Favorite Fictional Character --- Jabberjaw

This month was going to be about cartoon characters in general, but I think I'm leaning more towards those cartoons that I watched on USA Network's Cartoon Express.  I just have so many great memories of watching this at home and at my grandparents house.  When my grandparents had new carpeting put in, off white in color, I would have to take my shoes off and I would park myself in front of the big console TV and get lost in a world that was nothing like my own.  Another one of those cartoons was "Jabberjaw."

For those of you who may not know that grinning shark pictured above, let me introduce him to you.  If you were to think of crossing Curly from the Three Stooges, Rodney Dangerfield, and Scooby-Doo, you would get Jabberjaw.  Of course that is if you turned him into a great white shark.  Jabberjaw was the drummer for the band, The Neptunes, in the year 2076.  He and his band mates live under the sea in a vast complex of communities that have sprouted up on the ocean floors.  Like many great Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters, Jabberjaw and his friends not only play great music, they solve mysteries and save the world in between gigs.

Jabberjaw is, obviously, the star of the show and his fifteen feet of height won't let you forget it.  He is used to not only being the star, but the butt of the jokes as well.  Because he is a shark, he isn't allowed in all the places his friends are which causes him to feel disrespected and down at times.  But, like Scooby, the bad guys are never caught without him and just for a minute, he gets the respect he deserves.

I always had a great time when I watched him and his friends on his adventures.  In many ways, I think I actually enjoyed this one more than Scooby or Josie and the Pussycats, both of which are similar in tone and style.  I think the novelty of having a great white shark as a good guy was part of my attraction to him.  I can't think of any other shark portrayal where the big toothed creature isn't gobbling humans up.  That and there was just something so infectious about his laugh that oftentimes I would laugh right along with him (and that damn laugh track).