Stripperella

Stripperella (also referred to as Stan Lee's Stripperella) is an American adult animated superhero comedy television series created by Stan Lee for Spike TV. The lead character is a stripper named Erotica Jones who is secretly the superhero/secret agent Stripperella. The series was produced by The Firm and Spike Animation, with CGI animation provided by Nickelodeon Digital. It is rated TV-MA in the United States.

Stripperella debuted on Spike TV in summer 2003 and lasted one season with 13 episodes. Anderson described it as not being a raunchy show, despite obvious double entendres and topless nudity (which was blurred out when shown on Spike TV).

In Australia, Stripperella began airing uncensored on SBS TV, starting Monday March 13, 2006, at 21:00 local time (9:00PM), after having previously been restricted to early-morning airings on the Nine Network. In the United Kingdom, Stripperella is aired uncensored as part of the UK incarnation of the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block. In Germany, the show aired uncensored on Comedy Central Germany available for all audiences. In Italy, it is aired on Fox Italia, uncensored and unrated; in Latin America is transmitted by MTV Latin America; and in Brazil was transmitted by Multishow.

Production

The project was one of the first projects created by Stan Lee's new production company POW! Entertainment, and was originally announced to be running on TNN (later renamed Spike) in January 2003, with Pamela Anderson voicing the lead. Lee, who would only provide the pitch and character outlines before handing the show to other writers, noted it would be a prime-time cartoon and stated "It won't be dirty, but it will be funny." The series planned to use motion capture technology to faithfully show Anderson's anatomy.

It was later delayed to become part of TNN's new adult animation block, alongside The Ren & Stimpy Show and Gary the Rat. Anderson claimed that she and Lee were fans of each other's work, and that she would give notes on the series' scripts.

Characters

Stripperella

Erotica Jones AKA Stripperella is an extremely attractive dancer. Many people are jealous of Erotica's bust size, especially her coworkers, and she enjoys her extremely revealing outfits because she enjoys showing off her irresistible "assets". She has a brother named Chipperella (Jon Cryer), who also happened to be a stripper living a double life as a superhero and secret agent.

Powers

• Combat Expertise: "Sexy" martial arts and "Killer" moves.
• Superhuman Enhancements: Enhanced reflexes, senses, super strength, flexibility, intellect, and gravity-defying jumps.
• Extreme Hotness: Stripperella is hot enough to make a man catch fire when near her.
• Powerful Lungs: Stripperella's breathing is strong enough to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on any victim who is either morbidly obese or abnormally gigantic, she can even blow a monkey out of a Tank gun through the barrel.
• Skin Immunity: Stripperella is impervious to temperature and weather conditions, allowing her to wear a bikini in the snow.
• Breast Expansion: Instantly expanding her big bust. She holds her breath and they inflate to increase a few bra-sizes.
• Lie-Detecting Cleave-Conspirators: When someone speaks while holding her breasts, she can determine whether that person is lying.
• Hairachute: Stripperella's hair is so thick, luxuriant, and extravagant that it can be used as an effective parachute.
• Limitless Cleavage: An extreme Victoria's Secret Compartment that allows Stripperella to pull various objects out of her cleavage.

Recurring characters

• Erotica's workplace TenderLoins features the wishy-washy owner Kevin (voiced by Tom Kenny), swishy bartender Leonard (voiced by Maurice LaMarche), and dancers Persephone (voiced by Sirena Irwin) who is promiscuous and switches accents, and naive and good-natured country girl Giselle (voiced by Jill Talley). The newest member, the antagonistic Catt (voiced by Joey Lauren Adams), gets hired in TenderLoins under false pretenses of being an Amish virgin.
• The main competition of TenderLoins is SiliCones, a strip club owned by Dirk McMahon (voiced by Vince McMahon) who openly admits his obsession for Erotica to work at his club.
• Stripperella works for the agency FUGG under Chief Stroganoff (voiced by Maurice LaMarche). Other recurring FUGG members include technicians Hal and Bernard (voiced by Tom Kenny and Greg Proops), and Special Agent 14 (voiced by Tom Kenny).
• There are two recurring villains: Cheapo (voiced by Maurice LaMarche), the world's cheapest bad guy, and Queen Clitoris (voiced by Sirena Irwin), a woman who lashes out on society for her facial appearance.
• Reporters Skip Withers (voiced by Tom Kenny) and Margo Van Winkle (voiced by Jill Talley) appearing when TV news coverage is needed.

Episodes

Note: what follows is the chronology according to the DVD release. Spike TV aired the episodes out of order. The air dates have not been changed.

Critical reception

Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette gave the show a positive review, saying that it was "unexpectedly clever, albeit sometimes crude", and that its "tongue in cheek" humor was reminiscent of the 1960s Batman series.

Home media

The Complete DVD boxed set released on February 22, 2005, contains uncensored versions with a new opening theme replacing the original Kid Rock song. Recently, Paramount and Viacom have allowed Mill Creek Entertainment to acquire the distribution rights to any future DVD reissues.

Comic books

Originally there was to have been a promotional Stripperella comic written by Lee and published by Humanoids Publishing (publishers of Métal Hurlant magazine) alongside the animated series, but it was not published.

Legal controversy

In 2003, ex-stripper Janet Clover, a.k.a. "Jazz", a.k.a. "Stripperella", filed a lawsuit in the Daytona Beach, Florida circuit court against Viacom, Stan Lee, and Pamela Anderson, claiming she is Stripperella's true creator and Stan Lee stole her idea when she discussed it during a "private dance session".

External links

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