Plot: Bob's attempt to feed Jim to a shark fails utterly, and back in Jim's HQ, there is a mysterious couch. A couch which quickly ensnares Peter, turning him into a couch potato, which is happening to people across the world. It's down to Jim and Grayson, the local boy genius and head of the Earthworm Jim fan club. Grayson's job is to trace the subsonic signal he detected controlling the furniture, and Jim's job is to do what he does best, destroy stuff, Peter and the couch in tow.
The signal is traced to the North Pole, where Jim finds Professor Monkey-for-a-Head has booted Santa from his workshop, and is preparing for the second phase of his plan. Which involves using a giant, rolling recliner tank thing to take over the world, starting with Jim's hometown of Terlawk. Peter has finally broken the couch's hold on himself, but he and Jim seem pretty outmatched until they're back up against the world's biggest cesspool and Jim gets a flash of inspiration.
The mid-episode interlude involves Psycrow imploring the public to be on the lookout for people suffering the scourge of superheroism, so they can receive treatment. it ends with Jim leaping in from off-screen and calling Psycrow a 'pointy-beaked squeezehead' before opening fire.
Quote of the Episode: Jim - 'I've got lots of evil furniture to fight! I can't spend all day on the throne!'
Times Peter turns into a monster: 1 (5 overall).
Cow? Yes, and it's mutated, with antlers and a red nose. All this super-science is releasing some weird radiation into the air.
Other: There was no word on how many people are in the Earthworm Jim fan club. Also, Jim likes stamp-collecting, though he has to work to keep Peter from licking them for the taste of glue.
The intro for the couches is to show people going about their everyday routines only to be drawn in by the couches's power. One of the outtakes we see is two guys in a car discussing what they call cheese in France, so Pulp Fiction. But they made the Sam Jackson character a white guy, but with the same hair. Seems questionable.
We learned a few things about Professor Monkey-for-a-Head. His father was killed by a fruit cart, so the prof hates those. He gets nosebleeds above 10 feet, which explains that Lifestyles of the Villainous interlude in episode 1.2 where we see the Professor lives on a space station. No gravity, so no height, right? And he handpaints the designs on his wooden furniture, which shows a real appreciation to craft.
There's a bit about Santa trying to get a commercial space rented to use as a new workshop, only to be turned away be a realtor who wants proof the elves have green cards. This guy caring about if it's going to be an illegal sweatshop is the least believable part of the cartoon about a giant worm in a super-suit fighting a guy driving a recliner with tank treads.
The real flaw I see with the couches is that they make people want to endlessly munch on snacks, but don't provide snacks. Then the couch either needs to loose its hold so they can get more, or the person is going to keep getting angrier, which is going to snap them out of the haze.
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2 comments:
One of my only memories of the Earthworm Jim cartoon -- aside from the episode where they run out of money -- is one in which Santa reveals his true identity. For some reason, that has stuck in my head for two decades.
I don't remember Santa revealing his true identity. I'm thinking that's from one of the last episodes, and I don't recall enjoying those as much. Could tell the writers had run out of steam, between the "save Christmas" episode and the "Wizard of Oz" parody episode.
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