I love how the art is the perfect middle between simplistic and whatever the opposite of that is, the concept is definitely simple yet the writing is good and each episode has variety, the character design is charming, it’s not always one person winning, and you can just tell they put a lot of care into this I’ve never seen the comic strips but I heard they kept to the style quite well, and I just really respect them doing that and so well
@@BigBevev Uh, no. That year was when I was born. I went later in my life. And also, that was when I kinda forgot the meaning of the word. It actually means something is hard, which is not the case of this comment.
That is why I love this short cartoon. The traps are so smart and funny and there are no good or evil side. They are just spies from a different team who always duked each other in the only goal to eliminate the other and get secret plans.
I love how virtually anyone regardless of age, race or language can understand and enjoy these simple yet clever little cartoons. So very few things can cross through all barriers like that.
Their hiss snickers get me every time! I imagine what their voices would sound like if they had one, high-pitched but clever. I tried that in CS-GO games.
Spy Vs. Spy was the only reason I ever even watched MadTV. I'd stick it out through incredibly bad jokes for 45 minutes to watch 30 seconds of animation. THAT is how good these are.
It's really remarkable how well Prohias captured the essence of the Cold War in these cartoons. Full of pointless, violent oneupmanship with often shockingly low stakes and even more shocking pettiness, where intricate devices and incredible inventions are created, often overcomplicatedly, for the purpose of achieving what could be accomplished with a particularly well-thrown rock.
MADTV Spy vs Spy Season 1 with Episode Titles: 0:00 Fly Me To The Boom 0:47 Stick Around 1:08 Crazy Ape 1:46 Side-Track-Ing 2:15 You Blew My Mind 3:01 Hard Act To Swallow 3:28 No Pain No Drain 4:20 Hawaii Five-Ow 5:03 Spring Break 5:45 Sun Scream 6:20 Bonk In The Night 6:45 I'll Be Missile-Ing You 7:12 Jailhouse Block 7:46 Dreamboat Willie 8:30 Here Comes The Pain Again 9:06 Tanks For The Memories 9:45 Going Door To Door 10:12 Flea Or Die 10:49 Noodle-Rama 11:23 The Swat Team 11:54 You're Very Attractive 12:42 You're Not My Type 13:25 On The Rocks 13:58 Weave Me Alone 14:37 In Your Dreams 15:13 Blew It Yourself 16:00 Having A Ball 16:37 They Switched Black Spy's Brain 17:50 Keeping It Reel 18:20 The Spy Who Loved Me Too Much 19:24 You're Safe With Me 20:15 I'll Take The Case
@@TheShadowFireYoshi I Always Thought The 2 Spys were Anthropomorphic Animal-Like Entities, Specifically Humanoid Rats because of their pointy noses; however in one mad segment (spy vs spy kids), someone assumed that they were bird people!
@@marshadow6724 he does not. He made them up. But i can tell, there is a book that has some of these "TV exclusive shorts" in comic form and these have names
Some of these has official names mentioned in book Spy VS spy: Black (and white) ops 0:00 operation: Bomb Site 15:13 operation: guided mischief 16:37 Operation: Operation (...yeah) 18:20 operation: Maid Of steel 19:24 safe conduct As an extra, there is a book that has lot of these bits coloured
I like how Black Spy's episodes tend to have a bit more elaborate fake-outs, where as white spy seems more likely to just pull a gun on you and call it a day.
@@gregthehedgehog0956 I've never read the comics. In fact, when I was watching these compilations about a year or two ago, that was my first exposure to Spy Vs. Spy in their original form. I had known for years that they came from Mad Magazine, but aside from references in other shows, my only real exposure to it had ever been the NES game.
7:52 I'm actually aware that they remade this one in 1997, but they switched colors so it would be white spy jumping out of the window instead of black spy.
The Reboot for kids also repeats few of these and even alters some results. Second one example, its black spy who tricks white to jump to spikey ceiling
There is 1 episode where Black spy attempts to reach the top secret by using a pogo stick, but then gets impaled the some spikes on a roof. They remade this episode, but this time, the tables are turned.
Maybe your reaction as a child was appropriate. After all, stuff like this actually goes on. It's tragic. Will humans (and governments) ever outgrow the desire to deceive each other, spy on each other, and kill each other?
I was introduced to these guys via the newer MAD show on Cartoon Network. Me and my brother would both root for different spies, but we both loved the show. Later on my dad found some of the comic compilation books and bought a few for me and my brother to share. I actually recognize a few of these from the comics!
Anyone else think the Spies look like Plague Doctors? Dad saw me working on my Halloween mask and said it reminded him of the Spies. He joked that I could just tell people I was a Spy. He was referring to the comic strips and apparently didn't know there were cartoon shorts, lol.
Imagine his voice lines being badly edited to fit their characters Like “I am the [black] spy” but the word ‘black’ sounds super out of place, you get what I mean
We need these 2 for multiversus! These 2 would be mage separate characters and have similar yet different abilities from each other. And they can have a black and white Stage.
Have black and white be different skins for the same character and their abilities are completely random. Not even the player knows which prank is about to be played.
@@TrueLadyEvilChan here, here. The dynamic of them defeating each other regularly and being unpredictable about who is going to succeed or fail really adds a good balance to these shorts, thus making them more entertaining to watch than cartoons similar to that of Tom and Jerry, the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, etc, etc. You know what I mean?
14:30 Ah yes, let me just fan my hair in this small room in the middle of nowhere. With only a sink, a mirror, and a plug. With an entire wall missing. Yes
It's so weird, yet hilarious at the same time, that a lot of architecture in the Spy vs. Spy franchise, especially during Prohias's era at least, was super bizarre and ridiculous such as buildings with a wall missing, a bathroom with a toilet right by a giant window (not to mention said bathroom having a door that does not cover the entry way completely at all), a bathroom that has a shower with a window in it (not to mention said shower having NO curtains nor any covering over the entryway whatsoever), a building (with a missing wall) that is just a random washroom with just a sink in it, etc, etc. You know what I mean?
I will admit as horribly as White played the tuba there, it was pretty hilarious how he basically played it along with the theme (albeit poorly, though). What a vague way to break the fourth wall like that.
Remade Episodes 0:47 Stick Around 2:15 You Blew My Mind! 16:00 Having A Ball 9:06 Tanks For The Memories 7:12 Jailhouse Block 6:45 I'll Be Missling You
I was fascinated by these comic strips when I was a kid. They both intrigued me and horrified me at the same time. Looking on them today with adult eyes I find them to be simply brilliant.
I'm from 93 and I never saw those cartoons until I saw MAD, and I thought it was a cartoon from that same time in 2010 but later I found out that the characters exist from much earlier, from the 60s.
5:35 What walks downstairs without a care and makes the happiest sound? Bounce Up and Down,just like a clown,everyones knows its Slinky. I'm sorry,I couldn't resist
Just for this season (and the first two skits from the next season, both of which I suspect were probably held over from this season, but I could be wrong). Rough Draft Studios was responsible for the animation for the next season.
Fun Fact: Around this time, Cartoon Network started World Premiere Toons, their second piece of original animation, as well as their first excursion into making shorts.
I appreciate that a couple of these were remade for the Cartoon Network MAD show. Spy vs Spy was always the best segment from that show, and even in 1995 it was the best.
CLASSIC stuff! I subscribed to MAD as a kid. What great genius that was back in the day. Always tried to figure out what the fold-in image was in the back without actually folding it in.
16:40 I always thought that this not really a victory for White ... because the monkey, now fitted with Black's brain, went right to the vault to steal the top secret stuff... (17:33)
Even though it was dark out, apparently. White may be calculating with his schemes ahead of time, but he does tend to fall for the more obvious traps or pranks.
A few these were literally recreated in the CN version of Mad's Spy vs Spy season except the Pogo stick one reversed the roles of the spies by having the white spy get impaled by the spikes.
I read "Mad Magazine" from the mid 70s to early 80s, and this was one of my favorites features. I also liked the way "By Prohias" was done in Morse Code.
Now there's a Black Spy in a monkey's body on the loose. Would the Black Spy in monkey's body now have body dysphoria and would that count as a way to hurt him?
I always loved this Spy vs Spy stuff. The premise of two organizations concocting evil plans versus each other thrills me. I would gladly pay for seasons of this is it still being produced?
I love how absurdly overcomplicated these schemes are. "I could just shoot him... or I could trick him into dunking a basketball into a fake hoop that turns into a rocket!"
![MADTV - Spy vs Spy - Season 1 [1995]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
