Clone High Episode 8 ‘A Room of One’s Clone: The Pie of the Storm’
Written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Aired 12/15/2002 on MTV
‘A Room of One’s Clone: The Pie of the Storm’ is the only episode of Clone High to feature a voice over, taking a cue from many comedies – both animated and live-action – who have ‘special’ episodes with characters telling us a story, instead of just watching it play out. With the gruff, aged voice of Toots as narrator, ‘A Room of One’s Clone’ isn’t as succinct or hilarious as other episodes, but it’s one of the show’s most focused half-hours, revolving its plot around a single storm overtaking the suburbs of Clone High.
From the opening moment of the episode, ‘A Room of One’s Clone’ repeats the phrase “Storm’s a-brewing” from the mouth of just about every character, and for good reason: everyone in this episode finds themselves in nasty conflicts, and most of them, with their own friends. What begins as a fun exchange of sexually harassing puns between Ghandi and JFK turns into a brutal argument, with the fists of JFK finding their way into Ghandi’s face multiple times throughout the episode. It’s a very high school-esque idea: JFK defines himself as being the coolest, the best-looking and the wittiest, and when someone else of smaller stature comes along and challenges that, the default reaction is to handle it like a playground disagreement and fight it out.
Cleo and Joan are in a similar, juvenile fight, forced to live together after Joan’s house burns down, and Toots reveals his lover is Cleo’s drunk foster mom (whose name is Cleo’s Drunk Foster Mom). Although they’ve clearly had a disdain for each other since the pilot, this is the first time they’ve really duked it out physically. I mean, it’s not a creative leap to make Cleo and Joan hate each other: they’re fighting over the same guy, and are polar opposites in terms of their personal values and beliefs. So this episode was all about the catfight we’ve been waiting for all season (and JFK and Ghandi have been waiting in the bushes all night for), and it plays out in typical fashion, escalating from a fantasy-filling pillow fight (of course), into a primal battle of woman vs. woman, after dividing the room horizontally turns Joan into a wall-climbing primate.
Of course, an episode of Clone High isn’t complete without a Butlertron/Scudworth disagreement, and when Scudworth tries to replace him with E-Cybo Pooch (a gift from the Shadowy Board), Mr. B is not only suspicious, but hurt. One thing about this stretch of episodes of Clone High I don’t particularly care for is how much Butlertron and Scudworth are separated from the rest of the clones. Moments like Scudworth as the basketball coach and Butlertron consoling Joan are some of the best in the series, and unfortunately, most of their time on the show is spent together, not necessarily separated from the main plot, but still isolated from the other characters on the show.
With all these fights going on – and big storms brewing – Abe is sent on a journey of discovery when faced with all the anger surrounding him. He believes its in his DNA to mediate problems, since the real Abe Lincoln managed to bring an entire country back together. But as a clone, his skills in conflict resolution are questionable at best, especially when shouting phrases like “A bedroom divided against itself cannot stand” (something immediately proven by Cleo and Joan), and “Try the churros” (the advice from robomatronic Lincoln during the Abe Lincoln Mild Ride at the local park).
At the end, all of the fighting finds its way into the pie factory where the Principal’s Ball is being held, after a Benny Hill-esque comedy sequence that felt like nothing more than a slightly amusing time-waster. In fact, much of the episode seems to fizzle out once Abe realized he had no relevant advice for everyone, reducing itself to another pie fight (a fun one this time), and the closing images of Toot’s beady blind-many eyes.
But what I found interesting in those final scenes is that the minute Abe stopped trying to emulate his clone father and be a great leader, he actually became one. Sometimes all we need is to let off a little steam, and the clones did just that by unleashing a tirade of pies on Abe himself. There are times when a good, hearty laugh is more healing and therapeutic than a long, boring speech from some loudmouth, and the end of ‘The Pie of the Storm’ reminds us of that.
Other thoughts/observations:
– the conflict mediation seminar felt like the high school version of every corporate event I’ve ever attended. Whoever thought eggs on spoons makes for good teamwork is a shithead.
– the theme of this year’s President’s Ball: Old Money.
– the idea that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Moses wouldn’t get along because of religious differences (and attitudes towards lactose) is actually quite a funny one. I think it’s the only time we see either of them in the series, however.
– A shot of JFK spanking Ghandi with a croquet paddle is followed by Toots spanking a tied-up, gagged Cleo’s Drunk Mom.
– remember those robotic dogs? that reference is almost as forgotten as last week’s O-Town guest star.
– Mr. Scudworth and Butlertron have a movie poster for ‘Reserved Dogs’ on their wall.
Episode 9 – ‘Raisin’ the Stakes: A Rock Opera In Three Acts’
Written by Adam Pava
Aired 1/12/2003 on MTV
For all intents and purposes, ‘Raisin the Stakes’ is the most high-concept episode of Clone High; unfortunately, the concept causes the episode to be one of the least enjoyable. It’s got all the gags and pop culture humor of the show’s other 12 episodes, but somewhere between script and execution, the episode falls really, really flat. Without the emotional parts that make other episodes so strong, there really just isn’t much of a point to ‘Raisin the Stakes’, and it all feels half-baked and thrown together.
The plot itself is probably the least inspired in the show’s entire run: when a famous rocker visits Clone High to tell them about the perils of doing drugs, he turns them onto the idea of smoking raisins. Of course, everyone gets addicted, and the parents of the town rise up (under the dictatorial thumb of Principal Scudworth) to stop the teens from becoming nonsensical drug addicts. Even for a predictable story, there is a lot of dense subject matter being explored: drug use, teens views on drugs, the drug war, the ability of government to control drug use…. tons of shit is there to explore, but instead, there are just haphazard scenes thrown together to give the episode the same experiences we’ve seen in various other forms of media.
They’re all over the place: the PTA getting involved in getting rid of drugs, Abe’s speech to his parents about the raisins they find in his pants, Ghandi’s “trippy” journey… it’s all material done to death elsewhere, and outside of hand-drawn characters, there’s nothing different about what’s going on here. Sure, there are some light pokes in the side along the way – the drug pusher has an actual audience, his rock lyrics include meta references to himself and what he’s currently doing – but the majority of it is straightforward parody, lacking in any sort of original circumstances or jokes to place these clones into (For example, seeing the clone JFK struggle with drug addiction as reported with the real JFK, could’ve been hilarious).
It doesn’t help that half of the episode is dedicated to Ghandi’s journey, the most pointless, laugh less expedition in the show’s short lifetime. Ghandi’s journey with the honkeycorn is so stupid and full of over-played, lazy ‘trippy’ imagery is a complete waste of the chance to explore the inner working of Clone High‘s oddest character. Instead, we get an awkward dream-like sequence where Ghandi searches for a princess who will thrice lay him. Turns out the princess is the honkeycorn, who may or may not have had a hummingbird for a mother. It’s really just a bit collection of stupid jokes, like conjoined Olsen twins, and unicorns with back problems.
‘Raisin the Stakes’ ends in quite a dull fashion, as well. After Scudworth’s wall is built, the high teens try to break it down with love (represented by blocks of text levitating towards the wall). It doesn’t work, and it’s not until the parents accidentally inhale the raisin smoke is the problem solved. The kids no longer think its cool, and inexplicably, the pusher loses all of his power. In the end, it turned out to be an elaborate marketing campaign by the California Raisins Association to get kids to eat more raisins (repeating the fake impairment twist of the pilot). It’s a poor ending to an episode that just felt slapped together and rushed throughout, lacking in cohesion and the interpersonal relationships of characters that makes the show so interesting.
Other thoughts/observations:
– the one memorable part of the episode are the single-frame cuts made within the episode, their take on “subliminal messaging”. These little nuggets are the best parts of the episode, from DNA Dan’s dark side poster to a quick shot of a naked Cleopatra (which is at the bottom of this article).
– lots of Abe as Jesus images in this episode.
– does anyone else think this episode’s music budget should’ve been bigger? Both the composition and production of the songs are poor. If they’re trying to induce the same audio feel as the 70s-inspired visuals I get it, but it just sounds like shit.
– the other fun gag of the episode is JFK talking backwards. During a scene, he falls through a ceiling and crashes brutally on the floor, inducing a seizure. He then says this line of dialogue, which is played in reverse: ”I am talking backwards and telling you–to watch Clone High–and for us to get an Emmy. I’m saying that backwards–’cause it’s sneaky!”
– lines like Abe’s mother saying “raisins are building a barrier, and we have to build a wall to break it down” are like teasers for a much-better version of this episode. Just like when Joan of Arc stands on a pile of raisins being lit (remember, she was burned at the stake).
– Scudworth’s arc in this episode is really boring (and there’s almost no screen time for Mr. Butlertron in this episode), but his paranoia for the PTA is quite amusing.
— Randy