The Venture Bros./Are You There God? It's Me, Dean

Are You There God? It's Me, Dean
Season 1, Episode 9
Airdate	October 2, 2004
Production Number	110
Written by	Doc Hammer
Directed by	Jackson Publick
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The Venture Bros. — Season One

Are You There God? It's Me, Dean is the ninth episode of the first season of The Venture Bros., and the tenth episode overall.

Guest stars: Christopher McCulloch (Monarch Henchmen #2, #5 #6, and #7), Doc Hammer (Monarch Henchman #1), James Urbaniak (Monarch Henchmen #3 and #4)

Plot Overview

The Monarch finally has the Venture family right where he wants them -- hanging upside-down above the Amazon River. But his victory is postponed when Dean suffers a strange but fairly common injury: acute testicular tortion. According to the bi-laws of the Guild of Calamitous Intent, a temporary truce must be called in order to get Dean medical attention, so Brock and Hank are held as collateral. Doc calls his friends Mr. White and Master Billy Quizboy to perform orchioplexy on Dean.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• The Monarch manages to take the entire Venture clan prisoner, but he has to let Dean and Dr. Venture go because Dean's testicles are afflicted with testicular torsion. Dr. Venture takes Dean back to the Venture Compound and calls in Billy Quizboy and Pete White to diagnose and fix the problem.

• The Monarch celebrates his birthday. He is joined by Hank and Brock, who remain in his custody while the problem with Dean is sorted out. Brock livens up the drab birthday proceedings by attacking the cocoon full-force.

Characters

• Both Dean and Hank have surgery for testicular torsion. Billy claims to have made a few improvements to Dean in the process.

• Master Billy Quizboy, Boy Genius: We find out that he is actually an adult with a growth deficiency, is a neurogeneticist, and that he shares a trailer with Pete White.

• When Billy identifies the problem with Dean, Dr. Venture comments, "I should have fixed this in the prototype stage."

Trivia

The Show

• With this episode brought a website based on the condition Dean suffered from—Scrotal Safety Commission. The site was designed by IGN's Ken Plume.

References

• Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret: The title of the episode is a reference to the famous children's novel, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. The book details the struggles of a girl raised with no religion (her father is Christian and her mother Jewish) who must figure out what she believes while dealing with the onset of puberty (she gets her first period toward the end of the novel).

• Star Wars: The Monarch makes two references to the movie franchise Star Wars in this episode. When Brock says he's going to kill the Monarch despite still being tied up, the Monarch asks if he thinks he's Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan Kenobi was a character who appeared in all six films, a Jedi master who trained both the protagonists Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke Skywalker. As a Jedi, Obi-Wan had telekinetic abilities, which presumably would help him escape from the Monarch's captivity. Later on, when Hank mentions his mother, Monarch says he is Hank's father, metaphrasing the dramatic revelation from the end of The Empire Strikes Back (episode V of the film series) where the villain Darth Vader reveals that he is Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father.

• PayDay: Pete apparently defecated in the toilet without flushing, causing Billy to remark that it looks like a bucket full of PayDay bars. PayDay is a chocolate candy bar filled with peanuts and caramel, manufactured by Hershey's.

• Grand Theft Auto III: Pete is playing a PlayStation 2 (PS2) video game where he says he's doing a drive-by for the "Yardies". Grand Theft Auto III is a game released in 2001 for the PS2 (later on the PC and Xbox) where the player takes the role of an escaped convict who performs various missions for multiple crime gangs. One of these missions is a drive-by shooting for a gang called the Yardies.

• Happy Days: The Monarch compares Brock's living situation at the Venture Compound to Fonzie's on Happy Days. Fonzie Fonzie was a leather-jacketed biker, who eventually became known as the pop culture standard for "cool". Despite this status, he lived above the garage of the Cunninghams, a traditional middle-class family (as well as the main protagonists of the show). Mrs. Cunningham always called him by his real name, Arthur.

• Fresca: The Monarch asks one of his henchmen to get him a Fresca. Fresca is a grapefruit-flavored soda produced by the Coca-Cola Company. Fresca is calorie-free and has no sugar (it is sweetened with aspartame instead).

• The Smurfs: Two of the henchmen get into a fight about whether Smurfs lay eggs. The Smurfs were a species of small blue creatures that lived inside giant mushrooms deep in the forest. They first appeared in a Belgian comic strip but were later popularized via an animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera. Though there were dozens of different Smurfs, all with their own traits and personalities, only one was female (Smurfette). The fat henchman also mentions their leader Papa Smurf, who was different from the other Smurfs in that he wore red and had a beard.

• INXS: When talking about the pain of untwisting Dean's genitals, Pete mentions "the guy from INXS". INXS was an Australian rock group, formed in 1977 and popular until the mid 90's. In 1997, lead singer Michael Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room of apparent suicide. Some have suggested the death was accidental, a result of autoerotic asphyxiation. In autoerotic asphyxiation, an individual will suffocate/strangle themselves in order to release endorphins that enhance sexual pleasure.

• Beyond Good and Evil: The book that Dr. Girlfriend is reading when Brock enters the bedroom is Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche. In the book, Nietzsche criticized a lack of critical sense and the acceptance of Christian beliefs, both common among the philosophers of the time. At publication, the book did not make much of an impact.

• Trilogy of Terror: Dr. Orpheus gives Dean a Zuni fetish doll. The made-for-TV movie Trilogy of Terror featured three stories starring Karen Black, one of which centered on a woman who receives a Zuni fetish doll as a present (the Zuni are a Native American tribe centered in New Mexico). The doll proceeds to come to life and terrorize her.

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