The Jumping Ground

The Jumping Ground is an American adult animated sitcom created by Lee Eisenhower and Conrad Vernon for the Cartoon Network television network. Originally Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language and dark, surreal humor that satirizes a wide range of topics. Over time, it has developed a quirky, humorous and sometimes controversial style.

The ongoing narrative revolves around four kids—PuffPuff Humbert, Lance Patrick, Zowie Hosker, and Rob Broflovski, along with a mythical alien being known prematurely as The Stig—and their bizarre adventures in and around the fictional town of Pencaster, Ohio, exploring the galaxy and defend against alien threats such as the Goa'uld, Replicators, and the Ori.

The series draws upon Egyptian mythology, Norse mythology, and Arthurian legend. Much like The Simpsons, The Jumping Ground utilizes a very large ensemble cast of recurring characters.

Music
The show's original theme song was a musical score performed by the band Primus, while the lyrics are alternately sung by the band's lead singer, Les Claypool, and the show's four central characters. Rob's lines are altered after every few seasons. The original composition was originally slower but was sped up for the show, while an instrumental version of the original composition is often played during the show's closing credits. The song's melody is similar to the song "Coddingtown", on Primus's Brown Album. The opening theme song has been remixed three times during the course of the series, including a remix performed by Paul Robb. In 2006, the theme music was remixed with the song "Whamola" by Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, from the album Purple Onion.

Specials
Beginning in 2007, a series of specials have featured the characters being dispatched at certain long-distance across a foreign country or region to complete a certain task. 2006 featured an Olympic sporting event, using cars instead of athletes.

Syndication
Broadcast syndication rights to The Jumping Ground were acquired by Debmar-Mercury and Tribune Entertainment in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Episodes further edited for content began running in syndication on September 19, 2005, and are aired in the United States with the TV-14 rating. 20th Television replaced Tribune as co-distributor in early 2008. The series is currently aired in syndication in 90 percent of the television markets across the U.S. and Canada, where it generates an estimated US$25 million a year in advertising revenue.

Streaming
In March 2008, Cartoon Network made every episode of The Jumping Ground available for free full-length on-demand legal streaming on the official Jumping Ground Studios website. From March 2008 until December 2013 new episodes were added to the site the day following their debut, and an uncensored version was posted the following day. The episode stayed up for the remainder of the week, then taken down, and added to the site three weeks later.

In July 2014, it was announced that Hulu had signed a three-year deal purchasing exclusive online streaming rights to The Jumping Ground for a reported 80 million dollars. Following the announcement every episode remained available for free on the Jumping Ground Studios website, using the Hulu player. As of September 2014, following the premiere of the eighteenth season, only 30 select episodes are featured for free viewing at a time on a rationing basis on the website, with new episodes being available for an entire month starting the day following their original airings. The entire series will be available for viewing on Hulu Plus.

In August 2014, BBC iPlayer made every episode on the show permanently available to stream in the UK. When a new episode of the show airs on BBC Two, it will be immediately available to watch.

Criticism and Controversy
The Jumping Ground has often been criticised for content inside programmes by some members of the public and by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Most of the criticisms stem from comments from the production team; however, other aspects of the programme have been underlined as unsuitable. Incidents and content ranging from (but not limited to) remarks considered by some viewers to be offensive, promoting irresponsible driving, ridiculing environmental issues, Germans, Mexicans, and Poles, and alleged homophobia have generated complaints. It has been regarded by most critics as the most controversial show on Cartoon Network, being described as lazy, adolescent humour and "mainstream racism".

The show started lampooning the controversy surrounding its use of profanity, as well as the media attention surrounding the network show Chicago Hope's singular use of the word "shit", with the Season 5 premiere It Hits the Fan, in which the word "shit" is said 162 times without being bleeped for censorship purposes, while also appearing uncensored in written form In the days following the show's original airing, 5,000 disapproving e-mails were sent to Cartoon Network.

The Season 14 episodes 200 and 200 were mired in controversy for satirizing issues surrounding the depiction of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The website for the organization Revolution Muslim, a New York-based radical Muslim organization, posted an entry that included a warning to creators Eisenhower and Vernon that they risk violent retribution for their depictions of Muhammad. It said that they "will probably wind up like Theo van Gogh for airing this show." The posting provided the addresses to Cartoon Network and the production company in Los Angeles. The author of the post, Zachary Adam Chesser (who prefers to be called Abu Talhah al Amrikee), said it was meant to serve as a warning to the creators, not a threat, and that providing the addresses was meant to give people the opportunity to protest. The 200 episode, which also depicted the Buddha snorting cocaine, prompted the government of Sri Lanka to ban the series outright.

In March 2014, Indian-born actress Somi Guha made a formal complaint to Cartoon Network for $1.8 million, for a racist term used after building a bridge over the Kok River in the Burma Special. Upon its completion, PuffPuff said, "That's a proud moment, but there's a slope on it", and Lance added, "Yeah, right. It's definitely higher on that side". This led to complaints that "slope" is a derogatory term for an Asian person. In April, The show’s executive producer Mic Graves apologised for the racist remark. In July 2014 FCC ruled that Cartoon Network had breached broadcasting rules by including this offensive racial term.

In May 2014 there were complaints and calls for the show to be pulled off the air after it was revealed that Rob Broflovski, one of the show's central characters, had seemingly used the word "nigger" in a children's rhyme on an unaired take from the show. Co-creator Lee Eisenhower denied having let the character use the word, then apologised when a previously unbroadcast clip revealed Rob doing so.

The Jumping Ground also received extensive criticism in late November 2014 after the Season 18 episode, Cock Magic, Aired. The creators, producers and the majority of the voice cast were chased out of the production studio by angry protesters throwing rocks at the team. This was in protest against the number plate on a Chevrolet Impala in the background which supposedly made reference to the Falklands War (his platenumber was H982 FKL). Cartoon Network maintained that the number plate was pure coincidence.

Video Games
Following the early success of the series, many video games based on the series were released by Electronic Arts. A platform game simply titled The Jumping Ground was released in 1999 for the PC, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, and Dreamcast.