Nerds and Monsters

Nerds and Monsters is a Canadian animated series airing on YTV that follows three nerdy kids and a simple football linebacker on a fantastic uncharted island. As described on the show's website: "The tween castaways must use nothing but their smarts to survive the relentless attacks by the island's inhabitants - a tribe of hideous and hilarious monsters that are mistakenly threatened by their human invaders. Lucky for the nerds, these dim-witted monsters don't have any smarts!"^[1] It is produced by Slap Happy Cartoons Inc.

The series also airs on CITV and ITV in the United Kingdom, UTV in Northern Ireland, Canal+ Family and Télétoon+ in France, Disney XD Europe in Poland, Gloob in Brazil, and ABC3 in Australia. It was announced at the 2014 Banff World Media Festival that the series was renewed for a second season.^[2]

On July 14, 2015, the series was picked up by Hulu to stream it as part of Hulu Kids.^[3]

Characters

Nerds

• Dudley Squat (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) - the leader of the nerds, despite his short stature. He demands things be done a certain way - HIS way, but just not to be too bossy though.
• Irwin Chang-Stein (voiced by Vincent Tong) - a Chinese Canadian nerd, has a phobia of everything except some things, including Becky who he has a crush on.
• Becky Hooger (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain) - a tall, excitable nerd, the only female in the group. She is the love interest of Irwin.
• Stan Grissle (voiced by Ty Olsson) - a dumb football linebacker, the top lineman on the Beaverton Bulldogs team. He is the love interest of Becky.

Monsters

• Zarg (voiced by Brian Dobson) - the leader of the monsters, and Lyle's uncle. His position as Supreme Leader is threatened by the nerds' arrival.
• Skur (voiced by Ian James Corlett) - Zarg's servant, a winged lizard-like monster who is fed up being second banana, so is bent on dethroning Zarg and becoming king of Monster Island.
• Lyle (voiced by Brian Drummond) - a nerdy monster, King Zarg's nephew, who is forced to live life like the other monsters. This is proved in one episode where he doesn't want to 'monster up'.
• Urp (voiced by Lee Tockar) and Durn (voiced by Michael Adamthwaite) - Lyle's parents that share the same body. Durn is the sister of King Zarg.
• Vink (voiced by Michael Daingerfield) - a giant, child-like monster with a short attention span.
• Maiden Cheena - Queen of Monster Island, a children's inflatable pool toy that was washed up onto the island some time ago. Her name comes from the Made in China label imprinted on her rubber back.

Episodes

Season 1 (2014)

1: Dear Diary / Monster and Commander (March 12, 2014)

2: Sub Sandwich / Dorkathalon (March 19, 2014)

3: Honk If You're In Love / Fright Of Passage (March 26, 2014)

4: The Marriage Ref / Ka-Boom With a View (April 2, 2014)

5: Are You Gonna Eat That? / Monster BFF (April 9, 2014)

6: For The Love Of Dung / The Voice Of Treason (April 16, 2014)

7: What's Mine Is Mine / The Wind Beneath My Wings (April 23, 2014)

8: Maiden Cheena Lays an Eggie / Hero Zeros (April 30, 2014)

9: Guys and Dolls / Heat Wave (May 7, 2014)

10: Oh Brother / The Comic Or The Girl (May 14, 2014)

11: Eye! Eye! Eye! / Stan By Me (May 21, 2014)

12: Dudley The Manservant / Cure For The Common Nerd (May 28, 2014)

13: Fab Rick / Inside The Box (June 4, 2014)

14: Monstervision / The Squider Whisperer (June 11, 2014)

15: The Host With The Moats / Monsterball (June 18, 2014)

16: Flower Power / Maiden Cheena Is Missing (June 25, 2014)

17: Franken-Nerd / Monstergeist (July 9, 2014)

18: Monster Movie / Springing Lyle (July 23, 2014)

19: Pet Peeved / No Pranks To You (August 13, 2014)

20: Molting Day / Zanti-Clops (August 27, 2014)

Season 2 (2016)

21: Miss Monster Island / Lucky Day (January 8, 2016)

22: Where's The Beep? / Evolution (January 15, 2016)

23: It's Not Good To Be King / Monster Island: The Game (January 22, 2016)

24: Nerd Fu / Dudley's Kitchen Nightmare (January 29, 2016)

25: Nerd High / Me Stan, You Linty (February 6, 2016)

26: The Sky's The Limit / Clown Of Darkness (February 13, 2016)

27: Tickle Stick / Monstarrrghs! (February 20, 2016)

28: Run Nerd Run / Adventures In Monstersitting (February 27, 2016)

29: The Falconerd / The Head Of Destiny (March 5, 2016)

30: Nerds and Monster Bus / Zarg's Ducky Day (March 12, 2016)

31: Nerdzilla / Monster Fever (March 19, 2016)

32: The Big Stanuna / Power To The Pimple (March 26, 2016)

33: Zarg World / The Nerdscapes (April 2, 2016)

34: Bee-Hive Yourself / Bucktooth Rogers (April 9, 2016)

35: Cannibal Run / Little Bundle Of Terror (June 25, 2016)

36: Survival Of The Twittest / Nerdes and The Moonsters (July 9, 2016)

37: Irwiener / Brother Brother (July 16, 2016)

38: Chatty Cheena / That's Snot Art (July 23, 2016)

39: Einstan / The Nerdhood Of The Traveling Pants (July 30, 2016)

40: Behind the Scrotch / Night of the Living Nerds (August 27, 2016)

Early prototype

The first prototype of the series had four nerds; Becky Hoogerstein, Dudley Squat, Winston Chang and Fareed Singh. They were completely different in appearance; Becky was a curly haired brunette, Dudley had bigger glasses and blond hair and Winston had shorter hair and was described as Spock-like. Fareed was written out of the final version and replaced with Stan. Becky's name was shortened and Winston became Irwin with the 'stein' from Becky's original name being inserted into his. Dudley's name was kept, but he too was altered.^[4]

Zarg was originally called Zar and designed with orange fur, and Skur had no fur at all. Urp and Durn's only change was the addition of fingers instead of tentacle-like hands.

Awards and nominations

References