Whatever Happened to Robot Jones is an awesome
cartoon on
Cartoon Network. The show originated as a
cartoon short aired August 2000, in a
Cartoon Cartoon Weekend contest. Viewers were allowed to vote for which short they liked, and then, during a
Cartoon Cartoon Weekend marathon, the winner would be announced. Robot Jones came in 2nd, beating Longhair & Doubledome but losing to Billy and Mandy, who got their
own cartoon about a year later. Fortunately,
Cartoon Network decided to make Robot Jones into a show in July 2002. Robot Jones is currently aired on Friday nights at 11:00.
Whatever Happened to Robot Jones? is about a little robot, functioning at about a 6th grade level. For the first season only, he sounded exactly like the Macintosh Speech voice Junior, only slowed down a tiny bit to make him sound more mature. Starting with the second season, he now speaks with a more realistic voice provided by Bobby Block (Baby Bear in Shrek), and the old episodes are being re-dubbed with this new voice. He lives in a basic box-like house with his Dad (unit), who looks like a blue fire hydrant on wheels with a single extending arm on his head, and who often speaks short sentences 3 times, with a lower monotone voice, and his Mom (unit), who is pink with an apron, and speaks in a voice that sounds like actual female speech samples compiled together. RJ's daily mission is to collect information on humans, by going to Polyneux Middle School, and interacting in an all-human environment.
Of course, being a robot in a human school is far from easy. Most of the teachers there are offended, scared, or angered by RJ's functions, which often lands him in Principal Madman's office. Another threat are the Yogman twins, who are differently sized, wear red Devo hats, and apparently live in the school vents. They are the biggest threat to RJ, as they have already scrambled his mind by switching stickers on a Rubik's Cube to mess up his ultra-fast problem solving abilty, as well as giving him a computer virus.
RJ, does have some friends in this den full of lions. His closest friend is a tall boy called Socks, along with two others named Mitch and Cubey. RJ is deeply in love with Shannon, a girl with ridiculously-sized headgear and a prosthetic leg.
The animation isn't exactly the best out there (Courage the Cowardly Dog makes it look like crap), but it intrigues at least a few people with its striking resemblance to Schoolhouse Rock. The atmosphere of the school brings to mind what a school in the 70 or 80s was like (Rumors are spreading that the show takes place in 1983). Often electronic music like the kind you'd find in a video game is present. "VIDEO GAMES VIDEO GAMES VIDEO GAMES!" Oh yeah, like many kids, RJ LOVES video games, even though he often causes them to lock up due to his mad gaming skills.