Festooned with copious cartoon dicks and nudity, where full anatomies are exposed where even the robot has a fully functioning “pussy”,; one would hardly think that Post Apocalypto would contain an Aesop style fable. Nonetheless, it does: “so long as the D still has a recording contract with Sony Records, the world will survive”.
Post-Apocalypto begins innocently with Jack and Kyle chilling in their apartment playing video game golf and noticing how opting for a new snack bar’s choice is aiding their bowel movements. Things begin to go wrong when their landlord threatens them with eviction. Realising that they need to make more money to cover the rent, the duo ponders several ideas, including making a new LP. They finally decide to enter a daredevil motorcycle event. Things go wrong after completing the event, and Jack and Kyle seek shelter in an old fashioned fridge from the 1950s. They end up in the Desert of the Ding Dong, where they find a lost two-headed dog, and just a single rose is growing.
Tenacious D’s attempts at survival prove lacklustre, to say the least, and are soon saved by some “kind of hot” cavewomen who take them in. As well as feeding them and providing shelter, the cavewomen also provide “a beej” along with full-on sex, which is described both visually and verbally. Once the cave girls had their way with Jack and Kyle, i.e. they received their seed to re-populate the world, the duo are abandoned to face an octopus creature intent on killing them, who is suggestively called Crackalacka Ding Dong. Fortunately, their acquaintance – the two-headed dog grows another head and saves them.
The twists in the plot grow more bizarre as Jack has an opportunity to go into space. Jack returns and shares a “full-on rack o’spare ribs extra-glazed!” with Kyle, which Jack was able to glean before escaping the space pod, which was attacked by a space pirate called Johnny Depp. You can guess who this pirate looked like and the name of his ship. After being lured into a false sense of security of free food and petrol from a Quik-E-Mart, the two men are saved by a robot with an uncanny resemblance to the one in “Terminator 2”. The difference is that this robot has a working vagina which Jack uses for his pleasure.
As well as providing sexual pleasure, the robot promises to provide Tenacious D with the first few levels of their Maslow identified human needs; the robot also provides a message from Jacks son (conceived with the cave ladies) eighty years from the future about how the world has gone wrong and how the White House is now guarded by the Gorgan, KKK members and Nazi soldiers who are guarding the Gilgamesh Crystal, and that Jack and Kyle must retrieve it and return it to Tutankhamun’s tomb. Whilst they reject the robot’s request to join their band, they allow him to sing a song and go on to retrieve the Gilgamesh Crystal. A plan is devised involving dressing in KKK garments and a blow job.
There are several celebrities and infamous individuals, including Elon Musk, Sir Richard Branson and Donald Trump Jr, who have cameos they would rather have not had. Trump Jr even sings a song whilst his bottom half is exposed uncensored. Plot spoiler – Donald Trump Jr does not mean the following words he sings: “Colours are the things that make the world better”. There are references to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and Gollum “My precious” quotes. As well as Tenacious D singing original songs too; they even have an attempt at singing “I want it that Way” by the Backstreet Boys.
With the inclusion of cameos from Musk and sophisticated robots (who also perform less sophisticated duties), AI’s roles and possibilities are addressed. Post-Apocalypto veers towards the school of thought, suggesting that robots can learn and develop their own thoughts but can’t rebel against the programmed functions inputted into them by their masters.
Whilst silly, crude and rude, there is something magical about Post Apocalypto that allows an escape into fantasy, colourful, live, vibrant labyrinth (where if something can look like a reproductive organ, it does) can be brought to life and captivate a reader in rudimentary 2D. As well as proving himself as a great actor and musician; Jack Black also proves he is a deft illustrator, and together with Kyle Gass, has co-written a wonderfully crazy, elating and consistently explicit graphic novel that can be appreciated by existing Tenacious D fans and those who have never listened to their music or previously seen their films. If this isn’t enough, the book is narrated, and Tenacious D performs the songs featured in Post Apocalypto by visiting www.tenaciousd.com.
Enjoy the adventure and buy your own copy of Post Apocalypto via www.fantagraphics.com
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