Sir Ed-A-Lot- Ed, Edd N Eddy Episode Five Review
Foreword
Ed, Edd N Eddy for the longest time has been my personal favorite cartoon. Recently, HBOMax has picked up several cartoons from the late 90s and early 2000s. Unsurprisingly, I went on an immediate nostalgia bender and binged watch the entire series with my lady love. And what better way to celebrate several of my favorite cartoons than by systematically reviewing each episode, starting with the dorks of Peach Creek.
To keep things simple and to help me keep my sanity, allow me to break down how I plan on scoring these episodes:
Each will be given a rating out of 10. To help solidify what those numbers mean, I have adopted a system similar to Angry Joe's rating system. To explain further:10. Big Boi Lovings. Any issues are minor enough that they do not affect the score.
9. P. Awesome. Nearly flawless, has a have issues that are bad enough.
8. P. Great. The media is great. Not perfect but better than most.
7. P. Good. Above average with some rough issues.
6. Hard Enjoy. I want to be a huge fan of it, but it's rough.
5. Aight. Average, just okay.
4. Inoffensive. I didn't enjoy it, but I certainly don't hate it.
3. Bad. Has enough issues to make angry or regret consuming it.
2. Poopie Bad Stuff. Terrible. No enjoyment, but it didn't cause me to rant.
1. Dupid. I hate it. Enough to get angry any time I think about it.
Furthermore, key points I'll judge an episode on are:
Comedy - This is a haha funny show, so it needs decent comedy.
Story - The plot of the episode. The narrative attempting to be told.
The Scam - The ploy the Eds develop to get the money from the other kids.
Normally I would also talk about music and acting for visual media - and I'll definitely still touch upon it - but since it's a cartoon, most of the music and sound effects will be repeated throughout the series, so I would be repeating myself a lot. As far as voice acting goes, I'll also touch upon it -but wouldn't want it to affect the score, unless it's either extremely bad or extremely good.
With the formalities out of the way, let's dive into episode five of Ed, Edd N' Eddy
Sir Ed-A-Lot
The title card for this episode depicts what can only be described as a tea party from the underworld. We see a beauty pageant doll and a light blue bear with a green hat sitting on the floor. Above them is, presumably, a little girl pouring tea from a pot with hearts into a teacup with matching hearts designed on it. From that description alone, you would think nothing of it. When I start to describe that the tea is a lime green color and is splattered all over the background and the floor, your mind may start to wander. My initial reaction was that it was some disgusting green goo, but my novice tea drinking brain reminded me that green tea is aptly named. The pot and the teacup are both chipped and damaged. There is also a broken cup laying upside down in a puddle of the green sludge. Less noticeable is the teddy bear's left leg being torn open with small bits of stuffing exposed. With this image seared into my brain, I can only assume the obvious: the episode is going to contain a tea party that the Eds somehow ruin or destroy. One may also be able to assume royalty, or a game of pretend involving royalty, may also be involved. Overall, it is a fairly memorable and well-done title card. It doesn't contain any nightmare fuel and does a pretty decent job at foreshadowing the episode ahead. Not gonna be my favorite so I'd throw it an 8/10 or so.
The episode opens on Eddy shining a cool sports car while wearing black shades. He's looking cool and he is taking care of a cool vehicle, so anyone who knows Eddy knows he is having a good time. Johnny and Plank first walk by, complimenting the car. A screen wipe causes time to pass, and we see Rolf arrived to check out the super car. Eddy is still painstakingly waxing the car with a cool and confident smile on his face the entire time. He asks Eddy if they can go shop for meat in his fancy car. Eddy laughs him off, telling him there is no way. We then finally see Nazz and Kevin walk up to the car. Eddy is now in the driver's seat and casually rolls down the tinted window to talk with Nazz. Eddy rolls up the window before Kevin can start harassing him, which the boy immediately asks the obvious question, "Whose car is this, you twerp?" Eddy ignores him and instead blasts some blaring base that causes the car to bounce and the two cool kids to take off. A scene transitions and Edd arrives, asking what Eddy is up to. Eddy is still waxing the car, this time sitting in the passenger window while he scrubs the roof. Double D repeats Kevin's question, albeit nicer, to which Eddy replies he has no idea who owns the vehicle.
The two then comment on their missing third, neither having seen him all day. Edd asks Eddy to join him while they go check Ed's house to see if the tall Ed-boy is there. They first check Ed's basement, but don't see their friend through the window. They move into the basement, looking for their missing buddy further. They search the entirety of the basement, but see no signs of Ed. They then hear a large crash from upstairs and move to investigate. They rush up the flight of stairs and then peek into the kitchen. Eddy let's out the line "And I thought you had problems" to Double D before we see what he is looking at. It's... possible that this line could be a joke about Edd's more feminine / soft boy aesthetic. We cut to what the Eds are looking at to see that Ed is all dressed up in a flower dress and sun hat.
Ed notices them and gives them a quiet warning. "Quick! Run Away!" - a sentiment I am very familiar with. I was born in the mid 90s and grew up during the early 00s. I am no stranger to the boys vs girls mentality. A stupid, although kind of nostalgic and at times innocent, mentality, but one that I've lived through with my brother and my cousin. Not only were we huge fans of the stereotype in media, the first coming to mind being Kids Next Door - a show I'll also review episode by episode in the future, but we also involved it in our play time. Even the first written work I ever saw from start to finish, when I was like 8 years old or so, was a story about us fighting against the girly menace. (No, I have no idea where this notebook ended up. If I had it, I would absolutely do a reading of it or publish it online.)
The specific memory that I get drawn back to is when my family had some sort of gathering. The adults were all in our finished basement while us three boys hanged out in the bedroom. I can still easily picture the room's layout and our bunkbeds that my brother and I shared. I was given the important mission (which we may have been going by our super-secret club's name, but it feels too early on for that be accurate.) of sneaking downstairs and spying on the adults (this was probably during the height of Kids Next Door's popularity, and we saw them as the evil adult menace that they were). I recall getting caught by them and one of the older women gave my adorable cheeks a kiss. For the life of me I can't remember who. I also can't for the life of me remember my parents being there. I'm sure they had to have been, but I suppose it is possible my eldest brother (who was not in the club) may have been having a party. I remember having a stunned, grossed out expression as I gingerly made my way out of the party and back upstairs. My brother and my cousin immediately took me back to the safety of our bedroom fortress and went to work on the surgery that I obviously required.
So, in summary, the idea of being warned to escape a pass time that is very nostalgic for me and something that I can look upon fondly. The Eds, however, do not have enough sense to heed Ed's advice. They laugh at their friends plight and invite themselves into the kitchen. We then learn that Sarah is forcing Ed to play dress up to join the tea party. She demands that the other boys dress up and play as well if they want to stay. Eddy, of course, refuses, to which Sarah holds her breath in protest. Ed becomes fearful and begins to beg her to stop. The whole time, Eddy shows complete indifference until he finally gives in. Sarah instantly springs to her feet and forces Double D and Eddy into dresses, declaring herself the queen.
Eddy is annoyed and makes the comment "Next she'll want a throne." To no surprise, we get a scene transition to where Sarah is now sat atop a homemade throne. We hear the doorbell ring and Eddy is forced to answer it. He opens the door and Prince Jimmy introduces himself. In response, Eddy immediately slams the door shut in his face - which is a 10/10 joke on its own. Eddy returns to the kitchen and Ed nervously brings Jimmy inside, giving him a princely entrance. Sarah then announces that the games can begin.
We get a fade to black and see that Eddy and Ed are now in their normal attire. They are both also turned into horses for Sarah and Jimmy, with Sarah on Eddy and Jimmy on Ed. The Eds race around the house on all fours. We get some great slapstick and more of the zany music the show is known for. Sarah is desperate to win and digs her nonexistent spurs into Eddy to make him run faster. Jimmy ultimately wins, forcing Sarah to reprimand her bad horsie. Eddy finally has enough and begins to retaliate. Sarah then condemns Eddy to the dungeon, to which he shows no fear for. Sarah pulls a rope, and an upside-down crib falls from the ceiling, trapping Eddy. He demands Ed get him out of his new cage.
Sarah then makes Eddy the fool, but the short boy refuses to play along anymore. Sarah then threatens to tell their mother that Ed left her all alone. We then learn that Ed has been babysitting Sarah the entire time and that if their mom gets mad at them, he won't be paid. The mention of cash is, of course, enough to get Eddy to foam at the mouth and he quickly changes his tune. He plays along as the jester and attempts to tell Sarah and Jimmy some jokes. He starts by telling some obvious, and terrible, dad jokes such as "I just flew in from Peach Creek and -" but is immediately cut off by Sarah calling him stupid and that his jokes are boring. What is interesting is that, I believe, this is the first mention of the town's name where the Ed's reside. We will see later on that they all attend Peach Creek school and that their football team is the Peach Creek Cobblers. It isn't much, but it is another added bit of lore and world building that is always appreciated.
As a side note, since I am going to write a blog post about it eventually, there is a fan series called "Peach Creek" in development. It is supposed to showcase the Ed's after they are a bit more grown. I believe the Eds are supposed to be around the 18 years old age range. It is looking promising and has a few minisodes and a teaser trailer out on their Youtube channel. I'll also link to their twitter page here:
https://twitter.com/peachcreekshow
https://www.youtube.com/peachcreek
As a warning, though, it is a show intended for an older audience. The first minisodes shows the Kanker sisters and has a few lines of dialogue where they curse. The second minisode has references to drug use. So, certainly not a show intended for children.
Eddy continues to try to tell jokes, even resorting to a sock puppet that suspiciously looks like the one the Kankers made. Sarah shuts Eddy down everything single time, eventually telling him he stinks. Eddy resorts to his friends for some help, claiming the terrible jokes were some of his best. Ed forces Eddy back into the ring and to try to entertain Sarah. Eddy attempts some magic tricks and pulls Double D out of a hat. This earns him a tomato in the face from Sarah. Ed then forces Eddy to juggle; starting small with a few household thinks like a chair, a vase, a brick and so on. Ed proceeds to keep adding different things to the juggling circle, each one more intense than the last. One of these new additions is a cactus, which hurts Eddy in a predictable bit of slap stick. Eddy's pain causes a belly laugh to escape Sarah.
She continues to chuckle as more things fall on Eddy and as Ed tries to frantically catch everything and prevent something from being broken. She then decides to take it one step further and begins to throw things. Ed is quick to correct her, but she is far too rebellious to listen to him. The Eds scramble to catch all the things she tosses into the air, desperate to keep the house from being destroyed. Sarah and Jimmy then leap from their phone and run from the Eds, throwing and destroying things as they move. They are unable to capture the two, but Eddy is able to think of a plan to lure her in.
We get a fade to black and see that Jimmy and Sarah have resorted to a pillow fight in her bedroom. We then hear a trumpet and Double D announces King Eddy. Sarah rushes into the room, claiming that Eddy can't be king and that she is queen. Eddy then drops the crib dungeon onto her, trapping her inside. Jimmy takes cover inside a dresser as Ed laments over the state the house is in. Convinced his mom is going to kill him, Double D puts his brain to use and offers a suggestion. We get another fade to black and see that the Eds are painting something. After a moment, Eddy comes to inspect their work and they proceed to slide a poorly made drawing into frame. Eddy is convinced Ed's mom will never know and the episode comes to an end. For once, and it certainly is rare, the Eds are victorious and nothing bad immediately comes their way. Granted, it is pretty obvious Ed's mother is going to be rather upset and the boys will get in trouble that way. But for now, the Eds have won.
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