My Gym Partner's a Monkey

My Gym Partner's a Monkey
Title card
Genre	Animated Sitcom
Created by	Julie McNally-Cahill Timothy Cahill
Written by	Tom Sheppard Mitch Larson William Reiss
Directed by	Timothy Cahill
Voices of	Nika Futterman Tom Kenny Rick Gomez Grey DeLisle Maurice LaMarche Phil LaMarr Brian Doyle-Murray Cree Summer
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	52 (Episodes) 96 (Segments) 13 (Shorts) 3 (Specials) (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Julie McNally Cahill Timothy Cahill Jeff Prezenkowkski
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Cartoon Network Studios
Broadcast
Original channel	Cartoon Network (USA) Teletoon (Canada) Go! (Australia) RTÉ Two, The Den (Ireland)
Original run	December 26, 2005 (2005-12-26) – January 15, 2010 (2010-01-15)
External links
Website

My Gym Partner's a Monkey is an American animated television series created by Timothy and Julie McNally Cahill and produced by Cartoon Network Studios. It premiered on December 26, 2005 and ended in November 27, 2008 following a marathon of its final regular-run episodes. A special aired on January 15, 2010, serving as the series finale.

Plot

The story revolves around Adam Lyon, a human. After a clerical error listed his surname as "Lion", Adam is forced to transfer from Chester Arthur Middle School to Charles Darwin Middle School, a school for local anthropomorphic zoo animals. Shortly after his transfer, he is partnered with Jake Spidermonkey in gym (hence the title). While Jake enjoys having fun at the expense of others, he quickly becomes attached to Adam. The majority of the show's humor derives from Adam's attempts to reconcile his human limitations, as well as his outsider status, with the demands of an animal-centric school and social scene.

Adam (left) and Jake (right)

Much of Charles Darwin Middle School is modeled after specific habitats. There are fish tubes created so that the fish can breathe and swim around. There are also vines and bodies of water. Some animals like Bull Sharkowski use devices to allow them to live outside of their natural habitat. In Bull's case he uses what looks like headphones full of water that go around his gills. The main characters have been able to breathe in water in the early episodes for some mysterious reason.

Charles Darwin Middle School appears to be the only animal school around, as it is later explained in the episode "Uniformity." In the episode, there are high end east coast schools for animals. Also, there is a school for plants called Creeping Broad-Leaf Sedge Middle School (CBLSMS) where Jake is sent to due to a clerical error calling him a spider plant. The school competes against human schools in athletics and other events. In one episode where Adam signs up to return to his old school for a day transfer, all the teachers and staff seem to replicate their animal counterparts.

Main Characters

Adam Lyon

Adam is an immature Belgian American 12-year old human who was transferred from Chester Arthur Middle School to Charles Darwin Middle School (CDMS) by an accidental misspelling of his last name from "Lyon" to "Lion". As the series title suggests, in gym class, Adam was paired up with Jake Spidermonkey and the two are now best friends. Jake's plans have them getting involved in situations which end up with Adam in trouble. Adam, being physically weak, is often preyed upon by the other animal students. His personality is downtrodden, due to being in an animal school and he also has a reputation of complaining about his daily experiences at the school. Adam can be selfish and strongwilled at times. Outside of school, he is often seen with a human girl named Kerry, with whom he has a secret crush. His efforts to impress her end up with Adam's embarrassment. Towards the middle of the series Adam seems to be on the borderline of sanity. Throughout the series, he has shown an extreme interest in clowns, for instance his favorite super hero is Captain Clowny, he eagerly hopes to attend a clown-based summer day-camp, and his college of choice is Clown College, as seen on his resume in the episode My Feral Lyon. Adam is voiced by Nika Futterman.

Jacob P. "Jake" Spidermonkey

Jake, as his last name implies, is an Irish-American spider monkey who quickly became Adam's best friend. He is often very possessive of Adam and hates not having him around regularly. Jake is emotional and goofy who takes to heart some of Adam's comments and actions, leading to some overly dramatic and exaggerated reactions. He can be lazy and selfish, but at the same time he is also fairly sensible. Just as well, Jake tends to display feminine tendencies quite often. A running gag in the series is his obsession with the well-being of his butt, which he made grow so large that it blocked out the sun in one episode. Along with the majority of the other animal students, Jake lives close enough to the school that he can see it from where he lives. Jake seems to be very unintelligent. An example of his unintelligence is that once he believed that there was an aquatic animal named the "mer-monkey". When he finally "found it", it was actually a fishing lure. But he just said, "Oh, well. Nobody's perfect." Jake has an older brother who looks like a taller, more stretched out version of Jake. Jake is voiced by Tom Kenny.

Windsor Gorilla

Windsor is a highly intelligent African-American lowland gorilla who serves as the anti-bully at the school and often gives confusing wisdom to people. He speaks in a soft-spoken and nearly monotonous manner, often stringing together technical words as a matter of his normal speech. When he talks, only the side of his mouth closest to the camera moves and the rest of his mouth remains closed. He is usually seen with Slips and is generally shown to be the leader of the two. Windsor tends to relate with Adam's troubles better than the rest of the school, having a good grasp of both human and animal worlds, although he occasionally gives in to his animal instincts as well. Windsor has an older brother in high school who plays for his school's football team. Windsor is voiced by Rick Gomez.

Slips Python

Slips is an easy-going, street-talking half Korean-American and half Danish-American green tree python. He is an underachiever and excessive daydreamer who's gullibility allows him to believe anything he hears, which makes him a constant source of misinformation. As a snake he has no limbs, yet wears a T-shirt. Slips has an older sister in high school who, despite being a girl, looks like an older version of Slips with a deep manly voice. He is usually seen with his best friend Windsor. Slips is voiced by Rick Gomez.

Guadalupe "Lupe" Toucan

Lupe is a female Mexican-American Keel-billed toucan, who is loud-mouthed, acerbic, dominating and materialistic, although she considers herself to be mild-tempered and low maintenance. Her best friend is Ingrid, who she dominates more than anyone else. Lupe loves popular culture, such as celebrities and fashion. She however doesn't like milk.^[1] She speaks with a somewhat exaggerated, but fake Chicano dialect and is known to have some issues involving what she sees as her overly large beak. Lupe has a big sister who's in high school. She has a boyfriend named Corey Vulture, who is seen in the episode Lupe in Love. Lupe is voiced by Grey DeLisle.

Ingrid Giraffe

A female Jewish masai giraffe, Ingrid is the tallest student in CDMS. Her towering height only adds to her feelings of insecurity as she tries desperately to blend into the background. She is often seen with her neck going up then heading down on the screen in an exaggerated hunch since it is very long and is often seen from the neck down. Lupe, Ingrid's best friend, often hushes her when she gives advice and basically runs the whole "friendship". Ingrid has a crush on Adam Lyon, of which is he is mostly unaware, or he chooses to ignore it. She's also considered to be the weakest in the group. In the episode "Sidekicked", Ingrid tries to talk street by using the phrases, "word," "word up, yo," and "plus we can be all talkin' street, and ain't no one's gonna be all up in our grills, yo," but everyone told her to stop.^[2][3] Ingrid is voiced by Grey DeLisle.

Recurring characters

Henry Armadillo

Henry is a Scots-Irish American nine-banded armadillo with a texas accent wearing large glasses (which magnify his eyes), and extrem idiot like Chip and Skip. is socially insecure and struggles making friends and is portrayed as the stereotypical. It is likely though that he may be the most unintelligent in the school.^[4] He is also a reporter in the school media.^[5][6] Voiced by Tom Kenny.

Dickie Sugarjumper

Dickie is an English sugar glider, as mentioned when he is first introduced to the series in the principal's office.^[7] with stereotypical British mannerisms. There is some controversy to his species, because of his name, yet in one episode, Mrs.Warthog said his last name was a typo. He made a successful career as a writer for the school's greatest class clowns.^[1] His notable catch phrase is "Hello! How's your trousers?"^[1][8] Voiced by Tom Kenny.

The Spiffies

A group of nerds who reside in a special class above the rest of the school and take great pride in the spelling bee. Because of this, they hold a grudge against Adam who once cost them their victory during his brief tenure in their class. the Spiffies are led by Phineas Porpoise (Phil LaMarr), a African-American bottlenose dolphin with a nasalie voice who despises Adam and loves winning, be it the bee or by cheating at carnival games. the Spiffies seem to be a kind of mafioso group within CDMS often offering kids help with various problems in exchange for mysterious favors later down the road. Aloysius Elephant (Grey DeLisle) a Polish-American elephant, Nestor Parrot (Phil LaMarr) a Chinese-American green parrot , the German-American pig, Marvin Hammy (Tom Kenny), and Daniel Calamari (Rick Gomez) the Puerto Rican giant squid.

The Cuddlemuffins

Are a group who make scams of petting, stomach rubs, and hugs for Food Pellets. One's a French-American Goat (Rick Gomez), another is an African-American Sheep (Nika Futterman) and the last one is a Native-American Mustang or a wild horse (Grey DeLisle). They, Slips, Jake and Winsor had their fur shaven except for the fact that Slips has scales, and then nobody petted, tummy rubbed and hugged the Cuddlemuffins.

Endugu Elephant

A Congolese American elephant that resides as a student in Charles Darwin Middle School. Endugu is very large for a student of CDMS, being taller than Mr. Hornbill and Mrs. Tusk, though not as tall as Ingrid. Principal Pixiefrog once used his name as a fat joke, saying "Hey Endugu, eat much?".^[9] He is sometimes seen as a bully like Bull, but at times seems to be a normal student. He is voiced by Phil LaMarr sounding like Hermes Conrad from Futurama.

Margaret Rhino

A Norwegian-American Sumatran Rhino who is a friend of Latanya Hippo, who is African-American and Joanie Ox, who is Laotian American. Although her species is the rarest of the rhinos, Mr. Hornbill told Jake and Adam that the Vienamese Rhinoceros (not real) was the rarest. She is voiced by Nika Futterman. Latanya and Joanie are voiced by Cree Summer and Grey DeLisle.

Kerry Anderson

An Indonesian American and African-American girl with dark hair, a pink shirt and blue jeans. She's one of Adam's friends from his old school before he was mistakenly transferred. Adam has a crush on her, although his plans to impress her mostly end in vain because of Jake's animal friends. She was also in the Chester Arthur Cheerleading Squad (the Peppy Pep Girls).^[10] Voiced by Cree Summer.

James Ant

An Italian-American red ant who is best friends with Henry and often gets crushed or hurt by other students or stuff at CDMS. Voiced by Rick Gomez.

Faculty

Principal Poncherello Pegone Pixiefrog

CDMS principal, as his last name implies, is a Scottish-American Pixie Frog. As a strict but fair administrator he runs a tight ship, which is somewhat remarkable considering he could easily be squashed underfoot by most of his students and the rest of the faculty, for instance when he was forced to watch the cheerleading practice, he ended up being crushed under LaTanya Hippo's foot with the weight of the entire team. Principal Pixiefrog always dodges lawsuits, is terrified of lawyers and is scared when anyone in the school could get sued (He is shown to have Liticaphobia). He talks simaliar to Whidnsor only moving part of is mouth but is voice is much louder.Adam always asks him if anything bothers him, this frog principal will always help him to see. It is also revealed that Principal Pixiefrog has a mother who bothers him.^[11] He once had a girlfriend named Lenore (This was a reference to Edgar Allan Poe's poem, "The Raven").^[12] After Principal Pixiefrog screamed "LENORE!", a raven flew and smacked into his window. He won the Principal of the Year award.^[13] Eventually, he was stripped of it due to a dispute and the title was offered to Principal Wolverine, a principal who temporarily replaced him once.^[14] Voiced by Maurice LaMarche.

Mrs. Geraldine Sharon Warthog

Principal Pixiefrog's assistant; she does all of the filing and is, obviously, a German-American warthog. Ironically, she never works. In The Big Field Trip, Mrs. Warthog was the bus driver. Completely fed up with her job and her employer, she always has an air of complete exasperation about her. Her voice is identical to that of Nurse Gazelle. In That Darn Platypus, it is revealed that she spends most of her time playing computer solitaire and gets very agitated when she is unable to play. It is shown in Little Mermonkey that she enjoys fishing, since it's "hardly work". Portrayed by Grey DeLisle.

Mr. Maurice "Bob" Mandrill

An African-American mandrill who is the school's spiritual guidance counselor, the band director (being an expert on bongo drums) and an advisor to the student court. A stereotypical portrayal of "touchy-feely" guidance counselors, an aged hippy and ex-hobo. Voiced by Maurice LaMarche.

Mr. Cyrus Q. Hornbill

Adam and Jake's homeroom teacher, a Vietnamese-American Indian Rhinoceros, who also teaches math, science, geography, feeding frenzy, and stalking. As his last name implies, he is a rhinoceros, and a hornbill is a kind of bird. He appears to have a crush on the cafeteria lady, Mrs. Eugenia Tusk.^[15] He is the weakest of the teachers, who got beat up by Principal Pixiefrog in wrestling,^[15] and couldn't drive away a taunting bird named Ted who decided to stand on Cyrus' horn.^[9] Voiced by Maurice LaMarche.

Mr. Blowhole

An Ecuadorian American orca who is Spiffies homeroom teacher. He teaches students about spelling to win a Spelling Bee. Like the Spiffies themselves, he also wears glasses. A sound of a whale song echos after his voice. Voiced by Maurice LaMarche.

Miss Chameleon

A Moroccan American female chameleon drama instructor. As expected from a drama teacher, she is a drama queen, who speaks melodramatically and will often have stereotypical horror music playing when on-scene. She can blend into her surroundings and turn invisible. She holds class while perched on a twig located under a warming lamp. She is also Muslim. Voiced by Nika Futterman.

Coach Tiffany Gills

A female Russian-American goldfish; Coach Gills is the school's tiny, deep-voiced PE and health teacher who instructs her students from inside her fishbowl. Though she looks rather sweet, she's no pushover. She never hesitates to give Adam a hard time if he doesn't perform as well as his fellow students. In Le Switcheroo, she and Adam trade roles for a day. After experiencing some trouble, they at last reconciled. She has mentioned several times in the series that she has no friends. She once had a crush on Mr. Cheetah, an athletic individual who plans to succeed her and Principal Pixiefrog in their careers. Ironically, though she is a fish, she apparently cannot swim.^[16] She is voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray.

Vice-Coach Horace Ferret

Coach Gills' Ojibwe ferret assistant, who rarely smiles and never talks due to being mute. He has a "strictly professional relationship" with Coach Gills, in which he pushes her fishbowl around. He is also seen helping out with things such as smelling out students trying to get out of showering. However he does talk (and complain about his voice) in the special episode, Animal School Musical. He is voiced by Tom Kenny.

Mrs. Eugenia Tusk

CDMS's lunch lady, a female Jamaican-American elephant who speaks with a Jamaican accent, despite being African. She is a greedy person, who cares more about making money than she does for the students whom she serves. Sample cuisine at CDMS includes dirtnuts, dirt tarts, grass sandwiches, peanut burritos, twigs n' berries, mud squares, bug soups and wormy joes. She is a married elephant (which she had to point out to Mr. Hornbill when he revealed his crush on her), though her husband has not yet appeared on-screen. She also appears to dislike Adam for some reason. Voiced by Cree Summer.

Nurse Jacqueline Gazelle

A Danish-American gazelle who serves as the school nurse of CDMS. She has blond hair and blue eyes. She also has a brain the size of a soy nut (she mentions they're really tiny and dry) and that she can't tell between a mirror's reflection and the animal looking into the mirror or the difference between two slightly similar but not identical animals.^[17] Surprisingly, when Adam and Jake created nasty clones of themselves, she was able to differentiate them just before Principal Pixiefrog, who was with her, did.^[18] She's also a cosmetologist.^[16] voiced by Grey DeLisle.

Ms. Gretchen Loon

A female Norwegian-American and Swedish-American Blue Jay who teaches the students of CDMS about art, English, and creative writing. Like Mr. Hornbill, she has a last name of another animal, despite not being a loon. Ms. Loon, being an animal and not understanding human art, believes that human art is bland and boring, and that tearing up paper and drawing random shapes and objects is real art.^[19] Voiced by Cree Summer.

Ms. Bear

An African-American bear who teaches the students at CDMS how to hibernate. She is mostly seen in her cave. Voiced by Tom Kenny.

Villains

Virgil "Bull" Sharkowski

The school's bully, Virgil "Bull" Sharkowski is an African-American bull shark who enjoys beating up smaller kids and stealing their lunches. His intimidating presence, however, is offset by a high-pitched, squeaky voice that sometimes lessens the impact of his verbal threats. Despite being a bully, he also has a soft humane side that he doesn't usually realize he's revealing. Due to Bull being a water creature, he wears water-filled headphones over his gills to help him breathe; when he talks, he'll stop as his gills suck up the water with a loud noise. His nickname is a mildly obscure reference to the fact that bull sharks are known to be the most aggressive of all shark species. Bull has a big sister, Euripedes, who graduated CDMS prior to the beginning of the show and left a lasting impression in the school; a fact that has caused Bull to develop an inferiority complex at the mere mention of her name (despite the fact she is not only half Bull's size, but bullies via feminine taunts instead of physical abuse). Both Bull and Euripedes are voiced by Phil LaMarr.

Chad

Chad is a mature German-American hall monitor from Adam's old school, Chester Arthur Middle School. He hates Adam, cause of his immarturity. Voiced by Tom Kenny.

Fake Possum Girl

The biggest fan for Adam who pretended to be raised by possums so she could be with Adam forever. She ended up getting arrested at the end. She is Swedish-American. Voiced by Sarah Hagan.

Larry Raccoon

A Chinese-American raccoon who was the only student to be expelled from Charles Darwin Middle School. As he stated, he just wanted a quality education but chose the delinquent path instead.

Voice Actors

• Brian Doyle-Murray
• Grey DeLisle
• Rick Gomez
• Nika Futterman
• Tom Kenny
• Maurice LaMarche

DVDs

Two DVD volumes of the series have been released in Australia, the first on April 4, 2007 and the second on January 23, 2008. As of January 2010, there have been no further volumes released.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Yesterday's Funny Monkey
2. ^ Save The Drama For Your Llama
3. ^ Ingrid Through The Door
4. ^ Making the Grade
5. ^ Poop Scoop
6. ^ Law and Odor
7. ^ The Ivy League
8. ^ That Darn Platypus
9. ^ ^{a b} Hornbill and Ted's Bogus Journey
10. ^ Cheer Pressure
11. ^ Basic Jake
12. ^ Gorilla My Dreams
13. ^ Pride and the Pixiefrog
14. ^ Leaf of Absence
15. ^ ^{a b} Two Tons of Fun
16. ^ ^{a b} An Inconvenient Goof
17. ^ Innocuation Day
18. ^ The Two Jakes
19. ^ Guano in 60 Seconds

External links

• Official website
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey at the Internet Movie Database
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey at TV.com