Sunday, June 04, 2017

Earthworm Jim 1.11 - Bring Me The Head of Earthworm Jim

Plot: Peter and Jim open the episode narrowly escaping from a trap laid by the Queen. Turns out if you encase a dog and a worm in cocoons, they will sprout butterfly wings.

In the main story, Psycrow and Professor Monkey-for-a-Head are fondly remembering when they defeated Earthworm Jim and had his head mounted on the wall of their club. Which happened the day before. Psycrow had asked if the professor could construct another super-suit. Well sure, but without a Battery of the Gods, it would be pretty lame. But Psycrow has himself a plan, which involves making Jim's suit smell real bad and then disguising his spaceship as a dry cleaners so they can swap Jim's suit for the weak one. Because Jim is freaking out over this date/getting pizza with Princess What's-Her-Name in three days, this works. Our heroes escape because when Peter transforms, he apparently attacks based on some cue from the suit, and goes after Psycrow for once.

While Jim embarks on a series of comic book type attempts to gain super-powers, Psycrow and the Professor conquer the universe. Which is easier than you (or they) might expect, because the Rulers of the Universe are gullible, cowardly fools. I wonder if they hail from the Planet of Easily Frightened Beings? Jim, having found that even asking the audience for help can't get him powers, decides to face the villains anyway, and offer his life in exchange for the universe.

Jim had clearly been watching JJ Abrams' Star Trek movies recently. Anyway, Jim is captured, and there is an audience member skilled in taxidermy to help mount and stuff him on the wall. Oh sure, the audience will help the bad guy, but when Jim asks them to clap and believe for him to get powers, nuthin'. As it turns out, the taxidermist was Peter, and Jim had retaken the suit while the villains reminisced and/or argued about who got it on Sundays.

In the interlude, Evil the Cat tries becoming a famous actor so he can use an award show speech to spread his political agenda of letting chaos reign.

Quote of the Episode: Jim - 'I have a cunning plan, fuzz buddy. I'm going to let them win!'

Times Peter turns into a monster: 1 (10 overall).

Cow? Yes, but once again it crash-landed in a restaurant, which still seems like it's asking for trouble.

Other: Peter knows Spanish, Jim sort of knows Spanish. Enough to say he's the King of Sponge when trying to say King of Spain.

The thing that has always stuck with me from this episode is the Professor admitting he tried once to get another battery from the Gods, and they turned him into a breadmaker. Specifically, that if he twists the monkey's tail he can make pumpernickel. Random and capricious are the gods, that's for sure. The delivery on the line is right there with Jim, "Whew, something smells like prehistoric cheese!" as my favorite lines from this episode.

I appreciate the effort the Prof put into the fake suit. He gave it a blaster (that extends a flag with a little note on it when you pull the trigger), and even a fake, inflatable rocket. Jim thought it a cheap shot, and maybe so, but it's some good villainy. Although he still hasn't created a suit the Queen can actually wear, a design flaw demonstrated in the opening.

The Professor is also a little sensitive about his monkey, and Psycrow can't help going there when they get mad at each other and start hurling insults. I guess because it's easy, but you know the professor's got a hair trigger about that sort of stuff.

At the start, Psycrow and the Professor are trading pet peeves about villainy. Psycrow hates people coming up asking for advice. Well, then you shouldn't have founded a school to help teach people villainy. The Professor despises the henchmen, which seems pretty standard for these super-scientist types. They get idiot henchmen, those guys break stuff, but they don't want smart ones that might outshine them. Either way is no good.

You know, Jim's various super-science attempts did give him powers, just not ones that were any good. Or perhaps he simply lacked the patience to learn to master them fully. The radioactive fleas did give him incredible leaping ability (and legs growing out of his face, which he took a lot better than I would). The skin rash from the radiation glowed in the dark, that's a power of sorts.

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