The plot is simple: Five brothers are sent out to find their lost 6th brother in a world filled with over-the-top caricatures of human beings, only to get side-tracked and interrupted at each and every turn.
Beyond the basic plot the show's driving forces are the funny and weird situations the brothers get involved in. It's a simple setup for a comedy show but it doesn't really go anywhere and just kinda flatlines in the brief 4 minute runtime of each episode (some episodes are twice as long).
It's not really creative or surreal either. There's certain surreal elements, such as how the brothers are born and the ceremony that takes place in the pilot episode. But for the most part it's just the brothers stumbling through stock cartoon settings (night club, biker bar, prison, supermarket, suburbia, New York city, etc.) and getting harassed by every human in sight. It seems like a good setup for a comedy but only if the writing is clever in some way. There's only hints of clever ideas and jokes sprinkled throughout the series but they're so brief it's not worth sitting through the rest of it. It comes off as a collection of poorly thought out ideas and gags thrown at the wall to see what sticks. And then before it goes anywhere, the episode ends.
It's worth noting this series was created as a expansion of a set of MTV station IDs that just featured the brothers making weird faces and noises before showing the MTV logo, which actually works great as a 5 to 10 second station ID. Not so much for a series of 4 minute cartoons (unless you're looking for time to fill in your broadcast schedule). If you're into extended sequences of funny faces and sound effects and incoherent yelling then you might enjoy this. Even the gross-out humor is pretty tame, especially by modern standards.
Overall I couldn't get into it. I was mostly bored. It definitely doesn't deserve the "worst cartoon ever" reputation it's gotten over the years. I'd put it on the same level as the more forgettable Liquid Television shorts. This show probably would've been long forgotten if it wasn't made by the same guy who created Ed, Edd n Eddy.
Favorite episode:
"Sammy in a Varicose Vein" was kinda funny. It's basically a series of elderly people gags set in a nursing home. The caricatures are so over-the-top it got a few laughs out of me. Honorable mention to "To Hell with Bing" for having some interesting surreal imagery that I wish the series embraced a bit more.
