Musician Cameos in Cartoons
This blog came about whenever AvaLynn started singing to a couple Dragon Ball Z montage videos on YouTube. It just so happened that they were to Fall Out Boy. Ava also loves the show Teen Titans, our love for superheroes brings us closer together, and it's awesome to find something even at the age of five that she likes and can hopefully hold onto.
I remembered seeing a Teen Titans episode with FOB in it, so I tried showing her, she goes "Dad, those guys don't look like Goku and Piccolo, that isn't that band."
She just didn't get it. So I had to find a live version of the song. Gold fish attention span. She went back to her DBZ montage videos, I started jotting down notes, and here we are.
While I can go on with shows like South Park, Family Guy and The Simpsons with each celebrity appearance that poked fun or brought on a few second cameo I'm going to base this list on bands and musicians who actually leant their voices to make the episode happen.
This list is dedicated to the artists that made the episodes awesome by putting their stardom and ego aside for a moment and remembered what it was like to be kids again. Let's get started.
First I've gotta talk about some of the most random cameos in cartoons that you would never expect if they weren't pointed out. Like in SpongeBob SquarePants SquarePantis the late great David Bowie leant his voice as Lord Royal Highness. You would never expect someone as awesome as Bowie to sport his voice to the iconic TV episode. He can be remembered in the episode as the king who loves art that has two different colored eyes, check out this montage video.
Now that was just a one off episode but how about a funk/punk rocker that used his voice for an entire series? I'm talking about Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That's right, from 1998 to 2004 the better known bassist voiced the ferrel boy Donnie from the Nickelodeon show The Wild Thornberrys. Now it's not saying that he had many lines, being as Donnie talked liked a hopped up Smeagol on meth.
Check out this couple second clip of FLEA recording his "lines" (about 0:39 sec. in.)
Now to stick with the current theme of characters voices rather than bands let's move to one of my favorite fucking shows on Adult Swim that I wish would come back on air and/or needs a movie made. With countless hip-hop cameos and stereotype undertones that are both mildly offensive yet funny as hell that push the stigma but keep you laughing, the Adult Swim show
The Boondocks pushed the envelope with stereotype and scenario with pop culture and current events casting actors, athletes and musician cameos alike as well as a primarily African American cast. Regardless of its supposed offensiveness (fucking hate that bullshit word) you can't argue that the show is awesome, unless you fucking suck as a person.
There are too many cameos to list, so here's a montage video of the shows cameos including: Busta Rhymes, Ceelo, Ghostface Killah, Most Def, Carl Jones, Lil Wayne and MORE!
Now I'm just getting foot deep into this list. Next up is a show that I've talked about in a blog about live action movies. THEY NEED A LIVE ACTION MOVIE. EVEN YEARS LATER. STOP MAKING REBOOTS!
I'm talking about another Nickelodeon TV show. One I must say that I wasn't too keen on at first, because I felt that it rode the coat tails of its successor Fairly Odd Parents. That's right, Danny Phantom. How awesome would a Danny Phantom Movie be?
So who's in Danny Phantom? Well NSYNC's own Chris Kirkpatrick that's who.
He not only had lines, but he sang some songs too. Some semi-annoying ones that had you humming them for the rest of the day. Like Icky Vicky. Or Shiny Teeth & Me. Ava hates when I sing this to her. (It's a good one when they don't brush their fucking teeth. YouTube has a 1 hour loop. Put that shit on and watch them squirm.) 10 hour loop VIDEO
While we're still on the boy band train, let's talk about The Backstreet Boys. During their hay day, which I consider their Millenium years, the 5 piece took their time to sing and drop lines on the PBS kids show Arthur targeted for a very young audience rather than their teenie bopper fan base. A super cool move in my opinion.
It's always awesome to see artists trying to gather a broader audience, rather than hold their selves in one age group.
Let's talk about My Little Pony. Ya I went there. I've got to admit the writer's of MLP got their shit down. They draw you in with quality episodes and five shows in you're like "wow, this is awes....shit I love cartoon horses that save each other from dark forces and learn lessons about friendship." The way that they do it is fucking brilliant though. I honestly wish that more cartoons were like this, because parents would watch them more with their kids. I can without a doubt say that MOST cartoons are straight garbage while MLP draw you in and over a season later (yeah a SEASON I SAID IT FUCK YOU!) they'll reference something and you'll go "oh that thing." But if you miss it, it doesn't matter.
ANYWAYS. With all that paragraph bullshit said. Here's someone who put their quirky talents to use with song and voice, you can't miss him by his curly brown hair and accordion Cutie Mark, voicing Cheese Sandwich, is Weird Al Yankovic.
Back when MTV was awesome, had quality shows and actually played music there was a show called Clone High which only aired one season which was about a bunch of high school kids that were the clone offspring of famous historical figures like Ghandi and JFK. One episode in particular had people at the time shocked at one of the most iconic shock rockers agreement to voice the show. That is Marilyn Manson.
Manson's been known for a lot of things, but a show on MTV is far from one of them much less a cartoon where he portrays an American Idol style judge who then sings a song and dance number about the food pyramid.
Check it out here.
Another pretty solid MTV show which I remember being on back to back with Clone High was a show called Undergrads. Good Charlotte leant their song The Clique and their likenesses to the show which like Clone High got canned after only 1 season.
When you think of partying you think of one person. Andrew W.K. He managed to be awesome in this guest spot on the show Uncle Grandpa on Cartoon Network.
For creators of Futurma to decide which celebrities, musicians, athletes are going to stand the test of time is a large fete especially for thousands of years. To obtain this honor is no simple task, however to actually get on the show must be awesome too, and it was for fans watching none other than The Beastie Boys performing and talking as floating heads in the year 3000.
South Park has been known to make fun of, well, everyone. But sometimes they can be really cool. As such they've done when lead singer and guitarist of band The Cure was brought on to cameo where he turned into a giant moth and fought a Barbra Streisand robotic dinosaur.
Check it out! (Sorry for the watermark.)
The Simpsons are yet another show that can poke fun but have awesome cameos at time. From Lady Gaga, to George Harrison, I'm going to jump to two of my favorites which have o be of course, blink-182 in the episode "Barting Over". Also starring Tony Hawk.
Although some of the lines got cut, it's still cool to see the guys on the show especially knowing that Hoppus has been such a huge fan for years. (He has a book shelf of action figures from the show.)
My next has to most definitely be Green Day. I mean fuck, when the Simpsons Movie came out, they were not only in the opening scene where the town riots and kills them but they also re-recorded the theme song to the show. SIMPSONS THEME SONG.
Last but not least let's go back to that Teen Titans Go! episode with Fall Out Boy. The quartet from Chicago are met in the episode helping out the superheroes doing what they do best, making music. Not only do they have a part in the episode but there is a Cartoon Network- Teen Titans Go! music video featuring Fall Out Boy, and the Teen Titans called "The Night Begins to Shine."
Clip from episode
Music Video
I know that there are many more movies, cartoons, bands and artists but these are just some of my favorites.
What are your favorites?
Are there any that I missed?
Leave them in the comments!
As always:
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-TPPD
