Episode 308: Guitarmageddon

Cast:
Brendon Small/Dwayne/Perry – Brendon Small
Jason Penopolis/Coach Jon McGuirk/Walter – H. Jon Benjamin
Melissa Robbins – Melissa Bardin Galsky
Paula Small – Janine Ditullo
Josie Small – Loren Bouchard
Jimmy Monet – Will Lebow
Clarice – Valerie Kappa

Synopsis: Dwayne enters a guitar competition against a newfound enemy, Jimmy Monet. Brendon, Jason and Melissa start a band, despite the fact they can't play.

Lawn Gnomes: (Click for picture)
· There is a guitar shaped like a gnome in Bojingles.

Brendon’s Filmography:
· “Freaky, Outtie” – Music video for Brendon Poppins and the Chimminy Sweep’s first song: “Freaky, Outtie!” Featuring Coach McGuirk and buck-toothed girl.

The Movie-Episode Connection:
· The entire episode is music based, so the only movie is a music video.

The Plotline Connection: (TheJazzFighter)
· Music is the obvious connection here. Whether it be "Freaky Outie!" or Dwayne's excellent solo, that's the theme of this episode.

Songs:
· This episode has a lot of guitar solos done by Brendon Small.
· Freaky, Outtie!
Freaky, Outtie!
Freaky, Outtie!
Freaky, Outtie!
Freaky, Outtie!
Freaky, Outtie!
Freaky, Outtie!
Freaky, Outtie!
Freaky, Outtie!
Woo, woo! Woah, woah!
Woo, woo! Alright!
Woo, woo! Come on!
Yeah, yeah! Rock n’ Roll!

Random Observations & Facts:
· The trio goes to “Mr. Bojingles Music Emporium”. Shops next door: “Prosthetics R Us” and “Burrito Heaven”
· Jason plays a “Kozuh”
· Signs in Bojingles: “Oboe Lessons” “Big Blowout Sale” “Rainsticks” “Robot’s Dream of Love” “Jazz Festival” (written on a single piece of paper and attached with a thumbtack, with no other information)
· The Guitar Teacher has a statue of Buddha playing the guitar.
· McGuirk appears to be playing a one man tic-tac-toe game on his clipboard paper.
· Jason strums his bass.
· Josie rubs her ears after hearing “Freaky Outtie”
· Dwayne has a pet iguana.
· Dwayne goes to “Lionel’s All Night Long Quick Stop”.
· People at Guitarmageddon: Finger Master, Coffy Sugar, Paulie Fretstine, Mr. Fingers, Joe-Bob, Kurdt Kurt, Jimmy Monet, Dwayne.
· Jimmy’s guitar holder says “JM” on it.
· The girl who Jimmy steals the drink from is wearing a “JM” shirt.
· The crowd holds up lighters during the better part of Dwayne’s performance.
· Clarice's shadow is shaped like a guitar in the scene right after Jimmy Monet is announced the winner. This could be due to the larger fact that her whole body is shaped like a guitar. (Thanks to Maura for this one)
· “Freaky, Outtie” is released under the band name: “Brendon Poppins and the Chimminy Sweeps”
· During the “Freaky, Outtie” video, McGuirk runs into a tree. The next time we see him in the video, his nose is bandaged and bruised.

Episode Special: Guitar References

I got an interesting e-mail today, apparently the episode stayed true to guitars.

Brendon's guitar in this episode seems to be based off of the Gibson ES-175 (except in worse condition)

Meanwhile, Jimmy Monet plays with an Ibanez Iceman Guitar while in the store.

Past Episode References:
· When Clarice first appeared in Episode 209 – Class Trip, she talked about her boyfriend who called her “Lil’ Mama”.
· Dwayne’s “Battling of the Bands” trophy from Episode 212 – Pizza Club, as well as a poster from the event, is in his room.

Movie & Other References:
· Jimmy Monet's personality is a reference to David Lee Roth.
· “Alligator Shoes” might be a reference to an Allman Brothers Band song.
· The judges at Guitarmageddon appear to be Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and either Randy Rhodes (Ozzy's Guitarist, thanks to sarcasticad for this one) or Stevie Ray Vaughn (thanks to David Dycus for this one). I'm really not sure, but probably the latter.
· The “Freaky, Outtie” video is a parody of the Beatles “A Hard Day’s Night”.

End Credits: Spoken: Brendon & Paula sing “Freaky, Outtie”

Reviews: WARNING: Spoilers

Jdoggg: Great. Just great. The Dwayne scenes ("I only care about guitar"!), their band, the David Lee Roth character, the return of "Little Momma", Mcguirk's "helpiee" scene, Walter and Perry's song "We can do it!", just great. I wonder how Dwayne can play the guitar without strings. A+

J-Chan: Not bad. That girl drove me up a wall though.. even though I AM the type who likes to count their change constantly. ^^; I LOVED the Walter and Perry scene, yelled out "Hey, Walter and Perry are doing it together!" and my sister (who wasn't paying attention) whirled around with a "WHAT???"

The Condiment King: This is the first Dwayne focus plot, which is interesting. This is also the second episode with Cynthia. We see more continuity here with Jimmy Monet calling Cynthia "Little Mama". Cynthia is a great random character for a Home Movies. She had some great lines here.

Brendon, Jason, and Melissa starting the new band was an interesting plot device, something once again for Jason and Melissa to argue about just like the movies. The potential names for the band were hilarious: Brendon Poppins and the Chimney Sweeps and The Chocolate Factory for example. "Freaky Outtie" was a hilarious first single and the music video at the end was great. McGuirk and Paula were pretty good here with their obvious criticisms.

Guitarmeggedon is a great name for a guitar contest of a battle of the bands-esque contest. Dwayne's plot was mildly interesting with us meeting Dwayne's father and his rival, Jimmy Monet. Season 3 really helped to flesh out some of the background characters even more than Season 2 did. ****

StrangerAtaru: Music has always been a driving force about this show, and this episode shows every reason why, with pieces both cool (such as Dwayne) and absurd (er, Brendon). Starting with Dwayne's plotline, I personally find it sort of refreshing to see an episode that mostly involves a character who isn't Brendon or McGurk. (well OK, "Director's Cut" is another Dwayne one technically, but that was more Brendon than Dwayne) We find out here not only how Dwayne has learned his art (in an amusing bit involving his lesson), but the problems that he faces in trying to be an artist. We meet his father in this episode, who turns out to be just as, er, fatherly as Paula, but unfortunately somewhat strict when it comes to the activities of his son. Meanwhile, it is here that we first meet his rival, the David Lee Roth-wannabee Jimmy Monet, as well as the return of the strange coffee-shop girl from "Class Trip", Clarisse. I found Monet to be a tad annoying at times, partially because of this strange TV stereotype that all rivals have to be arrogant jerks. Clarisse was as chatty as ever here, and while she did have a couple funny moments here and there, more of them were annoying than funny. The highlight of this storyline is the big "Guitarmaggedon" contest, where we see how good both Monet and Dwayne really are with their axes. While it got a tad cliche of Dwayne barely getting a guitar at the last minute (from Brendon of all people), his performance was worth the wait. Sadly, Monet won the contest (but then again, he also had a pretty good performance), but Clarisse redeems herself in the end with her little comforting conversation to the "rock god" of HM. Outside of all this, the only other complaint I had to this storyline was that they didn't really touch the Scab aspect, since I wish they could of had them in one or two scenes for someone else for Dwayne to work off of.

The other major plotline at work in this episode is the funny, but sometimes predictable, one of Brendon, Jason and Melissa starting a rock band. It starts off OK with a little exchange in the music shop where they first get the idea, especially when Jason wants to play the rainstick instead of the bass because of lack of respect for bass players. (OOC: Funny, George Harrison and John Entwise got a lot of respect when they died) The bit where McGurk talked about his roadie days to Brendon seemed to drag on for a bit and didn't really do much to me, but partially because I thought this was another "Fonzing" they were doing to him. But the big payoff came with the big performance of "Freaky Outie!", which I consider one of the funniest and most concofonous songs I have ever heard on TV, followed by the complaints made by McGurk and Paula over how awful it was! (up there with "Fugue for Frog"....Muppet Show fans should know this one) Unfortunately, this storyline loses a bit of steam when Brendon, Jason and Melissa try to go somewhere with it, but don't go anywhere and end up breaking up. (who could see that one coming) But luckily it all comes together in the end with a "Hard Days Night" parody (with McGurk) followed by an awkward jam session between Brendon and Paula. (including the fact that Paula sells Brendon's rental) Overall, I personally think that while there isn't much there plotwise that hasn't been seen before, it was the musical plotlines that made this one great! (yes, even Walter and Perry's, um, violin solo)

The Landstander: The definite "Dwayne" episode, and it's pretty good to boot.

The Jimmy Monet character and the whole idea of the guitar faceoff may be a bit cliche, but it's played out well enough that it doesn't matter. Dwayne started off as a last minute character in season one, so it's neat to see him actually having plotlines at this point. We even get to see his family life for the first time. Brendon also has some fun with the music here, from Jimmy's awesomely cheesy guitar solo to Dwayne's hypnotic improv. Clarice was a really odd character, but it seemed to fit when she winds up with Dwayne at the end.

On the other end is the equally funny band plotline. The opening discussion about "talkies" in the music store is one of my favorite sequences, leading into the horror of Freaky Outtie and McGuirk's Alligator Shoes memories. The eventual breakup and the ending was a bit predictable, but no matter, it was all very funny and very true to characters anyway. Highly Recommended.

Oh, I almost forgot:

WE CAN DO IT