Animaniacs: August 1996
Cover
Drawn by: Walter Carzon and Khato
A wrestling poster: Wakko, dressed in hat, gloves, wrestling trunks, and Kiss eye makeup, is standing on the ropes at the corner of the ring, ready to leap onto two wrestlers who are glaring at him.
As would be expected for a poster, captions abound: "Get ready to rumble!!", "All-out title bout!", "Pulse-pounding, fist-flying, rip-roaring action! Prepare to be blown away!", and (across the bottom right corner) "Feel the fury of fifteen tons of monster truck mayhem!"
Yakko and Dot are standing beside the ring, looking bored. Yakko asks, "When are you gonna play 'Rock and Roll All Nite'?"
Credits
Synopsis
The Screaming Snit of the Century wrestling match is just beginning as the Warners walk into the arena. Unfortunately, they're there for a Kiss concert. They get to their seats, and misunderstand the action in the ring as the pre-concert warmup, so they try to hurry things along by going into the ring and asking the wrestlers to start the concert.
By this time, the wrestlers are getting irritated with the interruptions, and explain who they are. The Warners, after first misinterpreting "wrastlers" as "rustlers" and leading a cattle drive through the ring, say that they're there to see a concert and want to hear singing. One wrestler asks, "Gonna make us?" This is, of course, the wrong thing, and the Warners rise to the challenge.
One wrestler claims the audience loves him because he's cute. Dot objects to someone calling themselves cuter than she is, and they wind up having a cute-off in the ring. Dot wins, knocking out her competitor. Next, Yakko and Wakko take on the two "bad guy" wrestlers. They get pounded, and tied into knots, but come back to make balloon animals out of the bad guys. More fighting ensues, but Yakko and Wakko break free, in the process repeating their demand that the wrestlers sing. Just as the brothers turn a tag-team wrestling match into a game of tag, Dot interrupts the proceedings to inquire if they're done yet. When she learns that they're fighting for the belt (with matching handbag and compact), she makes short work of the wrestlers.
Dot asks if they're going to sing. They agree, out of desperation, only to be stopped by the promoter, who points out that singing isn't in the script. The Warners don't like that script, so they substitute fist a scene from Hamlet, then a scene from Gone with the Wind, and finally a big song and dance number.
We cut to the next night, with the Warners in front of the stage at the concert. Dot points out that she wouldn't have gotten the nights switched...
Did You Notice...
Nearly all of the wrestling names and terms refer to something in the WWF (World Wrestling Federation). This is a very good parody of wrestling in general, and a much better treatment than the cartoon Fake, in Animaniacs episode 69.- Wakko's comment, "I'm a frayed knot", refers to the punch line of a joke that's suffered from severe overtelling. If you haven't heard it, you're really leading a sheltered life.
- Ricky Nelson really did sing Hello Mary Lou.
- There's a Pinky and the Brain shirt on Wakko's clothesline.
- Kiss really looks like the last panel on page 16.
Technical nits
The Enchanted Nutcracker's trunks are colored solid black in the third panel on page 1, unlike the rest of the story where they're white with red hearts.- The "WWF" in the top panel of page 7 should be "WWWF".
- Shakespeare's name is misspelled in the third panel on page 15.
Credits
Synopsis
Tonight, the Brain's plan involves high finance: He has programmed a wristwatch calculator to transfer funds to his Swiss bank account. All he needs is US$2 from every account in the world to be the richest person on Earth, and from there, conquest should be simple.He has everything he needs, except a powerful laser beam. Just then, Pinky's favorite commercial comes on TV, for a monster truck rally. The halftime laser extravaganza catches the Brain's attention, though, as the laser will satisfy his requirements.
They find a pickup truck behind the lab and, after a few mishaps, fix it up into a monster truck. They assume new identities and disguises, and get to the truck rally, albeit with some difficulty in driving. Once inside, they enter the rally and meet the other drivers, and Pinky drips candy residue on last year's winner, Don "The Snake" Serpentine's, hand before going off to their truck.
Just before the race, Serpentine is seen sabotaging the other trucks, although he decides not to "help" the mice when he sees that they have enough trouble: Pinky is covered in candy. When the race is run, the Brain takes an early lead, and keeps accelerating as other trucks drop out with mechanical problems: Pinky's candy has stuck the gas pedal to the floor. The Brain manages to keep the truck on course, and they wind up in a tie for first place with the Snake's truck.
The tiebreaker is a sudden death second round: a climb up a mountain of crushed cars. The Snake lets the air out of the Brain's tires before the start, but Pinky finds what he thinks is an air bottle and refills them. While the Snake's truck loses control and crashes back to earth, the Brain's truck floats to the top - literally - on what turn out to be tires filled with helium. They jump out to claim their prize, but just as the Brain tries to commandeer the laser, the helium dissipates, and the truck crashes on top of them, wrecking the Brain's calculator and his plans.
Did You Notice...
- Big Daddy Pink and The Snake refer to two legends of drag racing, "Big Daddy" Don Garlits and Don "The Snake" Prudhomme. They are largely responsible for making NHRA drag racing what it is today. While they affected a rivalry for public consumption, in reality they are both nice guys and wouldn't do anything nasty to each other. Prudhomme, in particular, would never cheat by sabotaging others' equipment - he usually didn't have to. Neither one has done the monster truck bit, as far as anyone knows.
- "Four-by-four" is common slang for a four-wheel-drive truck.
- The scenes where they rebuild the truck are a direct takeoff on the TV sitcom Home Improvement, especially the Brain's discussion of how to lift the truck and his disdain for safety devices. Pinky repeatedly refers to the Brain as "Tim", after the starring role, Tim Taylor, played by Tim Allen.
Technical nits
- At the start of the first race, the sky isn't colored in, making it appear as though it's happening in the daytime - even though the rest of the story is colored after dark. (page 26)
Jay Maynard, jmaynard@phoenix.net
Last updated 11 July 1996