I missed this yesterday and caught it today after the new episode. Can't help but think that if watching them in a different order makes the context different. Mainly because "L'il Buddy" was in the box of stuff to give away and Clarence winced at it. Either he found it in the box or grew to love it, or they put it in the box when he realized how insane it made him.
Either way, having seen the episode, it comes off as a weird "Take That" to Skyler Page, even if completely unintentional. Think about it. The main character, the one he created and voiced, goes slowly insane, acts erratically and alienates everyone around him. Then again, I don't know how far this episode was in production before he was fired, so it may just be a weird coincidence... I dunno. Still, a weird episode. Liked the "Strange Things" parody. Supposedly, you can see Wirt and Greg of OTGW are in silhouette in this episode... found the screenshot... they're very dark and on the right... you can barely make them out.
BTW, I actually had one of those things as a kid and loved it very much. Not as much as my Teddy Ruxpin, but still really liked that thing. But "real hair" toys don't exactly hold up well no matter what it is.
Really liked the Chalmers Santiago one. Loved the little jab at Atari Adventure. Can't remember how wonky the Atari acted without a game in its slot (not the flashing solid color screens of a Nintendo). So, what's the deal with Belson? Seems like either he's run away from home, or he's just squatting in that house because he's Belson. After the events of Dust Buddies and his mother being more aggressive, it's easy to see why he'd leave like that. And siphoning off Clarence's mother's energy as well.