Code Monkeys

Code Monkeys
Code Monkeys title card; main characters from left to right: Black Steve, Dave, Todd, Clare, Jerry, Mary, Mr. Larrity, Dean and Benny.
Genre	Animation Black Comedy
Created by	Adam de la Peña
Voices of	Adam de la Peña Matt Mariska Andy Sipes Dana Snyder Tony Strickland Gretchen McNeil Suzanne Keilly Lionel Tubbins
Opening theme	"Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton
Composer(s)	Jon and Al Kaplan
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Adam de la Peña
Producer(s)	Jennifer Saxon Gore Tony Strickland
Running time	Approx. 22 minutes
Release
Original network	G4
Audio format	320 kbit/s
Original release	July 11, 2007 – August 17, 2008
External links
Website

Code Monkeys is an American animated television program by Adam de la Peña. Set in the early 1980s, it follows the adventures of fictional video game company GameaVision.

The show first aired on July 11, 2007. Two seasons have aired on G4 and G4 Canada. In September 2008, the show began airing on the Teletoon Detour block on Teletoon in Canada.

While G4 was vague on the future of the show after the end of the second season, it was announced in May 2009 that the show would not be renewed for a third season.

The plot of Code Monkeys revolves around the fictitious video game company GameaVision (a play on companies like Activision and Intellivision) and its eccentric employees, mainly the slacker Dave and his high-strung friend Jerry. The entire series takes place in the Silicon Valley city of Sunnyvale, California during the 1980s. Code Monkeys relies on crude humor and stoner comedy to convey the numerous references to video games, past and present, but mostly games from the 8-bit era. This also extends to cameos from well known video game developers, who appear in the show pitching their ideas to GameaVision for the games that would later make them famous, usually to be rejected, insulted, and sometimes injured or killed off.

Code Monkeys is presented as though it were an 8-bit video game. In keeping with this format, characters, backgrounds and other objects are rendered with an 8-bit color palette, occasionally leading to trouble animating specific objects. Most episodes begin with a screen flashing "PLAYER 1 START!"; episodes end with a black "Game Over" screen, with a "kill screen" appearing after the production company logo in the first season. Before each commercial break, a small pause box typically appears in the middle of the screen which freezes the scene. On the two occasions when Jerry "died", a "Game Over/Continue?" box appears, with the "player" contemplating selecting "No", but then choosing "Yes" to continue the episode. Near the end of "Todd Loses His Mind", the episode "crashes" abruptly, forcing the "player" to eject the "game cartridge" to blow dust off its connectors, and the episode is reset to its beginning, thus negating everything that happened in the episode. The show also features status bars at the top and bottom of the frame, which display a running counter of points earned by the characters doing video game-like actions in each episode, a health meter for the current characters, narrative asides based on certain characters' actions or dialogue, and other humorous sayings or pictures based on an episode's story line. Characters also use similar methods to show emotions, such as air humping (usually to exaggerate sexuality or awesomeness), or throwing up the sign of the horns. The show is entirely computer animated, with the exception of the "game crash" scene in "Todd Loses His Mind", and is done in-house at the G4 studios in Los Angeles. The original music for the show, video game-styled underscore, is composed by Jon and Al Kaplan. Other music prominently featured in the series includes music by Los Angeles heavy metal group Tinhorn. Jonathan Coulton's song "Code Monkey" serves as the theme song of the show.