Assume crash positions you happy people, my Ka-Blam retrospective is back! After a delay or too we’re back for a cartoon crammed season 2. If you missed part 1 you can find it here.

Season 2, like most great season 2, takes everything good about season 1 and amps it up: the segments are tighter, the animation for the Henry and June segments and Sniz and Fondue is even shaper, and the rougher edges on the segments I wasn’t as keen on have been sanded off. This is a show firing on all cyllenders.

Production wise I don’t have NEARLY as much to say this time around

Yeah while I LOVED the deep dive I took in season 1, it was also a lot so not having to give a deep history on 5 diffrent cartoons.. is a relief. I still have to cover the one off shorts but it’s not NEARLY as much and i’d once again like to thank the KaBlam! wiki for providing my background info. Seriously whoever put all this together and put your time into this.. thank you.

Moving into season 2 was a smooth transition: the only real big change was Sniz and Fondue switching studios, with Mike R Brandon hating the animation PitchiPoi did for season one and thus switching to doing most of the work itself and sending it to Canadian studio funbag. Otherwise things went smooth: the 5 main segments from season 1 stayed on.

The other changes are either show specific or slight: the startling shorts title card is gone, but we still get plenty of one offs, though for some reason it’s mostly at the back half of the season. Season 2 is simply tighting up what came before , not having the growing pains of season 1 or the massive turnovers we’d get for Season 3. It’s simply KaBlam KaBigger and Ka Better so join me as we take a look at this season under the cut.

Henry and June was the segment that changed the most in season 2 and for the better.

Season 1 relied way too heavily on “June abuses henry” for it’s jokes, with a good chunk of the segments being the poor guy getting kicked around for no reason. Season 2 imeditly puts an end to this and instead of just moving on from the bit the premire is entirley about it: Henry is fed up June keeps torturing him and quits, and June sees how much she really needs and misses him, with Henry coming back.

And unlike a lot of cartoon shows light on status quo where we’d just.. go back to that… we don’t. June DOES still prank henry on occasion, but this time around he either deserves it or it’s in moderation.

Henry himself changes a lot: he’s still the show’s butt monkey.. but the show changes his characterization to fit that status better; Henry’s now a know it all egotist who charges into situations he has no idea what to do with June’s warning’s falling on deaf ears and her pranks on him now more to take him down a peg. The slapstick lands better now that Henry actually deserves it and h'es not being clowned on EVERY episode. If Henry is getting hurt, he’s usually brought it on himself and it’s the best that way.

The segments also move away from the random bits style of season 1. We still get them ocasoinally, but most season 2 wraparounds have a consistent story going on. Sometimes it’s linear, other times it’s a bunch of skits centered around whatever’s happening to KaBlam that day. This is also an improvment as it gives the stories more movement and keeps me more invested in what goes on between the other cartoons. They also do some really creative ones as we’ll see. I may not have really liked the Henry and June segments for season 1 but I LOVE them in season 2. Great stuff.

Won’t Stick to Most Dental Work: The aforementioned “Karma finally bites June in the Butt” episode, and it is glorious. After a season of Henry Torture, it’s nice to see June taken down a peg and the two genuinely reconcile. It’s a great start that helps smooth the transition between the two versions of these segments.

Won’t Crack or Peel: It’s KABLAM O VISION, as our heroes do various 3d jokes. It’s.. okay. It was mostly made so they could make a 3d version on vhs, which is super rare. See if you have one in your closet!

Hurts So Good: Back to the good part and we have a telethon parody and while I really have seen maybe one or two in my lifetime, especially nowadays where there are easier ways to raise money, I still love me a good Telethon parody episode and this is a great one, with our heroes asking you to send us your bones staples to keep the show afloat. We get a great hands across america/we are the world parody sung by characters from every segment. That’s a touch i’ve always liked, but haven’t really commented on: the wraparounds aren’t afraid to refrence or have cameos from the other cartoons and I like that. It makes the world feel more interconnected and I appricate the various animators and voice actors from them pitching in. It’s extra work they could’ve understandably refused but i’m happy they didnt.

Harold’s Glow in the Dark Butter: A return to the old random segment days.. and i'ts not great. feels like a season 1 holdover. The only bright spot is June’s shilling for the titular product at the end.

Tastes Like Paper: One of my faviorites from the season. The heroes get a new director of research that puts them through a lot of hilaroius nonsense. The reveal of who it is though is what makes this all so great: the idea of a crooked research director humilating them for personal gain? We’ve seen it before but it still works. That guy being the MAYOR who wanted to turn the page? fucking great. Granted I love the mayor any time he shows up on action league now with his weird voice, so this was an easy sell but him fucking up the show and Henry using a chekovs marching band on him is fantastic.

I Just Don’t Get It: Another assorted shorts one but a much better one as Henry has chest hair drawn on him that goes wild, June plays around with censor bleeps for comedy in an all timer segment, and June clones henry. Some pretty good stuff.

E Plubris Kablam: Another eh one, and another one mostly made up of segments, though the 100th episode bit at the start is great . The rest is a bit predictable and mostly Henry gets bitten by his hubris, which CAN be funny and is preferable to “henry gets whalloped real good for no reason” but falls a tad flat here.

Better Than a Poke in The Eye: Far and away my faviorite of the season. In a parody of studio tours and cheesy theme parks, Henry and June take a tour group on a ride through the studios and EVERY bit is a banger. We start with what seems to be a mascot playing the flesh but it’s just some naked guy, a simple joke but one that make me giggle. We get an obnoxious sun burnt guy who keeps trying to take the fun out of every stop… till Promethus’ ship vaporizes him. I mean i'ts a guy in a Prometheus mascot suit but still.. they really did kill this guy and I love it. Henry and June just.. straight up stand there while a man dies and don’t react. So fucking good. We then get a bit where you can be the hosts.. and Henry and June face the harsh realtiy tha tmost kids are gonna act doofy. Finally we have my faviorite: it’s hard to top an out and out murder, but our heroes succed with the Off Beats Stunt Spectacular, where Betty Ann beats the shit out of the populars and gets into a speed boat chase with them. it’s so hilarously stupidly off brand and I love it so damn much. I never would’ve thought of something this gloriously stupid. And my well for glorious stupidity is vast and terrifying so… respect.

Get Sam Donaldson’s Mystery Bag: June is a member of news anchor Sam Donaldson’s fanclub and the duo start a KaBlam one as a result. Henry tries to hog it so they split into warring fanclubs before settling their dispute the way all should be: giant fighting robots. Also sam donaldson ALSO has a giant fighting robot, as does Diane Sawyer. This is a fun one.. not much else to say.

Cramming Cartoons Since 1967: Henry and June’s parents visit and I love how relatable they are.. sterotypical yes but in a way that feels real: Henry’s mom overly dotes on him and makes him wear a train sweater.. probably thomas the tank engine offical merch. it’s red so Percy I guess. I woudl’ve gone for henry myself. Henry on Henry.

Anyways, June’s dad is a terse talking “manly man” with a large gut and the two spend the segment embarassing their kids and being hilarious, eventually getting into an all out fist fight. I love how Henry and June deal with it too.. they just bail and both parents say sorry. It’s good stuff and a creative idea, shows just how much of a step up these segment sfocusing on one premise are: it tightens things up and gives the jokes more room across segments if needed.

Hand Cranked For Your Enjoyment: This one is.. eh. they can’t all be winners. Our heroes get neighbors upstairs from a viking comic strip… confusing a comic strip with a comic book.

Yeahhh as a huge fan of both comic books and strips… this annoys me. The idea of a neighbor on the same comic strip page having conflict with another strip is great and Pearls Before Swine got a great week out of this and has had tons of great meta jokes on the subject. But here.. it makes no fucking sense. Kablam is a comic book. And I get this is a comedy show, I could forgive it if vikings invading was funny. But it just isn’t. It woul'dve been funnier if edgy mid 90’s superheroes invaded.. and actually make sense. Easily the weakest of the season.

Art + Science Equals Fun: Another series of random skits, but another good one as Henry and June accidnetly rip a page, a clever meta bit, and June sings a really good song about being a KaBlammer. It’s a really fun folk song that just.. slaps so hard.

KaBlam, James KaBlam: Our season finale and we have a great one to go out on as our heroes get an awkward College Intern. A close second to the Studios one. He fumbles with the boom mike, is awkard on camera, gets in the way, there’s a LOT of good antics with him. I paticuarlly love how, being a college student, he describes the adventures of Patchhead in a VERY film school way and june ends up agreeing with him after it airs. It’s an all time classic to close out a solid season of wraparounds.

Once again it’s time for Sniz and Fondue. Season 2 is both shorter.. and sadly a drop in quality from season 1. While the animation his sharper and I dig the new title card, story wise the series struggles to get good jokes out of it’s great setups sometimes. There’s good MOMENTS and two standout episodes .. but the other 4 just feel weak. It’s clear having to do most of the anim ation himself was putting a strain on brandon and i’m not shocked he quit: the fun had clearly gone out of making the show and while he had a tempting offer to make it a full series he was just.. done and he quit. Nick.. didn’t but we’ll get to that next time.

This is just depressing to write because I LOVED season 1 of Sniz and Fondue. It was a lot of fun, creative and energetic and it’s just… a lot to realize a creator was running out of energy and the will to go on with a work he genuinely loved as he made these. I don’t take any joy in not liking this. I just feel bad for the guy. It’s very clear Brandon loved these guys and Nick never shared the same love. They loved the MONEY sniz and fondue could make them, but they didn’t care one iota of a shit about the guy making it. It’s no wonder Brandon comes off a bit cranky in the interview he gave to the KaBLam wiki: I would be too after all this shit.

“Sigh”

So… Sniz and Fondue season 2

Clubbed: This one STARTS good as Fondue buys a fancy stereo but has no tunes to go with it, so Sniz joins a cd club. And i’m sure all 3 of our younger readers in the audience let out a collective

Basically back in the 90’s various cd manufacuters had “scams’ where they’d send you an order form, you could order a cd for pennies but then you had to pay for one each month, and the bills mounted up. A lot of jokes have been made on them and Sniz and Fondue really dosen’t bring anything new to the table. Fondue ends up having to trade them his stereo. WOMP WOMP.

Celluloid Sins: This one is a bit more fun. Snizz has taken up the art of "plexing”, i.e. sneaking into another theater after his movie. The term is dated, as multiplexes are now the majority, but the idea of a 20 something sneaking in and out of films on one ticket is timeless. It’s probably harder NOW with assigned seating, but I could still see kids, 20 somethings or whoever pulling this. Snizz’ glee at it is infectious, and it’s mostly held back for going the obvious route with it: Fondue is caught trying to stop him, Sniz has a change of heart, both are banned. The ending though IS great and for all this batches faults… it usually sticks the landing: they just go to another down the streat. Ahhh captalism.

Crustsean Sensations: My faviorite of the season as it goes back to what makes the series work: a simple premise playing off the characters eccentrcities taken some places. In this case Fondue finally uses his hat as a chef’s hat and whips Sniz up some shrimp cocktail, happy that for once Sniz likes one of his upscale treats. Well upscale on their budget. Sniz becomes addicted and we get plenty of great jokes out of it, from him ringing a bell to him showing up in Fondue’s room.

The best though. is the payoff.. he ends up running around trying to get his shirmp fix, something I can relate to when I run out of an expensive snack, and finds.. a little girl running what’s essentially a lemonade stand full of all kinds of weird shit who says “Ask if you don’t see it” and has a bit of shrimp in a gross box. Normally i’m not pro grossout… but taking the idea of a sketchy gas station (Another thing that seems to be not nearly as common as 90’s cartoons said, but still exists) and making it into a child’s lemonade stand type deeal is just.. so brilliant and I love how surreal it is: Even Sniz is wondering if he dreamt all this. He did not and ends up in the hospital. The highlight of the season and while it’s not super hard, it’s still one of my favorites of the series.

Hello Dolly: This one is built on a trope that was common place when I was a kid, but is very

In hindsight. A romani woman curses Sniz for bumping into her. Or his clay. This whole sterotype has aged like cheddar on a sidewalk.

The doll Sniz makes out of the clay for Fondue’s birthday is great: stone head bean bag body.. but it never quite lives up to the “killer doll parody” granted it has a HIGH bar to clear as Simpsons “Clown Without Pity” aired 5 years earlier. And while it had it’ sown unfortunate sterotype it had way more jokes in almost as much time.

So this one could'v ebeen good but the dated sterotype and the “it’s been done” feeling kill it. For the record Aqua Teen Hunger force ALSO did the killer doll joke better later, as did of course the king of killer dolls.

So time hasn’t helped it.. but even then it was far behind.

Chicanery Chums: This one is meh til lthe ending. Fondue wants to pull a prank after Sniz tells him he can’t. We’ve seen this before. Sniz fakes his death, somehow we’ve seen this before. The ending.. is the only thing it really has: Sniz is in a mental ward from the prank but unsuprisingly is faking it.. but the two laughing like hyenas gets them both locked up. It’s just.. oddly charming …being locked in a mental hospital is one of my greatest fears, and the idea of it happening over something so goofy is… hilarous. Seriously, it’s just so charming.. it remind sme “no i'ts not that easy” and “no they won’t keep you forever”. It’s a mostly irrational fear and it took an irrtional ending to see that. So thanks Sniz and Fondue.

Rat in the Hat: The penultimate episode and the other really good one of the season. Sniz convinces Fondue to let him wear his hat, and naturally the latter freaks both when Sniz wears it a while.. and when he SEEMS to get magic powers from it. The payoff, that it’s just Sniz’s charisma and he gets bored of it the minute bianca takes it, is great. Simple premise, great execution.

Great Infestations: The season two finale is also our sendoff for Snuppa and Bianca though given the two only showed up in Rat in the Hat and Hello Dolly otherwise, their roll was already dimnished. Still it’s nice to see them off and it’s a fitting one for a season finale: Fondue is ticked Sniz’s lice infestation leads their house to be fumigated, so he bunks with Bianca. Sniz ends up bonding with snupa, Fondue gets jealous, the two make up at th eend, this episode is mid. Good premise, meh execution.

And now for the inverse of my disapointment in Sniz and fondue season 2. Action League Now! as a mild disapointment in season 1: i get why kid me liked it and there were some good episodes, but it’s schticks could get old quick.

Season 2 dosen’t do away with a lot of the common jokes, stuff still falls on our heroes or runs them over, but it refines them and the show as a whole: The series has embraced the fact our heroes are a calvalcade of fuckups, and it’s all the better for it: Our heroes ruin relations with a foreign nation, blow first contact, and generally destroy everything they touch and the series is better for it: instead of “wow isn’t it funny these superheroes are'nt good at thier job” it’s “how BAD can we make these guys at what they do”, while still mixing in some other stuff. Our heroes also tend to get beat up for their jerkassery a lot more, which just makes the slapstick play even better. Exagerating stuff in comedy CAN backfire horribly.. but here it was just what Action League Now needed. It needed to be more over the top and have it’s heroes be loveable destructive dumbasses who destroy everything around them. We also get a decent amount of the mayor, not as much as before sadly, but still enough to bring joy into our hearts and lives. A truly fun season of action figure shenanigans. Let’s dig into it.

Big Baby: This one is decent, introducing Bill the Lab Guy’s teenage daughter Quarky, who sounds like she’s 7. The Mayor uses Big Baby, a giant baby doll, for a freak show and the Baby Gets loose. Shenanigans insue, this one is alright.

Danger For a Dignitary: This is where things pick up as the Flesh is forced to fill in for an identical diginitary from another nation. The setup is typical.. the payoff though.. is fantastic. Turns out the Flesh REALLY can’t stand to not be naked for long.

So he strips.. and it’s a non issue as they assume it’s a metaphor..a nd then he bungles it anyway by singing his own name on the treaty, leading to the nation being destroyed and our heroes having to awkwardly hide that. Dark Comedy is hit and miss for me but this.. this is just beautiful.

Incident at Chlorine Lake: Our obligatory jaws parody as the Mayor is having parties at Cholorine Lake. The monster? a trophy bass.. as in a bass on a trophy. I love everything about this. I also love that the mayor tries to deny it as you’d expect until a flurry of body parts comes up, a gag they could only get away with using toys and I salute them for it. I also love Bill’s obession with the fish, thinking it needs to be preserved..which is normally true but kinda hard to argue with when, unlike say a rare tiger or something, it’s main diet is people. A tiger just hunts and shit. Most rare animals don’t harm you unless yo upiss them off billiam. Sharks are less harmful than this thing.

Revenge of Hodge Podge: This one brings in another recurring villian and it’s something I like about season 2: while they don’t massively expand the rogues gallery adding Big Baby and Hodge Podge shakes things up a bit. I love the mayor more than oxygen, but having some other rogues helps with the series former repettion problem: season 1 was mostly “the mayor has some evil plot and the action league stoops it”. It was done in diffrent ways, but it was mostly same shit diffrent day, with a few rescues thrown in. Here the Mayor is used sparingly, still showing up plenty, but not being used every 5 minutes. As a result I can enjoy my boy more but the show dosen’t get old and can spread it’s wings a bit.

Hodge Podge has a mildly annoying voice, but the over the top voice helps with his nature: a guy who got destroyed by the league’s incompetence and rebuilt into a pile of other action figures glued together by Bill. Not only does his existance Emphasie the League’s incompetnece and callousness, but he’s just fun to have around. The solution is also fun as we get a nice parody of a stock plot: Quarky wants to be a scientest, bill dosen’t take her seriously and she.. makes the league into an abomination out of their spare parts.. well thunder girl, the rest are left in a pile. this at least distracts hodge podge and gets bill to accept her, but leaves Thunder girl understandably annoyed.

Voice of Treason: Hodge Podge steals a voice modifier. This one sure did happen.

Caged Thunder: So the Cheif sends Thunder Girl to do espenoge on the country next door, only for her to get kidnapped. What’s either the mayor using a terrible accent or the mayors foreign equivelent is running the country and plans to send a missle. The wiki says he’s in disguise but i’m just not sure. OUr heroes barely save the day as always. A decent one with a bit of a diffrent bit but the Mayor (?)’s accent gets annoying after a while.

Science Fiction Parody: Okay first I love that the title for this one is just.. blunt about what their doing. It’s also one of my faviorites of the season for being just.. so delightfully fucked up. Some aliens come in peace.. and our heroes utterly bungle first contact. Stinky naturally is the first to as he reacts to an alien reaching for his camera by shooting him, which was a punchline in 1997 but just makes me really sad for a while in 2024. Now his APOLOGY for it is darkly hilarous, saying “sorrrryyyy” like a scolded child and the alien’s non reaction to it is great.

OUr heroes proceed to horribly mangle EVERY member of the alien delegation through sheer stupidity and it’s as funny as it sounds. The fact they all survivie and we simply see the aftermath helps, and it’s fun that for once we get to see the aftermath of what was done to one of these toys. They try to destroy earth as a result which is shockingly fair all things considered. Our heroes survivie only for their to be more ships. Wah wah. This is never resolved, I assume the league was saved by.. let’s say moe. The highlight of the season, taking the black comedy to dizzing heights i’m honestly shocked they got away with.

Flesh and Blood: Another banger. The Flesh is reunited with what seems to be his parents on a tv show but turn out to be con artists. The Flesh is usually fantastic, so pairing him with two criminals barely succeeding at conning him into stealing things woh also get maimed the whole time is great and the punchline of flesh’s real parents accidently running him over is easily the second best car runs something over gag so far.

The Quarky Syndrome: Quarky gets superpowers then disappears from the series. The action league laugh at her and are punished for their hubris. This one’s shockingly forgetable despite turning one of the shows recurring cast into a hero and never follows up on it. Meh.

Turkey of Terror: Thankfully the season ends on a high note as the last 4 are all amazing. Our first as the League invited to thanksgiving dinner with the mayor. If I had a nickle for every time I had to do an out of season thanksgiving special this feburary i’d have two nickles. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird it happened twice.

Anyways the Mayor instead bakes them into a turkey instead and it’s up to Stinky, who wisely noped out to save them… and whose also greatful to escape his own family. It’s hilarous and has the best car gag of the season when the turkey and the fleeing mayor are both ran over. We also get a boss baster versus wisk fight between the mayor and Stinky.

Meltman At Large: This one rides soley on it’s gimmick.. and it’s such a fun gimmick it gets away with it: Meltman feeling useless among the team for his power to… melt, drinks an unstable potion bill made behind his back and becomes human sized. As in some poor guy had to wear a life sized meltman costume. The costume is great, a bit clunky fitting the show but entirely well made, i’m just betting it was hell to actually work in. Meltman bungles his way thorugh an adventure, crushing the action car by calling fontizes, picking everyone up for their douchebaggery, getting caught in a kiddy pool and having to jump jump to rescue some kids.. and then getting sent away on a ballon for his hubris. It’s Meltman at his best… stupid and obnoxious but throughly punished for it.

Danger Society; This might be my faviorite of the season, as it condenses everything great about this batch of episodes into one premise: a group of challengers of the unknown/fantastic four style heroes, the Danger Society sweeps into town and takes our heroes work. This isn’t a NEW premise: A year prior JLA launched with the same premise, but it’s one that works here as instead of being secretly evil as normal for this kind of polt the danger society.. are just genuinely good people who want to save lives. Their actual heroes while our protaganists are just miffed they aren’t getting free food at the cafeteria anymore.

They challenge the society to a “who can save more lives contest” and the society.. is horrified at the idea and ONLY agrees so SOMEONE is saving lives. And how our heroes do.. is just.. the best joke of the season. They nope out.. and they still loose. They ENTIRELY know the stakes, their just that stupid and selfish and only keep theri job because the danger scoeity gets subjected to the car bit. A true classic.

Rock-A-Big-Baby: Our finale and an episode that actually aired BEFORE this in a way, being the opening short for Good Burger. It’s also a neat onea s KISS guest stars. Yes KISS, the band themselves guests and rocks and roll all nights. Not as good as when they met scooby doo and took the gang to another dimension to battle a foe who’d become unto a god, but still pretty neat and I applaud them for being game for this nonsense. For as defensive of their brand as they can be, the Band is really up for any weird cameo, and showed up on family guy TWICE for some great shit. The plot isn’t much special: big baby kidnaps Gene Simmons, Meltman claims to know them and it turns out he isn’t lying., but the celebrity cameo really makes the episode special.

Promethus and Bob.. hasn’t changed any in season 2. It’s still “Alien tries to teach caveman things, caveman dosen’t get it and chaos ensues”. My opinon from last time hasn’t changed either: It’s a decent premise with great animation, I just don’t really like “Haha get it caveman stupid” jokes and the premise of “A "higher” civlization teaches a supposedly “lower” one “ has aged like fine milk on a gravel driveway. I don’t hate Promethus and Bob but it’s just not for me and this probably won’t be the last time I say this as the show lasts all 4 seasons. I wish I had more to say but the show.. simply hasn’t changed and dosen’t seem like it will. Unlike Action League it’s comfortable in it’s formula and it clearly worked for a lot of you, i’m just not one of them.

Pottery: Prometheus teaches Bob pottery. Sadly we don’t get a ghost refrence.
Furniture: Promethus tries to teach Bob how to sit on a chair. This one.. is actually pretty funny as Prometheus clearly wants him to sint frontsies not backsies and Bob isn’t really doing anything WRONG as sitting front of a chair is more a comfort and societal thing.
Box: Our heroes Box. Not a rocky refrence to be found but Prometheus does get punched in the face so.. yay? I guess.
Milk: Promethus tries to teach Bob to milk things… and I already used the goodnight everybody. Damn. I somehow dont’ remember this one and dont’ think I wanna.
Canoe: DO BOB A DO BOB PROMETHUS TEACHES BOB HOW TO BUY A CANOE.
Skate: Promethus tries to teach Bob to ice skate. At this point I think he’s just checking shit off a list… who am I kidding he alwasy was. A fun one.
Leverage: Former insurance investigator Nate Ford and his band of cohorts act as modern-day Robin Hoods, pulling elaborate scams targeted against the greedy and the corrupt.
Spear and Trapping: Bob learns how to use a spear… like..a ctually learns. I honestly didn’t realize the signifigance. Trapping goes more poorly and leads to doodling on Prometheus’ face, a scolding from his boss and being trapped in a pit with a saber toothed tiger after them. So a normal day really.
Farm: Bob tries and fails to learn how to farm. I don’t have a ton to say really. I told you i'ts basically the same bit just diffrent activity the caveman fails at.
Breakfast: Okay NOW bob can’t cook an egg. I mean… he clearly ate enough to survivie this long. Probably ate some raw eggs at some point. I mean he can’t have a diet entirely of raw meat and scabies from eating almost nothing but raw meat.
Construction: Promethus tries to Help bob build things. Can he do it.. no no he very much cannot.

Onto a series that recycles the same basic loop.. but does so much batshit insanity with that it works. It’s the diffrence for me: P and B isn’t terrible, but while they try to do diffrent slapstic the medium just dosen’t allow them to get all that creative with said slapstick.

Season 2’s a bit shorter, I think due to production delays, but it’s still excellent. At it’s worst, it’s just okay and even the okay segments have something going for them. After writing on the other shows it hits me just.. how out of the box perfect this one came. There’s no shame in improving after season 1 mind you, Schitt’s Creek and Letterkenny are some of the best comedies ever and both only got better with age. Life With Loopy is just the rare one that knows almost entirely what it wants to be from day one and thus hits a home run out of the gate and just keeps running. I know sports ball.

Butterfly Loopy: Loopy cocoons herself to become a butterfly. A suprisingly common plot… I don’t know why "character want sto become a butterfly” is so widespread but it is. It’s still a fun one and Loopy has to be saved from a Loony bug collector and learn it’s okay not to be a bug. Also Larry gets kidnapped by said guy and we don’t get any resolution to that. He’s just… apparently trapped there for a while living the glamourous life. Solid start to the season.

Upside Down Loopy: Loopy decides to live upside down after standing on her head. That’s.. really the setup but the concept i sjust so much fun, as Loopy uses suction cups to get around, drops stuff, and later becomes friends with bats that freak her dad out. I don’t know why he was so freaked, lester , the bat that spooked him, seems like a sweell guy. I’d get a strawberry with him. Larry’s solution to this housing crisis? Flip the bitch… seriously he just. .has the house flipped and that’s how it ends. I’ve realized while writing this section season 2 of Life with Loopy isn’t big on concrete endings for the most part: most adventures end with the wacky shenanigan just having settled int oa managable but still ever present state this season and i’m okay with that. It give the series a bit more unpredictablity and keeps it from getting formulaic.

Goldfish Ghost: Loopy’s whole family think’s she’s wetting the bed and she handles this about as well as you’d expect.

Turns out it’s her goldfish from last season, whose visitng her every night… but he’s aware she needs to move on and takes her to find another Fish. That fails and this ep is shockingly average for an episode about a ghost fish helping his former owner move on… but the ending lands it: A cat shows up, a really neat puppet, follows them and the fish barely escapes.. and loopy realizes the poor kitty was just hungry.. and with that Loopy has a new pet and we end on the two adorably snuggling. As someone whose recently both dealt with the loss of a pet and moving on with a new one, I love this ending. As a human being in general.. I love this ending. The episode itself is okay but it sticks the landing so well I can forgive it.

Loopy and the Lost Voice: Loopy is told the old addage of “she’ll loose her voice”.. but given what show we’re in it’s taken literally and she goes to a lost and found to get it back. The guys running it are both impressive puppets and my nightmares for the next few weeks. They also don’t have it and Loopy has to get it back from an opera singer. She also gets a barry white deep voice. It honestly reminds me of the gravity falls bit where Dipper gets hit with the same, but slightly better. Or the episode where Zorak gets a silky smooth voice and Brak’s hot for you baby cause he’s a pickled beat. What i’m saying is it reminds me of other good television instead of better takes on the idea, and that’s a good sign.

Loopy and the Flu Bug: As usual Loopy takes the idea of a flu bug literally… also at this point i’m pretty sure Larry has to Larrysplain ever damn time his parents use a metaphor.. granted while it’s partially “I know more than you”, I do kinda see his point when Loopy takes everything literaly. Then again sh'es right and turn sout the flu bug’s sick. Honestly her befrending the guy is genuinely sweet, as most people hate him but he’s just sick himself and just doing his job, and Loopy points out sick days CAN be good. Loopy’s genuine kindness really makes the series for me: she WILL end you if she has to or you’ve angered her, but she’s genuinely doing what she does out of childlike wonder, impulse or genuine kindness.

Late Night Loopy: This one has a great premise, a very 90’s one at that, but a meh ending. Not bad enough to ruin the short but enough to keep it from being my faviorite of the season. It would’ve easily won that Kablammy were it not for the ending. The rest is good: Larry gets to stay up later as he’s older and watch late night tv, something that future generations will never really know existed, but for us with cable or standard tv, was a fact of life.. as was just how.. boring it was. Mostly late night talk shows, infomericals and other shit. Even nowadays a lot of cable networks just… air that crap, though it’s become way less. Loopy ends up in the tv from boredom, and has to flee a talk show host before he.. kills her for being too young to do this? It’s never explained. Maybe he’s sending her to the bog of etneral stench, I don’t know which is worse.

So that ending.. larry has to buy loopy to get her out of the tv and they have to pay it off and it’s just.. not satisfying. Loopy was just curious and Larry literally did nothing wrong. It just botches what was otherwise a fantastic episode.

Kung Fu Loopy: A stellar season finale this one annoyed me a little at first, though it’s mostly as a younger sibling: Larry is excited that the Charlie Chicken Show On Ice is coming and promises Kung Fu Chickens on ice, getting int oa zen state for it. He then proceeds to be a whiny dick about having to bring loopy.. even though she’s also been established as liking the show, is just excited and at worst asks for snacks, especially since thei rmom probably gave him conession money. I was worried this would end up annoying.. but it goes somewhere great as Charlie accidently stains loopy’s dress with a pie. And thus must die. She end sup as the assitant for a demonstration, which feels unfair to Larry who. .actually wants to do it and she’s runing the show for her vendetta. Had the short not stuck the landing.. this one just wouldn’t of worked. But not only does Loopy open a can of whupass on charlie, whose arrogance over the issue an dnon chalance makes him more than desreve it, but she volunteers larry as his replacement. So while she did go out for revenge, she didn’t do it selflessly or reckleslly: she knew the whole time her brother could replace this clown. So what could’ve been “larry is a pissant” or “Loopy ruins everything for larry guess thems the break”.. instead ends heartwarmingly as Larry realizes brining her go thim his dream… and all because she just loves and has faith in her brother. A sweet note to end the season.

With the off-beats it feels more like a contiuation fo the previous batch of shorts than a brand new season. And given how good the off-beats was last time, i’m fine with that.

Part of that.. is a bit sad. This is the last batch of the off-beats. There’s a valentine’s special we’ll be looking at as part of our end of retrospective special compiling all the various shorts these series left outside of kablam, something Cory happily greenlit after I realized just how many extra shorts and what not were kicking around, but for the series proper this is the end.

Thankfully unlike Sniz and Fondue the end isn’t nearly as bitter, if still bitter sweet: Mo Willems.. simply wanted to focus on other projects. At the time he was doing shorts for Seasame Street and had a pilot shot at cartoon network with Sheep in the Big City, both projects he’d rather work on. It doesn’t seem he disliked the offbeats, he just liked the other stuff more and Sheep did get a full series greenlight which was nice… said series didn’t last long, but it is one i’d like to take another look at after seeing the off beats.

So our final batch is really about the same. Out of the cast Tommy and August get the most focus, though we still get another spotlight for Betty Anne Bongo and Rapunzil and most of the off beats get screentime per episode, so it never feels like their hogging the spotlight. It’s still a wonderful, melacholy yet hopeful little short and i’m sad to see it go. IT was a nice big of low energy whimsy after the high octaine feeling of most other shorts.

Tommy’s Coat: The “season” starts off on a high with possibly my faviorite episode of the bunch, Tommy’s Coat. Tommy’s coat is being cleaned and we get frequent cries of “I want my coat” as the rest of the gang try to help him get over it. HIm going after the populars after hallucinating them as his coat is a perfect punchline, and it’s nice to see him back with it at the end. Good stuff.

The Suave-O-Matic 5000: August becomes cool for a day. It dosen’t pan out. Another one of those plots on KaBLam that i’ve seen before and better and a rare misfire for the Off-Beats.

Tommy’s Song: My other faviorite, Tommy gets a song stuck in his head. What makes this one special for me is the fact the song is depeicted by the notes floating over him and we get plenty of great gags out of it, from Betty Anne Bongo not being able to hear ANYTHING from Tommy till he yells to August accidently sucking his mind out when trying to remove the song. How the populars get their compuance is also sweet as Tommy simply shares the song which hunts them to the ends of the earth via chasing them commically. Okay… i’ve stopped being wishy washy this one is my faviorite, hard choice though.

Repunzil and the Sweepstakes: Repunzil enters one of those old “you could win a million dollars” sweepstakes. None of the off-beats are optimistic, while the Populars kinda just.. shove her into her group. I like this one entirely for the gag of one of the popular’s nameless horde getting shoved out, leading to the great visuals of Repunzil just.. shoved in there awkwardly and not laughing along with their mockery and the odd man out running behind them and laughing… and doing so again after Repunzil gets thrown out, suprisingly enough.

The Sprain: Betty Anne gets a repetive wrist injury, been there, and can’t play her bongos. The Popular’s are dicks about it until they realize injries get you sundaes from Grubby Groo, the only adult here.. which is still one more than peanuts at least. He’s just as useful, but it’s more because the Populars try to play nice when he’s around. Honestly I think he KNOWS their little shits on some level, but both is nice enough to give ANY kid a sundae if they maim themselves, and knows that they HAVE to be nice around him and it thus gives the off beats a safe zone from their bullshit. This one’s fine.

Paddleball Record: August goes for the world record in Paddleball and september realizes he can’t work a can opener when he says he dosen’t need his owner for the day. It’s a nice one epsecially since, like the September spotlight last season, it gives the dog a bit of compuance. Snoopy CAN be aloof, but he’s not such an outright dick to his boy, and we get a sweet moment of August giving up the record for September. We also get a really nice endnig as he readies to try again, this time with September’s cans opened. Awww.

The Statstic: Our final episode and a proper finale for the series: A stastic gets released that one in four people gets something dropped on their head, and tommy leaves the group for his own safety while the rest of the Off-beats try to find ANY way to get their friend back. You can see just how miserable both sides are without Tommy around.. and see the populars get bonked on the head. The payoff.. that it’s just not worth being apart despite the risk, is genuinely sweet and get’s to the series core: they nervous they nebbish they small.. but together… life is sweet they cool, they the off-beats.

Even if they’ve dropped the label, i’m keeping it.. if nothing else than because the logo looks neat and gives this section a heading.

The shorts for this season are superb. There really isn’t a bad one in the batch. Some I loved, some I liked okay enough, but nothing that isn’t creative , interesting or that couldn’t of gone in the open slots left by Sniz and Fondue and the Off-beats next season.

Weirdly there’s only 5 this season.. and another lava short that’s.. okay as ever, all coming in the last batch of episodes, but all are fun to talk about, so i’m fine with that. Let’s begin

The Brothers Tiki: A rare two-off, the brother’s tiki is semi live action, taking place in a real world setting and having humans around but focusing on two Tiki Brothers. The premise is great: Two tiki aliens flying around in a spaceship resembling (and played by) a Bar-B-Que grill fly down to rescue what they think is a craft in distress and is instead just a grill… and theirs gets mistaken for it, filled with coals and lit on fire, leaving them stranded.

The first ep sets this up and has an adorable ending as the family living there’s little girl finds the two and snuggles them like plushies, while the second has our heroes trying to contact home via radio waveds and only JUST fialing thanks to the younger tiki’s attention span.

Overall Brother’s Tiki is decent. It’s nothing super amazing joke wise “ALIENS DON’T GET EARTH” will never not be a thing, but the deisgn and puppets for the brothers is too cool and they find fun stuff to do, like turning a shop vac into a hot air ballon or having the brothers stack. It’s a lot of fun and I recommend checking it out.

The short came from Gordon Clark’s love of stop motoin animation, kitsch, lawn sculptures and buddy films, creating something special. Fun fact one of the hosts of myth busters worked on that. It means nothing to me but I know many of you will be impressed. Adam for the record.

The Girl with Her Head Coming off.. was my faviorite segment of the season, both among these and overall. It’s a nice chill short about a tweenage girl who waxes about her crush, her teacher embarassing her, her annoying younger sibling and cousin, and why we all can’t just be ants. it has a nice sketchy style, like the kind someone that age would make with colored pencil, with the characters having this cool abstract look to them. It also has a nice touch of melacholy, that feeling of having a crush on someone whos with someone else and just how that shit tears you up, feeling like you’ll never be good enoguh. Granted this being fiction we get a nice ending as it turns out the guy is both single and is also weird, but it’s still a nice relatable little short with a lot of fun to it. Reminds me a lot of the Ramona books by Judy Blume or the Fudge books. Truly fantastic stuff from Emily Hubley, daughter of John and Faith Hubley, who did a lot of animation for seasame street and most personally for me, the Doonsebury animated special, which I hope to cover at some point this year. She certainly did her parents proud with this one.

There’s three more shorts that were aired on nick if not KaBlam and you can kinda see WHY at this point I ended up needing a whole special: there’s two half hour specials, around 18 shorts from pilots to shorts from various series that simply never aired on kablam.. there’s a lot of neat bibs and bobs to explore with this series. KaBlam may not ALWASY entertain, no one bats a thousand, but i’m always fascinated by the amount of animation talent on display here. It makes me happy nowadays with the indie boom animators can just launch the shows themselves if they have a brilliant idea like this one or simply want to make some fun shorts, not having to worry about fitting them into specitic time slots.

Randall Flan’s incredible big top is a short by Brian Mulroney, who directed a few episodes of Beavis and Butt Head and part of B an dB doo america and helped with the story for Ballmasterz: Rubicon and Mike DeSeve, another Beavis and Butthead director as well as a writer and director for a TON of pre school shows including Pocoyo, and a writer on the Over the Hedge Movie, another thing I want to cover sometime soon as while not a fantastic ADAPTATION, it’s still a hell of a film.

Randall Flan is simple: the titular overly nervous Randall takes his circus into a town that while never having met one, is having an anti blue lion fevor… and his main star just happens to bea n egotistical blue lion who can’t take the hint. It’s also a nice little diddy on prejudice without really getting heavy into it: everyone hates the blue lions on concept.. but once Bravado performs and they see his talent, pride and heart, they accept him. Granted it’s really jus tabou tpissing randall off into chasing bravado around before said acceptance but hey, that works too. It’s.. alright. Not quite as great as the other one offs this season, but still a lot of fun with some creative animation.

The Adventures of Patchhead.. is a fever dream. A glorious fever dream but it might be the most bonkers segment this series has put out thus far, as well as one of it’s first live action one. I mean Action League Now TECHNICALLY is , but it’s more a very limited form of stop motoin animation.

This short, Teed Off, follows a southern golf tourney in a redneck style town, but more in the Pogo or Tom Sawyer sense where it’s whimsical and not deeply fucked. Prized Asshole Kid Kudzu is about to win by as he’s beaten all comers when our hero arrives: Patchhead, an overalls clad kid with a melon on his head and a wrench for his club who challenges Kid Kudzu. And just in case you hadn’t figured it out from the picture yes, Kid Kudzu is played by none other than comedy legend and living god Nick Offerman who you may know as Ron Swanson on parks and rec or Beef Tobin on the HIGHLY underated currently running comic masterpiece the great north

So naturally hearing he was going to be on KaBlam in one of his earliest rolls was a highlight and he did not disapoint. he is entirely game for the hammy mugging this roll required. Adam Sandler if you ever consider making that Happy Gilmore sequel.. well don’t but if you have to, please cast Nick Offerman as a southren golf villian. he can even be shooter mcgavins best friend or something just.. we need more of this.

Now it’s time for our second KABLAMMY AWARDS, giving out the awards for the best segment for each main series , the best standalone and the best overall. I’ve spoiled some of these but let’s get to it anyway.

Henry and June: Won’t Stick to Most Dentalwork. It’s just one non stop laugh fest, from the actual murder we can’t forget happened to the glorious climax with the Off-Beats stunt show. True comic genius.

Snizz and Fondue: Crustacean Sensations. It’s almost entirely for that roadside stand bit, but damn if it isn’t a good one and the rest is classsic.

Action League NOW!: Science Fiction Parody. Yeah I changed my mind as I was writing this. The sheer dark comedy here is fucking great.

Life with Loopy: Upside Down Loopy. It’s a simple concept, it’s fun and the ending is incredibly well set up as it is batshit. Plus it has a loveable bat.

The Off-Beats: Tommy’s Song. Tommy’s Coat was close, but the animation on the musical notes, them chasing them around and the climax I didn’t mention of Repunzil getting the song stuck in EVERYONE’S head at the end.. i'ts all genius.

Startling Short: The Girl with Her Head Falling Off. I didn’t hide this one nor would I. A true joy from start to finish. True excellence.

Best Short Overall: This was a really tough one as all the shorts that made it this far are good and the two I narrowed it down to were hard.. but I have to give it to The Girl With Her Head Falling Off. It’d have plenty of tween focused media like it but it’s unique animation means there’s nothing exactly like it out there, and that’s what makes it special. Won’t Stick To Most Dental Work was a VERY close second.. but I had to go with my heart.

Next Time: We venture into uncharted territory as Sniz and Fondue tries to go on without it’s creator and the show goes on without one of it’s founding segments and without i'ts best segment. Will Race Rabbit and Jetcat be able to fill the void? Will I like them? Tune in same kablam time same kablam channel next week to find out.