The Clarence thread

[CaseytheMuppet]

Also, I gotta look this up, but my sister pointed something out. She thinks Jeff's voiced by the kid from The Goldbergs. If not, it sure sounds a lot like him.

Yeah, it is.

 

[mr3urious]

Now that the show has returned, we finally get a Jeff-centric story. I liked the focus on his insecurities of being the "perfect" kid, and his refusal to be lumped in with the same box of "crayons" in terms of intelligence. Now there's something a lot of brainiacs can relate to.

And we finally know where the kids live: in the town of Aberdale, Arizona, which sounds awfully close to the real-life Avondale, near Phoenix.

 

[mr3urious]

Well, we finally get a Charlie Brown expy in the latest episode. Seems appropriate as I get a slight Peanuts vibe from watching this show.

 

[Drtooth]

That was one of the best parodies of Charlie Brown I've ever seen. Clarence's optimism and outgoing personality taken to the extreme is the antithesis of Charlie Brown's inward, unwilling, neurotic personality. The clash of the opposing humors made this an excellent episode.

 

[Drtooth]

They pulled a Regular Show and expanded the pilot into a full episode. And something tells me it was at the behest of CN, and the writers passive aggressively dealt with that. I especially like that the newly made footage was animated to be poorly spliced in. And no attempt whatsoever to redub Jason Marsden's original voice acting of Sumo. They really dealt with this the funniest way possible.

 

[mr3urious]

They pulled a Regular Show and expanded the pilot into a full episode. And something tells me it was at the behest of CN, and the writers passive aggressively dealt with that. I especially like that the newly made footage was animated to be poorly spliced in. And no attempt whatsoever to redub Jason Marsden's original voice acting of Sumo. They really dealt with this the funniest way possible.

Everything in the pilot can be chalked up to the trio's sketchy memories as seniors, hence the framing device.

Oh, and last week's episode about Sumo trying to gross out Chelsea (the tall frizzy-haired girl) to drive her away from their boys-only treehouse was great, too. It had a very Little Rascals feel to it with some nicely handled gross-out humor. Jeff and Clarence's attempts in trying to tell gross stories were also hilarious.

 

[Drtooth]

I like how the title itself was a condemnation of having to reair the pilot with new footage. "Cartoon Network Pilot Expansion." Very tongue in cheek.

Last week's was great too, and it managed to even get in a kid friendly "are you as turned on as I am?" argument/kissing. This show is really sliding some serious crap past the radar. The week before that, they managed to say that Belson dumped powder all over a kid's cajones and had said kid look in his pants. That has to even beat Teen Titans Go's record of having Beast Boy beckon Raven to her bed while naked with a rose in his mouth. They're really using that PG rating now.

 

[Harleena]

I love this show! It's so funny, and it shows what it's like to be a kid. Even though there is a bit of "gross-out humor" in the show, there's so little of it that it's hardly noticable. The scenarios are normal kid stuff, like going to the arcade or having a sleepover, which is probably why I like it so much. It's definitely not the best show on Cartoon Network, but it is one of the best.

That has to even beat Teen Titans Go's record of having Beast Boy beckon Raven to her bed while naked with a rose in his mouth.

Oh, please. I don't think it's possible to beat that. Real subtle, guys! (I love it!)

 

[mr3urious]

Boy, CN has been blowing through these episodes recently just like they have with Adventure Time and Uncle Grandpa.

The episode with the school being taken over by a fast food chain seems to be a pretty harsh commentary of cash-strapped schools across America who are so desperate for funds that they would need to partner up with corporate interests, a real-life example I remember about being one school whose buses were plastered with advertising to score some extra money. (spoiler: Of course, it was revealed that it was really all just part of Clarence's school project.)

And I liked the episode that followed it with Clarence and Sumo engaged in a get-rich-quick scheme, particularly for Chad and Sumo's dad's interactions with one another.

And the one with Clarence visiting an injured Belson at the hospital and annoying the crap out of him was more cringe-worthy than anything (spoiler: though it was kind of a karmic injury, plus Clarence does get injured in the end, making it a bit less cringe-worthy.).

 

[Drtooth]

Boy, CN has been blowing through these episodes recently just like they have with Adventure Time and Uncle Grandpa.

Adventure Time I'm not worried about. The other two...ehhhh.... Though it can be said that when they do this with adult programming, they're trying to get rid of them. When they do it with Kid's programming, it's usually something more positive. I still don't see why Cn can't air all the shows at once. Seems the only show that hasn't had a turn in off season break time was Teen Titans Go. Even their most popular shows managed to have to stay behind for a couple months in the new episode rotation.

The episode with the school being taken over by a fast food chain seems to be a pretty harsh commentary of cash-strapped schools across America who are so desperate for funds that they would need to partner up with corporate interests, a real-life example I remember about being one school whose buses were plastered with advertising to score some extra money.

And the other message being that lousy school systems essentially just churn out unskilled kids who can only get menial jobs like fast food workers. Pretty subversive stuff for a cartoon series for kids.