Craig's Hilarious "Clone High" Page

Clone High is an animated TV series that was co-produced by Nelvana (Canada) and MTV (USA).

SAVE CLONE HIGH! Check out the Save Clone High! web site.

HUNGER STRIKE! Join the Clone High Hunger Strike to get the show back on the air.

DVD RELEASE!!! Clone High has been released on DVD, available from Amazon Canada.

SPOILER WARNING! Below are detailed comments on episodes, which include spoilers, so stop reading now if you haven't seen the series. I attempt to squeeze every last drop of noteworthy juice out of each episode. I also give my own rating out of ten for each. This site also uses STRONG LANGUAGE where suitable. Oh, and I'm not afraid to use this site as a 'blog for my personal opinions.

I have also submitted many of my comments to TV Tome, though they have been foolish enough not to accept some. At least they have a sensible copyright policy (my comments remain my own). Here is my copyright policy. Pun Dog (aka Adam Pava, writer) also has an interesting Clone High site. A lot of people seem to come here looking for information on the music featured in the series, but I really have no special knowledge of this subject. Try Pun Dog's Music Credits web page.

Did I mention that I'm totally in love with Joan of Arc?

• Episode 1 - Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand (9/10)
• Episode 2 - Episode Two: Election Blu-Galoo (10/10)
• Episode 3 - A.D.D.: The Last 'D' is for Disorder (7½/10)
• Episode 4 - Film Fest: Tears of a Clone (9/10)
• Episode 5 - Sleep of Faith: La Rue D'Awakening (7/10)
• Episode 6 - Homecoming: A Shot in D'Arc (10/10)
• Episode 7 - Plane Crazy: Gate Expectations (8/10)
• Episode 8 - A Room of One's Clone: The Pie Of the Storm (8½/10)
• Episode 9 - Raisin the Stakes: A Rock Opera in Three Acts (8½/10)
• Episode 10 - Litter Kills: Litterally (7/10)
• Episode 11 - Snowflake Day: A Very Special Holiday Episode (7/10)
• Episode 12 - Makeover, Makeover, Makeover: The Makeover Episode (1) (10/10)
• Episode 13 - Changes: The Big Prom: The Sex Romp: The Season Finale (2) (9/10)
• Season 2

Stop reading now if you don't want to be SPOILED, or click above and scroll very carefully through the episodes that you have seen.

"Escape to Beer Mountain" probably refers to "Escape to Witch Mountain". "A Rope of Sand" is a meaningless phrase according to Pun Dog and Mr. B.

Very Special Episode

Abraham Lincoln

The original Abe was the 16th president of the United States. He was also known as "Honest Abe", which Cleo and Abe refer to Abe as in the episode.

Mahatma Gandhi

The original Gandhi was a Prime Minister of India and was made famous for his non-violent passive resistance against the British.

Joan or Arc

The original Joan lead the French army against the English and she was eventually burned at the stake.

Marilyn Monroe

Famous actress.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

President. Womanizer. Not a jelly doughnut.

Caesar

Roman emperor.

Bay of Pigs

A failed attempt by JFK to overthrow Fidel Castro. The original JFK also probably bagged Marilyn Monroe.

Elvis Presley

Singer. Young Elvis = lean & mean. Old Elvis = overweight alcoholic pill popper. A catch phrase for Elvis was "Thank you very much." "Elvis has left the building" was announced to obsessed fans to make them go away after a concert.

Cleopatra, Walk Like An Egyptian

Cleopatra was an ancient-Egyptian queen. She is shown walking to her locker and carrying her books in a stereotypical ancient-Egyptian fashion.

Dolly the Sheep

The first cloned mammal was a sheep named 'Dolly'. This is presumably why Scudworth's early experimentation produced Mr. Sheepman, "the first mostly-human clone." Dolly also developed arthritis and Mr. Sheepman walks with a cane. Present-day clones have various health defects. Dolly ultimately developed lung cancer and was euthanized. I guess we know what's in Mr. Sheepman's future.

Scud-worthy

Dr. Scudworth is presumably named after the infamous and inaccurate medium-range missile used by Saddam Hussein in "Operation Desert Storm: Part One". The missile type itself came from the Soviet Union and was given its derogatory-sounding name by NATO intelligence. I'm not sure where his first name of "Cinnamon" came from, but presumably it's meant to be a counterpoint to his last name. His middle initial of "J." is a cartoon-world standard, as with "Bullwinkle J. Moose", "Rocket J. Squirrel", "Homer J. Simpson", and "Bartholomew J. Simpson".

Mr. Belvedere

Mr. Butlertron is obviously modelled after Mr. Belvedere, a 1980's sitcom about a British butler who works for an American family. This is why he calls everyone "Wesley". The character was apparently originally named "Mr. Belvetron", which shows up sometimes in the closed captioning, but this was changed later to "Butlertron" either to make the reference less obvious or to avoid copyright problems.

Lincoln Log

Gandhi asks Abe is he's making a "Lincoln Log" in the washroom. Lincoln logs are a log-cabin construction kit and Gandhi is punning on Abe doing a #2 in the washroom.

The Grassy Knoll

The gang hangs out in the malt shoppe "The Grassy Knoll". When the original JFK was assassinated in Dallas TX, some people reportedly saw movement in the grassy knoll nearby and that the lone gunman of Lee Harvy Oswald in the library repository was actually only one of the "lone gunmen". Many conspiracy theories are around and the issue will probably never be fully resolved. The shoppe has a 1950s or 1960s theme. JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963.

CH fan Sarah Lemieux points out that The Grassy Knoll shoppe features a long convertable car with a dead body hanging over the side, obviously a "tribute" to JFK.

Monroe & Miller

Clone High fan Mr Minute points out in the camera pan at the start of the Grassy Knoll shows “Marilyn Monroe in the background sitting with Nostradamus. In the series, Nostradamus is an unattractive nerd, and yet he's sitting with one of the greatest sex goddesses of all time. Could this be a parallel to her marriage with Arthur Miller?” Maybe this is an extension of the “Miller” conspiracy that consumes Clone High.

George Washington Carver

The original George Washington Carver was a geeky type who was interested in agriculture and developed over 300 products based on peanuts.

Mr. Peanut®

Eleanor Roosevelt

President's wife. Wife to Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Perhaps 'lesbionic'.

Underage Drinking

Apparently something that happens a lot. The legal drinking age where the clones are is 21, which I think might be uniform across the United States. It is between 18 and 19 in Canada.

Genghis Kahn

The original Genghis Kahn was the leader of the Mongolean hordes that conquered China and much of Asia in the 13th century.

International House of Pancakes

Abe initially tries to get Genghis to get beer at the "International House of Beer". Presumably, this is a play on the "International House of Pancakes", a breakfast restaurant.

Elevator Music

The same piece of "Elevator music" is playing at all of the stores that Abe tries to buy beer from.

Pump 'N Save

The gas station/convenience store that Abe tries to get beer from is called the "Gas 'N Save 'N Guzzle 'N Such". Presumably this is a reference to "Pump 'N Save".

Microsoft® Windows®

Scudworth's computer makes the error sound of Microsoft® Windows® while he is typing on it. He also seems to have an "eep" and a "quack" sound programmed into his computer. I would have figured that the writers would be more fond of Macs.

Jay Leno

Scudworth says, "Good, I'll use a big font, futz with the margins, and I'll be home in time for Jay Leeno." He mis-pronounces "Jay Leno" of the Tonight Show. Joan apparently doesn't approve of Leno. Scudworth says, "How dare you insult that big-chinned everyman and his various African-American band leaders!" to her. Perhaps she prefers Letterman. I've futzed with some margins myself, though to make my behemoth theses look shorter.

Gorillas In The Mist

Scudworth says, "I will be Dian Fossey and they the Gorillas. But where can I find The Mist?" At JFK's kegger.

Kegger

JFK announces his party as being a Kegger. A Kegger is a party where the beer is served from a keg.

Tesla

The chalkboard behind Gandhi at the Crisis Hotline has "Tesla Rules" written on it. Nikola Tesla (a guy) made most of the inventions that made mass electricity a practical reality in the 20th century. You may have been brainwashed into thinking that Edison was the original electricity genius, but he was actually mostly just a showman, the original abuser of the patent system, and a guy who stole all of his engineers' ideas (Tesla once worked for him), and his grandiose plans for a large-scale Direct-Current (DC) electrical system simply were not practical.

OTOH, reader "DJ Sports" suggested that this could instead be a reference to the 1980's rock/metal band "Tesla". Pun Dog confirms that it is in fact a reference to both the rock band and the inventor.

My Two Dads & A-Ha

JFK says, "Well, uh, it's my foster parents. You, uh, know that show 'My Two Dads'? It's, uh, like that, but more gay." "My Two Dads" was a sitcom about a girl who had two dads because they didn't really want to find out who was the true father. Also, the music that plays during this scene is a lot like "Take On Me" by "A-Ha". I guess that people assume that the singer is gay because he has a high vocal range. JFK's dads also say that it isn't JFK fault that he was born straight. Normally, this would be the other way around.

Dockers

JFK's dad Wally says, "Mmm, look how nice he looks in the Dockers we bought him." These are a trendy brand of pants.

National Review

Non-Alcoholic Beer

Abe can only get non-alcoholic beer for the party. Non-alcoholic beer lets you enjoy the awful taste of beer without the benefit of getting drunk. I really don't know why it exists.

Vincent van Gogh

Painter who cut his own ear off. Also, van Gogh's bedroom doesn't look like the usual Clone High backgrounds but instead looks like it was painted, so presumably it is modelled after an actual van Gogh painting.

Fat Boys

Dr. Scudworth wears a "Fat Boys" T-shirt to the party. The Fat Boys are apparently a rap band.

Tin-Can Phone

Cleo says, "Oh, Abe, it's like there's a tin-can phone from your brain to my heart." She is referring to a 'phone' made out of two tin cans connected by a taut string. It's a kid's toy and not a very efficient means of communication.

Dawson's Creek

The way that Gandhi is standing in JFK's boat in the swimming pool and the music that is played is a reference to "Dawson's Creek". Thanks to Suppamagana for pointing this out.

Stun Gun

Joan uses a stun gun on Gandhi for abandoning his post at the Teen Hotline. A stun gun is a non-lethal weapon sometimes used by the police to subdue belligerent suspects (when simple beating isn't getting the job done). It incapacitates a person by electric shock.

Kojak

Gandhi say, "Underage drinking?! Shame on all of you! Shaaaaame! Back to you, Kojak". Kojak was a cop show starring Telly Sevalis. Who loves ya, Baby!

Pot Stickers

Pot stickers are some kind of food wrapped in wonton skins. Recipe. Or maybe there's a more literal meaning.

"Election Blu-Galoo" refers to "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo" (1984). I think that the phrase "Electric Boogaloo" scored a lot higher than the movie.

Special Ed

"Special Ed" is a polite term for a class of mentally-retarted children.

Walk Like An Egyptian

Cleo seems to "strike a pose" stereotypically like an Egyptian when dedicating the piranha moat to the Special-Ed class.

Term Limits

Cleo says, "It's term limits, Jack. Dirty, dirty term limits." Cleo is upset because term limits prevent her from running for president again. Term limits prevent the same person from serving for more than two terms as the President of the United States, presumably to avoid corruption. Incidentally, Canada has no such limits, and less government corruption. Why do people call John F. Kennedy "Jack"?

Pumas®

Scudworth says, "Say, where'd you get those fresh Pumas®, bro?" to the Head Shadowy Figure. Product shot! Pumas® are a brand of sneakers.

Dry-Erase Markers

Scudworth says, "By the by, could I have two million dollars? You know, for dry-erase markers and such. They've got some keen new colors. There's kiwi and... magno..." Dry-erase markers & boards are quite common, though I don't think those colors are. The Shadowy Figures aren't impressed. Also, the school seems to use good old-fashioned chalkboards rather than dry-erase boards.

Corporate Sponsorship

Mr. B. suggests, "Perhaps you could get Clone High a corporate sponsor. Those Pumas were rather freeeeesh." Corporate sponsorship in education is a growing concern and could become quite a messy situation. There was a flap recently about Microsoft® 'buying' an Engineering course at the University of Waterloo (Canada) and requiring that Microsoft® products be purchased and used by the students. The Secret Board of Shadowy Figures has corporate sponsorship as well. Military agencies don't sound like such a great place to mix in corporate control either.

The Midas® Touch

Scudworth says, "Why that idea's as foolish as getting new brakes from anywhere but Midas®". Midas® is an auto-repair franchise.

Abraham Lincoln

Abe says, "If I only knew what fears and insecurities were holding me back" about not running for student-body president, while sitting in front of a painting of the original Abe Lincoln having his brains blown out by John Wilkes Booth while watching a play in Ford's Theatre.

Chess

Joan says, "Together, we'll fight for things that really matter, like new bishops for the Chess Club" while encouraging Abe to run for president. Chess is a board game of strategy and bishops are one of the game pieces. The Chess Club is usually a place where turbo-geeks hang out. Did I mention that I co-wrote a computer-chess program?

Dead Presidents

Scudworth says, "Dead presidents, Mr. B.!" when the X-Blu crew hands him the $2M. This is a phrase used to refer to (US) money, since the portraits on the bills are of past presidents who died a long time ago. Its use is also a bit ironic since there are living clones of the same dead presidents attending the school.

Ask Not

Declaration of Candidacy

Abe says, "My name is Abraham Lincoln and I'm running for student-body president!" This is more or less the standard phrase for candidates to declare that they are running for the President of the United States.

A.P. Calculus/Physics

Abe says, "We've got a lot of, uh, tough issues facing us right now, such as adding a second section of A.P. Calculus for those who have a conflict between that class and A.P. Physics". Only three geeks are impressed. "A.P." is a common phrase and appears to mean "Advanced Placement Program®". I'm guessing it refers to 'enriched' high-school courses like level-1 courses in Canada. Though, adding new sections of courses doesn't really sound like something the student president gets to do.

Albino Wing

Abe says, "We must get tinted windows for the Albino Wing!" in his speech. An albino is a person (or animal) who has no pigment in his/her body. This makes their skin very pale, their hair white, and their irises pink. It seems like political correctness run amok to have an entire wing devoted to albinos when there appears to be only one in the entire school, and tinting the windows seems like more of the same considering that the albino guy could just wear sunglasses. The albino guy goes, "Whoo!"

Product-Name Misspellings

The name of the product is spelled, "X-Stream Blu". Misspellings are quite common in corporation and product names to allow the names to be trademarked. (I work for a company that has a misspelled name.) Using a lone "X" in the product name is also quite trendy. I think that in 30 years, all products are just going to be called "X".

E-Mail, Internet

X-Stream Paco says, "E-Mail!" as a meaningless intensifier. Later, Blushi says, "Let's go surf the Internet." I guess it is hip to reference trendy wide-spread but new-ish technology. Everybody in the series seems to have a cell phone, too. I can remember when Mulder & Scully were rebels for having them.

Logo T-Shirt

Gandhi gets an X-Stream Blu T-shirt. T-shirts with corporate Logos on them are very common promotional products. (The company I work for has them.) The way that the T-shirt stops Gandhi from asking nosey questions might be exactly what any corporation might hope for from their promotional products.

Scooters

The X-Stream Blu Crew enters Abe's bedroom riding scooters. I guess this child's toy had turned trendy.

Hiz-ouse

X-Stream Mike says, "Waah! X-Stream Blu in the hiz-ouse!" This means "house", of course, or whatever place one happens to be.

Googly

X-Stream Erin says, "Lincoln and X-Stream Blu will literally crunch the googly to the max!" A "googly" is a method of throwing a cricket ball with a deceptive trajectory, though perhaps she has some made-up meaning in mind, or she doesn't associate any meaning with it. Erin also seems to abuse the word "literally" frequently, using it where she actually means "figuratively".

Flip a Nollie

Gandhi says, "Flip a nollie and turn it up!" The nollie flip is a skateboarding move.

Mt. Everest

Lincoln climbs to the summit of Mt. Everest to rescue the girls held threatened by the snow sharks in his extreme TV commerical. Mt. Everest is the highest mountain on Earth, soaring to 8,848m. It's unlikely that bikini-clad babes would hang out there, or that snow sharks could drive snowmobiles up there. The snow sharks look so cute in their earmuffs, though (though sharks only have a small hole for their external ear structure). There's also a polar-bear DJ on the summit of Mt. Everest, which is rather out of place, considering that they live in the Arctic.

Blushi

Maybe Blushi's name was inspired by John Belushi. Blushi was also animated in 3D, which is becoming more popular in cartoons. Futurama uses a seamless mix of 2D and 3D.

Bling-Bling

Mr. B. says, "Bling-Bling!" in response to Scudworth saying that they are rich. "Bling-bling" is an onomatopoeic term for jewelery.

M.C. Hammer

Scudworth says, "Don't get all up in my business, my hudraulically-outfitted friend. Why, I watched the first two-thirds of the M.C. Hammer 'Behind the Music', and if there's one thing I've learned about money, it's that it never runs out." Maybe he should have watched the last third. M.C. Hammer was a rap singer who went bankrupt.

JFK

JFK's dad Wally says, "Baby, a lot of people liked the original JFK because he was such a caring leader, and he inspired a generation of young people." JFK responds, "I thought he was a macho, womanizing stud who conquered the moon!". Both are correct.

Puppet Government

Joan says, "I'm here because I can't stand Abe being Cleo's puppet." A "puppet" government is one that is controlled by some foreign power.

Pss wss wss wss...

Joan says, "Here's what we're gonna do. (whispers in JFK's ear) Pss wss wss wss wss wsss..." This is a cliché for sitcoms since people must sometimes make plans that they don't want the audience to know about, so they tease the audience by whispering. There is, of course, no real need for them to be whispering, and the writers further torture the cliché with JFK's response.

Wind-surf board, Bungee cord, Monster truck, Half-pipe

Abe says, "I will ride this wind-surf board which is connected by this bungee cord to this monster truck which my friend Gandhi will drive back and forth on this half-pipe." This is all extreme-sports-related equipment, though not normally used in this combination. Wind-surf boards are for surfing on the water; bungee cord is used for jumping off of bridges or cranes without hitting the ground; monster trucks are custom trucks with huge tires that normally compete against each other or crush cars; and a half-pipe is for doing tricks with skate boards or bikes.

Happy Days

After Gandhi says, "At least it can't get any worse.", Abe responds, "How many times have I told you not to say that?! Now something worse *is* going to happen. I've seen it on 'Happy Days'." "Happy Days" was a TV sitcom from 1974 to 1984. "At least it can't get any worse" is a TV/movie cliché. Since there were "snow sharks" earlier in this episode, maybe they were some twisted take on "jumping the shark" in only the second episode of the series. (Maybe Phil and Chris didn't have a huge amount of faith in the other writers.) The "jumping the shark" incident on Happy Days was the turning point after which the series went downhill until it was finally cancelled. It has become a standard TV-industry term.

Thinking Docks

Abe's and Joan's separate "thinking docks" two feet away from each other is a twisted take on a cliché of people on TV and movies going to some special place to think things through. It's also a bit of a twist that Abe walks directly out of the school hall with an abrupt separation to the school yard and then directly to the docks on the lake. We'll assume this was an abstraction, since they are clearly out in the wilderness in the reverse angle.

Dukakis

Abe says, "I'm going to win that election with the most dangerous campaign stunt since Dukakis jumped the Snake River Canyon". Dukakis is/was a US politican, but I don't recall him ever jumping the Snake River Canyon. Clone High is set in the present day (as evidenced in the Litter episode), so this isn't a prediction of the future. I guess it's a metaphor of Dukakis' 1988 presidental campaign.

Marilyn Manson

Marilyn Manson guest stars in this episode as a campaign-debate panelist. He is a heavy-metal(?) singer and a "scary androgenous white guy", as JFK calls him. But, I don't think that he is really a licensed medical doctor. Dr. Manson's "nutrition" song, of course, contrasts with his usual singing style.

Mena Suvari

Mena Suvari is also a panelist at the debate. Mena Suvari is an actress who has been in many movies including American Beauty. She does have an "enormous forehead", as JFK indicates.

Murray T. Wayans

Murray T. Wayans is also a panelist at the debate. Can't say that I have heard of him, but presumably he is one of or a made-up one of the many Wayans brothers who have been on TV and in the movies.

Fútbol

Scudworth introduces JFK as, "Captain of the football team and el-capitan of the Fútbol team." Fútbol in Latin America is what is called Soccer in North America, and the quotation is a riff on this difference. Soccer is like a glacially slow version of Hockey.

Political Debate

Abe and JFK use some of the formalism, language, and procedures of a political debate, but twist them on their ear.

Med-Speak

Dr. Manson says, "I'm going to need one milligram of sub-cue glucagon, stat!" when treating Gandhi. This is the med-speak that you hear all the time on hospital TV shows like ER or Scrubs (the latter produced by the same people as Clone High). "One milligram" speaks for itself, though he should have given the measurement in cubic centimeters (CCs/milliliters) since it's going to be in a needle and they are measured by volume rather than mass. Prehaps Marilyn Manson is more used to measuring his drugs by mass. ;-) "Sub-cue" means 'subcutaneous', or that it is going to be injected just beneath his skin so that it will be absorbed by the body slowly. "Glucagon" is a drug that increases the blood-sugar level, which is suitable for treating malnutrition. And "stat" means "immediately" (from the Latin statim).

Ingredaments

The X-Stream Blu bottles have the ingredients "Pancake batter, Blue house paint" listed on the side, hidden by a decoy set of nonsensical ingredients. All food products are required by law to have a list of ingredients on them. But here, no one actually bothered to read the real ingredients, which probably reflects reality quite well. It's a good thing they answered Gandhi's question with a T-shirt.

Applause-O-Meter

The Applause-O-Meter is the official voting system of Clone High. This is a device for measuring the noise level that an audience makes. It seems a little informal to be used for voting.

Puppies

A stray puppy wins the election because the audience reacts the most loudly to it. People can be quite irrational about infant canines.

Smurf

An audience member refers to the fattened, bluish Gandhi as a "Smurf". Smurfs are children's cartoon characters that are small, kind of fattish, and blue-colored.

Ancient Pharaohs

Ancient kings of Egypt. Incidentally, Cleopatra was the last Pharaoh. They made pyramids for their burial place, but these pyramids didn't have anything to do with nutrition as Dr. Manson implies.

Food Pyramid, USDA

Dr. Manson references the Food Pyramid and the USDA. The food pyramid is a guide to eating healthy food. (The term is also synonymous with the Food Chain, which means something else). The USDA is the United States Department of Agriculture.

Farm Subsidization

Dr. Manson speaks of subsidizing the cattle industry. But, in the context in which he uses the term, he doesn't actually _mean_ to 'subsidize', which means for a government to make transfer payments (money for nothing) to an uncompetitive industry to help keep it in business. IMHO, farm subsidization is a bad idea and a waste of money, especially considering that most of the transfer payments end up in the pockets of already-profitable corporate-owned mega-farms. If a family farm is uncompetitive, it should fail and the operators should find real jobs. Dr. Manson concludes his song by saying, "Buy American", which, though it sounds good on the surface (if you're an American), is similarly short-sighted in a macro-economic context to subsidization. The most strategic move is to buy the best product at the best price. This maximizes your standard of living (and everybody else's).

Star Trek

In the closing, The Narrator says, "Set your VCRs for stunned". This is a reference to the Star Trek phrase "Set your phasers for stun," a weapon setting that merely knocks out the target rather than killing him. But here, The Narrator is telling us that we will be shocked or amazed. William Shatner apparently also used a similar "stun" pun on the Star Trek set.

Yoda

In the closing, The Narrator says, "You will be... oh, you will be." This is similar to what Yoda said to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back about not being afraid to become a Jedi.

Jesús recounts the story of Joan of Arc from a movie on DVD that he has at home. Presumably he has the The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) DVD starring Milla Jovovich.

Siskel & Ebert & Roeper(?)

Jesús gives the Joan of Arc DVD a "thumbs up" rating. He raises both of his thumbs, but doesn't actually say "two thumbs up". Rating movies by the number of "thumbs up" is a practice of former "Siskel & Ebert" and present "Ebert & Roeper".

Latin Grammys®

Presumably the Grammy® award for Latin music.

Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin is a latin singer who was popular a while ago, but I haven't heard much from him lately. Jesús Christo is a fan.

California King

Joan refers to California King beds at the furniture store. Presumably, this is a size of bed. She also gives a sales pitch that is stereotypical of commercials for local stores.

Marie Curie

Marie Curie's mutated DNA left her clone grotesquely deformed. This stands to reason, as Polish-born French chemist and Nobel-Prize winner Marie Curie (1867-1934) died of leukaemia that she received from her pioneering work with Radium, a radioactive element. (BTW, she also coined the term "radioactivity".) Radiation exposure mutates DNA by knocking out some nucleotides that bind the helices together, thereby altering the effective 'genetic code'. Marie's clone is on the school dance squad.

Gene Kelly

Marie Curie instructs Gene Kelly on the fine art of the "booty-quake, thrust" maneuver. Later, Gandhi accidentally kills him. Gene Kelly was an actor and dancer best known for his dancing in the movie Singin' in the Rain (1952).

The Solid Gold Dancers

The school's dance squad is called the "The Solid Gandhi Dancers", which is obviously derived from "The Solid Gold Dancers", which apparently was a 1980's TV show. Gandhi is only the Treasurer of the club, not the President, though I wouldn't tend to think that Gandhi and financial responsibility would mix all that well. Gandhi reinforces the "Solid Gold" reference later when he suggests that Cleo kiss his "Solid-Gold ass". Gandhi also asks if someone can stretch his "hammies", where it is standard practice to stretch your muscles, including hamstrings, before dancing or working out.

Attila the Hun

A woman at the PTA meeting says, "I don't want that diseased freak going near my Attila!" about Gandhi. Presumably this is Attila's foster mom and she is worried about her delicate child. Attila the Hun was a great barbarian ruler who attacked the Roman Empire. ("Attila" is spelled incorrectly in the closed captioning.)

Astronaut

An astronaut says, "I don't really think it's safe for Gandhi to wander around without a space suit." I'm not sure exactly who this astronaut is, maybe Neil Armstrong, though the original is still with us (not that it's a requirement that the DNA donor be dead).

Million-Man March(?)

At the PTA meeting, JFK's foster dad Wally says, "I move we form an angry mob, just a bunch of mens, just runnin'." Maybe this is a reference to the Million-Man March? Or maybe Wally just wants to see a bunch of men.

Lincoln Continental

Gandhi says, "Up high, Lincoln Continental!" when asking for a high-five after insulting Cleo. This is a type of car, named after Lincoln.

Pink Floyd(?)

The guitar playing when Gandhi is about to be lynched by the PTA mob reminds me of the Pink Floyd song "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives" from the album "The Wall".

Lynching Mob

The "lynching mob" that comes after Gandhi has torches and pitchforks. Today, we call such a thing a "democracy".

Lip Balm

Cleo sends Abe to the "Lip Balm Shelter" to pick up some lip balm for her. Lip balm is stuff you put on your lips to prevent them from becoming chapped. Though, apparently lipstick also serves this purpose, so why does Cleo need more protection?

'Honest' Abraham Lincoln & Emancipation

Abe's license plate is "MNCIPATE". Lincoln emancipated (freed) the slaves. Also, earlier in the show, Gandhi referred to Abe as "H-onest H-abe", which was the original Abe's nickname (without the hip-hop pronunciation.) Cleo also refered to Abe as being "honest and cool" in the First episode. Also, later in the episode, Gandhi lays down a five-dollar bill to get a kiss from Cleo that later talks to Abe. Abraham Lincoln is, of course, the 'dead president' that happens to be on the American five-dollar bill.

Tom Green

Tom Green plays himself, someone who almost certainly has ADD. In suggesting that they shave a dog and take a dump on his parent's bed, he seems to be acting like he (apparently) did in "The Tom Green Show".

iMac

Dr. Scudworth appears to have a new-model Apple iMac on his desk. In the first episode, I thought that he had a Windows® box.

Anoreixa, Bulimia

The awareness fair includes an "Anoreixa/Bulimia Pie-Eat" booth. Anorexia Nervosa is a psychological disorder that causes young women to starve themselves out of an irrational fear of becoming obese. Bulimia is an eating disorder of binging on food that is often accompanied by vomiting what was eaten to avoid gaining weight. Needless to say, like the "Motion-Sickness Aware-O-Whirl" at the fair, pie eating is not very well combined with Anoreixa or Bulimia, though perhaps the Aware-O-Whirl could be handy for the purging phase of Bulimia.

Teen Magazines

Scudworth says, "[High-School principals are] not the invincible gods that teen magazines would have you believe". I don't quite think that teen magazines actually imply this.

Lemonade

Scudworth says, "When life gives you lemons, you clone those lemons and make super-lemons." This is, of course, Scudworth's twisted take on the cliché, "When life give you lemons, you make lemonade."

Funnel Cake

Dr. Scudworth says to Gandhi, "Go down to that Awareness Fair, stand up for what's right, and bring me back a funnel cake!" A funnel cake is "a deep fried pastry made by pouring the batter through a funnel into hot fat, and then coating with powdered sugar or honey", according to the Food Reference Website.

In-N-Out at La Puente

Amy Grant

The FM-107 DJ says, "Coming up we've got a rock crusade. Forty minutes of non-stop Amy Grant!" FM 107 is a Christian Rock station. Technically, FM stations broadcast on an odd-decimal number of megahertz, so it is probably actually FM 107.1. Amy Grant is a Christian-Rock singer who also has had some cross-over hits in mainstream music, such as "Love Will Find A Way". Well, at least it's not a "Céline Dion-a-thon". ;-) The Crusades were Christian military expiditions undertaken in the middle ages to recover the Holy Lands from the Muslims. Oh, and lots of radio stations have long periods of uninterrupted music and features on one artist. His power is in the mix!

Ottawa

Tom Green indicates that he is originally from Ottawa and presently lives in Hollywood. Ottawa, Ontario is the capital city of Canada and has a regional population of around 1-million people, including me. Huh? "Canada" is a country. It's in the North American continent. ...Well then just take my word for it! Geesh! Hollywood is also a place. I forget what country it's in.

Homoerotic Kissing

Abe and Gandhi open-mouth kiss. Same-sex kissing used to be taboo on television, but it has happened so much in recent years that it's starting to become cliché.

The top hat blowing in the wind in a mud/salt flat refers to Abe in some way; maybe Gabe has lost it, or lost his identity. Reader Katie Wilhelm points out that his hat is blowing in front of an ancient-Egyptian-style setting indicates specifically that Abe is losing his identity to Cleo. The cherry pie is restored and turns in a flame into a rose. Maybe the rose symbolizes love. Then the rose turns in a flame into a human heart, which may be another symbol of love, though this heart is a little more literal than usual. It could also represent Joan's heart being ripped out. I don't know what the coughing might mean. The bag pipe, and steaming kettle might refer to the major male reproductive organ. Slapping the watermellon is almost certainly some kind of playful sexual reference. "Paella" is a kind of food or literally means a pot or pan, though I don't know how this relates to slapping a watermelon, which is what one does to determine the ripeness of a watermelon. Oddly, the high-pitch slapping sound that is heard indicates that a watermelon isn't ripe. Though, really, the sound is much more like a skin-on-skin slap. Maybe Joan is metaphorically slapping her own ass to demonstrate her own ripeness.

And then we get "Fin", which is how French movies and pretentious English movies end. There is also a single dramatic piano note when "Fin" pops up. Oh well, Sigmund Freud gets it, though anyone paying attention could probably extract the themes of Abe, Love, Sexuality, and Forlornness.

Cultural References

Episode Title

"Tears of a Clone" refers to "Tears of a Clown", a song by Smokey Robinson (???). There are lots of "Film Fest"ivals around the world.

'N Sync

The sign at the cross-country sports meet is subtitled, "'N Sync concert moved to nurse's office". 'N Sync is a boy band. I guess they just can't get a big enough audience anymore.

Generic-Brand Sports Drink

At the cross-country sports meet, Cleo says, "Man, it's hot. I think I'll pour this sports drink all over myself." The generic-brand sports drink looks a lot like Gatorade (well, you tell me; I can't use their piece-of-crap web site). Pouring drinks all over oneself is something that one is more likely to do with water, but Cleo does it as a kind of soft-core-porn maneuver.

Sports & Rioting

Buddha says, "Let's destroy property to show how much we appreciate the team." Sports fans tend not to be the most cerebral of people, so they like to riot and destroy property, whether their team wins or loses. Anti-globalization activists are similar, except their team always loses.

Ancient A/V

Caesar breaks into the A/V (Audio/Video) Room and steals books. Maybe this is some kind of reference to the fact that they didn't have audio or video recording in Caesar's age, so they had to use books. Of course, they didn't even have the means to mass-produce books until the Gutenberg press, so each book back then would have been custom-made.

Care-iff

Mr. Sheepman says to his class, "Feel free to say anything today because I'm going to be your 'Care-iff'." This would be "touchy-feely bullcrap" used to counsel people.

Video Art

In repsonse to Gandhi suggesting that they make movies, Joan says, "Uh, I make films, 'k? On video. Experimental video art, technically not intended for audiences." I haven't seen much of this sort of thing, but it is out there and we can probably take Joan's advice about it technically not being intended for audiences. She also says "'k?" instead of "okay", which is a contraction that drives me absolutely bonkers. A lot of girls seem to say this and I find it a little too "cutsie", especially with the question-asking inflection.

Take Back The Night

Abe volunteers to organize the first "Take back the afternoon" film festival to save Clone High. This is a pun on the phrase "take back the night", which is "an international rally and march that is organized in local communities with the purpose of unifying women, men, and children in an awareness of violence against women, children and families" according to Campus Outreach Service, Inc.. Despite the "inclusive" language here, it's really more of a feminist thing.

Super Soldiers

The Head Shadowy Figure reveals the true purpose of the clones by saying, "Principal Scudworth, if you were running this school properly, there would be no riots. Only clone soldiers trained for superior intellectual and physical combat." The super-soldier idea is quite a cliché and the motivation for many government schemes in movies and television, though it never seems to work out well. How about regular soldiers with super technology?

Little Do They Know...

Scudworth says, "Little do they know I have my own plans for these clones--plans which don't involve these shadowy figures at all" and giggles. The Head Shadowy Figure easily overhears him. This sort of thing is a cliché in the government-sponsored mad-scientist genre, but not the 'overhearing him' part.

Karen Carpenter

In response to overhearing Scudworth mentioning a plan against him, the Head Shadowy Figure says, "Scudworth! You're walking on thin ice, man, clone-of-Karen-Carpenter thin." Karen Carpenter (1950-1983) was one-half of the brother-and-sister singing group "The Carpenters" and she died of heart failure caused by chronic anorexia nervosa.

Olive Garden

The Board of Shadowy figures want to meet with Scudworth in person, so he suggests that they have dinner at the Olive Garden, which he describes as, "It's like eating in the private kitchen of a delightful Italian stereotype!" The Olive Garden is, of course, an Italian restaurant.

Mr. Belvedere

I can't remember very well, but Scudworth's house complete with laugh track seems a lot like the Mr. Belvedere house, or any family-sit-com house.

Reservoir Dogs

Scudworth has a poster in his house that says "Reserved Dogs" and shows five men in black suits standing together. Presumably this is a reference to Quentin Tarantino's movie "Reservoir Dogs" in which five well-dressed (and color-coordinated) men attempt a diamond heist.

Phish

Scudworth has a poster in his home that says "Pish" on it in the shape of a fish. Someone on the Inter-web pointed out that this refers to the music band Phish.

ASU

Dr. Scudworth indicates that he got his degree in the Mad Sciences from "ASU", and he has an "ASU" flag on his wall. This is a name for Arizona State University, though Mr. B. indicates that Mr. B. went to Amherst, in a later episode. I'm not sure if they went to the same place or not. I doubt there is any such degree program as "Mad Sciences", though for Ph.D.-level studies, one might expect a candidate to specialize in a particular Mad Science, such as Mad Biology for Dr. Scudworth. We don't know how many degrees Scudworth has, but he has at least a Ph.D. (or M.D., D.D.S., D.V.M. (from an 'Evil' Veterinary school), L.L.D., etc.) as evidenced by his title of "Dr.", and presumably his lesser degrees are in a study area other than Mad Sciences since he indicates that he only has a single degree in that area.

Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?

Scudworth & Mr. B. do the "are you thinking what I'm thinking" thing and then go on a shopping spree to give his house a 'makeover'.

MasterCard

Scudworth has a "MisterBank" card with a design that clearly indicates that it is a referece to MasterCard.

Buddy-Cop Movie

Gandhi wants to make a buddy-cop movie with George Washington Carver. There have been many movies made of this genre, such as Lethal Weapon (1987) and sequels. Or perhaps Rush Hour (1998) and sequels has more of an East-meets-West cross-cultural flavour like "Black And Tan".

Stereotype Athletics

George Washington Carver says, "they perpetuate racial stereotypes" of Gandhi's proposed movie genre. While he says this, he throws a crumped-up mass of paper at a garbage can and misses. Several other crumpled-up missed shots are also shown next to the garbage can. If this were truer to racial stereotypes, Carver would be better at throwing basketball shots. I think the real reason that basketball is popular with black folks is that it doesn't require much of a financial investment in equipment to play the game, unlike, say, hockey.

Casting Couch

JFK makes out/has sex(?) with many potential starlets on his editing-room casting couch. I'm not sure of the present-day prevelence of this practice in Hollywood, but I'm sure it does still happen. JFK's movie is entitled "JFK's Big Movie", but he doesn't finish it.

Clip Art

Joan notices but is slightly underwhelmed by all of the clip art that Abe uses in his advertising poster for the Film Fest. He uses pictures of: a star, a roll of film, a turtle(?), a bag of popcorn, a parrot(?), a clapboard, and a movie camera and operator. I'm not sure what the turtle and parrot are doing there. The usage of clip art in public notices and presentations has sky-rocketed since multimedia computers have become common. Abe's movie poster and the festival programme also include copious clip art.

The Epic

Cleo is shooting an epic movie about herself called "The Best Of The Best Of The Best Of The Best Of The Best". Epics are another genre of movies, and one could even say that movies about Cleopatra are another genre, considering that the IMDB lists 43 theatre movies and 11 TV movies on the subject. The most famous one is probably Cleopatra (1963) starring Elizabeth Taylor as the titular character. Boob-wise.

Smashmouth

Cleo indicates that her film will have a soundtrack featuring Smashmouth. Smashmouth is a music band, of course, that has such hits as "All Star", "Can't Get Enough of You, Baby", and "Walkin' On The Sun". It's easy to put a band in your film soundtrack, but more expensive to do it legally.

See You At The Movies

Cleo says, "And Abe, I'll see you... at the movies." This is a common phrase--some Hollywood thing.

Runaway

Joan runs away from Abe in the Grassy Knoll by running three tables away. This is so hammed up that it is presumably a reference to various runaway themes in movies.

Andy Warhol, Mother Teresa, & Teen-Slasher Sex Romps

Abe says, "Film at Clone High used to be just you and Andy Worhol And your disturbing art films. But now, Cleo's doing her epic, Gandhi's doing his cop movie, and Mother Teresa's got that teen-slasher sex romp." Andy Worhol (1928-1987) was a famous pop-artist. He died rather ungloriously from complications following a gall-bladder surgery. Mother Teresa (1910-1997) was a famous nun and humanitarian. Teen-slasher sex romps are a genre of movies, and the season finale of Clone High has "The Sex Romp" as a subtitle. It looks like Mother Teresa's clone is rebelling against her clone-parent like the other clones. Also, the original Mother Teresa must have been cloned while she was still alive.

35mm

Abe says, "And now I'm shooting that wad, on thirty-five millimeter." 35mm is the width of the film that is usually used in movie cameras. Actually, it seems a little bit odd that a high school would have 35mm equipment rather than something more modest like 16mm or more likely, video. It's also odd that an American industry has been using metric measurements for such a long time. And "shooting one's wad" usually has a different meaning from how Abe uses it. As a potential nitpick, Joan's one-hand camera looks more like it would only hold 8mm film, but maybe Abe got to the equipment room first.

Ang The Director

The director of Cleo's film is named "Ang". Adam Hill reports that this is a reference to Ang Lee, who directed The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, among other films.

Calligraphy, Cue Cards

Cleo compains that her cue cards aren't written in calligraphy. Calligraphy is a fancy, ornamental style of writing with lots of superfluous strokes, like on graduation certificates. Cue cards are used in TV and sometimes in movies when actors can't be bothered to memorize their lines.

Speed Boat

Gandhi's set includes a rather expensive speedboat, plus a movie fan, a back-screen, and moving waves. The speed boat would probably cost a hundreds of thousands or even a million dollars, and it gets destroyed by an improbable falling water tower while Gandhi is using it. I wonder if that is going to come out of his allowance. The boat also promptly ignites in flames which is also standard for all vehicles in cop movies.

The Bad Guy

Mr. Peanie plays Señor Peanie, the stereotypical cop/adventure-movie insane villain. When Gandhi suggests that he go to hell, Señor Peanie responds, "Last one there's a rotten huevo!" "Huevo" is Spanish for "egg".

Say Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Gandhi tries to coach Carver into saying "Say Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" with the stereotyped "Ebonic" falsetto accent. The term "wack" meaning "insane" might fall into the "Ebonic" category as well. Carver also appears to be wearing a "pimp hat".

Meaningless Direction & Slow Clapping

Abe gives the guy auditioning for his movie meaningless direction like, "I want your voice to weep with honesty and truth and all that is real in this world" and "No, *feel* it!". This would be the stereotypical portrayal of direction in movies about making movies. (I don't know what directions real directors actually give.) Abe also gives treats the guy's poor performance with slow clapping. This means the opposite of applause.

Animal-Sport Movies

Abe is making an movie in the Animal-Sport genre called "It Takes A Hero" about a giraffe who plays football. There have been various movies in this genre such as Air Bud (1997) (dog/basketball) & sequels and Gus (1976) (mule/football). We later learn that the giraffe is symbolic for Abe himself.

The Montage

We see the clones making all of their movies and Scudworth preparing for his dinner with the Shadowy Board in a montage with a song, which is a cliché in movies.

Scented Candles

Scudworth buys some big, presumably scented candles to spruce up his living room. I can't stand the things, even when they're not lit.

Rastaeari

Scudworth covers up a poster that says "Rastaeari". This is an intentional single-letter-decrement misspelling of "Rastafari", which was the religion of Bob Marley, who is clearly the man on the poster. Bob Marley (1945-1981) was a famous performer of Reggae music, though his most famous song was probably "I Shot The Sheriff". One of the tenets of the Rastafari "religion" is "Marijuana: The Weed of Wisdom". 'Nuff said.

Modern Art

Scudworth hangs a painting of three solid color stripes over his "Rastaeari" poster. This is presumably a reference to the uselessness of modern art. It ain't art if I could have painted it myself. The edges aren't even straight. Maybe it "weeps with honesty and truth and all that is real in this world".

Afghan Rugs

A singer, who sounds a lot like the guy who does Abe's voice, sings, "Your problems will end / When you start to spend / On a rug from a third-world nation." This is presumably a reference to Afghan Rugs. It's ironic that the pattern on the rug is sailboats and anchors since Afghanistan is a landlocked country. Afghanistan's other major export would be heroin.

Oscar®

The Film Fest Program booklet has what is presumably the picture of an Oscar® on it. This is the trophy given out for winning an Academy Award for movies. Well, actually, I guess no one "wins" an Academy Award; the award just "goes to" them.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison operates the coal-powered film projector in the bomb-proof projection room. Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) was the original abuser of the patent system, stole all of his engineer's ideas, and took all of the credit. Apparently, Edison's clone has a secret crush on Joan; this is why he gives her such a hard time at the projection booth.

Math & Science

The scrolling background behind Carver during the "Meet Leon Black" movie scene contains elements from various different branches of math & science. It seems to have a lot of partial derivatives from Calculus with Algebra, except that most of the "die" characters look like "a"s and I'm not sure if the formulas make any sense. There is also Chemestry, though I don't recognize any of the molecules other than dihyrdogen monoxide. The big hyrdo-carbon appears to be "C9,H12,O7", though I can't find any reference for this or C10 or C11 (there is a weird symbol in front of one of the C's). I was hoping it might be something interesting like caffeine, LSD, or cocaine. Physics is represented by the famous "E=mc^2" for mass-energy equivalence. And Arithmetic is misrepresented by the dodgy equations "10 - 4 = 2" and "1 + 1 = 3". The first equation would be true in a base-six numbering system, but no such luck for the second.

Harvard

Carver's character in Gandhi's movie is Harvard-educated. Harvard is a pretentious and over-priced ivy-league university. I don't see how it makes any real difference where you get an undergraduate degree. You learn exactly the same stuff in any halfway-decent university. It's not like there's anything complicated or cutting-edge about undergraduate course content.

Supercop

The narrator in Gandhi's movie describes Tandori Jones as "a typical Indian supercop". This may be a reference to the Jackie Chan movie Supercop. Or, the East meets West idea may be a reference to the Rush Hour franchise with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Also, the way the "Black And Tan" title in the movie that is shot in with a machine gun might be a reference to some real movie but I don't know which.

New Delhi, India

Is a city. "Capers" apparently is a kind of condiment.

The Sequel

At the end of the "Black And Tan" movie, they indicate that there might be a future movie called "Black And Tan Forever". There are arguably far too many sequels to movies, including in the buddy-cop genre.

The Slow-Mo-Goal

The giraffe kicks the football for a field goal so that it lands on the goal post and teeters between scoring a point and not scoring a point several times. This is a cliché for sporting events in movies. Also, the girl's love may have pushed it over. (I don't think I want to know about the "carrying your baby" part.) I'm not sure why the goal is worth three points, but, well, I don't know that much about football.

E.T.(?)

The way that the giraffe is taken away in a flying saucer might be a reference to a movie like E.T. or something. I don't really know about E.T. because I've never seen it.

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler's clone is shown in the audience at the end of Abe's movie. Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) was the totalitarian dictator of Nazi Germany who brought us WWII. I'm not sure if his clone appears again in the series. Fan Sol Klein points out that like most of the other clones in the series, this clone may be a little different from his clone-father since he is wearing a yellow peace sign instead of a swastika.

Wide-Screen

Joan's film has miraculously expanded in the fire and will be shown in wide-screen. Since it looked like she shot the movie on 8mm, the aspect ratio would have been 4:3, but wide-screen is probably defined as anything 16:9 or wider. Wide-screen TVs have this aspect, but they really ought to be wider since lots of movies these days are 2.35:1 or even more ridiculously wide. There's nothing sadder than letterboxes on a wide-screen TV.

Religion's For Fools

Scudworth says, "So, religion's for fools, eh?... Fools and liberals!" This doesn't appear to be a phrase that has ever been uttered before, but a possible cultural reference might be that you should never bring up religion as a discussion topic with strangers. Also, religion tends more to be for conservatives rather than liberals. But I can agree with the "for fools" part.

Céline Dion

Céline Dion is referenced in Joan's art film. Céline Dion is a French-Canadian singing diva, with many hit songs such as "My Heart Will Go On".

Sigmund Freud, Fold-Up Chairs

Joan smacks Sigmund Freud in the face with a fold-up chair after he figures out her movie. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was a psychologist who developed psychoanalysis and was overly interested in and thought that everything could be explained by repressed memories, dreams, and sexuality. No wonder he understood Joan's film. Hitting people over the head with fold-up chairs is standard fare at a pro-wrestling match.

Reference to "American Pie (1)" where Jason Biggs humps a pie.

Grease

Fan Marie-Pier Tremblay points out the big race is a reference to the movie GREASE, and JFK use a comb when he is in his car just like the guys in Grease do, and Cleopatra when she gives the signal for to begining of the race she has a little scarf around her neck just like the girls from Grease had.

Fight Club

There's a possible reference to "Fight Club" in that Gandhi hangs out with an imaginary friend and then has flashbacks about it at the end after realizing that the friend was imaginary. Perhaps he has schizophrenia in addition to ADD.

The Sixth Sense

The narrator refers to "The Sixth Sense" and its surprise ending in the closing monologue.

Joan says that Cleo went home with JFK after the party in the First episode. Abe said Cleo's house was "more on his way home." These are odd things to say considering that the party was held at JFK's house.

How would JFK know whether John's thighs are milky? I doubt that Joan took her pants off in the boy's locker room.

Why does Joan bother trying to cover up her attraction to Abe when talking to Mr. B.? Mr. B. was the one who told her to tell Abe how she feels in the First episode.

Analysis

Selective Memory

After Abe finds out that John Dark is actually Joan, maybe he ought to have recalled his conversation with her in the locker room where Joan was trying to convince him to date her and figured out that she has romantic interests in him. Cleo remembers trying to pick up Joan. BTW, Joan's "disguise" was so lame that this must have been a parody of cross-gender disguises in other shows and movies.

Cultural References

Episode Title

"Homecoming" is a common social event at high schools, and "A Shot in D'Arc" is a play on the common phrase "A shot in the dark", using "D'Arc" which, as George Washington Carver points out, is part of Joan's French name "Jean D'Arc" (Joan of Arc).

Memoirs of a Geisha

"John Dark" is reading the book "Memoirs of a Geisha" when Cleo walks buy for her "banana routine". This is a highly acclaimed novel, though not something a cool guy like "John" would likely be reading.

Planet of the Apes

Joan recounts the plot of "Planet of the Apes" as she invents a history for the original "John Dark".

Will & Grace

Will & Grace is a TV show about a gay man and a straight woman who live together.

Dharma & Greg

Dharma & Greg is a show about a (heterosexual) young married couple.

Gandhi has a signed picture that says "To Gary -- Good Luck 'Slaying' that Cancer! (heart) Sarah Michelle Gellar". Apparently, he thinks that she is his girlfriend. We don't know who "Gary" is, but perhaps the gag is that the picture wasn't even signed for Gandhi. Or maybe SMG misheard Gandhi's name while Gandhi was pretending to have cancer at some convention. SMG is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

The Day The Music Died

Buddy Holly's clone says "Well, let me see. It's me, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, Jim Croce, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and half of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Yeah, I guess there's room for one more." They are are going to take a flight in a rickety old airplane. These guys were all killed in real airplane crashes. (Well, Vaughan died in a helicopter crash.)

El Barto

Gandhi sings "Do the Bartman" as part of his "G-Old Flag" song. "Do The Bartman" was a music video released for "The Simpsons" TV show.

Bigger Than Jesus

Abe says "He's bigger than Jesus" of Ashley Angel. This is a reference to John Lennon commenting in 1966 that "The Beatles are bigger than Jesus."

Mr. B. mechancially sings "I'm walking on sunshine, woah-woah." This is the chorus to Katrina & The Wave's hit song "Walking on Sunshine".

Aibo

The Head Shadowy Figure says, "We have a little present for you, Cinnamon. It's a token of our thanks for going one full year without planning your own suspicious plot behind our backs.". The Evil Board of Shadowy Figures gives Dr. Scudworth a toy robotic dog that's a lot like the Sony Aibo. Let's hope that Aibo's commands aren't quite so obscure. (We also see that Scudworth's "Cloney Island" secret plan from Episode #2 is still alive.)

HyperColor

Cleo says, "And here's a musty old HyperColor shirt I found in our dust-rag drawer. I know it's out of style, but you poor people don't care about that sort of thing, right?". She gives Joan a Generra "HyperColor" mood-reflecting T-shirt. This is why it glows orange when Abe asks Joan how to remove Cleo's bra. This shirt was a fad in the 80's but fizzled in the early 90's.

Yankee Go Home

Cleo says "Yankee go home!" to Joan while they are fighting. "Yankee go home" was a slogan from the American Civil War (1861-1865), uttered contemptuously by the South against the North. Joan also says, "Die, Dixie slut!" and then Abe refers to the splitting of the bedroom between North and South (though, really, it should be Up & Down, as North and South are horizontal directions on the surface of the Earth), and echos the original Abe Lincoln saying, "A bedroom divided against itself cannot stand". ("Yankee go home" was also a slogan in Japan to protest the US occupation after WWII.)

For What It's Worth

The song that plays as Abe is blown out the window says "There's battle lines that bisect / Nobody's correct if everybody's incorrect [...]", which echos of the song "For What It's Worth" by Buffalo Springfield, which includes parallel lyrics "There's battle lines being drawn / Nobody's right if everybody's wrong," etc. The song symbolizes the turbulent mood of 1960's youth toward the establishment. This theme also plays during the narrator's monologue at the start of the episode.

Benny Hill

JFK says, "Holy Toledo! They're fighting in their skivvies!" and then Benny Hill theme-type music starts and then Joan and Cleo start chasing JFK and Gandhi like on the Benny Hill Show, after a suitable switching of clothes. The theme music doesn't sound exactly like the Benny Hill theme since I guess the producers don't like paying royalties, same as with the Buffalo Springfield-esque song.

There were many subliminal messages throughout the episode. When Cleo exhales in JFK's van, her smoke forms the word "Sex", and The Pusher's smoke says "Smoke Raisins" when he sings to Joan. There are also many single-frame flashes: DNA Dan says "Let's go to the darkside!" during the the 'lion' logo at the start; an anthropomorphic raisin is smoking a joint that has Principal Scudworth's (censored?!) head on it after a commercial break; a message says "Scudworth is your favorite character" at the PTA meeting; Cleo is shown NAKED when sitting next to Abe under the moonlight, though her nipples appear to be flowers (oh, Abe's naked too); a message says "I buried Ponce" as JFK is in a wheel chair; there is an overlay of Joan praying in front of some religious symbol as Joan sings "Ayee-Ayee-Ayee-Abe" (the second time); and there is a message that says "For more information about raisins consult your local library" at the end of the episode. Check out Beltzner's site.

After JFK falls through the skylight at the PTA meeting, he says in reverse audio, "I am talking backwards and telling you--to watch Clone High--and for us to get an Emmy. I'm saying that backwards--'cause it's sneaky!" (complete with JFK-style pauses). Also, when JFK is saying "Neh! Neh!" while he is trying to jump toward the moon, he is actually saying "Emmy! Emmy!" in reverse. It's odd how his scream sounds exactly the same both forward and backward. There is also some India-style music played in reverse before the commercial break. If Clone High doesn't win an Emmy, it'll be because of network politics. Can you say "Once More, With Feeling"?

The "Welcome to EXCLAMATION! U.S.A." sign seems to have been augmented with "Population: Fantastic". This extra phrase disappaers half way through the episode.

The anti-drug concert is sponsored by "Quittin' Time Beer". Scudworth has a sign on his wall at home shown in the Film-Fest episode for this brand. Perhaps this is the "Duff" brand of the Clone High universe.

The only kid ready to say 'no' to drugs at Larry Hardcore's concert was also the only kid to approve of putting tinted windows in the albino wing of the school in Episode #2. Whoo!

The lighted part of the "Drugs Aren't Cool!!!!" sign in the school hall says "Drugs Are Cool".

Abe says that Cleo and he have been dating for two weeks. This is hard to reconcile with the erratic schedule of the episodes, assuming that they started dating in "La Rue D'Awakening" and the episodes are considered to be one week apart in real time.

Joan is stuck for a moment on top of a burning pile of raisins. What are the odds that Joan could be burned to death twice? She was also frightened by fire during The Pusher's song. Apparently, she is pyrophobic.

The producers seem to hate dolphins as much as I do. In this episode, they show the symbol of political correctness with worms crawling through its dead body (though it still seems to be able to make its irritating sound). I think there is an unfriendly reference to a dolphin in every single episode.

This episode repeats the theme of kids getting high on their own imagination. They got drunk on non-alcoholic beer in the first episode. It's also the second time that Gandhi appears to be able to float through the air on his own imagination.

Joan is the only clone to keep a "level head", as usual.

Quotes

Cleo: It's like the quote-unquote "Civilized World" doesn't understand us and our self-importance.

Cleo: This isn't working! Love is just an abstract concept. It can't knock down stuff.

Analysis

What happened?

This episode had a brilliantly high concept, but I don't think it was executed very well. Gandhi's adventure really was neither funny nor interesting. All of the gags and references were pretty cool; the story needed more work.

Nitpicks

There are refractions of the sun in the lens at the end of the teaser. The camera operator should have been more careful! ;-) [*]

JFK's armpit hair seems to be growing out of the sides of his pecs.

Joan's lips don't move when she is sitting in the tree and says, "Oh, tree". They move for the rest of the sentence.

Principal Scudworth claims not to know what the P.T.A. is, but he hosted a P.T.A. meeting about Gandhi in the A.D.D. episode.

CH fan Danielle points out that when Ghandi eats the magic trail mix and shrinks, his voice goes higher, but throughout the rest of the episode, his voice is normal, even though he is still small.

In the superimposed subliminal flash of Joan praying, she appears to have five-digit hands, whereas she should have only four. Her pupils are also unusually constricted. [*]

Falling the distance Abe did and hitting your head on a rock would kill a normal person. [*]

We see JFK standing behind Abe wearing his red shirt in the reaction shot to the revelation of The Pusher's identity, but in the subsequent shot, he is beside Joan, on the other side of The Pusher, in a wheelchair, as he should be, wearing a green hospital shirt. Cleo is also in both locations, and Gandhi is also standing behind Abe, though he should not be present in the scene at that time. Is this stock footage or something?

Cultural References

Episode Title

"Raisin the Stakes" is a play on "Raising the stakes" and "A Rock Opera in Three Acts" refers to the format of the episode; rock operas are a style of musical play that was popular in the 60's & 70's(?).

MGM

The opening logo with Abe roaring like a lion is a reference to the MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayor) film logo.

Successories®

In The Pusher's *office* behind the dumpster, he has a sign on the wall with a picture of a soaring Eagle that says "Determination" in bold at the bottom. This is a Successories® type of picture that might be beautiful art if it wasn't for the moronic bold wording at the bottom.

Two Scoops®

The Pusher says "Two scoops® of raisins!" This is a reference to the breakfast-food commerical jingle "Two scoops® of raisins in Kellogg's® Raisin Brand®!"

Bug Dance

A song that plays says, "Bug dance, gravy trance, butterfly dream [...]". This is a reference to the song "Incense and Peppermints" by The Strawberry Alarm Clock.

Sgt. Pepper

JFK says, "Hop aboard Sgt. JFK's magical mystery tour!" This is a reference to The Beatles' song/album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and song/album "Magical Mystery Tour".

The Who?

Abe sings "Grounded! For what? For growing up? For being free? [...]". The music is a reference to Tho Who's "Pinball Wizard". The lyrics are probably a reference to The Who's musical "Tommy", which is referenced in a few places in the episode.

The BBQ-Chicken Strikes Back

A barbecued chicken breaks open to reveal Abe's head inside. This may be a reference to "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" when Luke strikes down Darth Vader in the Cave only to reveal that Vader was Luke himself.

Backdoor Boys

Larry Hardcore says, "I opened for the Califronia Raisins on their '89 tour, but these days, the only dancing fruits kids want to see are the Backstreet Boys." Animated dancing California Raisins was a TV advertising campaign. You can decide the fruitiness of the Backstreet Boys boy band.

The Emperor

The way that Abe falls of the way with energy zapping all around him is reminisent of the way that The Emperor falls down the center of the Death Star after Darth Vader throws him in Star Wars: The Return Of The Jedi.

Gandhi apparently sits in a baby chair when he rides in a car. He also doesn't wear his seatbelt. Joan drives a small hatchback. It appears to be the same model as the car that is flipped over (twice) in the Film-Fest episode, though brown.

Scudworth's "Cloney Island" model from the election episode is shown again in this episode, and Scudworth reads the Cloney Island secret file in the bathroom.

Mr. B. throws a crumpled up can at Joan at the end of the funeral (you can hear the mechanical sounds of him throwing). I thought he liked Joan.

Poor Joan, she's shown being very unhappy at the end of most episodes, including this one.

Geshy from the basketball episode is still among the wild animals. It's a wonder there are any left. Candy!

Quotes

Scudworth: It was that cocky janitor *Glenn*! I have a system, and he comes in and puts everything into neat little piles. Neat little piles of chaos, Mr. B.! Chaos!!

Nitpicks

Ponce's years of life are shown as 1471-1521 and 1987-2003. Other sources give the original Ponce's birth date variously as 1460 and 1474. Most seem to prefer 1460. Apparently, there are no accurate records of his birth. At least we know that Clone High is set in the present day.

Joan's thinking dock from the election episode, two feet across from Abe's thinking dock, appears to be missing in this episode. [*]

Cultural References

Episode Title

Six-Pack Rings

Ponce and a squirrel are shown caught in six-pack rings. Environmentalists go all ape-shit about these things because they can choke sea birds.

YM, BM

Mr. B. says to Scudworth, "It was in the bathroom, next to your YM... and your BM, Wesley." "YM" may be "YM" (formerly known as "Young Miss") magazine, or maybe "Your Magazine", both intended for teenage girls. "BM" apparently means "bowel movement", as a couple of readers have pointed out. Mr. B. the robot is probably more than a little disgusted with our method of expelling spent fuel. You'd think that Dr. Scudworth would flush his private toilet.

Fountain of Youth

Ponce says, "Life is so short. I mean, there's no Fountain of Youth, Jacky-boy." After conquering Peurto Rico, Ponce de Leon went searching for the fabled "Fountain of Youth". He found Florida instead. BTW, why is *John* Kennedy called "Jack"?

B.F.F.

Writing on the bathroom wall says, "JFK + Ponce B.F.F.". The "B.F.F." presumably means "Best Friends Forever." The way that the final underline is drawn makes it look like the guy writing it was dying or something. "Forever" gets shorter every year. Lincoln and Gandhi had "Best Dudes 4-Ever" matching lockets in Episode #3.

Gameboy & Mario

JFK says, "Don't worry about me; I've got my Gameboy. [...] Now Mario's dead!" Gameboy is a hand-held video-game system. Mario is a series of games for the Gameboy & other systems.

Seasons of Grief

Joan is shown reading a book called "Seasons of Grief" in her bedroom. This is perhaps a reference to "Seasons of Grief and Healing: A Guide for Those Who Mourn". Maybe not.

Back-Door Shenanigans

An inmate at the prison shower says, "It's time for your initiation. ... Three cheers for the new guy! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!" Not.

The Dead Kennedys

JFK says, "I'm a Kennedy. I'm not accustomed to tragedy!" He should be.

SweeTart®

At the end the Narrator says "Good, good, here's a SweeTart" and gives Mandy Moore a SweeTart® for saying her lines. SweeTarts are candies.

The Narrator has the girl fight from Room of One's Clone cued up again for his enjoyment in the teaser.

Immediately after Cleo says "I'm Cleopatra!" in the car, Abe says "Joan, I'm on it." I think we know who Abe really loves. ;-)

JFK apparently uses the women's washroom. And here I thought he only used Cleo's back yard. He also doesn't seem to understand how a mirror works.

Scudworth is cut off while saying "mother fucker!"

All of the lighthouse pictures and models in Abe's living room are upside-right in this episode, where they've been upside-down in previous episodes such as the Rock Opera one.

Abe says, "We've got a lot of work to do. *A lot* of work" about giving Joan a makeover and later says, "But Joan, you're so close. I can almost see the beauty that is locked away inside of you, hidden far, far below the surface where no one can see it". Come on, dumbass, Joan is beautiful! ;-) Though, Abe only seems to notice her when she looks like a "slutty teenage beach whore". Both JFK and Abe describe the madeover subjects with "you look like an angel".

Joan's "thinking dock", two feet across from Abe's thinking dock, is back in this episode. It was inexplicibly absent in the Litter Kills episode.

This is the third time that Joan directly says "I want you" to Abe. This is the second time he completes her complete sentence about it.

Joan and Cleo rob a bank. Joan also seems to be interested in 'girly' clothing, which is a bit of a surprising. Oh, and automatic weapons.

The episode includes the common teen-flick themes of the prettied-up 'plain' girl coming down the stairs after her makeover, and of someone falsely helping out the school loser on a bet.

Abe says to Joan, "Now, I could get you a date with any guy in school, maybe even--" and Cleo unintentionally completes this thought with "Abe!".

Cleopatra's last name is "Smith." The original Cleopatra didn't have a last name, AFAIK, which I guess would be a bit of a problem in the modern world.

My God, Scudworth really is low-waisted!

The Secret Board of Shadowy Figures finally finds out about Dr. Scudworth's "Cloney Island" plans, which have been around since the Election episode. But how did the Shadowy Figure get his hands on Scudworth's documentary video? Did Mr. Butlertron turn him in?

In the preview for next week's episode, we can see Cleo taking her clothes off in front of Abe. Maybe she's run out of other guys to have sex with. It also looks like there could be a "Carrie" reference.

Cleo seems to have lost her 'theme music'. I guess she has become less 'magical' to Abe now that he has been dating her for a while.

Quotes

JFK: Forget it, kid. No dry porking for you.
Gandhi: (forces himself to undergo a JFK-like transformation) Fowah suppah I want a pawtty plattah.
JFK: Wait a minute! Throw some 'er's and 'uh's in there. What's your hurry?

Toots: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Joan: (worried) What?
Toots: Hmmm.
Joan: Oh, please God no!
Toots: MAKEOVER!

Cleo: Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
(both, simultaneously) Cleo: MAKEOVER! Joan: SUICIDE!

Nitpicks

Marie Antionette's corpse probably should have fallen over after her head was chopped off. Similarly with Nostradamus' horse. [*]

Scudworth doesn't press the button to select Line #2 when picking up his call from John Stamos.

Abe seems to make Joan's hair cascade over her shoulders, though it normally is only a little longer than the bottom of her face. Where did the extra hair come from? We kind of see a flash of Abe pulling it out of her skull, but this isn't very credible either. And where did it go and where did it come back from before and after the makeover that Cleo applies? [*]

Joan claims to know nothing about makeup, but I don't buy this coming from a confessed "Goth Girl". She always always wears purplish lipstick (though a Goth Girl should probably wear black).

Cleo's sub-machine gun is different between the time she exits the gun store and when she exits the bank.

Joan looks very hot (below the neck line) after her makeover from Cleo, but how did her normally wide hips fit into that tight outfit?

Cultural References

Episode Title

Antoinette, Churchill, Boleyn

Marie Antoinette gets her head chopped off by Winston Churchill's helicopter. The original Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) was the wife of Louis XVI of France and was guillotined for 'treason'. Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was the Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII. Anne Boleyn (1507-1536), next on clone Churchill's to-ask list, was the second wife of Henry VIII. Henry VIII (1491-1547), former king of England, had many wives beheaded, including Anne. We are left to assume that Anne gets decapitated here as well. Fan James Redekop counters that the guy who proposed to Marie Antoinette was W.C. Fields instead of Churchill.

Helen of Troy

Nostradamus' horse jumps out of a bigger, wooden horse when Nostradamus is proposing to Helen of Troy. This is, of course, a reference to malicious computer programs. Oh, and to the Trojan Horse used by Greek soldiers in capturing the city of Troy.

Nostradamus

Nostradamus says, "I knew you were going to say that!" He always seems to say this, but if he really knew that Helen of Troy was going to say 'no' to his prom invitation, why would he suffer the humiliation of rejection by asking her anyway? The original Nostradamus was a false prophet (not that there are any real ones) who wrote thousands of pages of vague predictions about the future of the civilization. But, taken with great mountains of salt, his vague and metaphorical language can be construed to mean practically anything. Consider the urban legend that he predicted the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Dungeons & Dragons

Nostradamus wears a T-shirt that says "Dungeon Master". No wonder he can't get a date--he's a nerd! The Dungeon Master, or DM, is the guy who runs a game of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

Jurassic Park

Scudworth says, "I first got the idea for Cloney Island after seeing 'Jurassic Park III'." Jurassic Park was a trilogy (I sincerely hope!) of movies about cloning dinosaurs from recovered DNA to be used in a theme park. Dr. Scudworth must be a slow learner if it took him until the third movie to get his Cloney Island idea. He comments that the plan is as foolproof as the park in the movie itself. This is remiscent of his comment about watching the first 2/3rds "Behind the Music: MC Hammer" in the Election episode.

John Stamos

Scudworth says, "Say 'Hi' to Rebecca for me" to John Stamos on the phone. Actor John Stamos is married to Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, actress and model.

Homer

Abe says, "I've seen the other invites. Two words: bor-ing!" This sounds like something that Homer Simpson might say. Oh, and it's only one word.

Catherine the So-So

Gandhi says, "Aw, get off your high horse!" to Catherine the Great. The real Catherine the Great apparently had a great *love* for horses.

Susan B. Anthony

Gandhi says, "I got a dollar that says you got an addiction to friction." to Susan B. Anthony. The real Susan B. Anthony was on the U.S. dollar coin. She dedicated her life to social issues including women's suffrage. That means "voting", for anyone who might have signed a petition to end "Women's Suffrage". ;-)

Eva Perón

Eva Perón (1919-1952) was the wife of the Argentinian dictator Juan Perón and subject of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Evita". She was popular for her charitable works. As with most of the clones, the original died young. Thanks to Matt Hollinger for helping with this entry.

Cosmo, et al.

Abe reads a fashion magazine called "Kozmo" while giving Joan a makeover. This is obviously Cosmo magazine. Joan also reads it while Toots tries to give her another makeover, though I wouldn't expect Joan to read such vapid material. Later, Joan and Cleo read "MZ" and "Vanity", which are presumably "Ms. Magazine" and "Vanity Fair".

Ten of Ten

Abe refers to a magazine called "Sci Fi Gore" with a picture on the front of a woman with a cybernetic prosthesis that covers her left eye. This is presumably some kind of reference to Seven of Nine from "Star Trek: Voyager". You'd think that Joan might have become suspicious while Abe was welding steel to her face. Personally, I thought she looked pretty as the Seven-of-Nine cyber-nurse.

Plastic Vampire Teeth

Brontë Sisters, Check This Box

Garofaloesque

Abe made a poster for Joan that says, "I WANT YOU to be my prom date: Janeane Garafolesque, Good birthing hips, Shaved, Not religious". "I want you", with Joan pointing forward, is reminiscent of a U.S. Army recruitment poster. "Janeane Garafolesque" obviously refers to Janeane Garofalo, though the name is slightly misspelled. Janeane is a standup comedian turned movie actress. Like Joan, Janeane is a beautiful woman (well, when she wants to be), but not many people seem to be able to see that. Janeane also has an acerbic wit and insecurity problems, and she's a social and anti-war activist. "Good birthing hips": All of the women in Clone High have very wide hips. I think this says something about the creators' preferences. "Shaved": Apparently, French women don't shave their armpits, but obviously Joan does now that she's an American. "Not religious": The original Joan of Arc was very religious, but our Joan mostly seems to be an athiest, neverminding incidents with her dental retainer.

Tiny Tim, et al.

JFK says, "Hey, you, half-pint, junior mint, pip-squeak, Tiny Tim, yard stick, snack pack, wee fella, brown leprechaun" to Gandhi. "Half pint" is a common expression for someone who is short. Tiny Tim is a character from Dickins' "A Chistmas Carol". A "snack pack" is a small treat. A leprechaun is a mischevious elf of Irish folklore.

Who let the dogs touch this?

Gandhi says, "You let the dogs out, J-Slice! Whazzap! [...] What? You can't touch this!" to JFK. "Who Let The Dogs Out?" is a formerly-popular song by the Baha Men. "Whazzap?!" was a advertising slogan for Budweizer beer. "You Can't Touch This" was a song by rap singer MC Hammer. All three became catch phrases. And then there's all the 'gangsta' hand signs. JFK calls Gandhi's 'Gandhi-speak' "all wet", which is a pop phrase from the 1950's(?). Apparently, JFK is so out of touch with popular culture that he thinks that Gandhi has invented these phrases rather than that he's just mindlessly parroting them.

Harvard

JFK has a flag on his bedroom wall that says "Harvard". Did the original JFK go to Harvard? The present one wanted to go to Clone State college in the PXJT episode.

Manners

JFK, Gandhi, Joan, and Toots walk around with stacks of books balanced on their heads.

Guns & Ammo & UZIs

Joan and Cleo visit a "Guns 'n Ammo Store" during Joan's makeover. Guns & Ammo is a hunting magazine. Joan picks out what appears to be a Mini-UZI Sub-Machine Gun, from the famous line of compact Israeli assault rifles. I'm not sure what model of sub-machine gun Cleo picks out.

Subway®

Scudworth says, "I go to the submarine-sandwich restaurant and I leave my submarine-sandwich-restaurant value card at home every time! Oh, I want a free sandwich!" This is likely a reference to Subway®, which has a Sub-Club® value plan, in Canada anyway.

Fluoride

Emmett (the bum) says, "The government's putting fluoride in the tap water." This is paranoia that the tinfoil-hat brigade worries about. Apparently, fluoride is supposed to have some mind-control properties instead of strengthening your teeth.

Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson asked Marie Curie to the prom. As homosexuality seems to have a biological basis, Marie might be disappointed with her date, especially if she's looking for a little "dry hump-d-hump".

Joan has trouble walking wearing her "slutty teenage beach whore" high-heeled shoes and falls down in a way reminiscent of Abe falling down in the First episode while adjusting to his extra foot of height. Her hips also look as wide as they should be in the outfit this time.

Abe asks Joan how to have sex with Cleo in a way reminiscent of him asking Joan how to take Cleo's bra off in the Fighting episode. Joan's reaction is similar, as she kicks in a locker door this time.

All of the guest stars and characters that have ever been in the series are in this episode. Apparently, many of the guest stars have been co-consipirators in the Secret Board's conspiracy, including Tom Green, Marilyn Manson, (alive) Ponce de Leon(?), X-Stream Erin, Mandy Moore, X-Stream Mike, Dan Patrick, Skunky-Poo, X-Stream Bob, and Ashley Angel from O-Town.

JFK says to Joan, "I have a delicate flower for you... in my pants!", and he literally does have a bouquet of flowers stuffed down there. This is reminiscent of what he said about drying Joan off with his pants in the Election episode.

Toots takes pictures of the group before the prom and then goes off to see a double feature of silent movie at the cinema. Considering that he's blind, I doubt he'll get much out of the movie. He also mistakes a basketball for Joan and bumps into a wall, reminiscent of the Basketball episode.

Cleo refers to Joan by her awkward last name of "of Arc". No one has done this since the First episode. I guess "of" looks more strange in English than "van" or "de" in family names.

There are lots of previous characters at the prom, including: Eva Perón, Helen of Troy, the airplane conductor, Eleanor Roosevelt, Emmett the bum, Martin Luther King, Jr., Scangrade, Scangrade's operator, the dolphin in the Groucho Marx mustache, Sigmound Freud, Jesús Cristo, Napolean, Krabby Kakes, Paul Revere, the woman reporter, Glenn the Janitor, Geshy, the ghost of Ponce de Leon, Marie Antoinette avec severed head, the Creepy Trucker, a panda bear, the Sheriff, etc. Finale episodes often include this kind of thing. Eva Perón dispatches Gandhi with a meat hook, similar to how she dispatched him with a crucifix in the previous episode. Scangrade has been repaired after exploding in the PXJT episode. I had figured that Eleanor Roosevelt was the gym teacher that Scudworth killed in the Basketball episode, but I guess not.

John Stamos' character in the show looks nothing like the picture that Scudworth has of him. In an earlier epsiode, they also showed a realistic looking picture of Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Cleo has her theme music back in this epsiode. I guess she's more exciting again in this episode now that having sex with her is on the table, so to speak. And Joan has some sexy theme music too now, indicating that Abe is discovering his feelings for her, too.

JFK likes Joan when she's just being herself. This is a revelation to Joan, but, of course, he's come on to her in the First episode, the Election episode and the Basketball episode.

Joan has sex with JFK. When Joan is shown in bed after being discovered by Abe, her exposed breasts actually fill the frame, but the words "Nice Try" are shown in place of her respective nipples in the instant before she covers up. So much for freeze-frame fun. We can be sure that they had sex since JFK is smoking a pipe and says, "I, uh, didn't see it coming either. And by 'it', I mean 'me'!" I guess that JFK can scratch Joan off his list of 150 girls to sleep with this year, and add her if she wasn't already on it. Abe must be getting tired of trying to climb mountains with JFK's flagpole already stuck into them. As for Joan, we can conclude that she was so starved for attention and affection that she slept with the first guy to give her any of either. There was probably also a bit of a revenge motivation against Abe.

Abe finally realizes that he loves Joan, after calling Cleo 'Joan' several times and hallucinating seeing floating Joan heads over Cleo's "junk" when Cleo is naked. At the end of the episode, Abe says "Joan, I love y--" and is cut off. This is similar to Joan being cut off from saying she loves Abe in the Film-Fest episode. Of course, they also do the "J-Cl" thing again, so the writers may be planning an escape route.

Everyone except Scudworth is frozen solid at the end of the episode in the flash freezer. Maybe this is metahphorical for the show being 'on ice' until MTV and Nelvana decide whether they want to make a second season. The episode ends with titling that says, "To be continued..." then a question mark, then an exclamation mark.

Quotes

Abe: Cleo sort of wants to... but I just don't know if I'm ready.
Abe's Dad: Well, foster son, over half of high-school students nation-wide have chosen abstinence, which is a good choice. But, they're not dating Cleo-friggin-patra! Have you seen that girl's ass!? It's built like the Space Shuttle! Oh, this could be your only chance to drown the slippery otter! To harpoon the salty longshoreman! To verb the adjective noun! ...But abstinence is a good choice as well.

Joan: You know, I used you, Kennedy. I used you to try to make Abe jealous. *Argggh*! I'm such a girl!

Nitpicks

The reverse-angle moon problem is also present in this episode when Abe is asking Cleo to the prom.

Only four tigers are shown eating the whale after Abe's prom-posal, whereas six of them were on top of it immediately before. I guess that two of them ran off, though this seems unlikely at dinner time. Also, it seems unlikely that only four tigers could take out a whale. Tigers don't even attack elephants because the skin is so thick that it's pointless, and, hey, weight. [*]

Mr. B. recalls the Head Shadowy Figure saying, "We're coming to take the clones away and terminate you... on Prom night", but in the previous episode, he actually said, "We're going to [...]". Mr. B., should probably have a literal memory, considering that he is a robot. Presumably, this was changed to make the message more dramatic in each instance. [*]

When Joan and JFK and then Abe are walking down the hall at the school, the same background of the same students gawking at Joan is scrolled by over and over again. The albino guy who says, "Whoo!" in the assemblies in the Election and Rock Opera episodes is the only recognizable student in the background. [*]

When Joan hits JFK the first time when he is asking her out, she karate chops him in the throat so hard that he actually spits up blood. So, it seems unlikely that he would be able to say "Okay" half a second later and then to immediately ask her out the second time. He shouldn't be able to speak for at least an hour. [*]

Mandy Moore, Tom Green, and Skunky-Poo are shown in the crowd at the Shadowy Figure's boardroom and also at the prom before the Shadowy Figures arrive. How did they get there before the Shadowy Board, considering that they went there with them?

Joan changes back into her regular Goth clothes while still at the prom, but where exactly did she get them from? She wasn't wearing them under her slut clothes. OTOH, we do see the secret of Joan's improbably-long slutty hair: it's a wig. She also litters--in moderation--in throwing it away. [*]

There are a couple of moments when Cleo is naked when we probably should have been able to see her nipples, but all we see is skin. [*]

Continuity: There is no writing on the inside of the "Private Suite" door when Abe and Cleo enter, but there is when Abe leaves.

Continuity: When Joan and JFK are sitting on the stairs at the slaughterhouse, one instant he is shown just sitting next to her and the next he is shown with his arm over he shoulder. Joan's expression changes a little too quickly also. [*]

Marie Antoinette probably shouldn't be able to dance around with her head cut off. Her head was severed by Churchill's helicopter in the previous episode. Also, she is shown earlier sitting at a table with Tom Green and Skunky-Poo with her head attached properly. [*]

It is a bit unrealistic that the only switch to activate the flash freezer is inside the freezer room itself. This pretty much guarantees that it cannot be used without sacrificing one slaughterhouse employee each time. [*]

Continuity: Jesús, and perhaps others, are shown being frozen twice. Also, there are only 40 people in the freezer room when Scudworth closes the door, but there are at least 52 people in the room a few moments later.

Comments

It might have been a little funnier if the floating Joan heads had talked with a muffled voice while Cleo had her arms folded over her breasts.

Cultural References

Episode Title

"Sex Romp" is a phrase used to describe teenage jiggle flicks. I guess it's rather suitable to this episode.

Black-Soled Gym Shoes

Abe says, "Someone wore black-soled shoes again?" after Cleo indicates that the prom is being held in a meat locker because the school gym is closed for repairs. I remember being disallowed from wearing dark-soled sneakers in the gym.

Amnesia

Scudworth has a case of temporary amnesia when he comes to in his office after fainting in the previous episode. He seems to regain is memory quickly, though, all except for the Secret Board's threat to kill him at the prom. Amnesia is a cliché mainstay in TV and movies, especially in soap operas.

Abstinence

Abe's foster Dad indicates that over half of high-school students practice abstinence. Seems like kind of a hard sell to me and Abe's Dad doesn't seem all that convincing. Preachy religious types try to peddle the same crap in the real world.

Space Shuttle

Abe's foster Dad refers to Cleo's ass as being build like the Space Shuttle. Now there's an unfortunate reference, considering that this episode aired (in Canada) not long after the Columbia disaster, i.e., one loose tile on Cleo's ass and she will disintigrate on re-entry. Presumably, this episode was written and animated well in advance of the Columbia disaster.

The Space Shuttle is a white-elephant project by NASA intended to drastically reduce the cost of space exploration and launching satellites, but which has in fact drastically increased them, that is, when the program is actually operating between multi-year shutdowns because of disasters. Shutting down the program seems like a PR move to me as well. Hell, I'd bet you that there would be hundreds of volunteers for a one-way mission to Mars.

But, don't take the above as me being anti-space-exploration. Without space exploration, the human race ultimately will be extinguished on this rock. The real problem is a lack of interest and a lack of funding. The Space Shuttle fleet is rapidly aging and falling apart, but plans to replace it with a much more efficient kind of vehicle have basically been shelved by budget cuts. Well, when the human race is ultimately wiped out, we can be proud that we were too cheap to do anything to prevent it. Maybe some bits and pieces of our artifacts will survive for alien archeologists to study.

Metaphor Salad

Abe's foster Dad launches into a tirade of metaphors in describing the act of sex, finishing with the generic "To verb the adjective noun!" Lots of strange metaphors are used all the time in movies, especially in private-detective movies.

Spiderman

JFK says, "My Kennedy Sense is tingling" when "slutty teenage beach whore" Joan walks down the hall. Spiderman's catch phrase is "My Spidy Sense is tingling" when he senses danger is afoot. JFK said this previously in the Basketball episode.

Liberia

The flags at the Shadowy Figure's board room have only between one and four stars on them. While drawing fifty stars would be problematic in a cartoon, the US flag rendered with only one star is actually the flag for Liberia. The name "Liberia" is a bit ironic, considering that it is yet another bullshit war-torn African country.

Pee-Pees

The Head Shadowy Figure asks, "Did everybody do pee-pees? I don't want to pull over every five minutes." This, like "are we there yet" is a common problem with taking children on long car rides are is often made fun of on TV and in movies.

Winnebago

The nerds drive to the prom in a Winnebago. This is an RV truck-trailer all-in-one combo. Genghis Khan drives the Winnebago in this episode, like in the Basketball episode.

Sunroof

Gandhi says, "Gentlemen, check this out! I've got my head stickin' outside this vehicle's sunroof as it's drivin'. I bet no one's ever thought of this!" This, of course, is a prom-movie cliché.

Hummers & Black Hawks

The Shadowy Board and guests go to the prom in Humvee trucks and apparently Black Hawk helicopters. You can see more of these vehicles in the reality-TV feature "Desert Storm: Part Deux".

Buddha

JFK punches Buddha in the stomach at the prom. This is presumably a reference to the superstition that rubbing the belly of a statue of Buddha will bring you luck. I wonder what punching it does.

Oscar Wilde

Marie indicates that her date Rock Hudson is off teaching Oscar Wilde to play pool. Apparently, Wilde was also a homosexual, so he and Hudson should get along well. Fans James Redekop and April1990 point out that teaching someone to play pool includes standing close behind them and putting your arms around them to show them how to hold and shoot the cue (and cop a feel). I think Marie's date is over.

Yo-Yo

Nostradamus is shown playing with a yo-yo to indicate his boredom at the prom.

Bob Saget

John Stamos tells a story about Bob Saget, his co-star from Full House, which Stamos refers to as just "Full-H". He also refers to Parasailing, the Beach Boys, and Oaxaca.

Carrie

Conga Line

Stamos suggests starting a conga line at the prom. Apparently, a tight, fast conga line is the only weakness of the Head Shadowy Figure. Maybe Stamos was part of the conspiracy too, but had a change of heart toward "Scudsy".

Abandoned Pools

The group Abandoned Pools provides the music at the prom. This is a cameo by the group that provided much of the music for the series. Kind of reminds me of Good Charlotte in the cartoon Undergrads, also co-produced by MTV. Abandoned Pools also seems to have a dolphin as a guitarist. The song they play isn't exactly conga music and was also played at the end of the First episode. Bookends.

Check out the Save Clone High online petition. Or, much more effectively, send a snail-mail letter to:

MTV Networks
c/o MTV Studios
1515 Broadway
New York, New York 10036

If there ever is a Season 2, maybe the writers won't be so foolish again as to not bring me on board to proofread and nitpick their scripts! ;-)