Wherein the hazards inherent in building a formula become obvious...

Uncle Grandpa has had its ups and downs, but "Perfect Kid" was the weakest effort of the season so far. This could have been a bad Phineas and Ferb episode in so many ways - the shows go-to base plot, served up without variation; a seemingly unsurprisable blue-collar workforce to drive (hurr hurr) the story along; and a climax featuring a berserk robot ultimately disposed of in the most cliched fashion possible. A few good throwaway jokes floated this episode somewhat (the silhouette gag below was inspired old-school cartoon surrealism) but the cut-and-paste story, generic extras, and completely arbitrary celebrity guest overshadowed the couple of solid laughs.

Remember the depressing stretch where pretty much any cartoon writer would just assume pop culture references and mild snarking made them The Simpsons, or at the very least Animaniacs? Yeah, it usually didn't. Uncle Grandpa has had a decent number of callbacks to good aspects of 90s animation - this episode showcased a lot of the terrible ones. References to products and businesses presented as jokes in and of themselves, "observational" standup, Shaquille O'Neal appearing for the flimsiest of reasons, a completely unnecessary music video...well, let's leave it with Sturgeon's Law is constant and absolute, and no era is excepted.

Also, was this really necessary? I sincerely hope the gag isn't that pizza is 'junk food', because that would just be gross.