Freaks & Greeks
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| “Freaks & Greeks” | |||||||
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| Drawn Together episode | |||||||
 Hero forms his own Greek Society. |
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| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 1 |
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| Written by | Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein | ||||||
| Directed by | Ray Claffey | ||||||
| Guest stars | Maurice LaMarche as Mr. Georgiopolis | ||||||
| Production no. | 301 | ||||||
| Original airdate | October 5, 2006 | ||||||
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"Freaks & Greeks" is the twenty-third episode of the animated series Drawn Together.
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[edit] Storyline
While delivering mail to the Drawn Together house, the postman happens to remark that some Greeks have moved in next door. This news thrills Captain Hero, not realizing that it is actually a family of Greek immigrants and not a Greek fraternity. Determined to become a pledge, Hero goes to the family's house dressed in a toga, forces his way inside, and proceeds to engage in a frenetic display of depraved frat boy antics. The family, whose name is Georgiopolis, is terrified and orders Captain Hero to leave. Hero is depressed the Greeks won't allow him to rush their house. Xandir attempts to comfort Hero by telling him he doesn't need some fraternity since he still has his friends in the Drawn Together house. Hero decides Xandir is right, and proclaims he will start his own fraternity instead. With Wooldoor and Xandir as his pledges, Hero leads his new frat brothers in a variety of pranks designed to intimidate their rivals. The Georgiopolises respond by hitting Hero with a restraining order. Hero decides he must teach them a lesson, and sets out to kidnap what he thinks is their goat mascot, but which is actually the family's young daughter Georgina. He manages to get away with his crime, then gloats at his success when he sees that the distraught family has moved away. When the realtor informs Hero that the Georgiopolises have moved back to Greece, however, Hero suddenly realizes the mistake he made. He and Foxxy take the girl back to Greece, which actually turns out to be the set of the musical Grease rather than the country. The happy family is reunited, and everyone sings a song of celebration. Hero and Georgina ride away at the end in a flying car.
Meanwhile, Ling-Ling receives a letter from Asia that his sickly father Jun-Jee has tried to commit suicide. In an attempt to cheer him up, Ling-Ling brings Jun-Jee to the Drawn Together house to take care of him. Jun-Jee is initially unhappy with the idea until he falls in love with Toot at first sight. Toot does not take the old man's advances seriously at first; however when she discovers that Jun-Jee is extremely wealthy, she immediately changes her tune. Over Ling-Ling's objections, Toot and Jun-Jee are married, and Toot immediately begins squandering the inheritance Ling-Ling feels belongs to him. Ling-Ling angrily confronts her about this. Jun-Jee overhears the two arguing and concludes that neither actually cares about him, they are only interested in his money. He informs both of them that he won't be giving either of them his money, that he will use it to fulfill a lifelong dream of taking a ride on a spaceship. After Jun-Jee departs, Ling-Ling and Toot are both depressed. Toot manages to convince Ling-Ling that if they agree to share, they can possibly keep Jun-Jee from disinheriting them. They get to the rocket just as it is about to take off. Ling-Ling manages to get inside (though Toot gets stuck in the door) and talk to his father. He is able to talk his father out of going up in the rocket and come home with him. As the two leave the spaceship, it suddenly takes off with Toot still stuck in the door. Moments later, the rocket collides with the flying car from the conclusion of Grease, which Georgina and Hero happen to be riding in at the time.
Musical Number: "Pledging Days", a parody of "Summer Nights" from the musical Grease, sung by Hero and Georgina, along with a cast of extras. Also, Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" plays during a montage of the fraternity's pranking endeavors.
[edit] Notes and inside references
- On the DVD, the episode is titled "Greeks and Freaks"
- This episode debuts a new opening credit sequence for the show, featuring the same theme song and format as previously, but incorporating new video clips into the background.
- The clip of Clara doing a striptease from "Ghostesses in the Slot Machine" shows her with red pasties covering her nipples. However, in the episode, her pasties were blue. The clip used here is from the original version of that episode, which had to be changed before broadcast due to network censorship. [1]
- The fourth wall is broken three times, once by Captain Hero and twice by Jun-Jee. In all these instances, Ling-Ling is speaking and the Comedy Central bug expands to say that an all-new Daily Show is coming up next, almost completely blocking the subtitles translating what Ling-Ling is saying. Then, Hero or Jun-Jee look at the bottom of the screen and comment about Jon Stewart or The Daily Show while completely disregarding Ling-Ling's words which are hidden underneath.
- This also suggests that the other characters are sometimes able to understand Ling-Ling by reading his subtitles, another fourth wall break.
- During the first instance of the gag, when Ling-Ling hears about Jun-Jee's suicide attempt, the words being blocked are "Why father do such thing? I go homeland to Father." During the second instance, when Ling-Ling is trying to persuade Jun-Jee to come to the Drawn Together house, the words being blocked are "I am only son and you must realize that." During the third instance, when Ling-Ling is trying to get his father to leave the rocket and come home, the words being blocked are "All you need is love."
- March No. 4 in G Major by Edward Elgar is played several times during the show, including when Captain Hero first meets Mr. Georgiopolis, and later when Captain Hero is initiating Xandir and Wooldoor into Phi Alpha Gimel.
- Although it had been mentioned by the creators on the DVD commentary for "The Other Cousin", this episode marks the first time Ling-Ling's father's name, Jun-Jee, is mentioned in the show.
- While Ling-Ling's subtitles write Toot as "Toot-san", he can be heard saying "Sumo-san", a reference to her obesity.
- Jun-Jee's reaction to seeing Toot standing on the springboard (his eyes bug out, and his tongue falls to the ground) resembles Toot's reaction to seeing Xandir for the first time in "Hot Tub"; both scenes parody the exaggerated reactions of characters in old cartoons to seeing an attractive member of the opposite sex.
- The fraternity Captain Hero starts is called ΦΑג (Phi Alpha Gimel). The gimel is actually a Hebrew letter, not a Greek letter, as one would expect from a Greek fraternity, providing an example of another Jewish in-joke in the series. Transliterated into English, ΦΑג would be "fag," a derogatory American slang term for a gay man.
- The crest on the fraternal composite Hero views is that of the real life fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon. According to the text on the composite, the fraternity is located at Wabash College, the location of TKE's Alpha-Alpha chapter.
- The lamer Jewish fraternity down the street is called ם ל ש (Shin Lamedh Mem), spelling של(ו)ם, shalom, a Hebrew greeting.
- During a scene when the guys raid the immigrants' house at night, Hero, Xandir, and Wooldoor are all barefoot. This is the only time Wooldoor is depicted without socks; his feet are revealed to be sock-shaped (although he seems to have two toes on each foot). In previous episodes, he had always worn socks, even at odd moments (such as in the hot tub or in the pool). Also, Wooldoor's penis is shown uncensored in this episode, another first for the show.
- When Ling-Ling brings Jun-Jee home with him, Clara tells Ling-Ling to "just stack him in the corner with the rest of them". The camera then cuts to a bunch of extremely ill-looking people in a pile, including both of Hero's parents, both of Xandir's parents, two Sockbats (presumably Wooldoor's parents), Clara's father The King, and a bearded elderly black-and-white man, who can be presumed to be Toot's father.
- The presence of Wooldoor's parents contradicts what was established in "The One Wherein There Is a Big Twist, Part II". In that episode, it was revealed that Wooldoor's parents had been killed and made into candy, which the housemates ended up eating at the end of the episode. In the episode "Lost in Parking Space, Part One", Wooldoor would once again refer to his parents as being alive.
- The old bearded black and white man who appears in this pile had previously appeared in "Hot Tub" as one of Toot's admirers during her introductory sequence. He is also seen as a guest at Toot's wedding later in the episode, along with some of the other characters from the same sequence.
- Just as Georgina wakes up in her bed, before Captain Hero stuffs the carrot in her mouth, she starts to shout, "Ευχαριστώ, παρακαλώ!" ("Efharisto, parakalo"), a Greek phrase meaning "Thank you, please".
- Cree Summer provides the voices for both Georgina (the immigrant family's daughter) and the realtor.
- Spanky Ham makes only a very brief appearance in this episode, not appearing until the Grease parody near the end of the episode. His only line is, "It's the word!", quoting a line from the musical's title song.
- Unlike the previous two season premieres, there is no "This year on Drawn Together" teaser segment at the end of the episode.
[edit] Goofs
- When Jun-Jee first sees Toot at the pool, the scene opens on a shot of Toot's feet, similar to the shot of Bleh in "The Other Cousin". In this shot, Toot has five toes on each foot; usually she is drawn with four, in keeping with the standard character design for her particular style of animation. Interestingly, in the aforementioned shot of Bleh, Bleh also had an extra digit, a sixth toe on her right foot. The initial panning sequence also depicts Toot with her right thigh having been gnawed on, possibly by herself. However, in the very next shot, her thigh is shown unharmed.
- The Jewish fraternity's sign is spelled in Hebrew, but the word is backwards from typical Hebrew writing. The Memh Sophit (A Memh that appears when placed at the end of a word) is on the left side. It should be on the right.
[edit] Animated cameos
- At the beginning of the episode, a Smurf village is shown being decimated by Wooldoor's lawnmower.
- After Hero swells up into a giant blueberry in a parody of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (see Cultural references below), Xandier summons Oompa-Loompas with his flute and they roll him away.
- Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro has a cameo appearance as a guest at Jun-Jee and Toot's wedding. This is his third cameo on the show, the first two coming in "Foxxy vs. the Board of Education" and "A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special".
- George Takei dressed as Sulu from Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Animated Series materializes via transporter beam, meets Ling-Ling's father whereupon the two are instantly attracted to each other, and they dematerialize in the shape of a glittering heart.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of this episode is a reference to the series Freaks and Geeks.
- The postman delivers the housemates a bunch of "copyright infringement" letters, a reference to the housemates' status as parodies of other, more famous cartoon stars. As she takes the letters, Toot does a Charleston while singing in the manner of her prototype Betty Boop, then feeds all the letters into a paper shredder.
- When Ling-Ling comes to visit his father after his suicide attempt, Jun-Jee still has a tantō plunged into his belly, which is the first step in the ritual of seppuku.
- Jun-Jee states that Ling-Ling's full name is "Ling-Ling Hitler Bin Laden Seacrest", referring to Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, and Ryan Seacrest. Executive Producer Bill Freiberger has stated that this supposed revelation of Ling-Ling's full name is merely a gag, and not canon.[2]
- When Jun-Jee sees Toot at the pool, he says, "Jun-Jee wouldn't mind sweeping that leg, Johnny." This is a reference to the line "Sweep the leg, Johnny!" from The Karate Kid.
- Clara, Foxxy, and Toot are shown sleeping in hammocks stacked on top of each other; this is a reference to how Gilligan and the Skipper slept on Gilligan's Island.
- The scene where Jun-Jee stands outside Toot's window holding a boom box is a parody of John Cusack's character in Say Anything. The song playing is an Asian-sounding parody of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes", the song Cusack's character Lloyd Dobler played in the movie. The lines of the song that are audible include "In your round eyes/I feel the heat/of tiny feet/round eyes".
- Toot's come-on line to Jun-Jee, "Interested in sticking your John McCain into my Hanoi Hilton?", is a reference to the POW prisoner camp in which McCain was held during the Vietnam War.
- The Vietnam War is referenced again in the scene where Toot confronts Ling-Ling in his room. During this scene, Ling-Ling can be seen trimming a bonsai tree into the shape of Police Chief General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing NLF Captain Nguyen Van Lem. The voices for the two figures are provided by creators Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein.
- When Captain Hero looks at a photo collage of the past fraternity members, we see that they are all Captain Hero except for one which is a black Captain Hero with a pick in his afro. Hero says, "They were like brothers to me. Well... except for one." This is a pun on the dual meaning of the word "brother" as a term for both a member of a fraternity and a slang term for an African-American male.
- During the frat's kidnapping mission, Wooldoor ties one end of a rope to his penis and the other end to a cinder block, then throws the cinder block off the balcony. This is a reference to the movie Old School, where the pledges were told to do the same thing, only off the side of a building.
- One of the pictures during the goat clip show is a sculpture of the Greek god Pan having sex with a goat.
- The Toot/Jun-Jee storyline is based on Anna Nicole Smith's marriage to J. Howard Marshall. Ling-Ling even refers to Toot as an Anna Nicole parody at one point.
- Toot says at one point, "I've been letting Jun-Jee ram his tank into my Tiananmen Square"; the scene then cuts to her in the confessional saying, "Sadly he always ignores the little student." This refers to a famous photograph of the Tiananmen Square protests depicting a lone protestor standing in front of the advancing tanks.
- During Toot and Jun-Jee's wedding scene, after the minister pronounces them husband and wife, Jun-Jee steps on a fortune cookie, referencing Jun-Jee's Asian culture and mimicking the Jewish wedding tradition of stepping on a glass. The Jewish tune "Hava Nagila" is then played.
- When Ling-Ling and Toot are arguing back and forth with each other, Ling-Ling at one point says angrily, "Duck season!" This is a reference to the Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck cartoon Rabbit Fire where the two are trying to avoid being hunted, and argue loudly over whether it is rabbit season or duck season.
- Jun-Jee says that he plans to use his money to go up in a spaceship. This is a reference to the concept of space tourism.
- Jun-Jee says that going to into space "turns Asians queer - at least, that only explanation for George Takei." This refers to how Takei, after becoming famous portraying Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek: The Original Series, came out of the closet after the series ended.
- When their daughter is returned to them, the father of the Greek family says, "Thank you, mighty Thor!" Thor, however, is a Norse god rather than a Greek one. This also references the Marvel Comics' version of Thor, whose flagship title is called The Mighty Thor.
- During the "Pledging Days" song parody, the Danny Zuko character (played by John Travolta in the movie Grease) moves his head back-and-forth to the music in what appears to be a simulation of fellatio on Captain Hero. Hero and Georgina flying away in a car, however, comes from the last sequence of the film, "We Go Together". When his gang is assaulting Captain Hero, the Travolta character also says "Sandy" and "Greased Lightning", referring to two additional songs from the musical.
- The last sequence, where the space shuttle with Toot in it collides with Captain Hero's car, mimics the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
| Preceded by The Drawn Together Clip Show |
Freaks & Greeks October 5, 2006 |
Succeeded by Wooldoor Sockbat's Giggle-Wiggle Funny Tickle Non-Traditional Progressive Multicultural Roundtable! |
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