No Laughing
Matter
When it comes to Luan, how you feel about her depends on how
much you can tolerate her constant need to work in a joke to almost everything
she says. I’m sorry to say that her puns
have become so frequent that I can’t tolerate them as much as I used to and
wish she’d just talk like a normal person more.
That said, I do admire that Luan comes off as one of the more relatable
Louds since, however you feel about her jokes, she’s really passionate about
what she loves, and it’s especially shown in cartoons with her as the
star. They feature her never ceasing to
pull off elaborate pranks on April Fool’s Day, and also explore how seriously
she takes comedy such as Season 1’s “Funny Business.” This cartoon does fit into the latter type of
Luan cartoon, but it’s lacking in the character-developing power. What happens is that when Luan goes on a huge
pranking spree to work up to an upcoming comedy competition, her siblings start
getting fed up with her jokes. She hears
them venting and proceeds to give up comedy.
This means, in an interesting change of pace, Luan talks completely
normally which is weird to all the siblings who expect her to pull some sort of
prank or work in a joke or pun. One
admirable thing about this though is that despite being clearly and
understandably annoyed by Luan’s constant joking, the other siblings feel the
need to help her out of her funk and get her back into comedy, particularly
when they also learn she’s dropping out of the comedy competition. They understand that no matter how they feel
about Luan constantly doing what she does, it’s wrong for her to be stripped of
her passion, which is what makes her who she is. They spend the entire
cartoon attempting to get Luan back in the comedy game. In a way, this can be seen as a message to
Luan’s detractors, as well as offer a new perspective on anyone who’s
passionate about something. That said,
in all the moments of Luan turning herself against jokes and pranks by acting
normal, there are a lot of missed opportunities for explorations of her
character. When she throws away
everything associated with her comedic passions, we never find out the depths
of how she feels about doing this. Her
role in the cartoon would’ve been more powerful if she explained how she got
into comedy in the first place. That
reveal also would’ve helped make her siblings’ attempts to get her joking again
more engaging. I guess all we can do is
see if a future cartoon will explain this.
Even if we don’t learn much about Luan’s history with comedy though, we
do get one significant piece of development at the end when Lincoln
unintentionally flubbing jokes at the competition goad her to go on stage,
tell them the right way, and become the winner.
While this means she’s back to her jokes, Luan makes it clear that she
understands how overbearing she can be with them to her siblings, and vows to hold back on the jokes a little, only ending the cartoon with a bunch of them
at everyone’s approval. Basically, this
conclusion is a satisfying one for being considerate of both sides of the
issue. We’re left with a cartoon with a
good message on respecting passionate people and Luan getting some handle on
her jokes. It may not be as in-depth as
it could be, but it’s still impactful in its own right. 9/10
No Spoilers
If a cartoon character is dumb, said character is either a
completely useless and unentertaining menace to society or highly endearing and
innocent who can sometimes provide some good to a situation. Leni is a dumb character who fits the second
category.
With this cartoon, Leni’s appeal really increases with the establishment
of a significant talent of hers amidst her lack of intelligence. A specific part of
Leni’s ditzy nature shown here is her inability to keep things as a surprise,
especially when it comes to birthday parties.
As a montage shows, whenever the Louds try to throw a surprise party,
Leni always finds a way to spoil the surprise to the family member receiving it
whether she’s hiding right in front of the guest of honor, sending an
invitation to the party’s recipient, or asking the birthday sibling what dress
she should wear. Each of these moments
help make the family’s frustration with Leni’s issue understandable, as well as
evoke some laughs out of the different creative ways Leni blows the elements of
surprise. Regarding the family, they’re
planning a surprise birthday party for Mom and agree that under no circumstances
should Leni be informed about what they’re doing. As a result, much of the cartoon is just
Lincoln doing what he can to prevent Leni from seeing anyone’s preparations for
Mom’s party while all the other Louds put everything together. It features some nice displays of Leni’s
character in which her interests in fashion Lincoln exposes himself to for
surprise’s sake demonstrate one of her rare moments of intelligence, which in a
way, foreshadow what’s to come. Still,
her persistent dumb moments are plentiful through her clever
interpretations of her siblings’ party preparations that don’t get her to
realize what’s really going on which also have their own distinct cuteness. They also, foreshadow what’s to come when Leni gets ideas for Mom’s party
under the guise that everyone wants to keep it low-key. What I mean by foreshadowing is how all that
goes on leads to how much the kids realize they need Leni for what they’re
doing. Without her, their party is a
complete mess with unappealing balloons and streamers, overly sugary cake,
overly spicy sandwiches, problematic entertainment, and a guest list of people
Mom sees but doesn’t necessarily like.
The only way the party comes together as something nice is when Leni
gets involved. She takes the time to
consider what Mom likes and puts it all together for the party. It does beg the question why nobody else
considered to include what Mom likes in the original preparations. Well, technically Lisa’s guests and Luan’s
jokes tried but were just misguided, but everything else should’ve attempted to
show some consideration for the guest of honor.
Regardless of this, the party Leni plans truly is impressive, and Mom’s
reaction to the party feels completely earned.
It really shows that even if people lack intelligence, that doesn’t mean
they’re incapable of everything, as Leni had previously shown with her hobbies
and party ideas from her siblings hiding their work from her. To cap off Leni’s newly established
talent, she’s named the official Loud family party planner leaving the promise
for many great parties to come…just not surprise parties. Basic as the overall story may be, it’s
executed in a charming manner that develops and does justice for Leni and
proving that she is one of the best dumb characters in media. 9/10
The Ranking
- 11 Louds a Leapin’
- L is for Love
- Pulp Friction
- Frog Wild
- Yes-Man
- Party Down
- Friend or Faux
- Room with a Feud
- Lock n Loud
- Fool’s Paradise
- Fed Up
- Out of the Picture
- Job Insecurity
- Potty Mouth
- The Loudest Mission: Relative Chaos
- Spell it Out
- Baby Steps
- Shell Shock
- Suite and Sour
- Back in Black
- Future Tense
- Patching Things Up
- No Spoilers
- The Whole Picture
- No Laughing Matter
- Health Kicked
- Garage Banned
- Back Out There
- The Old and the Restless
- Kick the Bucket List
- Intern for the Worse
- Lynner Takes All
- Cheater by the Dozen
- Pets Peeved
- Making the Grade
- Vantastic Voyage
- Change of Heart
- ARGGH! You for Real?
- No Such Luck
- Brawl in the Family
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Lincoln and Dad bond over competing in a modern spin on a classic Nickelodeon game show in "Legends," and Lincoln exercises his big brother skills as well as his Rip Hardcore skills in "Mall of Duty."
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