In Covid Times Mike Tyson Mysteries Somehow Became My Go-To Show

 Before the pandemic shut down everything, I had watched the first two seasons of Adult Swim's Mike Tyson Mysteries.  I even bought Season 1 on DVD for like $10.  That being said it wasn't really among my favorite shows.  And yet somehow it became my go-to show as the pandemic has continued.  I think in the last year I've watched all 70 episodes at least 4 times--maybe more!

The caveat is the episodes are only 11 minutes long--including credits.  So if we do the math (70*11)/60=12.83 or roughly 13 hours to go through the whole series.  If I watch that 4 times that's 52 hours or 2 days and 4 hours.  When you spread it over a year, is that really so much?  Yeah, probably for just one show.

I don't remember when I started to watch and rewatch it.  From my Amazon purchase history I bought seasons 2 and 3 in December 2019 on Prime Video.  It wasn't until April Fool's Day of 2020 when I got season 4 on Prime Video too.  So it was probably around then I watched it for the first time.  And then somehow I watched it again and again.

I'm sure none of my Phantom Readers have even seen the show so let me tell you what it's about.  It's about former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson and three others going around in a van and solving mysteries.  The obvious way to explain it would be to say it's kind of a Scooby-Doo parody and the animation is similar.  But being on Adult Swim it's a lot more grown up with bad language and allusions to sex and genitalia and stuff like that.

And yet it's not completely lowbrow either.  The pilot episode has the team going to the house of author Cormac McCarthy to try to help him get over writer's block--or that's what they think they're there for.  But then there are a couple of twists.

Like in The Hangover, Tyson plays basically a parody of himself as a hotheaded, not-too-bright celebrity who lives in Las Vegas.  In this alternate reality he has a teenage Asian daughter named Yung Hee who was left on his doorstep when she was a baby.  The ghost of the Marquess of Queensbury (whom rules of boxing were named after or something) also lives with him as does Pigeon, who is obviously a pigeon but who was a man.

Really I tend to think the supporting characters are more fun than Tyson himself, especially Pigeon.  Pigeon (voiced by SNL alum Norm MacDonald) is a foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, drug-taking sociopath who basically does whatever he wants.  He's similar to Roger the alien in American Dad, only he doesn't get to disguise himself as human characters.  His interaction with the flaming-yet-repressed homosexual Marquess (voiced by Jim Rash of Community fame) and the straight-laced Yung makes for comedy gold. Tyson is more the catalyst for the episodes but his cluelessness makes him kind of cuddly even when he's cursing and punching people and stuff.

I wouldn't say it's a great show; in fact a lot of the episodes are kinda stupid.  But that's also what makes it rewatchable:  it's fun and stupid and you can just turn your brain off and laugh for 11 minutes.  The Chuck Mangione-esque theme song at the end is also very soothing.  In most of the credits the real Tyson will briefly appear to answer some goofy question or something that might be related to the episode.  Like an episode about a grocery store murder they ask him what he thinks a gallon of milk costs and it's probably not too far off the mark.  Because it's so short, a lot of rewatching was done when I was sorting laundry or pills in the bedroom and just wanted something quick and commercial-free on the tube so I'd put on an episode (or two) and then go back out to the living room to do other shit.

Other times I did binge watch a bunch of episodes, really when I just wanted something light and fun.  Like one night I watched this movie called Vivarium that's about a couple who get stranded in this weird subdivision and can't find their way out.  Pre-Covid it probably would have just been an OK horror movie but in the midst of the pandemic the thought of being trapped in a house was really hitting home--pun intended.  So after that I put on some Mike Tyson Mysteries to chillax and decompress a bit.  It's been helpful like that.

I'd say the first season isn't quite as good as the other three.  It's the kind of show that took a few episodes (most of that first season) to really gel.  The first four episodes involve celebrities like Cormac McCarthy, Bobby Fisher (the chess guy), Robert Redford, Elton John, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Buzz Aldrin (none of whom actually voiced themselves) but once they started getting away from that to more down-to-earth plots it got better.  I bought seasons 2-4 from Amazon Prime Video but then a little later found out that all 4 seasons had been added to Hulu, so at least for now you can watch them there--potentially with commercials if you don't pay to get rid of ads.  I'm not sure if that will move to another service like HBO Max eventually the way Robot Chicken did.

I was bummed to read the show has no plans for another season.  There was no reason given but some speculation was Tyson might be too busy.  In which case I'd say they could spin off the other characters and find some other celebrity.  Like I said, the other characters--especially Pigeon--are the ones who provide the comedy, so just have them go join some other dipshit celebrity and the formula would still work.

For now I'll just have to content myself with the 70 episodes that helped make this pandemic time slightly more bearable.  Appropriately the final episode ended with Mike inadvertently killing God; I suppose you couldn't do much better than that.