Aaahh!!! Real Monsters was the original Monsters Inc. It was also the grosser, less cute version as well. The shows share a lot of similarities, which makes me assume that Disney stole this idea from Nickelodeon. And, as we all know, Disney can basically do whatever it wants. 
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters is a show about three monster friends that attend a monster scaring school of sorts located underneath a garbage dump. Doesn’t this sound like Disney’s Monsters University (being released June 2013)? Yes, it does.
The headmaster of the school is a four-legged, lady’s shoe wearing, grey blob that goes by the title The Gromble. Even though he wears high heels, I think he’s supposed to be a guy because he has a beard. From what I remember, the Gromble is a hardass and does a lot of yelling–the best form of teaching, in my opinion. He often gives his students assignments where they have to find people to scare above the surface of the city dump.
The Gromble also had a sidekick that resembled a bee with one human leg and the face of a hobo named Zimbo. He was voiced by Tim Curry. So random.
One of the students in class is Ickis, a small red monster that looks somewhat like a rabbit. The Gromble always picks on Ickis because his dad, Slickis, was one of the greatest monsters around. Or so says Wikipedia. Ickis is somewhat of a scaredy cat, which is weird because I always thought of him as the main character and main characters are usually the brave type. He has a couple of good scare moves but I think his most common one involves him letting down his fangs, opening his mouth really wide and roaring loudly. I’m most likely wrong about this though because that doesn’t seem scary.
Ickis has a total of two friends. One of them is Oblina, the best student in class. Think of her as the Hermione of monster students. Oblina is a black and white, upside down candy cane monster with big red lips. I don’t understand how these monsters go out in public without being noticed immediately. They’re pretty odd looking. Oblina has some sweet monster moves though. She can reach inside her mouth and pull out all of her organs, give people nightmares, and she can contort herself into weird, scary shapes. She also had a really soothing voice. I wish there was a sleep machine that had Oblina’s voice as an option instead of waterfalls or rain forest sounds.
Krumm, Ickis, and Oblina. Terrifying.
Ickis’ other partner in crime is Krumm, a monster who has to hold his eyeballs in his hands because they aren’t attached to his body. How did his mom birth him? Like did he come out first and then she had to birth each eye ball AND THEN the placenta or what? Maybe he was hatched…I don’t know. Anyway, because of this, Krumm can throw is eyeballs or leave them in rooms and use them to spy. He also has an incredible armpit stench, which isn’t actually that scary…sooo is he failing the class or what? Also, I’m pretty sure Krumm is the original Pale Man from Pan’s Labyrinth that held his eyes in his hands. It seems like everyone is stealing ideas from this amazing Nick show.
I don’t remember much from this show other than being intrigued by how weird it was. Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm get into trouble in almost every episode which is fun for a while, but it gets boring. The trio is much scarier than any of the fluffy monsters from Monsters Inc., but definitely not as comical. I mean, you can’t really beat a monster that has Billy Crystal’s voice.
Kidz Showz 
Almost too strange for me. I like Monsters Inc. better.
Yes this was a weird Nickelodeon show meant for weird kids. It’s kind of cool though that they had the whole likable monsters idea first though.
Agreed. We need to give them proper credit.
The only episode I remember is the Super Bowl one where there’s some race they have in the sewer during half-time when everyone uses the toilet. So really, it was a river of poop. And they wonder why our generation turned out the way we did.
At least you remembered a specific episode. You probably should have written this one. I basically only remembered their names.
Yeah this was definitely during Nickelodeon’s “how weird can we get?” era.
I remember really loving this show. I especially liked the voices. Oblina was Christine Cavanaugh (Chuckie from Rugrats ,and also the postal worker the Ug fell in love with on Salute Your Shorts) and Ickis was Charlie Adler (Buster Bunny, A MILLION OTHER THINGS). How can one go about becoming a voice actor?
I think monsters are hatched and Ickis’s main ways to scare are the ones metioned above and looming which makes him grow talller and can make blood go to his eyes or something like that also I think he can bring out his fangs while he’s looming(Which is freaking awesome!)