Okay. OKAY. I need to take a breath because I’ve been waiting years for this moment and I genuinely don’t know how to contain myself. Regular Show: The Lost Tapes premieres on Cartoon Network Africa on Monday, 11 May at 17h20, and if you grew up watching this absolute fever dream of a cartoon, you already know exactly why I’m typing this with shaky hands.
For everyone else? Buckle up. I’m about to introduce you to the weirdest, funniest, most chaotic park in animation – and trust me, by the end of this, you’re going to want to cancel your Monday plans.
So… What Even Is Regular Show?
Easy, just imagine two best friends working the world’s most boring jobs at a local park. Raking leaves. Picking up trash. Setting up chairs for someone’s birthday. The kind of low-stakes, half-asleep employment that should be wildly uneventful.
Except every single time — every single time — these two manage to turn “rake the leaves” into a confrontation with interdimensional demons, time-travelling wizards, or a sentient hot dog from another galaxy. The show is called Regular Show, and absolutely nothing about it is regular. That’s the entire joke. That’s why we love it.
It’s been a pillar of South African pop culture for over a decade — pulling in 558,000 viewers a day on Cartoon Network Africa and ranking in the Top 5 Coolest Cartoon Shows in the Sunday Times GenNext Survey every year since 2015 (it climbed to #3 in 2025). This isn’t nostalgia bait. This is a show that kept its grip on us.
And now? NEW EPISODES. After all this time. I’m not okay.
Meet The Crew
Mordecai — The Tall Blue One Who Should Know Better
Mordecai is a 21-year-old blue jay who dropped out of art college because tuition got too expensive (relatable, honestly), and now he’s working at the park trying to scrape together enough to finish his degree. He’s a decent guy, finishes his work early, and is technically the responsible one of the duo. Technically. In practice, he uses all that free time to do absolutely nothing of value with his best friend, and somehow that’s how the universe ends up getting threatened. Also he has a massive crush on Margaret and it’s painfully obvious to literally everyone except him.
Rigby — The Walking Disaster
Rigby is also 21. Rigby is a raccoon. Rigby’s only college experience was sleeping on Mordecai’s dorm floor. He’s a grifter, a slacker, and an unrepentant chaos agent who will ruin your day for fun and somehow make you laugh while he does it. He’s not book-smart but he’s street-smart in the most useless ways possible, and his loyalty to Mordecai is the only thing holding him to anything resembling a productive life. He is the engine of every single bad decision in this show. We love him for it.
Benson — Boss Of The Year (In His Own Mind)
Benson is a gumball machine. Yes. A literal gumball machine. He’s also Mordecai and Rigby’s micromanaging supervisor, with a temper hotter than Joburg in February and dreams of one day inheriting the park. He’s constantly on the verge of firing the boys, but Pops keeps swooping in to save them, much to Benson’s eternal frustration. If you’ve ever had a boss who took everything personally, Benson is that energy distilled into a vending machine.
Skips — The Yeti Who Only Skips
Skips is the strong, silent type. He’s a yeti. He’s been working at the park forever. He’s a champion arm wrestler. And — critical detail — he can only move by skipping. He cannot walk, run, jog, or shuffle. Just skipping. He’s also the most competent person on staff by a country mile, which says everything you need to know about this park.
Margaret — The Coffee Shop Crush
Margaret works at the coffee shop next to the park. She’s working her way through college, she finds Mordecai and Rigby genuinely funny, and she sneaks them free coffee when her manager isn’t looking. Mordecai’s crush on her is the slow-burn romance arc that powered approximately 60% of the original show’s emotional beats.
Mr. Maellard — The Old Man Yelling At His Cane
Mr. Maellard owns the park. He’s rich, he’s old, and his mind is going in increasingly entertaining directions. He talks to his duck-shaped cane. Regularly. He wants his son Pops to inherit the park one day, and he respects Benson’s hustle but will never give him the keys to the kingdom. (Plot twist from the lore: Pops and Benson are secretly half-brothers and neither of them knows.)
Muscle Man & Hi-Five Ghost — The Peanut Gallery
Muscle Man (real name: Mitch) is a green dude with a tank top that’s seen things. Hi-Five Ghost is, well, a ghost who specialises in elaborate high-fives. Together they’re the park’s resident pranksters, hecklers, and rivals to Mordecai and Rigby. Their entire friendship is built on increasingly complicated handshake routines and a shared commitment to being the absolute worst.
What’s New In The Lost Tapes?
The premiere is a 30-minute special dropping Monday, 11 May at 17h20, followed by five brand-new episodes that week. Then the second batch of five more lands the following Monday, 18 May, also at 17h20. Repeats run weekdays at the same time, so there is genuinely no excuse to miss this.
The new series picks up exactly where the magic left off, Mordecai and Rigby trying to dodge work at the park, only for “crashing a friend’s luau” or “finding the perfect nap spot” to spiral into surreal, reality-bending disasters. Same off-beat humour. Same heartfelt moments. Same chaotic energy that made this show a global phenomenon. But also, and this is the part that’s making me lose sleep: all-new adventures, crafted to bring in a whole new generation while still hitting every nostalgia nerve for those of us who’ve been here since day one.
The Voice Cast Is Stacked
The original gang is back. JG Quintel (the creator) returns as Mordecai and Hi-Five Ghost. William Salyers is back as Rigby. Sam Marin is voicing Pops, Benson, AND Muscle Man (the man is a one-person ensemble cast). And the showrunner is Sean Szeles, an Emmy-winning filmmaker with 20+ years in the game and a deep history with Regular Show itself.
But here’s where I lost my mind a second time: the guest voice talent includes Mark Hamill (yes, Luke Skywalker himself, currently on a career hot streak after The Life of Chuck and The SpongeBob Movie), Stephen Root (Office Space, Barry, King of the Hill), Joe Lo Truglio (Boyle from Brooklyn Nine-Nine!!), and Christa D’Agostino. This isn’t a quiet revival. This is a cultural event.
Why This Hits Different
I’ve been refreshing the Cartoon Network schedule for weeks. I’ve rewatched old episodes to prepare. I’ve prepared snacks. I have warned my colleagues that I will be unreachable on Monday evening. This isn’t just a TV premiere – this is a return to the kind of weird, smart, heart-led animation that doesn’t get made enough anymore.
If you grew up with Mordecai and Rigby, this is your moment. If you’ve never seen it, this is the perfect place to jump in – you don’t need to have watched a single episode of the original series to lose your mind at this one. The show has always been built on chaos, friendship, and the unshakeable belief that the most boring jobs hide the most cosmic adventures.
Monday 11 May. 17h20. Cartoon Network Africa (DStv 301). Set a reminder. Tell your friends. Cancel your dinner plans.
OOOOOOHHHHH! 🎮
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