KaBlam!

KaBlam! was a Nicktoon that took place primarily in a comic book. It starred comic book characters Henry and June and featured various sketches, describing itself as "Where cartoons and comics collide".

Segments

• Surprising Shorts- Various random short cartoons that were introduced by Henry as "surprising shorts", prompting June to pantse him. Some of the episodes were part of the Lava series, but were removed due to copyright claims from Vivendi. One series went on to become the Disney cartoon Teacher's Pet. This is probably one reason why the show has not been re-released in full.

• Prometheus and Bob- a stop-motion sketch featuring a superintelligent alien attempting to educate a caveman, taking place 900,000 years ago and videotaped using a remote-controlled camera. A monkey always seems to ruin Prometheus' plans. The intro was done in a serious manner, as if it was a government file. In later episodes, the intro was abridged.

• The Off Beats- a show about outcasts using a cloth-cutout art style and a jazz soundtrack. The show took influence from Peanuts and Pink Panther cartoons. The theme song is provided by the Off-Beats' beatnik friend Grubby-Groo. The Off-Beats attempt to live their own lives while being mocked by The Populars, a group of clique kids. Creator Mo Willems went on to create Cartoon Network show Sheep in the Big City.
• Sniz and Fondue- The series was about the day-to-day lives of two ferret roommates, Sniz and Fondue. Sniz is hyperactive and playfully impulsive, traits that resulted in trouble for himself and his roommate, Fondue. Sniz sports a lime-green Mohawk haircut. Fondue was generally nervous as a result of Sniz's rambunctiousness, which resulted in him being on his guard. Fondue sports a blue chef's hat. They live with two other roommates, Snuppa and Bianca.

• Action League Now!- a superhero show filmed in "Chuckimation", with stop-motion animation featuring action figures and other inanimate objects. A full-length show eventually spun off of Kablam for awhile.

• • The Flesh- "Super strong, and super naked"- the buff, dimwitted member of the group. Resembles a Conan the Barbarian action figure. Because he is a toy, he has no visible genitals. This prevented any controversy from arising.

• • Thunder Girl- "She flies, like thunder"- the egotistical member of the group. She is able to fly, but is prone to flying into ceiling fans among other things. Her theme song is based on the Star Wars theme. Her head resembles a Barbie doll head, and is attached to an unknown superhero body.

• • Stinky Diver- "A former Navy commando with an attitude as bad as his odor"- A diver action figure, possibly a 4" GI Joe, with an Australian accent whose solution to everything is using his harpoon. Lives in a toilet and stinks very badly.

• • Meltman- "with the power to...melt!" An action figure so melted its origin is indeterminable. He is in love with Thunder Girl, and is the comic relief of the series. In the pilot, the League attempts to retrieve his melted off nose (even though his face is so melted that it is almost gone).

• • The Mayor- the main antagonist of the series, with very revealing pseudonyms such as "Louis D. Mayor". Referred to as "His dishonor". Resembles a child's toy.

• • The Chief- the ill-tempered boss of the League.

• • Justice- the Chief's dog.

• • Hodgepodge- a monstrosity made up of various toy parts. Was originally human until he fell into a blender and poorly repaired by Bill the Lab Guy.

• • Bill the Lab Guy- a scientist who takes his job very seriously and speaks in a very serious voice. His catchphrases include "No! I was afraid of this!" and "There's nothing I can do." His daughter became a superhero in one episode. He is possibly a reference to Bill Nye the Science Guy.

• • The Narrator- the unseen person who humorously tells the story, but in a "government file" type voice.

• Angela Anaconda- A cutout-photo cartoon that was later spun off into its own series on Fox Family and was briefly rerun on Nick in the United States. The series is about a girl named Angela, who is a social outcast. She finds herself unpopular in school and always seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nanette, a fake-French girl whom everyone loves and wants to be, always mocks Angela. During each episode, a poem-like story is narrated by Angela. She often gets her revenge on the antagonist of that particular episode, and more often imagines her revenge on said antagonist in a highly exaggerated manner. Due to copyrights being held with Fox, the episodes featuring her shorts were not allowed to air on Nickelodeon and are unavailable on Paramount+
• JetCat — A segment about a girl who has an identity as a cat superhero and flies around and saves her city. She says she "flies like a jet and fights like a cat." This is the only short that takes place outside of the comic book. It was featured as a comic in Nickelodeon Magazine for a short time. The music was composed by Rocko's Modern Life composer Pat Irwin
• Little Freaks- a one episode short about a group of superhero freaks of nature. In the cartoon, they stop the evil No Face from controlling the world's fashion trends.
• Race Rabbit — A live-action show about a romantic rabbit racer with an English accent who competes in races but there is usually trouble along the way caused by the Boolies (Zit and Winston), who are his human enemies. Race always wins the race, foiling the Boolies' plans along the way. The only KaBlam! short created in the United Kingdom. Created by Scott Fellows

controversy

• In the first episode, Action League Now is described as "spastic"
• In an episode of Sniz & Fondue, Sniz is trying to ask everyone what time it is since he can't tell time. He interrupts someone in the shower.

Availability

Due to copyright issues, the show has yet to be released to DVD or iTunes. It is currently available on Paramount+ in limited quantity

Trivia

• One episode of Action League Now featured many NFL stars (also action figures) being injured by the Mayor.

• One episode of Action League Now featured a giant baby doll interrupting a Kiss concert. After the League rescued them, Kiss performed their hit Rock and Roll All Nite in dedication to them (strange since that's what they'd been playing for the past several minutes).
• One episode of Kablam featured Richard Simmons, who even told kids to "turn of [their] TVs and sweat", prompting the show to turn off as if the viewer's TV was turned off
• In an episode of Action League Now, the Mayor hypnotized everyone to hate the League. The problem was solved by a song performed by soul musician Lou Rawls.
• The end segment for the Action League Now spinoff is an allusion to the intros to the early James Bond films.
• The Prometheus and Bob tapes took place during the Acheulean Age of the Lower Paleolithic Era. Stone tools were already in use by that time.
• A few music videos for college rock band They Might Be Giants debuted on Kablam!.
• The non-recurring cartoon Fuzzball may have been revisited in an episode of later Nicktoon The Fairly Oddparents.
• One short, titled The Shizzagee, was entirely computer animated and was the only one of its kind to air on the show
  • Incidentally, another segment called The Adventures of PatchHead was live action/CGI
• Popular internet celebrity Nostalgia Critic attempted to review Kablam! during his Nicktoons episode of his Nickelodeon month, but found little to talk about and admitted he was getting older by the time of the show's debut. He was only able to find info about the Prometheus and Bob sketch and the Action League Now sketch.
• The sketch Angela Anaconda got its own show, now owned by Disney. Because of this KaBlam has yet to be released to DVD or iTunes. Also, Paramount+ does not have any episodes featuring the sketch.
• 2Tone band The Toasters provided the theme song for the show
• One episode features June attempting to "break the speed of chair". While she's getting ready, the 2001: a Space Odyssey theme plays. She also says "Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky", a lyric from the Jimmie Hendrix hit Purple Haze.
• One episode has Henry and June go to space, "The final frontier" as June calls it. This references the intro to Star Trek.
• One episode of Sniz and Fondue is "Mr. Sniz's Wild Ride", a reference to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
• In one episode, the short Anemia and Iodine featured them playing " something akin to Ouija. At the end of the episode, Henry and June fight over whether to launch the rocket they're in (the episode is space themed). June distracts Henry by pointing pointing out Johnny Quest (another cartoon character, although not on Nick).
• In an episode of Action League Now, Stinky says he stopped watching Baywatch for whatever they were doing
• In an episode of Sniz and Fondue, a Mafia type captures Sniz and Fondue for not paying up. In a coupe scenes he sings That's the Way I Like It by KC and the Sunshine Band.
• In an episode of Action League Now, Stinky counts his final salary using Monopoly money. When everyone is sucked by the Mayor's vacuum, he says they've been Hoovered, the British term for vacuumed (taken from a brand of vacuum cleaners). A roll of toilet paper gets sucked up and Flesh says it's squeezably soft, a reference to Charmin commercials.
• One episode starts with "technical difficulties" due to the picture skipping like a film reel. Henry and June fix it by adjusting a TV set, initially by running into the screen. June explains that TVs are delicate and you have to adjust the knobs. By the time Kablam debuted, most people had TVs with buttons.
• Grubby Groo originated as a character on Sesame Street