Eyeballs have an unsettlingly hard time staying in their sockets

Well, Uncle Grandpa certainly wears its influences on its sleeve. "Mystery Noise" plays out like a softer take on classic Ren and Stimpy, with a minor irritation driving the characters to the depths of madness and disturbing face takes, ultimately resulting in surreal violence. Uncle Grandpa's gruesome (albeit goreless) faceplant and Pizza Steve's second "stressed" face stood out as especially Kricfalusi-esque. I can't help but think that Ren and Stimpy would have used real blunt objects on each other rather than pillows, though. The "twist" ending - while reminiscent of Spongebob's "Graveyard Shift" - actually came as a surprise, thanks to a (pretty well-pulled-off) fake reveal. Oh, and spoiler alert for the previous sentence.

Damn lazy kids don't want to learn anything already. This is why I shall never venture near multiplayer Soul Calibur again.

"Button-mashing is an acceptable substitute for skill" is an awful moral - worse than the 80s' notorious "always go along with the group (unless they're Commies)" and "if you even think about trying the hempajuana the world will explode" - and the Cartoon Network seems determined to enforce it. In "Brain Game", Pizza Steve saves the day by button-mashing at a "game" he knows nothing about, exactly like Rigby in "Just Set Up the Chairs". Now I'm going to have to review all the Beemo episodes of Adventure Time - I don't think they've snuck it in, but there's a lot of show to keep track of there.
Also, have I been on the internet too long, or does Pizza Steve have obvious balls?

This image has not been altered.

"Brain Game"

Holding a bodyjacking/Fantastic Voyage plot against a cartoon would be like complaining it's derivative to have images shown in sequence to create the illusion of motion - it just comes with the territory. Even doubling them up's been done plenty of times, but it's always good to see the heroes using the Plankton variation. Uncle Grandpa moves closer to Chaotic Neutral from Chaotic Good every episode, and he started out near the line.

The above joke - my favourite of the episode for what it's worth - left me wondering. Is what we see a cartoon in-universe, with an Uncle Grandpa in "real life" drawing it while interacting with the characters in some kind of a Dog City situation? Does he have a grasp on the multiple strata and fictional nature of his reality, letting him act capriciously because he knows it's all make-believe anyway - similar to some theories about The Joker? Does Uncle Grandpa's yelling up (to Uncle Grandpa) suggest he's some manner of divine avatar - and is what we see at the computer a god? It's wheels within wheels, people. Hell, I'm still trying to puzzle out the time paradox from "Belly Bros" when depressed kid Uncle Grandpa in the past heard from Uncle Grandpa at that moment, interacting with his own memory, that "big bellies are awesome". Which Present Uncle Grandpa already believed, even though he hadn't gone back yet. Which means he couldn't have known...and so on. No fate but what we make except when there is, which is all the time...but it can be changed, maybe, unless it can't.

Thoughts on "Jorts" and "Mystery Noise" later.

I feel like Daniel looking for Masonic Compasses

I was repeatedly listening to Phineas and Ferb's "Pinhead Pierre" theme, as I'm known to do, when I caught this one. Not sure how to feel about this - if I'm not making it up out of thin air, I think I'm going to call it a literary reference and just continue sweating Phineas and Ferb for being formulaic, rather than having potential "hidden" religious messages. Of course, on the other hand, Disney. Alternately, I might have just spent entirely too much time in English courses.



The last seven seconds of this clip seem to be a clear reference to bible verse 2 Kings 2:23-2:24. To quote:
"And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them." 
- King James Version, Kings 2:23-24.

Even the number of bears is right, although the number of kids isn't. That'd be one cluttered shot, though, and a P&F crowd sequence isn't always easy on the eyes to begin with.

For comparison, the lyrics to the Pinhead Pierre Theme:
"Pinhead Pierre,
Has the smallest head of which I'm aware.
It's about the size and shape of a pear.
Everywhere the children stare.
Life's cruel and unfair,
To Pinhead Pierre!"
- Povenmire/Marsh, "Magic Carpet Ride." Phineas and Ferb.

Pierre, obviously, is a "bald head" too, and the children's taunting is even more blatant in the animation than the lyrics. I'm pretty sure I should be creeped out right now - but whether it's because there actually is a shout-out to a particularly horrific passage in a largely horrific book, or because I'm capable of entirely inventing an unsettling "hidden reference" in something innocuous, is still up for debate. If this was placed there intentionally, it's clever yet disturbing. If it wasn't, strike that and apply same adjectives to poster.

Addendum: Since this post is all quotes anyway, here's another favourite Douglas Coupland one, this time from Microserfs, and the context of the reference from the title:

"Bug is here in the living  room watching "Casper the Friendly Ghost" cartoons on the VCR, "looking for subtext." I can't believe it, but I'm getting into it, too. ("Wait, Bug - rewind that back a few seconds - wasn't  that a Masonic compass?")
Karla was asleep ages ago. She stayed home and watched The Thornbirds on the VCR with Susan. ("It's a girl thing. Scram.") Karla has an unsuspected fathomless capacity for sleep of which I am most envious."
- Douglas Coupland, Microserfs