In the crazy world of the internet, it takes a lot to surprise a savvy consumer of online culture. But there isn’t a single person familiar with Jonny Bravo and Dragon Ball Z who would find a crossover of the pair plausible — yet that insane possibility is true (fast forward to 13 minutes and 15 seconds to find where the incredible mashup begins).
The highly popular Johnny Bravo follows the adventures of the sunglass-wearing meathead titular character (based loosely on Elvis and James Dean) as he attempts to get women to date him, always failing because of hilarious circumstances and his own off-putting actions (plus, as this took place during an economic boom instead of the downtimes we’ve had over the last decade and a half, the fact Bravo lived with his mother was seen as another reason he wasn’t as hot as he thought). The show was noted for its hidden adult humor and numerous pop culture references, as well as a slew of guest stars.
Dragon Ball Z, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more different, aside from the fact it was also animated and aired on the same network. It followed the adventures of Goky, a powerful alien who defends earth against various evil villains, including robots, aliens, and magical creatures. There were plenty of other beloved characters, like Gohan and Piccolo, but the show very much wore its heart on its sleeve, and was all action and fantasy. So, hardly something you’d expect the hapless Johnny Bravo to appear on.
The bizarre few minutes of television comes from the short-lived JVBO: Your All Request Cartoon Show, which ran for a sole season between 2000 and 2001 on Cartoon Network. A spinoff of Johnny Bravo, it took the shape of a kind of request show where Bravo took on viewer requests about which cartoons to air. There were also “guest stars” (characters from other shows). The requests were taken through write-ins or online, and any cartoon from their extensive collection that was under half an hour in length.
Of course, that means Dragon Ball Z was too long to be featured, or should have been. However, as the above link shows, Johnny took this in his stride when a caller named “Jennifer” requested an episode of the hit anime series. The congenial host played the entire episode at double its usual speed while giving some hilarious, if incorrect, commentary — which he ends up apologizing for.
If all of that wasn’t strange enough, the sped-up episode is sandwiched between Scooby Doo and the Looney Tunes, which are four shows that really don’t mix together. Maybe there’s a reason JVBO was cancelled, after all.
As the linked YouTube video shows, this crossover was remembered by countless watchers in the early-2000s, and has been the subject of plenty of Reddit and Twitter threads speculating about its origin, and whether it was in fact a mass fever dream. However, we now know the crossover really did exist, and boy was it worth tracking down.