As the Eds are often perceived as three parts of one whole, they naturally interpret the world around them in very different ways. Put their points of view together, and the results offer many unique perspectives. This becomes the premise for this cartoon, and it delivers on the entertainment.
The framing device is a situation that most would expect to come at the end of one of the Eds’ crazy schemes set up for them to explain. There’s Jonny and Plank getting ready for bed and about to read a bedtime story before turning in. Then the Eds suddenly appear in Jonny’s wall which is an outrageous predicament for the average person, but par for the course with them. They feel inclined to tell Jonny exactly how they ended up in the wall while Jonny interprets this as them telling a new fun bedtime story.
Making the stories as strong as they are is how they’re set up to demonstrate the broad characterizations and worldview of each of the Eds. Apparently, their scam for the day was setting up a jawbreaker bank where kids come to store their jawbreakers, though you could guess the Eds just have them for themselves. To the average viewer, this sounds idealized and the perfect basis for a bedtime story, but context says this is meant to be a legit recount. What’s not a legit recount is how each Ed describes what happened. Eddy’s interpretation is the most idealized. He’s presented as a rich, powerful, and popular owner of the bank, like this is how he wants to actually be. Also of note are the humorous and exaggerated ways he views his comrades and neighborhood kids from exaggerated features, to humiliating costumes, to even being a monkey. Double D’s point of view is more analytical with little details showing the world as a meticulously crafted blueprint. It also presents him as the only logical and level headed of the group while Ed and Eddy are nothing but slobbering aggressive buffoons.
Then there’s Ed who takes the most creative advantage of viewing the world. Instead of sticking to the established story of the jawbreaker bank, Ed bases his recount on something that feels right at home with his love for comic books and monster movies. It’s about the Kanker sisters becoming giant from radiated mashed potatoes and terrorizing the cul-de-sac. It goes all out with staging to feel like a big epic action set piece, and goes off the wall with creative powers enhancing their rampage. Some play to established traits like destructive kisses, and some are largely unexpected like rays from their armpits turning houses to ‘evil soap’ or ‘deodorant.’ As the Eds run away from them in terror, Ed shows his own unique takes on characters like Eddy acting tough with mostly one word while Double D babbles with snooty vocabulary. I think that’s a perspective that stands out the most. Of course, it’s Ed himself who acts as the big hero with convenient powers of flight, and resourcefulness of finding shelter.
The latter point just happens to finally answer the question of how they ended up in Jonny’s wall. Oddly enough, for all its ridiculous occurrences, Ed’s story could very well be the most accurate of the three, getting to the point and answering the main question. This is further proven with the Kankers suddenly showing up to mess with them again, the story in a continuous cycle. As for Jonny, having just heard his story, like many kids, he sleeps through the whole ensuing rampage as the cartoon ends.
Ultimately, this cartoon is
not just a fun story, but through the mindsets of the three central characters,
it’s a very insightful character study.
A+
For Your Ed
Only
In the case of many of these cartoons, it’s amazing how much events escalate to the ultimate results. When observing the aggressive behaviors and mean tendencies of most of the cast, should the final outcomes turn out negative, it’s usually easy to accept and find solid humor. This is the general structure of this cartoon where everything escalates to extremely troubling outcomes for the major players, and for the most part it works.
It starts with the Eds doing a creative stunt with bubble gum where the blown bubble functions like a hot air balloon. This amusing visual is a solid candidate for a scam and is a nice thing to watch in action as Ed and Eddy fly around with Jonny in tow while Double D chases from below. Then in a distance, Kevin shows up and decides to be a jerk for no reason by shooting down the Eds through popping the bubble with a baseball. As Jonny’s fall goes for a more cartoonish approach by going through the ground and ending up in China, Ed and Eddy’s fall has larger repercussions.
They crash land in Sarah’s bedroom, and there’s a lot of emphasis on its destroyed state. If something like this were to happen in real life, the room would be classified as in disrepair, and from the characters’ reactions, it’s captured in this cartoon as well. It’s like an effective mix of extreme antics and believable consequences to the outside world, making for a feel all its own. While there are noteworthy reactions from the Eds like Double D panicking over the damage and Ed fretting getting in trouble, of course the biggest reaction is from Sarah. She may be an unpleasant brat a lot of the time, but in this case, her distressed look when she sees her room destroyed is very warranted. She doesn’t even do anything remotely mean in this cartoon.
Now, in this bad situation, another one soon arises with what the Eds manage to obtain in destroying Sarah’s room and later escaping the scene, Sarah’s diary. As is the case with stories like this, ending up with this means they have access to her most private thoughts, and they would be inclined to expose it. Given the general meanness of this show’s tone, it’s practically engrained in the makeup that Eddy would want to do this, and there are legit interpretations of this move. Sarah has always been one of the most difficult kids to deal with, so Eddy would naturally be inclined to go this far. However, since she doesn’t do anything bad here, in the context of this cartoon, he’d still be in the wrong to do it.
On another note, the entries themselves have decent amusement to them like a show of Sarah’s soft side through writing of fondness of Double D, and a sketchy animation of Eddy. They don’t get far in exposing any of this as while all the kids help Sarah find her diary, Kevin catches the Eds and sees what they did. They take care of Kevin by tying him to a tree, but this can be seen as warranted too. When you think about it, they wouldn’t have found the diary if he didn’t burst their bubble.
This now means that they have
to act fast in returning the diary before Sarah notices them. While this plan seems plausible enough to
work, because of bad luck, not only does Sarah catch them, but through
observing her diary, finds out the Eds looked at it. As a measure of escalation, the gum that
started all this comes back with the Eds trying to escape. Once again, the bubble balloon fails, and we
end with a funny visual of the Eds stuck together in a load of gum, with Jonny
and Plank somehow back from China to share the suffering. Perhaps it’s debatable if some measures go
too far, but on the whole, this cartoon seems to be proof of this show knowing
how to make a mean cast and troubling situations work so well.
A-
Series Ranking
1. One
+ One = Ed
2. A Glass
of Warm Ed
3. Rent-A-Ed
4.
Once Upon an Ed
5. Fa
La La La Ed
6. Urban
Ed
7.
Laugh Ed Laugh
8.
Dawn of the Eds
9.
Wish You Were Ed
10. Mirror,
Mirror On the Ed
11. Ed-N-Seek
12. Keeping
Up With the Eds
13. Who
Let the Ed In
14. Avast
Ye Eds
15. Flea
Bitten Ed
16. Fool
on the Ed
17. Ready
Set Ed
18. The
Ed-Touchables
19. Who
What Where Ed
20. Dear
Ed
21.
Momma’s Little Ed
22. Hot
Buttered Ed
23. Stop
Look and Ed
24. Shoo
Ed
25. Ed
in a Halfshell
26. Scrambled
Ed
27. Vert
Ed Go
28. Oath
to an Ed
29. Button
Yer Ed
30. Read
All About Ed
31. Rambling
Ed
32. Home
Cooked Ed
33. Honor
Thy Ed
34. Floss
Your Ed
35. Quick
Shot Ed
36. Look
Into My Eds
37. Knock,
Knock Who’s Ed
38. A
Boy and His Ed
39. Eds-Aggerate
40. High
Heeled Ed
41. Know-it-All
Ed
42. For Your Ed Only
43. Cry
Ed
44. Eeny
Meeny Miney Ed
45. A
Pinch to Grow an Ed
46. Pop
Goes the Ed
47. Hands
Across Ed
48. An
Ed Too Many
49. Sir
Ed-a-Lot
50. Over
Your Ed
51. A
Key to My Ed
52. It’s
Way Ed
53. In
Like Ed
54. To
Sir With Ed
55. Nagged
to Ed
56. Tag
Yer Ed
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