Another Canadian series to look out for: Odd Job Jack

There is this series that has been gracing Canadian television for years called Odd Job Jack, and until last night, I wasn't aware that it hadn't made the journey south of the border, especially since American stars like Christian Slater, James Woods, Tom Arnold and the late Don Knotts amongst others have all made appearances on the show. It began as a web cartoon and it made the leap to the Canadian equivalent of Comedy Central up here a few years ago, and it has been largely successful so far.

The basic premise of the show is this: Jack Ryder, voiced by Don McKellar, is a recent college graduate with a Sociology degree, and the show takes a look at his wacky adventures through the weird world of temping, though most of these aren't your typical jobs.

I mean, how often does the average temp go from Hamster Wrangling for a Bondian gerbil voiced by Dave Foley to being a roadie for a Save the Worms concert featuring the Chemical Brothers and Jeff Tweedy to being a teacher's assistant who gets caught up in a collegiate adventure that would make Peter Jackson and Tolkien proud. Of course, there have been a lot of other unusual jobs along the way, along with the more traditional placements like being a Waiter, a Ride Attendant and a Construction Worker. Of course, even in the more traditional of roles, things never go as planned for Jack, whether because of the circumstances of the job, the interference of his militantly vegan and socially-aware sister or due to his affection for his career councillor Betty Styles.

While maybe not as clever or funny as the Simpsons or South Park, it is pretty good for what it does, and the guest voices are usually well used and funny as hell. And belying the web origins of the series, ever episode's job has an online flash game that goes along with it along with a contest in Canada for the highest scores, so even if you don't watch the show, the games can be fun to play. My favorite was a game that went with the episode of the show where Jack was a Security Guard called J'ackuse.

A full episode is available online, though I don't think it is the best representation of the show, as it is a little more punny than they usually are, though Don Knotts plays the part of a border patrol officer to perfection.

I also respect the production company's move to make all the animation assets for the show available to the general public to play with(if they have the right program of course) in a project called Freejack, which I think could probably not only lead to some nice spinoff web cartoons but perhaps a wider group of people getting involved in Flash animation in general, and that can only be good for the medium at large. Huzzah!

Tags: don mckellar, odd job jack, animation, smiley guy studios, tom arnold, christian slater, john goodman, james woods, samantha bee, temp jobs, freejack, rick mercer, lord of the rings, matrix, south park, simpsons, comedy network, comedy central