ONTD Original: Explaining the weird, weird lore of Gorillaz.
Guys this was... a lot to write... I tried to condense it but Gorillaz lore is HUGE so. I'm just gonna get straight to it lmfao.
Phase 1: Celebrity Take Down
The story of Gorillaz starts with a man named Murdoc Niccals, a green-skinned Satanist with dreams of becoming a Rock Star. Murdoc rams his car into a keyboard shop that Stuart Pot worked in, hitting his head and sending him to a coma. Murdoc was sentenced to community service as well as caring for the comatose Stuart for ten hours a week. Because I guess in the Gorillaz-verse, having a coma patient being taken care of by the drugged out Satanist thief who hurt him is like, an okay thing.
One year later, Murdoc, with Stuart in his car, attempted to perform a 360 to impress some babes and ended up crashing, sending Stuart flying into the curb and fracturing his other eye. The impact caused Stuart to awaken from his coma, and now he had hyphema in both eyes, giving him his famous black eyed appearance. Which is like, horrifying if you think about it. Murdoc thought Stuart’s creepy black eyes and blue hair was sickening, and decided to recruit him to his band as keyboardist and singer, giving him his official nickname 2D (which stands for the two dents in his eyes. Rude af tbh.)
Murdoc ended up acquiring a zombie infested studio called Kong Studio, and that’s where he and 2D moved to make their music. Kong Studio can be seen in some of the early Gorillaz music videos like Dare.
The next member of Gorillaz to be recruited was a young Black man from New York named Russel Hobbs. Russel was possessed by the spirits of his friends who died during a shoot-out, and moved to England to work at a Record shop. Murdoc kidnaps him for... reasons. But when Russel woke up at Kong Studios, he thought the music they were making was so lit he decided to join the band as their drummer. Its uh… yeah.
Click to view(The ghost seen rapping in Clint Eastwood is one of Russel's friends who died and possessed him.)
Gorillaz was formed as a band with 2D as the vocalist, Murdoc on bass, Russel on drums and 2D’S girlfriend Paula Cracker on guitar. We’re not gonna talk too much about Paula. She was kicked out of the band for sleeping with Murdoc, but the real life reason she was written out was because Jamie and Damon thought she was too similar to Murdoc personality and look-wise.
So the Gorillaz needed a new guitarist and they put out an ad for one. The same day they put the ad out, a fedex box from Japan arrived at the doorsteps of Kong Studio. And from the box jumped out an 8 year old amnesiac Japanese girl with a Gibson Les Paul and she did a sick guitar riff to end all riffs and ended her solo with a karate kick to the air. She bowed and said a single word to the guys in English, which became her new name: Noodle.
And so the band was formed. They toured, they released a few songs and eventually their very first album, Gorillaz. They partied, did drugs (well, not Noodle), tried to make a failed movie. Murdoc got banned from the Playboy Mansion, etc. It all came to a head when Murdoc’s abusive tendencies almost got 2D killed, and the band decided to go their separate ways.
Phase 2: Slowboat to Hades
This phase starts with the Gorillaz all off in their separate ways. 2D is working with his dad and coming to terms with the fact that he’s now a major pop star, Russel is being increasingly haunted by a Grim Reaper figure who eventually exorcises his friends out of his body (RIP to the king, Del), Murdoc gets arrested in Tijuana but later breaks out with the help of two Mexican mobsters. Noodle spends a while in Japan trying to uncover the truth about her existence. There she discovers that she’s actually a super soldier government experiment. She goes back to England with her new memories and, being the boss bitch she is, starts writing the band’s best album, Demon Days.
The band reunites and records the album. They release the music video to their magnum opus, Feel Good Inc. This is also when their music video of El Mañana gets released, and when we start getting into the very weird and deep… lore.
So I totally wrote about four huge paragraphs just trying to explain El Mañana and then deleted it because I’m trying to not make this any more convoluted than it has to be. Here’s the summary of my original summary: Noodle wanted to leave the band for a while. Murdoc wanted to take a guy out who was a threat to Gorillaz. Together, they devised a way to fake Noodle’s death so she could have some R&R and kill the guy Murdoc wanted gone. The floating island was supposed to crash like in the video and Noodle was going to parachute away. The helicopters shooting at her were not part of the plan, and were instead mercenaries. So when the island crashed into the ground, Noodle’s fate was left uncertain because of the unexpected mercs. She was presumed dead by most members of the band, and with that Gorillaz once again disbanded.
Phase 3: Escape to Plastic Beach
Uhhh… anyways. Murdoc goes around the world on a bender, sets Kong Studio on fire to collect insurance money, and is pursued by a group of pirates he wronged called the Black Clouds. During his travels, he comes across an island built from landfills called Plastic Beach. He builds a new studio on top of the island and decides to make it the new Gorillaz headquarters.
Noodle is still MIA, but Murdoc took her DNA and used it to create Cyborg Noodle to replace her. Russel is also MIA. We’ll get back to him in a bit. 2D is chilling in Beirut when he’s gassed and kidnapped by Murdoc. He’s held against his will by an increasingly unstable Murdoc and this era is just a big miserable time for poor 2D.
So, back to Russel. He decides to swim all the way to Plastic Beach for some reason. On his way there, he ends up inhaling so much pollution and toxic waste that he becomes a giant. Yeah.
Meanwhile, Murdoc, Cyborg Noodle and 2D are making their way to Plastic Beach by car when they’re attacked by none other than Bruce Willis. Cyborg Noodle gets shot in the head, but they manage to drive the car off a cliff and turn it into a submarine and start their journey to Plastic Beach.
While that’s going on, the real Noodle is on a boat, and this is where “On Melancholy Hill” takes place. Noodle’s boat gets attacked by pirates but she manages to escape in a small rowboat. Russel, who’s absolutely humongous now, manages to find her, and together they start making their way to Plastic Beach.
Throughout this whole phase, there’s a figure called The Boogieman who’s been pursuing our heroes. The Boogieman has a grudge against Murdoc because of a deal gone wrong and is out to get the Gorillaz. The Boogieman and the Black Clouds attack Plastic Beach, but Russel and Noodle show up and save the day. The band is finally reunited again. Also, Murdoc sacrificed a Murdoc imposter to the Boogieman to get him off his back. Hurrah.
They release a music video titled DoYaThang that shows the gang living together in an apartment, but that gets retconned in the next phase so we’ll not get into it lol.
Phase 4: We Are Still Humanz
OH MY GOOOOOOD. Okay here we go, shit’s about to get even weirder. Once again this phase starts with all the Gorillaz going their separate ways. Here’s a short summary of what everyone’s been up to:
Murdoc: He gets thrown in a weird prison called Dungeon Abbey but eventually gets released by his record label on the promise that he needed to start making new music IMMEDIATELY because the music industry was in shambles and they needed Gorillaz to make bops again.
Noodle: She had a whole adventure in Japan. She accidentally releases an evil spirit named Mazuu from its confines and spends like a year hunting it. She eventually manages to find and decapitate Mazuu and then ships herself back to London so she can reunite with Murdoc.
Russel: Still the size of a giant, Russel gets washed up on North Korea’s shore and gets mistaken for Godzilla and becomes a big attraction to the people there. He eventually shrinks down to normal size due to malnutrition and the Koreans are like “uhhh he’s not Godzilla, kick his ass out of our country” and he goes back to London.
2D: GETS SWALLOWED BY A WHALE, an animal he is deathly afraid of. Have I mentioned that before? IDK, I’m too scared and tired to go back and read what I’ve already written. But 2D being scared of whales was like a whole thing in Plastic Beach. Anyways, the whale dies shortly after eating 2D from eating so much pollution and trash and they get washed up to a beach shore. 2D spends MONTHS surviving solely by eating the whale before he realizes he’s actually in Guadalupe Island near Mexico. He walks thirty minutes and finds that he’s been next to a beach resort this whole time. He decides to join a party on the beach, stays there for a while and then goes back to London.
So the band is reunited and they make Humanz, an underappreciated album in my humble opinion. They release a few fun music videos. In Saturnz Barz, the band stays at a haunted house and are tormented by weird spirits. In Strobelite, 2D and Noodle dance at a bar while Murdoc makes a shady deal with a man who we later find out is a demonic kingpin named El Mierda.
This phase ends with Murdoc getting arrested because this is like a theme now.
Phase 5: No More Unicorns Anymore
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
So Gorillaz starts this era feeling pretty good about their last album Humanz and they wanna keep it going even though Murdoc is in jail. So they hire Ace D. Copular, member of the Gangreen Gang and former enemy of The Powerpuff Girls. So I guess at this point I might as well point out that Gorillaz and the Powerpuff Girls exist in the same universe and have been for some time now. And they say Avengers was the most ambitious crossover, hah! Anyways they work on their new album, The Now Now. They release their new music video, Humility, which features the band chilling on Venice Beach with their new member Ace and Jack Black.
Okay, let’s get to the batshit… shit: So like, Murdoc is trying to break out of prison. And he goes through some prison shenanigans that I won’t really summarize because this doesn’t need to be any longer than it already is. He’s trying to convince Noodle to help him take down El Mierda, who he claims framed him. At first Noodle refuses because she’s done with Murdoc’s shit and thinks he went to prison for serious shit, but then she notices that 2D has been acting strange and confident and begins to suspect that El Mierda has possessed him. So she goes to the Andes to track down El Mierda and take him down.
Meanwhile, Murdoc tries to escape prison through the sewers and reportedly drowns to death. Back To Noodle’s adventure: she finds El Mierda’s lair, but it’s not a lair. It’s a spa resort or something. There, she discovers that El Mierda had actually turned a new leaf years ago and was a better man. The man who Murdoc thought was El Mierda in the Strobelite video was just a random salesman. Murdoc just lied for fame and attention. Also, turns out that Murdoc did not in fact drown. He reunites with Noodle and together they come to the conclusion that 2D’s new personality isn’t from any sort of possession but that he has grown into a happier and more confident person without Murdoc around to abuse him (oof.) Murdoc comes to a conclusion that fame isn’t worth endangering himself and the people he cares about, and vows to become a better person.
Phase 6: Wish You Were Ear
THIS IS THE CURRENT PHASE! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH we’re almost at the finish line folks.
So like, the band takes a brief hiatus. The most notable thing to happen is that Noodle realizes that climate change is destroying the world and tells her other band members that she wants to build a machine and see the world before it’s destroyed and they’re like “yeah that sounds tight.”
So they get back together and build the machine. I don’t really know what purpose it serves? Google didn’t really help. But they also release their latest project, Song Machine, which is like a series of music videos made with collaborators. There’s 9 episodes right now and you can find and watch them in chronological order on Youtube.
With COVID-19, the band all social distance AS THEY SHOULD. Murdoc works on a personal project which ends up being the music video for Pac-Man.
The last episode of Season 1 of Song Machine is the music video for The Lost Chord. The band drives through a portal which ends up taking them back to Plastic Beach, which is now destroyed and strewn with skeletons of the people who died. It’s a really emotional video. We see Cyborg Noodle’s dead body, confirming her fate. Murdoc sheds a tear as he remembers the time when he was the most abusive to his bandmates, showing us that he truly feels remorse for his past actions. A Sea Monster Leee John appears and starts destroying the island. As the island is sinking, Murdoc helps his bandmates through a portal out of Plastic Beach, but the portal closes before he is able to jump in himself. Stranded and thinking he’s abandoned, Murdoc is visibly distressed until 2D opens the portal back up and pulls Murdoc back with them.
This is a pretty significant moment for the two of them. I’ve kind of talked about Murdoc’s abuse but 2D was always the one who suffered the most from it. 2D used to worship Murdoc when he was younger, even though Murdoc physically abused him and belittled him. During Plastic Beach, 2D became disillusioned with Murdoc as the man became more unhinged. And then there was a period of time where 2D seemed to want nothing to do with Murdoc at all. Ever since the end of Phase 5, Murdoc has been expressing remorse for his past treatment of his friends and a desire to do better. In The Lost Chord, with them being transported to Plastic Beach, Murdoc is forced to confront his worst moments. When the portal closes on him, his bandmates and especially 2D have every right to leave him to drown. But 2D chose to come back for him. 2D chose to forgive Murdoc and give him a second chance. I’m feeling really emo about it!
But anyways, that’s the end of Gorillaz lore as of right now. Season 2 of Song Machine should be dropping sometimes this year and they also apparently made a deal with Netflix for an animated movie. So yay!
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Guys, if you've read through all that I APPRECIATE YOU.