finally talks to Bob where we get hands down the best dialog in the whole show. God acknowledges that what Bob’s dad did to him was wrong and that he has every right to be mad at him. However, Bob’s dad wasn’t as bad as his dad’s dad. God finishes up the conversation by talking about this long line of dads that starts with Adam and goes to Andy. Each dad is passing a punch to the next guy and the trick is to pass on a softer punch and that’s what Bob’s dad did. He passed on a softer punch. Bob is a good dad to Megan and Andy because he knows how a bad dad can impact a person’s life and when it’s time for Bob to pass his punch onto Andy, it’ll be even softer than the punch he received. The episode wraps with Bob getting the chance to talk to his dad one last time.
Themes and Controversy
There really weren’t that many themes throughout the show. The show just had stories with simple lessons to make you a better person in one way or another. The show never got preachy with its lessons. It presented them and then had the viewers decide what they wanted to take away from it. Sadly, a majority of the people who watched the show came away offended than they did enlightened and entertained. While it’s true the show did have low ratings during it’s initial run on NBC (while the show had it’s funny moments it was trying to be more smart than funny) the major reason why the show got cancelled was because a lot of Christian groups were offended by the shows representation of God. They felt that God was too human and flawed in the show to which I say, so what? I personally did like this representation of God. He was kind, patient, a jokester, a good listener, and still wise. They presented him as a guy you wouldn’t mind having a drink with and just hanging out with. Compared to a majority of the representations of God I’ve seen in the media this one was the one I found to be the least offensive. As far as flawed go it was kind of necessary for the show to work. If they presented God as this perfect being then each episode would have ended in a deus ex machina with God coming in and resolving everything which in my opinion isn’t how the world works. If God came in and resolved all of our problems than we as people would become lazy and do nothing to better our lives. Futurama covered this idea excellently in an episode where Bender gets lost in space, becomes a god, and even meets an all-knowing entity he believes is God (scene here: https://youtu.be/ObbVO3A3BvA).
Does this count as Amerime
No. This is pure hand-drawn American-style animation from the early 2000s.
Does it deserve another season
Yes! I really did enjoy this show. While I found the show smarter than I did funny, I really did like the direction of the show and its characters. Everyone was relatable and the writing was meaningful and top notch. The while the writing wasn’t on the same level as say Duckman, The Critic, and the early Simpsons, it was smart and clever writing. Was I offended by this show? No. I thought it shined a positive light on those who believed in Christianity. I’ve even seen people who were agnostic and atheist admit that they found the show enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Final Thoughts
God, The Devil, and Bob was an underrated show that just didn’t get the attention it deserved. It was smart and witty instead of your standard laugh out loud sitcom. It was a show that came out ahead of it’s time. Would the show had done better now than when it first originally aired? Maybe, it’s hard to say. With puritans and SJWs out there who get easily offended by every little thing I’m sure this would have been pulled off the air for no apparent reason. However, with shows like Bojack Horseman being a big hit I’m sure the show would have found its audience and even now people are saying how good the show was. If it did a better job at blending in the comedy with the smart and clever writing and upgraded the animation than this show would have been a big hit in today’s world. I could totally see this being a Netflix series.
Final Score
The final score for God, The Devil, and Bob is a 7.5/10. A very good show that’s still one of my favorite adult cartoons out there. If you get a chance see if you can track this show down and watch the episodes. You won’t be disappointed. You can find some clips of the show on Youtube. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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