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popculturebuffet · 1 year

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Clone High President's Day Special Review: (Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand and Episode 2: Election Blu-Galoo) (Comissioned by WeirdKev27... wesley)

Tonight, on a special presidents day review of clone high

(Clears throat)

WAY WAY BACK IN THE 2000'S TWO FUTURE SUCCESFUL COMEDIANS TOOK SOME FAMOUS GUYS AND LADIES AND MADE THEM INTO A CULT CLASSIC COMEDY

NOW THE SHOWS GETTING A REBOOT NOW IT'S GONNA MAKE IT IF IT TRIES BUT UNTIL IT GETS RELEASED IT'S TIME TO LAUGH SHIVER AND CRY WITH THE ORIGNIAL CLONNNE HIGGGHHH YEAHHHH…

Honestly i'm suprised it took me this long to clone high, nor that I did our presidents say special last year and never even thought of this as an option.

In case the intro wasn't clear enough, for presidents day we're looking at one of the best shows MTV ever made, Clone High, a 2002 animated comedy about a bunch of clones of famous historical figures made into clones back in the 80s who are now teens living through a giant parody of teen dramas both at the time and in the past, with most of the episodes modeled after your various teen drama tropes which having watched a few (Degrassi, 90210 (both versions), Secret LIfe of An American Teenager) made it hilarious to me, as it matches the genre point for point while also adding in it's own zany looney tunes humor.

Naturally such a wholly weird premise.. didn't really take off and MTV canceled it the first excuse they got, but it's spot on humor, great voice acting, fun animation and brilliant premise and satire meant the show got the cult following it desreved.. and eventually came back by popular demand as it's creators ended up becoming two of the biggest names in animation, making the lego movie, the lego batman movie and Spider-man INto The Spider Verse into massive hits. While it's return is still cooking, and sadly coming to HBO Max, which at the time was a big HELL YES from me, now has me worreid they may prevent us from getting more than two seasons.. though given Paramount is both behind the series and could easily bring it to plus if it's popular enough, i'm not too worried. So while we wait , we can celebrate with the clones of two dead presidents mr. b, as we dive into the first two episodes of the show: Escape To Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand and Episode 2: Election Blu-Galoo. So come under the cut with me for some angst that's entertaning.

Escape To Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand

From the outset what the series is is clear.. not just from the throughly kickass themesong that perfectly fits the ti me, but from it's characters, who are easily recognizable both to anyone even casually aware of history.. and anyone whose seen at least one teen drama or movie: You have Abe Lincoln (Will Forte who would show up in pretty much everything this duo made after this), as our bland protaganist who wants to get with the popular girl Cleopatra (Christa Miller), your standard rich bitch popular girl and his only friends: Joan (Of Arc) (VA Legend Nicole Sullivan) , a moody goth who hides her fairly obvious crush on him, and Ghandi (Micheal McDonald), a wannabe party animal whose desperate to fit in. Basically the David Silver of the group. Rounding them out is macho jock rival JFK (Chris MIller himself doi) who genuinely thinks his clone dad was "a super macho stud who conquered the moon".

To get the elephants out of the room quick.. yes casting the white Miller and McDonald was a mistake and one the reboot hopefully avoids, though I would like to see much like say central park or x-men 95, the two actors get other parts in the series. They just don't need to play these two. I accept it to a point as of the time and the industry, as we're only three years out from it being standard to match a characters race to their va every time, but it's still something to not dance around either: They screwed up, their not doing it again in the reboot decades later, so I won't be that hard ont hem.

Speaking of the reboot while it has leaked.. I haven't watched it. I saw a screencap or too because people reblogged it without being considrate that you know.. not everyone WANTS to steal from creators who have waited for this a long ass time, and woudl rather wait. I'm fine if say HBO Max fucks up and puts it on the platform itself early (as it did iwth the first ep of close enough ) or the creators air the episode at a public event for consumption (As seen with owl house and again close enough), but I won't cover something nor talk about it till offical release and won't watch it unless it has been released in some offical capacity.

Now that's out of the way, the episode is dammingly spot on and it's telling teen dramas haven't changed THAT much. I mean I still hope for that degrassi reboot but this show shows the only real change would be diffrent music, though the use of music of the time, while likely why it took till this year to finally stream on paramount+, really helps sell it. It had been a while since I watched these two eps, having not watched the series since breaking out my dvds a few years back. And yes I got that lucky as I found it at fye for only 15 or 20 bucks nearly a decade ago and have held tight to those two discs ever since. It's even the canadian dvd complete with teletoon ads. It's glorious.

But from the "sexy teens' moniker flaunting sexualizing teens despite the characters being underage (though most teen shows sidestep this by hiring older actors and actresses it's still weird and creepy), to the music, the delviery is spot on, with most of the deliveirs sounding just like a teen drama's overdramatic yet whispery way of doing things.. yet saying rediculous shit. It's essentailly the animted euqilveant of airplane, taking a dramatic overblown genre and throwing all sorts of weird shit in, in this case from the premise down. While the plot of Abe and Ghandi trying to get beer for a party so Abe can take his shot with Cleo is pretty stock the fact it's abe and the party dude clone of Ghandi of all people trying to have genghis kahn fake his way into buying beer… and failing horribly that nails it, or having JFK Boiled down to his most embarassing and sexist traits, being mad at cleo for kissing abe later.. while making out with someone else. The cast is all time greats, so it's no shock they pull it off great.

The plot itself is again pretty stock and by the num bers teen pilot: Abe and Ghandi try to get beer but end up getting nonalcholic, Joan tears up at Abe kissing cleo but ultimately tries to push her towards him, Cleo ends up with JFK but hints she still clearly likes abe, and now you know the plot. Oh and Joan tasers Ghandi for ignoring the teen ine she set up. It's just mixed up with various clones from two elvises one pre addiction and svengaling by col parker, one post, a teacher whose half sheep and voiced by a literal and figurative dick, and the local nerd being george washington carver who made his own little peanut sidekick, along with just general madness such as the principal sending Cleo to the maze of death, Ghandi going out a 30 story window and the two best characters in the show.

They are Principal Cinnamon Scudworth, voiced by Lord and his best friend/possible husband and robot butler Mr. Butlertron, played by Miller, and while everyone else does well, Lord and Miller steal their own show as these two are essentailly the Perry the Platapus and Dr. Doofensmirtz of the early 2000s': two scene stealing characters squared away int heir own wacky subplots that rarely seriously impact the main plot, or more Doofenschmirtz and Norm but semantics.

Scudworth is the principal employed by the board of shadowy figures to make these clones into super soldiers… a plan that dosen't quite work as each clone has baggage from their original, a nicely implimented bit that adds some depth: Abe feels stuck in the shadow of his far more confident clone father, Joan became a goth entirely because she isn't sure she can be hers, Ghandi became a party animal because he's entirely sure he can't, and JFK and CLeo are stuck on the suprfical beauty of their selves. i'ts nicely done. Scudworth meanwhile plans to make a theme park.

Really though Scudworth's just there to be thrust by the board or his own stupidity into various shenanigans while Mr. B helps him out and it is glroious. I could watch a whole show of these two alone but honestly they fit perfectly here, their weird over the top antics perfectly fitting the world and contrasting how straight everyone else plays this very stupid world. Scudworth is a cartoon villian in a teen drama high school and his out of placeness just makes him that much more delightful.

For this episode Scudworth has to write a report on being a teen and after a failed interview with joan and sending her to the maze of death, which again everyone is so used to Joan getting dropped in from it dosen't even faze Ghandi, inflitrates the party.. and ends up beaten as a pinata as "Cloney Student'. It's just a taste of what he'll get into, but it's one of the best parts of an already stellar pilot. Escape to Beer MOutnain is hilarious, nicely paced and just PACKED with jokes with most having aged well. Only one or two didn't really work like Joan calling a masculine elanor rosevelt "him" and her oggling joan as she walks away, which is just.. eugh…. but overall the episode is fantastic and if you haven't watched the show, go check it out.

Episode Two: Election Blu-Galoo

And the second episode.. is even better as with the premise out of the way, the comedy ramps up further. It also gives JFK more to do. He was funny enough in the first episode, coming back to wash his hands, grappling with gay dads, and after Cleo leaves to decide who she wants he offers Abe a nacho for no real reason. But this episode really lets him shine as the oversexed idiot we know and love.

In this case Cleo wants to still be Student Body President, but for some reason Clone High has term limits, so she enlists JFK as her maleable pawn to shadow govern the school. Abe runs because he thinks Cleo is into JFK because he's a good leader, and runs on the issues before that sputters out entirely in the face of JFK campaniging soley on his abs.

This one has a scudworth plot impact the main plot a bit more than usual, as Scudworth , hard up for cash for his evil plan since the board outright refuses to give him money( Just for fun i'm going to keep saying no until you hang up…" ). Enter the X-Treme Blu Trio, three totally rad execs who spend the episode screaming nonsense..e xcept for their third and best member X-Treme Bob who instead says things like "I HAVE NO SELF ESTEEM!" and "MY SON WON'T EVEN LOOK ME IN THE EYE ANYMORE!". Their played by the Scrubs trio of Zack Braff, Donald Faison and Sarah Chalke, who all did this for a free as a favor to producer Bill Lawrence of Spin City, Scrubs and Cougar Town fame. And as a fan of Spin City and Cougar Town I love his involvment and most of these actors. Faison in paticular did a LOT of rolls for the show, including George Washington Carver.

At any rate Scudworth gladly sells out and naturally blows it all having only seen 2/3 of MC Hammer's behind the music and concluded money is endless, while the three sellout goons approach abe to do stunts and promote their brand. He and joan fall out, he eventually comes around after extreme blu (just blue housepaint and pancake batter) nearly kilsl Ghandi, it's all pretty great.

Naturally what makes the episode are the jokes, with some all timers. Some I can't really recitie here but one that really gets the teen drama and is clearly parodying dawsons creek has Abe and Joan on seperate docks starring compelatively.. only for it to reveal their on docks right next to each other, with Abe leaving with an utterly nonsense speech on their friendship ending that Will Forte somehow gives as if he were a teen hearthrob "You know what hurts the most? This nail I stepped on". It's pure poetry and if you want to get someone into the show, this is the easiest way.. that or showing them any second of scudworth, but this gets the point across more.

We also.. get a song from Marilyn Manson which at the time was a funny way to bend his image.. but now comes off as "Yikes we accidently had a sexual preadator on our show! ", ditto for Andy Dick but he mostly plays smaller characters while Marilyn Manson's role is a pretty big cameo and thus sticks out more and is harder to overlook. It makes the once utterly hiarious gag of JFK calling him "Scary Andgogyns White Guy" far less funny.

Even with this unfortunate cameo that is no way the shows fault, this episode is still spectacular and that goes for the series as a whole. If your remotely intrestd in this series go watch it, it's on paramount+ and if you don't have that i'ts on mtv.com for free. So check it out before the revival, the series is well worth it and is easily one of the funniest shows i've seen. I forgot just how constant and excellent the jokes were since i'd seen the series last but it's comic genius and was a sign of things to come from this duo. Thanks for reading.

#clone high #chris miller #phil lord #abraham lincoln #jfk #ghandi #joan of arc #cleopatra #principal sucdworth #mr butlertron #mtv

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