The Cuphead Show, based on a video game, is drawn in the animation style of the Fleischer Studio of the 1930s: a worled where human, animal, and objects interact, bouncing constantly, singing to the latest jazz songs, and falling prey to the "heebie jeebies." It has been criticized for not acknowledging the racism of those early cartoons, but really, why should it? Movies and tv shows set in earlier generations almost always pretend that racism, sexism, and homophobia did not exist.
Cuphead (Tru Valentino, left) and Mugman (Frank Todaro), who live in the Inkwell Isles (an homage to Fleischer's "Out of the Inkwell"), have teacups for heads, with bent straws protruding from the top and liquid sloshing around inside. They form the standard aggressive/passive, "let's have an adventure"/ "that's not a good idea" pair.
In the first episode, "Carn-Evil," they are brothers or foster brothers, living under the guardianship of Elder Kettle. Cuphead talks Mugman into blowing off their job of painting a fence to go to a carnival, which turns out to be a "carn-evil": The Devil (Luke Millington-Drake), who scats like Cab Calloway, is using it to harvest souls.
Gay subtext: Some hugging and rescuing each other..
1930s cartoons were not good at continuity: Betty Boop changes randomly from child to adult, and Bimbo could be her boyfriend, friend, or pet dog. But in the second episode, "Baby Bottle," Cuphead and Mugman are still children, left home alone for the day. A baby...um...penis with a condom partially rolled onto it? -- is left on their doorstep.
Gay subtext: They move into maternal and paternal parenting roles, with marital-couple fights: "It's like you didn't even want to have this baby!"
The third episode, "Ribby and Croaks," follows the boys as they try to break into a riverboat nightclub run by two Brooklyn-accented frogs.
Gay subtext: the frogs sing about how there's only one women in their life, their "Mudda."
Beefcake: None.
Gay Characters: Cuphead and Mugman have the usual gay-subtext relationship, coupled with a lack of heterosexual interest. In the last episode, they meet a girl cuphead (actually a chalice-head) who charms people into giving her stuff. But they don't find her entrancing; they just want to know her secret, so they can charm people into giving them stuff, too.
But in a contemporary show on Netflix, I expect actual recognizeable gay characters. I didn't see any.
Villain: In the first episode, the Devil says "Cuphead still owes me his soul!" So I expected him to be the Big Bad of an ongoing story arc, but he doesn't appear in any of the episodes I watched.
1930s Homages: After the first episode, not many. One gets the impression that the Fleischer-esque animation was just a tease; the producers expect the show to stand on its own merits.
My Grade: The Cuphead Show doesn't really stand up on its own. I'd rather watch the old Betty Boop cartoons. C.
See also: The Gay Symbolism of Betty Boop
