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My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
Characters with single parents always beg a
question on what happened to the other parent, and it can get believably
uncomfortable when that character is mocked for missing a parent. Only
having a mother, it makes perfect sense for K.O. to go through something like
this, and that’s what happens in this cartoon.
While purchasing burritos, K.O. is bullied by a kid lizard named
Chameleon Jr for taking too long. Once again taking bad advice from Rad, K.O. escalates the confrontation with his own
harsh words, the whole scene offering a clever interpretation of the idea of
words hurting others with the words appearing huge out of the kids’ mouths and
knocking them about. Soon, the tensions
escalate even more when Chameleon Jr says his dad can beat up K.O.’s dad,
although K.O. doesn’t have a dad, making him feel uncomfortable. K.O. then goes for the next best option of
having his mom take on Chameleon Jr’s dad.
When Carol finds out about what happened, Rad’s bad conflict-handling
advice is counteracted immediately as she does the responsible thing for a
parent to do by firmly lecturing her son for escalating the conflict. At the same time, she also shows concern for
K.O. lamenting about being put down for not having a dad. This already portrays Carol as one of the
best moms in TV animation, and it grows even more when she
sets out to not tell K.O. how to deescalate bad situations, but show him how
it’s done.
She shows up to the fight,
but instead of getting physical, she intends to get civil with Chameleon Jr’s
dad, Chameleon Sr. The whole scene is
set up as a great opportunity to further portray Carol as a great mom as she
tries to talk things over with the hulking monstrous Chameleon
Sr. for the sole intent of teaching her son a lesson. Even if she intends to talk things over, it’s
not easy to do that since Chameleon Sr. wants to fight, and Carol even begins to understand her son’s side of
things when Chameleon Sr. insults K.O.
The fact that she decides to fight Chameleon Sr. anyway does devalue her
legit virtuous side from earlier, even if it is still admirable that she’s
willing to fight for her offspring’s well-being, showing that her actions do
come from a place of love.
Plus, even if
Chameleon Sr. does put up a strong fight, Carol’s a worthy opponent too, taking
on his harsh blows easily, and K.O. becomes wise enough to point out that this
fight isn’t deescalating anything. He
starts taking his mom’s advice to heart even while the fight goes on,
and uses the burritos from earlier to make peace with Chameleon Sr. However, it’s Chameleon Sr.’s being
unreasonable that keeps the fight going, although a humorous scene of K.O. dropping
the burritos while stuck in Chameleon Sr.’s mouth which set it on fire does
bring it to a creative end and is a shining moment for the aspiring hero. K.O. ends up
pulling a zipper on Chameleon Sr. as he falls, out of the mouth revealing him to be a hairless
man, making Chameleon Jr. realize his dad isn’t who he seems.
This ends the fight with a wholesome scene to
give a timeless reminder that bullies have hidden character depths too as well
as a nice scene from the chameleon family, and the cartoon has the pleasure of ending
with yet another wholesome scene of Carol and K.O.’s great mother-son
bond. Moralities may get confused in the
crossfires, but strong character moments, insightful messages, and creative
twists make this an entertainingly meaningful family-oriented cartoon.
A-
The Ranking
- I Am Dendy
- Let’s Be Heroes
- You’re Everybody’s Sidekick
- Jethro’s All Yours
- My Dad Can Beat up Your Dad
- Let’s Be Friends
- We Messed Up
- Sibling Rivalry
- Do You Have Any More in the Back?
- You’re Level 100
Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode where Enid demonstrates a relatable behavior to people in customer service and an unsatisfied customer responds to this by turning her to stone.
If you would like to check out other OK K.O.! reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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