Cartoon Network's Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Volume 4 DVD

Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Volume 4 showed up in my stocking this year. It was a pleasant surprise for the holiday season. Cartoon Network's funniest show is still going strong and Volume 4 contains some really classic episodes as well as the worst episode ever made. But hey, they can't all be winners. If you're a fan, run out and buy it as well as the first three box sets. If you're lucky, you might get snowed in with them before winter is up.

The box set for Season 4 is as crazy as the ones before it. It's a neon-colored cover with a close up of a mooninite and the inside is all funky, 70s imagery. Sometimes I wonder if the writers are being strange for the sake of being strange, or if they are just putting a lot of inside jokes in their products. The DVDs say things like "Aqua Teen Hungry Fort" on them and the menu screens are incomprehensible. Don't get me wrong, it's funny, I just thought I'd point it out.

Like I said, the DVD menu is just getting crazier with this set. Of course you have the usual option to either choose a specific episode or to "play all". If you choose to play all, it goes to a screen with a bunch of little boxes, all simultaneously playing an episode. Ha, ha guys, now let me play all, alright? Nope, that's all it will do. You have to individually start each episode just for the sake of that lame joke. So don't lose your remote or you'll have to drag your fat ass of the couch every eleven minutes to start the next one.

There are tons of extras in Aqua Teen, Volume 4 including what they claim to be a trailer from an upcoming movie, but I suspect it's just another gag. Short films by the producers are weird and pretty funny. Also, there is a videotaped sound recording of one episode and you get to see what the real actors look like.

It's pretty funny to see Meatwad and Carl come out of one guy's mouth. Finally, we are able to see the Spacecataz intros put together in its own episode, which I loved. Other than that, it's standard stuff like art galleries and making of's.

As for the season itself, look for awesome episodes like "Video Ouja", in which Master Shake disturbingly commits suicide just so he can haunt Meatwad from beyond. "Gee Whiz", with special guest star Ted Nugent and some guy named Jesus is pretty outrageous, too. Sadly, this was the season of the much-maligned "Hypno-Germ", which shouldn't be considered an Aqua Teen episode at all. If anyone ever looks back at this show years from now to spot the exact moment it jumped the shark, it will have to be "Hypno-Germ". Other than that travesty, it's still pretty funny stuff, so go out and buy it.