Mere minutes ago, 6 months after messaging him, Brian Stepanek replied to me on Cameo and confirmed he WAS the voice of Skipper whenever Tom McGrath wasn’t available. Insane!

Theory: Kowalski still can’t read, he just happens to know exactly what a poison dartfrog smells like

the fact that apparently the penguins never once have ever had a misunderstanding episode is weirdly wholesome, especially given how easy it'd be to write something like that.

I would argue that Julian's oppressive unwantedness is actually important to the show. He's an antagonist to the penguins, the zoo, and the audience.

Interesting thing I learned recently. Penguins are actually incredibly hard to gender and often zoos have to send away blood work to be told what gender a penguin is.

Weirdly enough, this show is still culturally relevant in Polish communities. This cartoon had such an iron grip on all of us growing up

i actually like that skipper and marlene weren’t made into a couple. a lot of times in kids shows the main guy and main girl were forced to be together no matter the lack of compatibility, and to see them just be friends/coworkers is nice.

Can we all agree that Kowalski, Rico, Private, and Skipper have more personality than the entire power ranger samurai team combined? Which is fitting because both aired on Nickelodeon and this show already had more than a two-year heads-start.

31:10 The reason Tara Strong sounds different after a while is actually explained in the story. In Eggy's second episode he decided that Julien was the zoo's greatest warrior and decided to model himself after him instead of the penguins. To this effect, he ends the episode impersonating Julien. The reason Tara sounds different is because they kept that change. It's pretty neat continuity.

I still use "Kowalski analysis" in my everyday conversations Especially If someone's last name is Kowalski It was such a hit in Poland. Everyone knows it. The realisation that in the original he was also named Kowalski made my poor Polish heart melt.

This show was brilliant. I don’t care if it’s not culturally relevant.

it was arguably bigger than spongebob in poland and still has a ton of relevance here. when you said it has no fandom it kinda broke my heart because i used to write fanfics based on the show with my internet friends as a kid :D

This show was a perfect "Come along for the wild ride" sort of show, you mostly don't question anything and go with the flow, watching what these guys would do next. As many fellow Polish had said, this show was quiet a hit in Poland, thanks to the amazing localization (done my the same people who localized the Shrek series, which it too was a big hit in Poland). Goes to show that with the right people in the right place, something niche to others can be quiet treasured for generations by some.

i know people are talking about the polish dub, but the serbian dub is INSANE. like, theres jokes i couldnt explain to you without sitting down and giving you a rundown of the enrire history of the balkan peninsula. they added those "adult jokes" with nothing but accents. all of the America References were changed to relevant serbian equivalents. unironically i still watch this show as an adult because the dub did SO much it actually made it legit funny. honestly its one of the most impressive works of dubbing ive ever seen

Good heavens, I made an error (the first time in my entire life). In the movies, Maurice is voiced by Cedric the Entertainer. Kevin Michael Richardson just did such a phenomenally good impression that I didn’t hear any difference in the performances and thought it was him all along.

It's a shame the show doesn't get the recognition it deserves in America. Although in german speaking countries it was a big success. In the movie the penguins were voiced by a semi famous german band but in the show they were voiced by really famous voice actors making them way more charismatic. Plus King Julien is REALLY popular around here even more than the 4 OG Madagascar animals. "Penguiner takes all" is one of the best cartoon episodes I've ever seen on Nick, where the quality is even competing with season 1-3 spongebob.

22:30 as someone who has seen all hail king julien , i can confidently say that mort is straight up an interdismensional eldritch being. this is not me joking or exaggerating. thats just the lore

I love how the Polish part of Keyan's audience is showing up strong in this comment section, that rules! I love how certain shows and franchises make such different impacts outside of the USA. it's a good reminder that there's so much more world out there

For any soul that stumbles upon this I'd like to share an interesting bit of background on the Penguins of Madagascar: Skipper will on occasion mention 2 other former team mates that are gone: Manfredi and Johnson This is a reference to my favorite movie of all time - the 1953 film Stalag 17. This film is about prisoners in a prisoner of war camp that discover one of the men in their barracks is an undercover German stitching on their plans. At the very start of the film, we see Manfredi and Johnson try to escape the compound, but the get brutally murdered and their corpes are displayed publicly in the mud the next day. They became a sort of honored memory for the rest of the film, a reminder that the person who indirectly killed them still lives in the same room as everyone else. Why is this important? Because Stalag 17 is the direct inspiration for one of the most popular television shows of its time: 1965's Hogan's Heros - another prisoner of war media piece, this time a TV series centered around the confident, bold, Hogan and his wacky wartime shenanigans. Hogan is a CARBON COPY of Skipper, I mean down to just about EVERY personality trait (confident, brave, flirtatious, etc) . Even Shultz and Klink have been combined into King Julian, and there are other character comparisons. The stories play out in a similar comedy style, even the Zoo is similar to the Prison in setting (the prisoners have secret underground tunnels and treat the prision as if they basically own it). To me it feels very similar, and I 100% think the writers grew up watching Hogans/Stilag17 and mentioned Manfredi and Johnson as a sort of sign of respect to a part of their inspiration.

I am in no way Polish nor of Polish descent but reading all the comments talking about what a huge hit it is there and in other Eastern European countries just makes me so happy as a long time fan of the Madagascar franchise! Knowing that this brilliant show has relevancy in other parts of the world fills me with joy ☺️☺️☺️

Maybe the show didn't leave a mark in your country but in Poland it was everywhere, from memes, quotes, music and vulgar fan dubs. Also Polish dub was fenomenal, aside from greate performance from ours dub actors/actresses, it even changed some jokes from og dub to some from our culture, one of the bests shows i remember from my childhood years

I remember being so upset that Dr. Blowhole wasn't the main antagonist of the Penguins of Madagascar movie because I always knew him to be their greatest enemy. But instead I got some lame octopus guy I don't even remember the name of 😭

I just realized in the episode Return of the Revenge of Dr Blowhole, Dr Blowhole tried to turn Private, Kowalski, and Rico into mutants monsters using the diaboligizer. Then in the movie Dave basically did the same thing with the Medusa Serum.

I don't know if that can be counted as fandom, but Polish version has a lot more recognition "nation wide". There are many people quoting the show, I saw a lot of memes using quotes from the show (or even full clips), and overall it's quite appreciated due to the translation and voice actors. Sometimes I saw 50+ adults knowing the show or watching it from time to time.

Words cannot express how fucking happy I am that this exists. This show was so formative to me as a young child and yet barely anyone talks about it. I never imagined someone else would care enough about it to make a video like this. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

To me, it was far easier to separate the "Movies Penguins" from the "Show Penguins" and see them as completely different timelines since here in Brazil, the main franchise movies were dubbed in Rio and the show in São Paulo. The voices are wildly different haha

Polish person here! This show is definitely one of the most beloved cartoons here. People still mention it, make memes with it and remember it fondly as one of those "smart animated shows with actually funny jokes that kept the both kids and adults entertained". In my family we still quote the show a lot, my family members notify me when it's playing on Puls or Nickelodeon, my school friends use memes with them... For sure still my favorite childhood show ❤ Also the dub is amazing and a staggering majority of the jokes are very funny!

This show was one of my absolute favorites when I was a kid. 😭 This and the Kung Fu Panda cartoon, which is also strangely obscure despite how much Nickelodeon used to hype it up. Would love to see a video on that one if you're up to it. Or TMNT 2012 which completely consumed my soul when it came out lmao

I've seen several people mention this show being a hit in Poland, Serbia and Ukraine and I just wanna add it was very popular in Bulgaria too with an awesome dub. I guess for some reason slavic countries really nailed dubbing this show and had all of us remembering it years later

Penguins' shake becoming a thing almost 10 years on tiktok later makes the whole situation even more hilarious. I seen so many people learn this dance over last 2 months just because someone found that old animation and started putting diffrent songs in the background. Whoever had this idea back in 2014 must be punching a wall right now

@11:35 I can’t believe the Quibi thing was so catastrophic that Katzenberg is more known for that than for beefing so hard with Disney that he founded Dreamworks to make a Shrek about it

The idea of Penguins of Madagascar sequel - Puss in boots style is so good acctually Just like you said, having the team face some serious problems or emotions, conflicts even, like c'mon I can't be the only one who would want to see a conflict in between the group. "Every penguins personality is different but it somehow works", yes and I love that dynamic but conflicts happen in between everyone from time to time, and Skipper, Kowalski, Privete and Rico have soooo much potential for it i can't even explain it. I can't be the only one, right? Now I want a POM sequel PIB style, thanks

As a fellow Club Penguin fanatic who watched this show as a kid, there's this one line from the episode "Hello, Dollface" that lives rent-free in my head to this day and I'm a little surprised you didn't mention it. At one point a man picks up Private thinking he's a toy and says "Talking penguins? What is this, 2005?". It turns out that while there was a surprising amount of penguin-related media released in the mid 2000s, the only things that, to my knowledge, meet both these criteria are the original Madagascar film and Club Penguin. Therefore, I choose to believe that this is some obscure Club Penguin reference that only I ever picked up on.

The penguins are like a perfect group dynamic, even star wars tried having their own "Penguins" With the bad batch

39:59 "As a kid, as of season one, this was my absolute favorite episode. And I don't feel like unpacking that right now" LOL

As a kid, this was one of my favorite shows ever, and to finally find someone recognizing and breaking down this show makes me extremely happy. Thank you for this.

I believe that a large reason why this show got treated poorly by Nickelodeon at the end of its run was that the network didn’t want to continue paying licensing fees to DreamWorks Animation for airing it along with the Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs. Aliens shows (Nick owns half of the copyright to those shows as well as broadcast and streaming rights hence why most of them are on Paramount+). It became even more evident when Nick’s sister studio Paramount Pictures stopped releasing the DreamWorks films after 2012. Since Nick wanted to focus more on its own properties, DreamWorks went to Netflix starting with the Turbo series. It’s a shame, because this show was one of my favorite Nicktoons growing up. I even still have the Operation Blowhole DVD!

There actually are some notable differences between movie and series Private. Private seems to be...not all there. He's barely focused on the mission and seems more confused. The not being all there pretty much went over to Rico, but in a more insane way. Private's innocence was less out of intelligence and more morality. However, his kind and reasonably intelligent personality from the series came into the movies quicker, as soon as the second Rico's thing about spitting out stuff was very gradually exaggerated. Just a paper clip in the movie, struggles to cough up dynamite in a Christmas Camper, and the GBA video game tie in had him to easily burp up weapons. I think he was meant to be a foreign agent at first since he says Hai (Japanese for yes) and making sushi, before they went for the deranged maniac

It makes me so happy that this show hasn't been forgotten after all these years

I remember everyone loving this show when I was kid. Very many Germans also have fond memories of this series (to expand the conversation about the global impact), I used to play penguins with my cousins lmao

No joke, the episode “penguin zombie” instilled an irrational fear of zombies in me for over 7 years

I loved "The Penguins of Madagascar"; I watched all the episodes so religiously, I had a "Mandela Effect" remembering an episode where Kowalski first met "Doris the Dolphin"; THAT NEVER EXISTED.

You know who really loved this show. Manfredi and Johnson. They loved the show so much they tried their hardest to make sure it would never be forgotten. Sadly they made it so everyone would forget it ever existed instead.

As I’m watching I’m slowing remembering I’ve watched almost every single episode of this show as a kid and only now seeing how insane it is

Hoboken, New Jersey has always been a running joke in general. In an old Bugs Bunny cartoon where he helps a baby get to Antarctica, the little penguin reveals it was actually raised in the Hoboken zoo and Bugs just loses his mind at the thought of going there. Then, towards the end of “Dude, Where’s My Car” one of these alien guys is like “we banish you to Hoboken, NJ”. I think it gets referenced a few times in “How I Met Your Mother”.

"there is no fandom" look. There might not be a big huge one but the fandom exists!! It was my first Tumblr fandom ten years ago and I'm still mutuals with my best fandom friend and she still blogs mostly about PoM!! I remember having to dodge spoilers when the movie came out and there was a lot of discourse about the implications of the movie on the show canon since they were in a separate continuity. It might max out at five people but please don't say our fandom doesn't exist ;w;

I never realized how much of the charm this series had in my country was the dubbing. The Latin American Spanish dub of the penguins is so iconic that listening to them in English feels...hollow

I remember watching this show religiously back and I was so upset that nobody seemed to care about it besides me where I lived. So thank you for making this video.

What I like about Dr. Blowholes appearance is,) that with confirming some of Skipper's crazy (and strangely one-man-missions, making him sound waaay older and more experienced in this field than the others): You never know, what story is true/based on his actual life (in case of over-exaggerated storytelling on his part) or when he is actually delusional 😂

When i was like 11 or 12 my parents went to tom mcgrath's wedding because my dad was coworkers with his wife, and i almost went to a party at his house a few years later once i was actually interested in becoming an animator but then the pandemic happened 😭 ive been begging my dad to try to see if i can meet him because he's done so many big things at dreamworks

I'm so glad you touched upon the lack of notoriety this show has despite it's popularity, it always seemed to puzzle me why this was the case. Nevertheless, the show takes up a lot of real estate in my own head and has a lot of pop cultural significance to me haha

My dad and I loved this show. Sad it didn’t get more hype

I was very deranged about this show when I was younger so it makes me really happy to see someone actually talking about it for once + It's pretty cool that this video was made by a Transformers channel because I'm also deranged about that lol

I love that most of the tools and gadgets Kowalski makes look like they’re made from random toys and pieces of trash that they found lying around at the zoo. What I love even more is that while this is true, they’ve also got a functioning thermonuclear reactor powering their base.

I remember watching this show nonstop everytime it aired on nickelodeon, there's just something offly cool about the penguins going from trying to head to Antarctica to planning out the most whackiest spy missions, and the show was actually very self aware that even if it takes place in a different parallel universe it's still fun to watch as it expands on beyond what the penguins do and how they interact with characters in the show.

Using club penguins spy theme as a background music is just genius.

Not giving the penguins any personal internal conflict between each other is one of the best decisions of the writers ever did. Those plots tend to be dumb and cheap, since they are usually caused by a simple miscommunication problem or the characters acting really selfish out of nowhere. The only time this kind of thing happen in the show is usually due to supernatural or sci-fi means, which meant that under normal circumstances, the penguins have an unbreakable bond that is stronger than steel.

It's interesting that you say the show had no cultural significance. Maybe it's true in America. But I'm from Poland and from the Penguins-obsessed generation, and here the show is still fondly remembered and there are lots of memes from it and youtube videos about it. Maybe it's just because one of the main characters is named Kowalski wich is a typical polish last name, and somehow that made us like the show more lol

I remember watching this a lot on Nickelodeon, because not only did this show come right around when both SpongeBob SquarePants & The Fairly Oddparents jumped the shark, but it had better humor than those shows at the time.

I'm so incredibly happy to see someone talk about this series for this much time. It was one of my favorites growing up, especially as someone who didn't get to watch the Madagascar films very much as we didn't own them. I swear I was obsessed with these silly little spy penguins. I remember frequently watching the series on TV, and loved renting the DVD for Blowhole's Revenge. It was literally my favorite episode to watch. My family and I still quote Dr. Blowhole's Pen-gu-ins line to this day.

I always remember the needle episode because everyone especially me could relate to Skipper’s fear of needles.

Haha, it's weird how we both had similar Skipper and Marlene relationship. I even remember also speculating that 2:26:54 the Tunnel of Love would be about Skipper and Marlene. Even though now as an adult, I can say they didn't really have any chemistry, but I'm pretty sure it was caused by Marlene being basically the only female character in the main cast and Skipper being the leader.

A 2 and a half hours video about my first ever hyperfixation and my first favorite franchise?? Never been so invested in a youtube video this much, this is peak content to me, I'm so glad I wasn't the only one who wrote fanfics and made fanarts of this show as a kid! I rewatch the whole series every now and then and know almost every episode by heart. Fun fact: the Penguin shake has become a tiktok trend in 2023, I couldn't believe it LMAO another fun fact: in the italian dubbing I grew up with, the Big Time Rush voice actor's in their cameo episode were the same as their actual show which I also loved, and that was so important to me that I still point it out to this day because I've never seen such a dedicated voice reference back then (I think I was the only one who cared about it lol)

Kowalski is my favorite penguin, Jeff Bennett is such an underrated voice actor.

Learning that Keyan used to copy the plots of TV show episodes and submit them in class makes me feel slightly less guilty about the time I copy/pasted the plot of the Zeke and Luther episode with the exploding skateboard (except it was about Tony Hawk and his friend, "Jack Eagle"), and submitted it as my own story in class.

As an old Penguins Of Madagascar fan the fandom was really big the AMV community went crazy over it and the biggest ship was Julien X Skipper or Dr. Blowhole X Skipper. The fandom even fought nick to bring it back and once the movie happened fans loved or hated it.

I used to play the Penguins of madagascar. My sibling was Kowalski and I was Skipper and we went on adcentures. I loooved this show

@37:20 I remember this joke so vividly as the thing that taught me scarlet and crimson were shades of red. This is such a wild memory to suddenly appear but I suddenly have such a clear moment of me watching this scene as a kid.

Nickelodeon DreamWorks shows need more attention. They played an integral part in my childhood, but aside from Penguins, we've had Kung Fu Panda Legends of Awesomeness and Monsters Vs Aliens 2013(the last we'll ever see the IP again). Maybe the other two could have their separate multi-hour reviews, but the voice acting within these shows(excluding MvA, which was decent) were so good imo. Wally Wingert literally mirrored the performance of Ben Stiller and Jack Black as Alex in the Penguins of Madagascar specials, and Po in Legends of Awesomeness. Absolute talent within both; Jeff Bennett and James Patrick Stewart also did great as Kowalski and Private, same goes with Tom McGrath as Skipper.

this show is one of the most famous cartoons in Poland and is loved by adults and children alike, not to mention the iconic dabbing of the main characters and their sayings

Man I was so fixated on this show as a kid. I was in the fandom back on deviantart, made ocs, amvs, art...so nostalgic!

I remember the thing that solidified skipper and Marlene being a ship for me was simply the fact that skipper has like a “pet” name that he calls her (doll/dollface) and I remember always thinking it was so cute

Glad the series is finally getting the recognition it deserves. It was a huge hit in Ukraine and it still remains a cult classic, with regular airings across various TV channels to this day.

This show had the perfect amount of borderline insanity that I loved and still do (Also I'm from Poland and yes we love the penguins. A big part in this played the polish dubbing I think, the jokes were more unhinged and less family-friendly sometimes and it was hilarious)

Dude, this was one of the best series to watch on Nickelodeon back then. My whole family was on board with the show, and we even got the DVDs of the series. We still watch them whenever we want, and it still holds up after 10+ years.

I'm from Poland and there are so many memes from this show but I think it's mainly due to incredibly funny translation and great dubbing actors

My best friend in middle school and I were OBSESSED with this show, and even opened a fan blog just to talk about it between us and rank the best episodes.

I totally agree with the dream of a Puss in Boots: The Last Wish moment for The Penguins of Madagascar series. I personally was really disappointed that the movie returned to the characterisation of the Madagascar films, and would love to see them return to the series characters for something that has the freedom to stray away from the toilet humour the show often devolved into that instead capitalised on the absolute insanity the show pulled off at its best moments. Marlene deserves more screen time, Julien's character deserves to be more balanced and less annoying and Mort deserves to be rewritten to be not insufferable. I've always felt this series was PERFECT for some sort of completely wacky and artistic reboot focusing on just being as absolutely insane and fun and action-packed as possible. It also upsets me that King Julien as a character has been able to have multiple spin-off series since the ending of this show, and yet the Penguins have never had a shot at an actual reboot of their show that retains their wacky and nostalgic series-style characterisation, with Marlene and the cast from the series returning.

i never watched this show as a kid, but in my mid 20s i decided to try it out and it's now one of my top ten favorite cartoons ever. the storyboarding and timing of jokes is just so masterfully done overall. a lot of tropes i hate in other shows are done well enough here that i don't mind at all. it has that early spongebob vibe of a group of people writing what they truly think is funny and making it as wacky as possible without being too obnoxious

speak for yourself. i loved the penguins & still quote the “just smile and wave boys” till this day. every time i see a video about “forgotten” shows , it’s always something i never realized people didn’t know about/remember! i’m always so shocked to hear things like this.

I'm pretty confident when I say that Mort's feet obsession is just a note from the same exec who asked for it in all the live action shows

You know what’s funny? the “Penguin Shake” actually did go viral a few weeks ago on TikTok 💀

Fun fact: David Schwimmer voices Melman. Ross's german dubbing voice actor voices Mort.

There is an episode where marlene says "christmas in july!!, except it's not christmas.. and it's not july" and that quote lives in my mind rent free AND in latin american spanish. Also the episode of an elefant never forgets. what a gem

I can’t tell you how many years I’ve waited for someone anyone to make some kind of deep dive video of this UNDERATED GEM of a show. I loved watching this when I was little the musical episode with Alex and blowhole was my favorite! And the fact that I was showing this to my cousin just a few days ago

I remember so much about this show growing up that I could recite The Hoboken Surprise word-for-word, sound effect-by-sound effect when I was in high school, and ran it in my head when I had extra time after finishing an exam in high school. The fact that you're giving attention to this series now is one of the best things that I've seen all week!

I remember actually getting chewed out at school because of this show. At recess I was telling a classmate about a joke King Julian does in one episode that I thought was funny at the time (basically he explains his thought process and it eventually devolves into him arguing with his own thoughts). I was explaining the joke and to make it similar to how it was delivered in the show I raised my voice during the arguing moment. An EA (Educational Assistant/Teacher's Aid) came out of nowhere and was like "stop fighting" (obviously we weren't) but when we tried to explain it to her she didn't want to hear it and what she said boiled down to: "It sounds like you're fighting, and I think you're fighting, so that means you are. So stop fighting." and then she walked off leaving us confused.

It's crazy how you jumped to kevin mcdonalds role in pnf, when his voice immediately conjured the one guy from lilo and stitch as well as tallest purple from invader zim for me (funnily enough wally wingert plays tallest red) it's always a lot of fun to connect voices to the talented people behind them!!

sucks to hear the penguins of madagascar show isnt talked about much in north america. Down here in South America it´s pretty common to see it in memes! It´s dub is really highly regarded so that probably helped a lot

I absolutely love the fact that he let Blowhole's voice that announces his invents speak for itself!

keyan you're so real for this. thanks for always picking the underdog least-talked-about shows to make deep dives about. really validates my childhood interests

No because the penguins different catch phrases, and best lines are still used by my entire family on my mums side. The Christmas story is one we watch every year (that and the sherk Christmas dvd). There’s something so special to me about this dapper penguins. 46:36 also the fact that they didn’t make private the possible girl penguin is also nice to see.

Huh it's wierd to hear that the Penguins of Madagascar isn't talked about in the US. Here in Poland it is very well known and popular. Nearly everyone is familiar with it regardless of age. It aired on multiple channels including government television. Not to mention that the dub is excellent, way funnier than the original with the legendary Jarosław Boberek as King Julien. There are lots of memes and edits. There was even a KZfaq channel where some guy role played as King Julien and played video games in character. COBI the Polish building blocks manufacturer made a line of officially licensed the Penguins of Madagascar sets which is really funny when you realize that since Skipper is public enemy #1 in Denmark LEGO would never make sets based on the show. And the cherry on top is that one of the main characters in literally named Kowalski. Need I say more...?

The movie ignoring the events of the show is weird because one might say "maybe it was done to avoid confusing audiences who only know of the penguins through the main Madagascar films" but considering The Penguins of Madagascar's huge popularity during its broadcast makes the lack of connection have even less sense

I fricking loved this show! I remember sliding snowy hills down on my belly w my friends spewing military jargon and beating up imaginary enemies. Absolute banger

finally the retrospective of this underrated classic is here

There is in fact a penguins of Madagascar fandom on tumblr! I found it on accident in 2018 when looking for pictures of Pomeranians and just searched pom. Just checked rn and there is in fact still several people posting penguins of Madagascar content under the pom tag.

I believe that the reason why we remember certain episodes clearly, could be our current mood while watching it back then. For example, Concrete Jungle Survival was an episode that I still remember like every scene in it. I'm guessing that's because I always loved spooky stuff. My current mood was usually sleepy at those moments because I always used to wake up before my parents just to watch TV starting from Dora to Penguins of Madagascar alone and I LOVED that feeling, I loved listening to Graveyard 8 and watching nickelodeon until household wake up and later on having breakfast while watching TV again :)

I always used to watch the Penguins before going to school. I have very fond memories of that, so I am SUPER THRILLED to watch your video about this series that is so engrained into my memory. Love you Key!

you forgot the adult joke from the time travel episode where skipper says "the hippies can be stopped" and "i just want to slap a hippie and tell one to get a job!" Also the one were skipper's gender test malfunctions saying he's girl and the penguins refuse to give him a chest bump.