TripTank is an American adult animated sketch comedy television series which premiered April 2, 2014 on Comedy Central. The show is made up of various sketches, portrayed by multiple animation styles created by many different animators and writers. Although no direct correlation exists between the different stories, a continued theme of dark satire prevails throughout.
Voicing talent includes Carlos Alazraqui, Bill Oakley, Wayne Brady, Bob Odenkirk, Curtis Armstrong, Nat Faxon, Tom Kenny, Aries Spears, Rachel Butera, Larry David, Yotam Perel, Rob Yulfo, Zach Galifianakis, Kumail Nanjiani, Brett Gelman, Kyle Kinane, John DiMaggio, Duncan Trussell, Joey Diaz, Niecy Nash, among others.
On July 18, 2016, the series was cancelled after two seasons.
Contents
Recurring sketches
Several sketch characters and scenarios recur within the series sometimes interspersed throughout the same episode or only once per episode.
These include:
TripTank Reception – A show starring receptionist Ben (Ben Wolfinsohn) in season 1, and Ben's replacement Steve (Jonah Ray) in season two, and the janitor Roy W. Winchester (Eric Magnussen) who sulks around the lobby. The scenes are normally of Ben or Steven receiving calls from random people who watched the show, either to praise the show or express distaste for the content. After listening, Steve puts the caller on hold while he "transfers them to that department." There are also segments where Roy talks Steve into doing things that he normally wouldn't by himself.
Versus – A show hosted by Death, in which two groups of unfairly matched combatants are pitted against each other in a fight to the death.
Jeff & Some Aliens – A trio of aliens (all voiced by Alessandro Minoli) come to Earth and invade the personal space of Jeff (Brett Gelman), who they consider to be the most average man on earth. It is later revealed that their analysis on Jeff is part of their mission to judge humanity to see if it is worthy of survival or extermination by the aliens' overlords. These series of sketches would later spawn a separate spin-off series of half-hour episodes, which premiered on January 11, 2017.
Suicidal Attention Whore Chicken – A chicken (Tom Kenny) gets people to do whatever he wants by making suicide threats. He publicly threatens to commit suicide for many reasons that range from gaining publicity, to making himself happier, to just downright pissing people off.
Dick Genie – A show about a nerdy teenage boy named Billy (Yuri Lowenthal) who has a magical Dick Genie (Kumail Nanjiani) that he is able to summon by masturbating. Dick Genie grants all of Billy's wishes based upon his perverted sexual fantasies. However, when he does this, his wishes always backfire on him and it's not always easy for him to undo his wish.
Suck It Gary! – Three guys (Dana Snyder, Andy Sipes, Matt Mariska) go out of their way and do horrible things to pull "friendly" pranks on a guy named Gary (Paul Reiser). Despite Gary being nice to them, the three guys hate him to the point they blame him for their misfortunes and basically attempt to ruin his life so they can tell him to "Suck it."
4:20 – Normally short, even by the show's standards, it shows various people going through seemingly serious situations until they are asked what time it is. A three-eyed hippie (Felix Colgrave) answers with "4:20", to which the other characters respond "Nice!" and proceed to get high on cannabis.
Bethiffer – A series of sketches about an fat, selfish teenage girl, Bethany (Nick Swardson), and her friend Jennifer, whom she bullies (Ashley Fink), who have misadventures in a shopping mall.
Flower Teen Kill Team Go! – A series of sketches with an anime style about a team of four Japanese girls who are also hitmen consisting of Sada (Tammy Nishimura), Nari (Miley Yamamoto), Michiko (Niki Yang) and Rin (not voiced) who were sent to Tamaulipas to take over the local drug cartels under the guise of transfer students. They also deal with the usual struggles of high school including driver's education and dating.
Ricky the Rocketship – A series of sketches about an anthropomorphic rocket named Ricky (Tom Kenny) whose attempts to help children with their problems ends with him unintentionally killing them and other people.
Jerk Chicken – A chicken (Dana Snyder) provokes people with his annoying personality and insults.
Animal Hitman – A series of sketches of a man in a suit walking up in the rain, then shooting various animals. The sketches always end with a cheesy one-liner from the hitman.
Gusto Rules – An egg leader named Gusto (Dana Snyder) gives speeches to his fellow egg citizens.
The Last Dead Unicorn – A unicorn gets killed in various violent ways, à la Happy Tree Friends.
Episodes
Reception
The first two episodes of TripTank were met with very mixed reviews, as The A.V. Club stated: "TripTank is a mixed bag by default. If the good stuff doesn't stick around long enough, the silver lining is that the stinkers and the duds don't last much longer".
General feeling among reviewers was of much the same mind, with some reviewers calling the show "rude and irreverent", while some noted that the better quality sketches were enough to overcome the failure of the negative sketches, and compared the show to Liquid Television.