Channel Surfer is a villain from The Mask: The Animated Series. He first appeared in Season 2 episode, Channel Surfin'.
He was once an ordinary couch potato named Raymond Nielsen, until an accident with his television sets changed him into a dangerous TV headed super villain with incredible powers. He vows revenge against Edge City for cancelling his favourite show by forcing everyone to watch whatever he wants to watch under his command.
Appearance and powers[]
Channel Surfer's former appearance was a balding, middle-aged man who wears a white tank top, boxers and pink bunny slippers, based off a stereotypical couch potato. Now, he has the head of a TV set with his face on the screen, muscular body, his pink bunny slippers, a robe and a purple suit that has a TV set with a lighting bolt on the chest.
He had the power to travel at the speed of electricity through wires, as well as the ability to go into the world of a television show, where the fantasy was reality (worlds were not filming sets and characters were not the actors who played them.) He carries a TV remote gun that puts people in a trance-like, still state with their eyes like TV static.
Biography[]
Raymond Nielsen was a TV-obsessed couch potato who owns dozens of TV sets and home appliances in his rundown apartment. His very favourite show was Pointy Peaks, but it was hated by a lot of people in Edge City and critically panned with reviews on the entertainment section of a newspaper saying, "Too Edgy for Edge City." A large protest by people who hated the show lead to its cancellation, devastating Raymond. Desperate, he tries to find Pointy Peaks on any of his walled TV sets and accidentally flung onto them and they fell on him. The destroyed TVs and electricity gave him superpowers and turned him into his super-villain persona. With his new powers, he vows revenge on Edge City for cancelling his favourite show.
Channel Surfer begins his revenge by going on a robbery spree of stealing all TVs and home appliances in electronics stores all over town. He robs Maniacal Mike's Tele-village home appliances store where he encounters The Mask trying to buy appliances at low cost with Stanley's credit card. Channel Surfer steals The Mask's stuff and he retaliates with a battle against him. Defeated, Channel Surfer disappears in one of the TV sets to go back to his apartment, describing about his past life and plotting revenge against The Mask.
He appears on Stanley's new TV set, telling The Mask to face him for their early encounter by stunning the people of Edge City with his TV remote gun, putting them in a still, trance-like state. At first, The Mask is uninterested, but changes his mind when Channel Surfer pre-empts a Rampaging Reptiles movie marathon, one of his favourite movies. He literally goes inside Stanley's TV set and Channel Surfer traps him inside it. He torments him by putting him through many different TV shows when switching channels then starts his evil plan against Edge City.
Channel Surfer builds a large towering pile of TV sets, electronic appliances, dishes and wiring in Downtown Edge City to control all of the city's TV sets and forces everyone to watch what he wants, with the number one show being Pointy Peaks. After Peggy frees Stanley from his TV by switching him to a live local news report, he returns as The Mask and stops Channel Surfer's plot and removing Pointy Peaks from TV for good. Channel Surfer threatens to destroy all of Edge City by plugging the octopus plug on his massively, over-plugged surge protector. The Mask (dressed as a genie from earlier of this episode) grants his last wish by giving Channel Surfer an annoying itch between his shoulder blades that he can't reach. Using the distraction, The Mask zaps him inside a TV dish and blasts him into outer space. Channel Surfer vows he will return "same time, same channel!"
Trivia[]
- Channel Surfer's voice sounds like a combination of a television broadcaster and actor Adam West.
- The one type of TV shows he doesn't like are nature documentaries.
- Reappears in the season 2 episode, Broadway Malady, as the episode's main villain, Sir Andrew Bedwetter, recruited him and many of The Mask's enemies for his revenge plot against him.
- His real name Raymond Nielsen is based off the Nielsen rating measurement system that is used by the Nielsen Company to determine the audience size and composition of American TV programming and possibly from the main character Raymond Barone from the TV series, Everybody Loves Raymond.
- He's a loose parody of the Silver Surfer from Marvel Comics.
- In the Adventures of The Mask comic series, there is a villain that is similar to him named Coach Potato.
- Channel Surfer is voiced by Gary Owens who often does voices of superheroes like Space Ghost, Blue Falcon, Roger Ramjet, Powered Toast Man and Captain Squash. This is the first time he did a voice of a supervillain.
Gallery[]
