Written by Dan McGrath
Synopsis:
Oblivious to a world crisis that is brewing, Andy meets a teen actress, Becka Michelle Butterfield, who asks him to go to the Grammys with her. Unfortunately, things go wrong due to the town’s fixation on the continuing crisis, while Andy brushes it off. Meanwhile, Toby decides to walk to school and ends up being pursued (albeit slowly) by a rabid (but eerily calm) dog. In the midst of all this, Posey meditates to find her inner self, destroying all her personal demons.
Due to a series of mishaps, Andy and Kevin end up handcuffed to a segment of iron fence. Kevin is freed, but Andy is not, so Kevin runs to go get help, leaving Andy on the street. At that moment, Toby comes along with the rabid dog in tow. The rabid, quiet dog turns into a rabid, angry dog who corners Andy and Toby in an alley, cowering behind the iron fence Andy is bound to.
Kevin, now unable to find his brother, goes to the Grammys, wearing a tuxedo meant for Andy to tell Becka Michelle Butterfield what happened. He talks to her and tells her a line his mother used to say about tolerance, “It takes all kinds of fruits, to make fruit cup.” Finding the line inspirational, Becka recites the line as she presents an award. Her recital of that line is accredited to a sudden peace talk and the world crisis is averted.
While still in the alley, Andy finds out about Kevin’s day at the Grammys and in a rage hits the rabid dog with the iron fence (don’t worry animal lovers, the dog is just stunned). He then drags the heavy iron fence home in the pouring rain, while reminders of Kevin’s accomplishment play out on every TV he passes by. The noise he makes wakes Posey from her meditative trance just as she sees her inner being.
Kevin returns, happy and thankful to Andy for making it possible for him to go to the Grammys, and gives Andy a note from Becka, who explains she’s winning an award next week and wants him to come see it. It turns out it’s the Nobel Peace Prize.
Review:
This was strange to watch the first time, since it was shortly after September 11, 2001, and the media coverage of the crisis was eerily reminiscent of what was real life. This episode focuses around an unnamed, and unspecified world crisis and the ensuing media frenzy around it, including the heavy emphasis on the celebrity community’s reaction. In the aftermath of the real world tragedy, this episode is actually quite clever in satirizing the emphasis we put on celebrities during important world events. It may seem ludicrous but it does happen, and in fact practically did happen. Personally, I can’t help but wonder, with all those celebrity telethons and special charity songs and events that occurred, how many of the many, many multi-millionaire stars who appeared actually gave money from their own pockets?
In a way, the episode also satirizes the way people can become instant celebrities, like Kevin did. The fact that the crisis was never elaborated on, just talked about in snippets on television, perhaps is a jab at the overload of information we have today, that sometimes it can be difficult to find out details about an event without finding at least a few contradictions.
Aside from the unnamed world crisis, Posey’s spiritual journey was quite funny, with a lot of surreal images and effective skewering of a lot of new age images, such as assigning human flaws to animals that must be slayed (I liked the “Worldly attachments” beast).
A terrific episode, probably the most original of the series.
5 out of 5
Capsule:
No Capsule Yet
Trivia:
-Becca Michelle Butterfield is patterned after Sarah Michelle Gellar, who appeared in I Know What You Did Last Summer, the title of which was also parodied in this episode (“I Still Have Some Issues With What You Did Last Summer” and “It’s Just Like Last Summer, What With The Killing And All”).
-It is heavily implied that the nation-wide crisis has much to do with an incident where Dennis Rodman is evacuated by helicopter from a ship for unspecified reasons.
-The sign on one of the protestors reads “$ for peace, not for liquor” giving some hint as to the nature of the crisis. “Money for liquor” is also mentioned in a newscast as a phrase common to the crisis.
-When Posey finally reaches the secret to enlightenment during her meditation, it is revealed at the last minute to be Ronald McDonald.
-Becca Michelle Butterfield presents an award for “Best Pop Song by the Offspring of a Rock Legend”. The nominees for this category appear to be Sean Lennon, Jakob Dylan, Lil Ice Cube, Junior Walker Jr. and Catherine “Bonzo” Bonham. Though some of these people are fictional, two are indeed the children of prominent rock artists and they both have pursued careers in music. These two individuals are Sean Lennon, son of John Lennon; Jakob Dylan, son of Bob Dylan. The other three names refer to Ice Cube, Junior Walker and John Bonham, respectively.
-Celebrities caricatured within the episode include Steven Spielberg, Will Smith, Marilyn Manson, Dennis Rodman, Beck, Dolly Parton, Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O’Brien.
-At the end of the episode, Becca accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, Sweden. However, in real life, unlike the other Nobel Prizes, the Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, Norway.
-It has become a bit of a legend as to who actually voiced the character of Becca Michelle Butterfield, but my best guess after some research is that she was voiced by Lisa Kushell, but I’m still not entirely sure.