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Television series

The Brothers Grunt is an adult animated comedy television series, and the earliest series made by Ed, Edd n Eddy creator Danny Antonucci. It originally aired from August 15, 1994, to April 9, 1995, on MTV. It centers on five humanoids, named Frank, Tony, Bing, Dean and Sammy, who are in search of their lost brother Perry. The series had a short run and was met with a generally negative reception, with many considering it one of the worst animated TV shows ever made.

The series centered on an ensemble cast of pale, rubbery, twitchy, yellow eyed, blue haired, green tongued and shirtless humanoids called "The Brothers Grunt" or simply "The Grunts" with prominent bulging varicose veins, generally clumsy and dim witted, able to bend, twist and contort their bodies into various forms, all of them ostensibly male, wandering around in their signature attire of boxers and wingtip shoes. Their main food staple is cheese and martinis; nevertheless, they are able to eat other foods (at least potatoes, according to the episode "Not My Potato"). Their single parent is a large, floating, mute and fat male humanoid called Gruntus Primus Maximus or simply "The Maximus", often leaking various noxious bodily fluids, to whom they are born as embryos inside skin warts, much in the way of the common Surinam toad. They live in a monastery in an unspecified location in the American wilderness, which the sewers lead to. A group is formed, composed of five of a group of sextuplets born from the Maximus in a rare occurrence, in a quest to bring back their sixth brother, Perry, who has abandoned his involuntary position of "Chosen One" (leader of their order) and is now living the "high life" among human beings (who seem to deal with the bizarre nature of the Grunts by ignoring them and pretending everything is normal). Due to the Grunts being practically silent characters, whose speech mostly consists of grunts with occasional subtitles (hence the name), most of the humor relies on physical comedy, particularly the Grunts enduring heaps of physical abuse. In music video segments that are intervened with some episodes, supervised by Kathy Karp, there are additional animated portions of the main characters grunting.

As shown in the episode "Grunt Moments in History", Grunts' earliest known ancestor was a pale, veiny hippo like creature called the Gruntus Not Quite Us, which can be presumed to be a relative of the Gruntus Primus Maximus as it is shown birthing Grunts from its back. A prehistoric Grunt called the Neandergrunt had invented the cocktail glass using a cone shaped bone. An influential Grunt named The 5th of Kevin was born centuries later. While the others fell off the Gruntus Primus Maximus at birth, Kevin remained and lived on the body of the Maximus his whole life. He built the monastery as a safehaven to protect his fellow Grunts, including the Maximus, from human persecution. The Brothers Grunt are therefore not only religious brothers, but biological brothers as well. Not much is known about the Grunt religion other than that it involves the almost monomaniacal reverence, production and eating of cheese, as well as a variety of bizarre rituals overseen by the Gruntus Poobah. As shown in the episode "The Filling of the Shorts", the Grunts' trademark boxer shorts, invented by Brother Wayne, contain massive amounts of cheese stored in some sort of hammerspace pocket. A sporting event is held on occasion called the Grunt Games, as shown in the episode of the same name, including such sports as necktie folding, sumo, doing a clean and jerk using a giant cheese called the Great Dane before swallowing it whole, diving off the Maximus into a pool of melted cheese, throwing a giant olive into a sandwich, and a relay race involving assembling a martini.

The main characters were named after famous crooners of the 1950s: Frank (Sinatra), Tony (Bennett), Bing (Crosby), Dean (Martin), Sammy (Davis Jr.), and Perry (Como), all voiced by Doug Parker. They are sextuplets, all born from the same wart on the Maximus' skin, a rare occurrence among Grunts.

Perry – a hunchbacked Grunt who became the chosen one in the pilot episode, but escapes due to the pressure of such a title. Frank – constantly bites his lips and cares the most about finding Perry. Tony – always faces upward due to his broken neck. In the episode "Cream Style Tony" he becomes popular for speaking his first English word, "corn". Bing – the largest of the brothers. Appears the least often and might have been killed off in the episode "To Hell With Bing". Dean – smiles constantly and is the most easily distracted of the brothers. Sammy – a Grunt who puckers his lips due to his lack of teeth and is in love with a lamp.

The Detective – (Doug Parker) The series' main antagonist. A balding police detective who chases down the Grunts in a multi episode story arc after Frank was arrested for swallowing a microphone. He believes the Grunts are insane (unaware that they are not human and have a distinct society) and is often accused of being insane himself. After visiting places the Grunts had been to before in previous episodes, he finds the monastery and is invited inside. It is unknown what happened after this, but it is known he came out alive and is still investigating the Grunts. He is rarely seen without his coffee mug and occasionally wears a chicken suit. Gruntus Poobah – (Doug Parker) The leader of the brotherhood of grunt, he serves as the show's host and explains the plot before each episode. He also appears often in flashbacks and hallucinations when the grunts are in a situation, giving them advice. He is the only Grunt shown speaking perfect English. He was once a famous poet in the human world who read poems to a beatnik audience, as shown in the episode "Poobah Blues". Ringo – the Poobah's mute Middle Eastern assistant who has to carry him around on his back due to his grotesque obesity. He is the only human present in the Grunt Monastery other than formerly Vince. He also gives the Poobah massages and, as shown in the unaired episode "Black Balled Grunt", acts as his muscle. The Dıflash Queen's İgnam lamp – (Jennifer Wilson) A Turkish lamp who becomes Sammy's girlfriend and an honorary member of the Grunts' traveling party in search of Perry. The Gruntus Primus Maximus – (Doug Parker) Otherwise known simply as "The Maximus", he is a floating fat and mute giant and the male parent of the Grunts. All Grunts are born or hatched from warts on his back. The Poobah attends to him, helping him birth more Grunts and feeding him cheese. Being the single parent of the Grunts, he is also the subject of a "Yo mama" joke in the episode "Black Balled Grunt", specifically "your Maximus wears tennis shoes". The Dıflash Queen – (Jennifer Wilson) A Turkish Queen that appeared in the episode "Scrub Me Sammy". The Fifth of Kevin – (Doug Parker) The founder of the Grunt civilization who appeared in the episode "Grunt Moments in History". The Smein – (Doug Parker) A Nazi German skunk that appeared in the lost episode "Hunt for Grunts". Krischmäßante – (Doug Parker) The Smein's best friend skunk. Santa Claus (St. Nicholas or especially Kris Kringle) – (Doug Parker) An obese present bringer that appeared in the lost episode "The Grunts Who Came for Turkey". Vince – (Doug Parker) A human who was raised in the Grunt Monastery that appeared in the unaired episode "Hunt for Grunts". He showed repeated hostility towards the Grunts, even giving them tofu instead of cheese as a prank, and even attempted to lead the Grunts in a coup against the Poobah, until he was finally banished from the monastery. The characters that would become The Brothers Grunt were first seen in one of MTV's numerous 30 second promos. This particular promo consisted of close up shots of the then unnamed character's faces who seemed to be straining to do something (veins in their heads would bulge, the characters would squint and grunt) until the scene cut to the MTV logo landing in a pool of sludge followed by a satisfied "Ahhhhh" (suggesting that the characters were suffering from constipation and the MTV logo was the 'turd' as it were). It is unclear when this promo aired if the storyline and characters for The Brothers Grunt had been developed already or if it had been developed into its own show after the success of the promo, in the wake of Beavis and Butt Head.

The show's origins can be traced back to 1993 when the MTV ad "Grunt MTV" aired. At the time Danny Antonucci had animated several MTV ads to find work outside of International Rocketship Ltd., who he had worked for since 1984. Although Danny enjoyed the success of Lupo The Butcher, he wanted to leave International Rocketship Ltd. and start his own animation company. The result was a. k. a. Cartoon, which began on April 1, 1994. The studio began as a way to locate his work for The Brothers Grunt after MTV executive Abby Terkhule liked his MTV ad so much, he asked him to turn it into a television series.

The show was often compared to Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, an animated series that aired on MTV's sister channel, Nickelodeon. Gábor Csupó, co creator of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, rejected these comparisons, claiming that his show was more character driven, while The Brothers Grunt was an idea driven series, also pointing out that both shows have different visual styles. When looking back on the series, creator Danny Antonucci stated that the series "didn't really do too well", also saying that the show has since become MTV's "dirty little secret".