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It’s Way Ed
Throughout
the history of pop culture, certain things take the youth by storm down to the
point where it becomes common to see them everywhere. This is referred to as fads, and that makes
for an interesting subject for this cartoon.
The material acts as a fun take on how things go in and out of style
faster than some may think, though sometimes you can’t help but think it happens
on purpose. It also makes for a huge
layer to the Eds’ relationship with the other kids in the neighborhood.
While they do originally start out by trying
to scam them as usual, once they notice the other kids enjoying a plethora of
fads, things become different. They
actually want to join in on the fun which highlights a deeper meaning of their
actions by just wanting to fit in with a crowd who doesn’t really accept
them. On another note, the fads
themselves are very versatile and show a lot of imagination in what the kids
get into. Sometimes they could be
walking on stilts, and then later wear hats with a tether ball attached to them
called whizz-whazz.
Now, the versatility
of the fads turns out to be the main issue for the Eds. Every time they get the hang of one fad, the
other kids latch onto another, and it’s hard to really figure out why. It could just be the very nature of things
going in and out of style. It could also
be because some fads feature Jimmy getting hurt so the kids change them out of
sympathy. However, the most possible
reason turns out to be a jerky one.
At
first, the Eds make the smart move of starting their own fad to stay ahead of
the gang and easily become accepted when what they come up with becomes the
next big thing. There’s a vast variety
of options they try like carrying a train set on their shoulders, mailboxes on
the head, sprinkler systems they wear, and more. It’s easily the most imaginative set of fads
of the cartoon, and eventually, they’re all combined together into one suit called
“fad freaky.”
However, this is where the
jerky part of this whole fad thing comes in.
The Eds show up to introduce their fads to the kids, not even asking for
money I might add. For no good reason
though, everyone straight up ignores the trend they’re trying to start and
focus on their own fads like springs, sunglasses, fly wings, and balloons. That’s another fun collection, but are they
so dense about the Eds that they won’t consider another option for fun? They always take notice of their scams, so
why not now at the one time they show off something for the sake of just
hanging out with them? Their ignorance
make the difficulties of the suits weight and intense heat all the more sad to
watch. If they had paid attention to
them showing them off and they backfired causing them to lose interest, then
this would be a more acceptable failure.
This isn’t the worst part though.
Once the Eds get the Fad Freaky suits off, the other kids are dressed in
their own suits. They even have the gall
to say the Eds are so out of it and miles behind when they’re the ones who came
up with it in the first place. That’s
just not right. Then they purposefully
change fads again once the Eds try to put the suits back on. There’s an attempt to make things better by
saying fads go in a cycle and will be in style again, but I fail to see how
that will help if fads seem to change on purpose.
As you can see, the other kids’ treatment
towards the Eds goes a little too far with this cartoon. Fortunately the
creativity of the many fads and somewhat relatable nature keeps everything fun.
B
Laugh Ed
Laugh
By
now, the formula for the series is well-established. A good majority of cartoons are all about the
Eds spending their time in elaborate usually misguided scams to get money as
well as acceptance from the other kids.
Even if this setup is always easy to expect, it’s kept fresh with
constant variations to the formula. It’s
quite impressive that this early on, the show brings a variation of the formula by showing what would
happen if the Eds had a day where there are no kids to scam.
The whole thing begins as a normal day for
the group with a scam all set to go.
However, unlike a good number of their scams, they don’t seem to attract
any kids at all, and there aren’t any around in fact. At the same time, it’s easy to see that their
scam wouldn’t be a big success anyway, consisting of ice cream made of glue and
paint-covered baseballs instead of real ice cream.
There turns out to be a good reason for a
lack of kids. The homes of the
cul-de-sac are laden with quarantine signs, indicating that all the kids except
for the Eds are confined to their homes because of chicken pox. From the looks of it when the Eds check on
Jimmy, the conditions seem to be more severe than average with how pale and
delusional he alone appears. Come to
think of it, with an epidemic this big, it’s confusing why Ed never noticed
that Sarah was sick prior to the reveal considering that she’s his sister, even
if he is dumb.
Needless to say, the Eds
are unable to do their usual thing, and what this leads to is given appropriate
build up. Double D and Ed are accepting
of this setup and are willing to do other pastimes. Really, the one who’s actually bothered by
not being able to pull scams is Eddy, the typical mastermind of the group. Being in the position he is, it’s believable
that he’s not flexible enough to do anything different from usual, eventually
proceeding to lash out at his only friends for ‘boring him.’ Judging them for their characteristics soon
after takes things to an even bigger extreme.
Eddy’s behavior doesn’t stop there though, as he’s then going around the
cul-de-sac begging for other kids to come out, including those who flat out
hate him like Kevin and Sarah. Through
realizing his desperation, Eddy simply snaps with clever funny scenes to depict
this. His break into insanity is
depicted as his brain popping like a popcorn popper, complete with popcorn
going all over.
Then he performs
completely random stunts like scamming squirrels out of their nuts or eating a
fire hydrant like it’s a jawbreaker, or biting a fence for breakfast. Insanity comes with any random thing that
pops into someone’s head, and there’s certainly a lot of imagination in this
take on such a thing. At the same time,
on a deeper level, the scene Eddy’s making shows how vital the other kids are
to him. He has the other Eds as friends,
but building up his social status with his scams is what he lives for. Considering that most people can benefit from
befriending as much people as possible, Eddy is practically at his most
relatable here.
Now, the one thing that
brings Eddy back to reality is Double D and Ed tricking him into believing he’s
rich complete with many greatly animated reactions to a big pile of money. Once he becomes mad that the money’s fake and
hears that the other kids are all better though, Eddy is fully back to normal
and ready to scam again. At least he will be as soon as he and the others get
out of that confined area.
This is
easily one of the highlights of the first season as an explore of a psyche, and
funny and relatable cartoon by itself.
A+
The Ranking
1. Laugh Ed Laugh
2. Dawn of the Eds
3. Ed-N-Seek
4. Fool on the Ed
5. The Ed-Touchables
6. Vert Ed Go
7. Read All About Ed
8. Quick Shot Ed
9. Look Into My Eds
10. A Boy and His Ed
11. A Pinch to Grow an Ed
12. Pop Goes the Ed
13. An Ed Too Many
14. Sir Ed-a-Lot
15. Over Your Ed
16. It’s Way Ed
17. Nagged to Ed
18. Tag Yer Ed
The next Ed Edd n Eddy review covers one of the show's most ingenius concepts at play with Ed sleepwalking while eating the cul-de-sac out of house and home, and the Eds run into hassles while running a pet boutique while the world is taken over by mating rabbits.
Next time on MC Toon Reviews is a Steven Universe episode that seems "Familiar."
If you would like to check out other Ed Edd n Eddy reviews on this blog, click here for the guide made especially for them.
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