During the entire episode if Mike Tyson Mysteries, I wondered, is he in on the joke? Or is he oblivious to the mild mockery? Mike Tyson is a former heavyweight champion of the world. In his day, he was dangerous, in and out of the ring. Now he's playing a version of himself in an Adult Swim cartoon. I'm hoping for the health of everyone involved in the show that Mike really is in on the joke.

The joke is this: Mike Tyson, a retired professional boxer, now spends his time solving mysteries.

He keeps a flock of messenger pigeons who bring him notes from people who have mysteries to solve. He is joined by his adopted daughter, Yung Hee, a girl who was left on his doorstep (spectacles and all) when she was a baby. The ghost of Marquess of Queensbury advises the group, which also includes Pigeon, who was fomerly a man.

Characters

Mike Tyson, the character, has childlike enthusiasm for everything. It's funny to see a sunny smile on a face with such a warrior-like tattoo. Mike Tyson, the character, has trouble enunciating words, or even reading a lot of them when they're strung together. When a mystery is too tough to solve, he just punches his way to an answer. The real Mike Tyson voices the character Mike Tyson.

Yung Hee is Mike's Velma (from Scooby-Doo), but she wears a pink tracksuit instead of a giant orange sweater. Like most teenagers, Yung is more interested in her own life, like where she's going to go to college, than in any of the mysteries that need to be solved. Yung Hee is voiced by Rachel Ramras, who did a variety of characters for MAD and The Looney Tunes Show.

She was also a writer on The Looney Tunes Show.

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The Marquess of Queensbury is a dapper gentleman ghost who has been Mike's mentor. He and Yung are usually on the same side of any argument. The Marquess is voiced by Jim Rash, who also does voices on TripTank. He's most famous for playing Dean Pelton on Community.

Pigeon is the obligatory potty-mouthed animal. Pigeon used to be a man, but his ex-wife turned him into a pigeon for his marital crimes. Pigeon is more interested in porn and drinking than he is in solving mysteries. Pigeon is voiced by Norm MacDonald (Saturday Night Live), who excels in performing this kind of dialogue. His nasal intonation and deadpan delivery are spot on for Pigeon.

My Two Cents

Mike Tyson Mysteries is very funny because it is also very meta, very tongue-in-cheek. If you don't know who Mike Tyson is, you'll still think the show is funny. But knowing who he is, and what's he's done, makes the absurd cartoon even funnier.

The animation is traditional, old school, with the look of an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon (again, think Scooby-Doo). The juxtaposition of the traditional animation with the modern dialogue ("Bird Sex," anyone?) makes Mike Tyson Mysteries even more absurd, in a good way.

Mike Tyson Mysteries may be a one-joke series. Only time will tell. In the meantime, these 15-minute episodes are definitely worth watching.

Mike Tyson Mysteries premieres on Adult Swim on October 27, 2014 at 10:30 p.m. (ET/PT).