Episode 212: Pizza Club

Before seeing this, you’ll want to see 113, 207 & 208 for the full story of Andrew. Also, for the full Cynthia story, see 203 & 206.

Cast:
Brendon Small – Brendon Small
Jason Penopolis – H. Jon Benjamin
Melissa Robbins – Melissa Bardin Galsky
Coach Jon McGuirk – H. Jon Benjamin
Paula Small – Janine Ditullo
Andrew – Louis C.K.
Dwayne – Brendon Small
Cynthia – Jennifer Kirkman
Walter & Perry – H. Jon Benjamin

Synopsis: Brendon & Andrew start a father-son pizza club, based on fondness of pizza. Things get a little weird when McGuirk tries to get a membership. Brendon also tries to smooth things over with Cynthia after their last meeting. Meanwhile, Paula wants to act in Brendon’s movies, and drops a few subtle hints.

Lawn Gnomes: (Click for picture)
· McGuirk’s (well, Lynch’s) bike has a lawn gnome on the front.

Brendon’s Filmography:
· “Who’s Your Daddy” – Two convicts decide to break out of prison when they find out their daughter Malooloo is still alive. The movie follows the prisoners from their reunion with Malooloo to an emotional scene with Malooloo’s long lost mother.
· “Scab – A Documentary” – The history of the rock band Scab; starting with the birth of front man Dwayne to their performance at the Battling of the Bands.

The Movie-Episode Connection:
· Though it isn’t as obvious as some other connections, “Little Malooloo” applies to the episode. “Who’s Your Daddy” is about a girl who is living with two fathers. In the episode, Brendon is put in a bad position when McGuirk (Brendon’s father figure) feels threatened by Andrew (Brendon’s father). Through the episode, he is trying to keep relationships with both his dads, just like Malooloo. Also, to a lesser extent, one of the scenes in “Little Malooloo” involves Malooloo talking to her parents about going out on a date, while in the episode Brendon is trying to win over Cynthia and talks to Andrew about it. Plus, look at the title of the movie.

Songs:
· Bad Fusion
· Bad 80s Song
· Bad Heavy Metal
· Bad Coffee
Wake up in the morning
And I have some coffee
Put in the sugar, and the cream
And it tastes nice I hope

· Dwayntastic (called Landstander Theme in the next episode)
· Dwayne Outtro

Random Observations & Facts:
· The opening TV doesn’t have the wire we always see.
· Brendon’s calendar has the pizza club meeting on the Wednesday the 9th at 2:00 P.M. Brendon is with McGuirk when he leaves. Unless this is the summer, wouldn’t Brendon have school?
· Paula holds a script: “Robin Good” It has “-Paula Small” in the corner.
· Brendon bounces a soccer ball off McGuirk.
· The pizza club takes place at “Pizza Pizzaz”.
· The toppings list at “Pizza Pizzaz”: Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni Pepperoni
· Caligula The movie Brendon was talking about.
· Melissa and Jason drink Jaicin’ Juice.
· Caption under Dwayne’s name: Dwayne – Lead singer, song writer, founding member of Scab
· Scab apparently once had a fifth member that no longer works with the group. Apparently he got kicked out during the fights over changing the volume setting.
· Brendon’s feet can’t reach the petals on his bike.
· The initials on the bike seem to be R.L.
· The pizza club meeting is #24-1.1. I don’t know (or think) this means anything.
· McGuirk wears a pizza club sash when he holds the meeting with Walter & Perry.
· Jason’s mustache falls off and they have to do a retake of the scene.
· Burpsi and David’s Hard Lemonade sponsor the Battling of the Bands.
· The first band has psychedelic effects on their monitor (well, psychedelic in terms of Home Movies animation)
· The second band has this messages on their monitor: “You Will Obey Us” and “Love Us”
· Someone tosses a pair of boxers onto the stage when the Van Halen type band is playing.
· The first song Scab plays during the Battling of the Bands is the “Landstander Theme” from Episode 213 – The Wedding
· Lynch is watching the soccer game

Past Episode References:
· Some of the footage in the Scab documentary is taken out of Episode 203 – Hiatus.

Movie & Other References:
· Dwayne’s amplifier volume goes up to 11, a reference to the mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap”.

End Credits: “Dwayne Outtro”

Reviews: WARNING: Spoilers

Randomguy: As for my thoughts, I thought tonight's Home Movies was gold. I mean, it worked on a million levels. I think the highlight of this episode was character interaction though. The principle focus of the episode was conversation, the way HM should be, and it was all extremely funny. My favorite moments were all of Brendan's talks with Andrew (seems like they're warming up to each other now), McGuirk stealing Lynch's bike, Brendan's documentary of Scab, the various bands, and pretty much everything else, like the movie, the music, the animation, you name it. The only thing I didn't like was the subplot with Paula', which felt tacked on and didn't really go anywhere interesting. I think some might not like Cynthia, seeing as how Brendan's infatuation with her makes NO sense, but I enjoy her character. Anybody who's ever had a crush from afar, the kind that don't make much sense but dominate you anyway, will understand Cynthia's role in HM. Plus, I think she brings out some genuinely interesting emotions in Brendan (I couldn't help but feel bad for the guy in the end). McGuirk's acceptance into pizza club was obviously symbolic for his role as a psuedo father figure for Brendan (and Brendan's movie pretty much nailed that point also), which was interesting to me. In fact, there was really some fairly poignant stuff here. Overall, HM just seems to be getting better and better to me, and this episodes focus on a few principle characters, great dialogue, and a simple plot made it one of the better episodes of the second season. I give it a much-deserved A+

Spectre: I thought the episode was great in some aspects; and rather boring in others. Basically, we've already seen this whole Cynthia thing before - and in better fashion - in "Impressions."

But the good things about it were indeed really, really above average -- McGuirk's obsession to get Brendon's acceptance, and his obsession to get into "pizza club" were memorable moments.

Another bad thing, though: Dwayne's voice. It's gotten cleaner... and I could understand EVERYTHING he said -- that's not how it should be! I liked him better, much better in earlier episodes.

Best moment? The Walter and Perry one. I loved that. I'm really getting to like those characters.

Shnay: Very good episode for a number of reasons, and definitely the best of the last few episodes. The most important element of this episode was, of course, the characterization, which was expressed with excellent dialogue and atmosphere. There were basically three major scenes that (directly) established the relationships Brendon has with his father and with McGuirk. They were the first meeting in the pizza restaurant, the confrontation at the soccer game, and the final scene, introducing the newest member of the "Pizza Club."

Not only did these reveal a great deal about the characters and their relationships, but also they were also hilarious, while keeping many of the trademarks of the "HM style." In the first dialogue between Brendon, McGuirk, and Andrew, we see just how much Brendon means to McGuirk, Brendon’s discomfort in the presence of both of them, and the insecurities of both Andrew and McGuirk. But the way we see this is what sets Home Movies apart from so many other show. The exchange between the characters grows from an awkward moment into a tense and chaotic situation where they are all talking at the same time and all hiding how they truly feel. This "talking at the same time" style of dialogue is so refreshing for a TV show. Conversations in life don't end in a punch line, and they're not scripted. This episode found a nearly perfect balance between realistic characters and dialogue and wacky comedy.

I say it finds a balance between the two because, as desperate as he was, McGuirk would not have asked Walter and Perry to start a pizza club. They put that in for comedy, and it worked wonderfully. That was just hilarious.

A few final points: the Paula subplot just didn't work at all. Not only didn't it work comically, but also I think it took a little something away from her character. After seeing her enthusiastically write her terrible novel last week, and then seeing her desperate and wacky behavior this week, it seems her character is being treated with a little less respect on the show. Not a huge deal, just what sort of came to my mind as I was watching (for the record, I know why they had her do all that, I just didn't like that they did). Brendon’s movie was great, I felt it got back to the early style of the movies that I love. And, lastly, the pizza place in this episode looked exactly like the neighborhood place I go to...but none of you care...

Behonkiss: I don't like this one as much as everyone else. Yes, it IS funny, but Paula acted really out of character and it bugged me. I like the band scenes ("Now, over 100 people know their name.") and McGuirk's Pizza Club a lot, though.

Mynd Hed: This episode was all right. I'm usually one of the biggest McGuirk-lovers you'll find, but I found him annoying this episode. I dunno, usually he's funniest when he's at his most pathetic, but this episode just didn't do it for me.
I hate Cynthia's character, maybe Brendon's obsession with her just reminds me too much of my own youth, heh heh-- too hung up on her looks to realize what an evil aristocratic wench she is. Other than that, the Battle of the Bands plot was good, I love it when they give Skab some screen time-- pity they always seem to be linked with Cynthia.

Overall Grade: C+

StrangerAtaru: One of the interesting facts about Brendon in this series is that he has two father figures in his life: his actual father Andrew, and his insane non-father McGurk. In this episode, we finally sort of see Brendon come to grips with this, although it ends up in a sort-of awkward position. The scenes between Brendon and Andrew in this episode are some of the best between them so far, partially due to the lack of Linda to stand in their way. The "Pizza Club" thing is a nice way to see some good father/son relations, showing that they really have connected together since "Dad" when he first sees him. Meanwhile, even though McGurk was trying to remain a "father figure" in the face of Brendon's real father, his performance in this episode seemed mostly annoying at times than funny. The parts where McGurk tries to join this little thing, including the first "Pizza Club" meeting of the episode and the "bike" sequence (a tribute to "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure") came off more annoying than funny. Things started to pick up when McGurk organized his own Pizza Club (with another strange Walter and Perry moment), and peaked with the climatic meeting at the soccer game. Meanwhile, the "duel-fathers" motif was also linked to Brendon's movie involving the two convicts with the same daughter. That movie started off funny in the beginning, but eventually became old a little later. However, what kept it fresh was Paula's sudden interest in being a part of the movie, an interesting side effect to her unemployment situation. Paula was just a lot of fun in this episode, considering that she really hasn't been in any of the movies before and her determination eventually does pay off in the end. (sort of)

Outside of that stuff, we have the other big story in this episode: the final appearance of Cynthia. Personally, I thought this story should have ended with "Impressions", but they decided to stick her into one more Scab-related bit involving a "Battle of the Bands". Brendon's "Scab" documentary was funny, partially since it was mocking shows like "Behind the Music" as well as giving us a bit of background on Dwayne and his group. (even the mysterious "5th member") The contest itself was funny too, with parodies of all these different bands and styles that made Scab look good! (I especially liked the Devo takeoff there) All of this stuff sort of made the conclusion of the Cynthia plot seem invisible to me, but I was annoyed that even after everything he had been through, it had to take another episode (and precious footage) for Brendon to get over her. But other than that and some of the early McGurk scenes, this was a consistant episode that had some good moments.

DrWeird: An up and down episode.

I thought the character angle of McGuirk vs. Andrew was by far the best plotline in this episode and one of the best character driven plotlines the show has ever come up with. The idea of McGuirk feeling threatened by Andrew being Brendon's real father is so simple its great. Also the storyline was funny as well, with a great pizza dialogue and McGuirk with Walter & Perry. Also the screaming between McGuirk & Brendon towards the end (unlike Andrew & Linda in "Therapy") was actually mildly dramatic (and Andrew saying "Guys!" was actually kind of funny). McGuirk/Andrew angle was the strong point here.

Dwayne's storyline wasn't the best, but was solid. Cynthia (who I'll get to) brought it down, but the documentary was pretty funny (Jason as a young Dwayne). Also, the 5th Scab member (glad I'm not the only one who noticed that) and the moments with Dwayne rambling on (as he did more in season one) both added to his character.

"Little Malooloo" was a good movie (with a nice episode connection), but got kind of weak towards the end. Paula's storyline was once again stupid and mildly demeaning to her character (I don't know exactly why, but it came off that way). It just wasn't funny, more painful...

Which brings me to Cynthia. Glad this was her last episode, as she wasn't really all that good in any of her episodes. The scene with Brendon on stage going, "I've fallen in like with you" was perhaps the most cliched scene I've ever seen on home movies. ugh... and watching Brendon try and be cool with Cynthia (and fail) was more painful than funny.

Overall, I'd say a B-.

Positives: Andrew/McGuirk storyline, Little Malooloo, Dwayne documentary
Negatives: Cynthia (!), Paula (!)