The Venture Bros./Dia de los Dangerous

Dia de los Dangerous
Season 1, Episode 1
Airdate	August 7, 2004
Production Number	101
Written by	Jackson Publick
Directed by	Jackson Publick
← Pilot The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay	1x02 → Careers in Science
The Venture Bros. — Season One

Dia de los Dangerous is the first episode of the first season of The Venture Bros., and the second episode overall.

Guest stars: Miguel Martinez-Joffre (Mexican Student, Mexican Gangster), Nina Hellman (Tijuana Prostitute), Doc Hammer (Speedy), Michael Sinterniklaas (Monarch Henchman #3), Christopher McCulloch (Monarch Henchmen #1 and #2, Mexican Wrestlers, Dr. Guevara), Richard Liebmann-Smith (Mexican University Administrator)

Plot Overview

Dr. Venture travels to Mexico to give a speech for a university class and to pick up some illicit drugs. The boys get kidnapped by the Monarch's henchmen, and it's up to a suddenly invalid Dr. Venture and Brock to save them.

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Dr. Venture travels to Mexico to lecture at a community college in Tijuana. He doesn't get paid very much.

• Dr. Venture visits a doctor in Tijuana to get some prescription drugs. Instead, the doctor drugs him and steals his kidneys. To replace them, Dr. Venture takes a kidney from both Hank and Dean.

• Hank and Dean are kidnapped by the Monarch's henchmen. The Monarch cannot get in touch with Dr. Venture so he tries to bond with them instead.

• Brock is tranquilized by the Monarch's henchmen and hit with their truck. In revenge, he kills every one of them at the Monarch's cocoon headquarters. The Monarch escapes with Dr. Girlfriend inside an escape cocoon.

• Brock sleeps with Mexican prostitutes.

Characters

• The Monarch: This episode has the Monarch's origin story. He was the only survivor of a plane crash that claimed the lives of his parents. He ended up bonding with a flock of Monarch butterflies. Unfortunately, he woke up one morning to find himself alone again, unaware that Monarch butterflies migrate South for the winter.

• This is not the first time Dr. Venture has lost his kidneys, apparently.

• Dr. Girlfriend mentions that both her and the Monarch agreed that they did not want to have children.

Trivia

References

• Mean Joe Greene: When Brock throws his shirt to the Mexican guy, it is reminiscent of an old Coke commercial. Joe Greene was the defensive tackle for the football team Pittsburgh Steelers from 1969-1981. In 1979, he starred in a commercial for Coca-Cola where a child hands him a Coke after a game, prompting him to smile and toss the kid his game jersey.

• Chupacabra: Dr. Venture references the myth of El Chupacabra in his lecture. El Chupacabra is a mythical creature that supposedly exists in Latin America.

• Pesos: Dr. Venture is happy to see his paycheck from the university until he realizes the amount is in pesos. The currency exchange rate of the Mexican peso to the American dollar is roughly 10.64 pesos to 1 dollar.

• Speedy's wings: The Monarch's henchman Speedy hopes to earn his butterfly wings someday. In It's a Wonderful Life, a good man named George Bailey gave up his dreams to help others, and is now contemplating suicide. An apprentice angel named Clarence is sent to earth to help George; successful completion of this assignment will earn Clarence his angel wings.

• Dr. Ernesto Guevara: Dr. Venture's Mexican doctor has the same name as Che Guevara. Che Guevara was a Marxist revolutionary and Cuban guerrilla leader. His real name was Dr. Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna.

• Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin: Dr. Venture offers Dr. Guevara $10 as a bribe, later upping his offer to $100. Alexander Hamilton was an influential American politician in the late 18th Century, one of the delegates at the U.S. Constitutional Convention who later served as the first Secretary of the Treasury. Benjamin Franklin was an influential statesman and inventor in the late 18th Century. He was the American ambassador to France, the first Postmaster General, and the inventor of the medical catheter, lightning rod, swim fins, and bifocals. Neither Alexander Hamilton nor Benjamin Franklin were ever president of the United States; in fact, Franklin never held elected office.

• La Cucaracha: The custom shop added a horn to HELPeR that plays La Cucaracha. La Cucaracha is a traditional Mexican folk song that became popular after the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Some sources place the origin of the song as early as 1492, stating that it was written in response to the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. Typical lyrics go as follows:

La cucaracha, la cucaracha

Ya no puede caminar

Porque no tiene, porque le falta

Marijuana que fumar

• Doctor Doom: The Monarch refers to Baron Ünderbheit as a "dime-store Doctor Doom". Doctor Doom is a Marvel comics super-villain, a genius who rules over a small European country and wears an iron mask to hide his disfigurement.

• Pine Barrens: The Monarch's plane crashed in the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. The Pine Barrens are a heavily-forested area covering 1.1 million acres of coastal plain across southern and central New Jersey. Even though the Pine Barrens are located near New York City, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City, they remain largely rural and undeveloped. The area was declared a national reserve (protected land) in 1978.

• Mezcal: Dr. Venture is drinking mezcal at Brock's grave. Mezcal is the general name for distilled spirits made from the agave plant. Tequila is made from blue agave that grows around the city of Tequila, and it held to a higher purity standard than other mezcal. Many mezcals contain a small worm at the bottom of the bottle. The presence of the worm in the bottle is usually a sign of an infestation (and thus a lower quality product); some brands put it in as a gimmick. It is said it adds flavor; some rumors say that the worm has spiritual qualities when eaten. When Brock emerges from the grave, he drinks the rest of the bottle, including the worm.

Quotes

Dr. Venture: So you see, by appying the basic principles of the scientific method to the matter we learn very quickly that myth of the Chupacabra is just that... utter crap. (clears throat) Now if you apply these same principles to Catholicism, an interesting thing occurs...

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