The Nerdlucks are a group of aliens that work for galactic carnival worker Mr. Swackhammer and are the secondary antagonists of the movie Space Jam.
Space Jam
At first they start out as tiny and weak aliens known as the nerdlucks. They first appear when Swackhammer is trying to attract more customers to his theme park on Moron Mountain because he's losing money, during his rant he suggests something funny, wacky, and nutty when he suddenly sits on his remote in which a library of Looney Tunes shorts start playing on his TV screens, Bupkus and Nawt point them out and he agrees with them so he sends them to Looney Tune Land where the Looney Tunes reside.
They encounter Bugs Bunny and Elmer J. Fudd accidentally landing on Elmer in the process. They interrogate Bugs and ask him the whereabouts of Bugs Bunny because they have no idea what he looks like, he describes himself to them in one of his classic routines and they agree with the descriptions and he tells them that he never heard of him which disappoints them. Bugs remarks to himself "You know maybe there really isn't any intelligent life out there in the universe!" At this point they figure out he really is the Bugs Bunny who they're looking for and they shoot him with their laser guns and tell him to come with them.
That night Bugs holds a town meeting with the other Looney Tunes and tells them that they will be enslaved by the Nerdlucks. They laugh when they hear the Nerdlucks
The Nerdlucks as The Monstars
talk because they look and sound small and weak so they send Yosemite Sam after them, they shoot him with their laser guns, frying him and knocking him unconscious.
Now terrified, they raise their hands in surrender, Bugs decides to negotiate with them telling them "The rules of kidnapping a cartoon character", he then holds a meeting with Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and Sylvester after much discussion they decide to have a basketball game to decide their fates because they think they have the advantage because the Nerdlucks are too small.
Little do they know the Nerdlucks have the ability to melt themselves and shoot into a person's brain to steal their abilities. Using this they steal the talents from Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, Muggsy Bogues, and Shawn Bradley and place the stolen talents into a basketball, later as they prepare to train.
Daffy sarcastically tells them since they are performing poorly "they need to practice growing taller." They then take out the basketball and transform into gigantic monsters now calling themselves "The Monstars." After trashing the court and intimidating the other characters (especially Porky), he decides that they may need a little help, so they abduct Michael Jordan while he's golfing. After some coaching and training he decides to help them in the game.
At first the "Tune Squad" does poorly against them and are off by many points until Bugs Bunny takes steroids in order to improve their skills (he drank water while doing it). After the Monstars start trailing, Swackhammer tells them to play more aggressively which they do, sending most of the Looney Tunes to the hospital. The only remaining players are Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Lola Bunny, and Michael Jordan. Bill Murray eventually comes as a replacement and through the power of cartoon logic Michael Jordan is able to stretch his arm long enough to score the winning points.
Swackhammer tells them that they are a bunch of losers and will never amount to anything. When Michael ask why they take that from him, they reply "He's bigger than...we used to be!" Fed up with their abusive boss, they turn on him and strap him to one of Wile E. Coyote's rockets, sending him to the moon. Afterwards with some hesitation they agree to give back the basketball players' talents and revert to their Nerdluck forms, they then decide to live with the Looney Tunes.
Trivia
- When the Nerdlucks turned into Monstars, they became giant monsters of the basketball players who talent they stole.
- Their only other appearance to date has been a cameo in the Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain special "Star Warners" as patrons at the cantina bar.
Gallery
- Main article: The Nerdlucks/Gallery