Would a villain by any other name be as terrible? This Sunday, Aqua Teen Hunger Force comes to an end after 11 seasons and a movie. The show has featured numerous “villains,” antagonistic characters that continually give Frylock, Master Shake, Meatwad and their horny neighbor Carl a hard time one way or another. Perhaps their villainy took the form of physical destruction (a fate which most often befell Carl, his house or his pool) or perhaps it was aimed more at insulting, boring or otherwise pestering the Aqua Teens. Either way, the show became known not only for its fast-food protagonists, but also for the seemingly endless string of memorable antagonists that crossed their paths. Here are ten villains we’ll miss most once the show wraps up for good.
10. MC Pee Pants
The insane rapper bent on world domination first makes his appearance in season 1, when Meatwad plays his song “I Want Candy” non-stop. Eventually Carl falls prey to the song’s subliminal message (meant to fuel a harebrained diet pill scheme) and the two set off to find the little MC at the address he raps about in his follow-up hit “I Need Candy.” Instead of the young boy from the streets that graces the single’s cover, they find a giant spider with a screw loose. MC Pee Pants changes throughout the series, returning to hell every time he dies and being reincarnated as various creatures, including a cow, a worm and even an old man. With mc chris providing a distinct voice and the character’s trademark diaper and shower cap, it doesn’t matter what shape he takes over the series’ course because he’s a dead giveaway when he returns.
9. Happy Time Harry
It’s the doll that will give Barbie and Ken a run for their money! After Shake destroys Meatwad’s homemade dolls, Frylock offers to buy him a replacement, but he can’t afford the Jiggle Billy doll Meatwad really wants. Those night vision hillbilly goggles will have to wait. Instead, he purchases the $3.99 bargain doll Happy Time Harry. The doll might come in a box with a unicorn and a rainbow on the front, but Happy Time Harry is anything but what his name describes. The shirtless grump dressed in boxers and red dancing glitter shoes quickly depresses Meatwad when he shares sad tales about his life. Hurt back? Check. Wife left? Check. Bills past due? Check. Voiced by David Cross, Happy Time Harry is the reality doll that even Jiggle Billy’s fun attitude and jiggling can’t withstand.
8. Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future
Sometime in February, Carl awakens to find a cross between the Terminator and a ghost out of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol lurking in his bedroom. The Cybernetic Ghost is a long-winded metallic nightmare; he doesn’t understand how to deliver a straightforward line of dialogue, let alone a compelling narrative. After Frylock demands to know why he filled Carl’s pool with elf blood, the Cybernetic Ghost launches on a lengthy rabbit trail of an explanation about the origin of Christmas. According to the Cybernetic Ghost, “Sir Santa of Claws,” an ape-like creature that created Christmas, started a war when his elves unionized after he began using machines to build Christmas toys. His nonsensical and often erroneous stories are meddlesome fun, and provide the Aqua Teens with a different kind of villain than they normally encounter.
7. Frat Aliens
The Aqua Teens sure do encounter their fare share of aliens. Unlike the Plutonians, who want to take over the world, and the Mooninites, who are just a bunch of dicks, DP (short for Donkey Puncher) and Skeeter show up in season 2 ready to party. Needless to say, their frat alien ways create a special kind of havoc. Drawn to earth by Carl’s newly installed security grid, which can be seen from space, they crash land outside his house. Embodying classic frat boy stereotypes, including underage binge drinking and hitting on any and every “female” in their path (mistaking Frylock, Shake and Meatwad for being women), these brawling bros are mayhem from space. Not only does DP send Meatwad into a masculinity spiral to prove he’s a man after DP mistakes him for a woman and tries to kiss him, but Shake gets in on the bro-tastic fun, too. Once Skeeter takes off and leaves DP passed out on the Aqua Teens’ lawn, Shake joins the party with a little hair of the dog.
6. The Trees
Not only do trees have feelings, but they also have an extensive—if antiquated—justice system, which Shake learns all about when he receives a summons to attend their court. After flash frying a cow on Labor Day with Carl and then illegally dumping the giant oil vat in the woods, Shake thinks he’s gotten away with cleaning up his mess. Of course, he’s horribly wrong. The trees capture Carl and use his skin to send Shake a summons (paper being akin to murder), which he ignores by burning down the tree, Big Ralph, that delivers it. That crime leads to a second summons. When Shake finally gets to tree court, things devolve quickly when the trees angrily threaten to send him to tree jail…or kill him. Don’t try to cross these majestic beauties; they have a temper and a thirst for justice.
5. Hand Banana
“Tonight, you.” With these words, Carl’s nightmare with Meatwad’s newly created dog, Hand Banana, begins. Frylock purchases Make Your Own Dog 1.0 for Meatwad, which Shake promptly interferes with by dipping his hand into the nuclear cooling facility needed to create the dog. The yellow dog, which looks like a cross between Shake’s yellow mitt and a banana, bakes and barks and seems genuinely sweet. Until he encounters Carl, that is. The two mindmeld (one of the program’s warnings) and Hand Banana quickly sets about raping Carl. With a deep ominous voice that completely juxtaposes the dog’s seemingly bright demeanor, Hand Banana becomes Carl’s worst nightmare and easily one of the funniest villains to appear in the show.
4. Markula
When Frylock refuses to pay rent because his landlord refuses to fix a gas leak in the house, things go from bad to worse. Instead of just evicting the Aqua Teens, Markula kidnaps all three and holds them hostage in the Mojave Desert. In the meantime, Markula takes the opportunity to find new tenants, first renting the trio’s home to a robot family who runs amuck, then two sirens and their prisoner Phillies player John Kruk, and finally Paul the tentacled monster. Markula’s wry delivery and strong opinions—favorable when it comes to his new tenants and disdainful when it comes to most other things in life—underscore his underlying dickishness, and make him a fun villain mainly for the havoc he wreaks on Carl’s life. With lines like, “I don’t like sports. No one does,” delivered in a deep growl, it’s hard not to like this 4040-year old vampire turned property owner.
3. The Plutonians
The Plutonians—named Oglethorpe and Emory after two Atlanta universities—show up right from the get-go in season 1. Unlike many villains on the show, these spiky, sweatband-wearing aliens actually aim for world domination. Frylock meets them after attempting to communicate with alien life forms, and Oglethorpe lures him onto their spacecraft by pretending to take part in normal earth behavior like barbequing food. His seemingly friendly demeanor hides his devious plans: “When he gets here, we melt him and laugh on into the night.” Their plans to take over the world don’t go very far, since every button on their ship meant to cause planetary destruction instead releases balloons and confetti. The Plutonians’ best appearances take place with the Mooninites. In season 3, Oglethorpe and Emory become the cold open’s focus when they enter into a prank battle with their 2D counterparts. The Mooninites’ mischievous ways don’t stop by season 10, when they convince Oglethorpe and Emory that they’ve conquered their planet while the pair were in deep sleep mode.
2. Paul
With the Aqua Teens being held captive in the Mojave Desert by their landlord Markula in the early episodes of season 5, the humongous alien Paul becomes the last tenant to rent their home before they return. Paul’s villainous behavior comes about through the trail of destruction he leaves in his wake. After ripping the roof off his newly rented house and disturbing Carl’s sleep, Paul storms off down the street. Carl immediately phones Markula to complain about his neighbor, and learns from the creepy landlord that Paul is going through a tedious custody battle. That kind of domestic drama will make anyone angry, let alone a towering pink monster with massive teeth and tentacles. Paul doesn’t speak beyond the massive growl-roars he emits, but his hyperbolic physical antics make him a memorable, and hilarious, villain.
1. Mooninites
Perhaps the best-known villains of the entire series, the Mooninites first appear in season 1 when Shake decides to make some extra cash by renting out Meatwad’s room instead of working. His first applicants happen to be two pixelated moon creatures with a penchant for mischief making. The 2D green and pink villains, Ignignokt and Err, are more jerks than villains, their bad behavior creating trouble for everyone around them. But it’s their shenanigans that make them so much fun, because they constantly pester the Aqua Teens or, even better, Oglethorpe and Emory. There’s no end to their threats or their snide comments about the superiority of life on the moon, where inhabitants are—for starters—better jumpers and spellers. These two jackasses go head-to-head with Oglethorpe and Emory at the end of season 2 and again in season 10, and take over the show’s cold open in season 3 when they prank their spiky counterparts in “Spacecataz.” Their churlish attitudes and juvenile behavior make them a fan favorite for a reason.
Amanda Wicks is a writer specializing in comedy and music. She has also written for Consequence of Sound and The New York Observer. Follow her on Twitter @aawicks.