RJ Writing Ink

Christmas in Space

It’s time for another Regular Show Christmas Special. The final special, to be exact. In late 2016, Regular Show was wrapping up its 8th and final season, leading to its hour long finale in January 2017. That is a story for another day, though. The Holidays were a big part of Regular Show, and I grew to look forward to their holiday specials every year. The Halloween specials were the main ones, but they also had several Christmas episodes to go with it. So, for the final Christmas special, I guess they just decided to combine both into one. So we got CHRISTMAS IN SPACE!

Instead of a single storyline, this special followed the anthology format of the Halloween episodes, something every one noticed. Even Benson calls the group out about it at one point. Although, they were in space by that point. So, let’s look at each story as I give my two cents.

Planet Celsius

In this first story told by Skips, the Park Gang travels to the Planet Celsius so they can have a white Christmas. There’s just one rule: they can only stay while there’s sunlight, because afterwards, snow monsters will come and attack them. There’s also only sunlight for five minutes.

So, the gang has a good romp in the snow, playing with the natives, and exchanging Christmas gifts in five minutes. Then Muscle Man takes too long to do his family’s annual ski run, and they get caught outside in the dark. And the natives turn into snow monsters.

Right away, I felt this plot was similar to the movie Gremlins with the Celsians turning into monsters after dark seeming very familiar. Then again, I never actually watched the movie, so I could be wrong. I do know what thing that was a direct parody, though: Ludlow the Laser-Nosed Reindeer. He’s a poorly animated knock-off of Rudolph that comes down and saves everyone with his laser nose, then just floats away like a stiff board. I don’t know what the meaning behind that was. Christmas in Space, so why not?

Annoying Rock Caroler

Next is Benson’s story, where the Park gets visited by this strange, rock caroler. That is, someone who sings Christmas carols in rock form. In this case, he does The Twelve Days of Christmas. All twelve verses. And the gifts just appear and start attacking the Park Gang.

The Twelve Days of Christmas was not one of my favorite Christmas songs growing up, mainly because I never remember the lyrics after the fifth verse. I liked this story though because it made me realize something I never noticed: there are a lot of birds as gifts in that song! The first third of the song was just birds. Eventually, the gang gets rid of the caroler by giving him cookies, and then he explodes into snow. Because, why not?

Theoretical Mall

In Mordecai and Rigby’s story, they forget to get Pops his present for Christmas, so they have to go to the one mall in the universe that is open… theoretically.

This story is a homage to the classic show The Twilight Zone from start to finish. It even has the door in space and everything. Mordecai and Rigby have to travel to the fifth floor/fifth dimension of the mall to get their gift. As it turns out, the fifth dimension lets them see every possible choice they make. In Rigby terms, every time they get distracted, clones of the two are made that wander off. Soon, it’s a race to the elevator before the mall closes and implodes on them.

This story wasn’t that big on the Christmas theme, but this is the kind of surreal adventures that made me fall in love with Regular Show in the first place. Plus, the ending is classic Twilight Zone.

Krampus

Fed up with everyone’s stories, Benson decides to tell one of his own. In this one, Rigby disobeys Benson one too many times, so he calls Krampus the Christmas Demon to punish him for it. It was meant to be a joke, but it turns out that Krampus is real and actually comes for Rigby. Thus the Park Gang is forced into a battle against the anti-Santa.

This is the kind of story that can fit in both Halloween or Christmas: it’s both scary and keeps with the tradition of Christmas. Even Mordecai and Rigby admit that it’s a good story. Until Benson ruins it by having Krampus defeated by handbells. Benson has been trying to get the gang into handbells all episode, and this was a lame way to do it.

Someone does come along who appreciates Benson’s love of handbells though: Space Santa! Handbells and Christmas Carols for everyone as the episode ends! Christmas in Space!

So that’s basically it. Personally, my favorite Christmas episode of Regular Show was the original, but I want to save that for later. I still miss Regular Show, and I hope that it’s just the start to a bright career for creator J.G. Quintel. I still liked Christmas in Space, though. Now if only TBS would air his new show already.

Click here to see my other animation stuff. Or here to see all holiday related posts!

Hey, it’s me. I just wanted to say that I’m sorry again for missing out on last night. My bad! Let’s put that behind us and talk about the Christmas Episode I watched today: Merry Christmas Mordecai, from Regular Show.

This premiered alongside The White Elephant Gift Exchange, but I’m doing them separate for a reason: I like White Elephant more. To be honest, I was dreading this episode.

Margaret had left for college at the end of Season 4, leaving Mordecai heartbroken. Then he ended up bumping into CJ at that New Year’s party, they started hanging out, and then they started dating. Even though I did like seeing them dating (and Real Date is one of my favorite episodes of the show), I was against it at first. The reason was because, in the back of my mind, I knew that Margaret might come back. When and if that happened, this was going to lead to an awkward love triangle. Lo and behold, I WAS RIGHT! 

The entire special revolves around Mordecai wigging out, or as Rigby calls “pulling a Mordecai” and trying to keep things from getting awkward. Thankfully, CJ was perfectly understanding about Mordecai’s plight and shook it off. After that, everything seemed like it was going to work out. That is, until Mordecai and Margaret get caught up in their good memories and kiss each other!

Then, because the plot demands it, CJ inconveniently comes in and sees them kissing, and runs off before Mordecai can explain or apologize. In other words, my worst fear came true. Then it got worse. Margaret is now Eileen’s new roommate. From here on out, things were going to get awkward.

If you watched the show in its entirety, you know that CJ was never able to truly get over her jealousy of Margaret, which led to her and Mordecai’s eventual break-up. Considering how CJ is no longer a main character after Season 6, I consider this to be a huge waste. At the same time, I have to acknowledge how this special ends up being a huge milestone in the show’s plot. It may be my least favorite of the Regular Show Christmas Specials, but it’s still good. After all, it’s Regular Show.

Click here to see my other animation stuff. Or here to see all holiday related posts!

I may not have watched it as long as Nickelodeon, but once I found Cartoon Network, I loved it just as much. But after Ed Edd n’ Eddy came to an end in 2009, it was the end of an era. I mean that both literally and emotionally. It was the last of the 90s era cartoons to go off the air, and the one I loved most on that channel. There was Adventure Time next year, but that was it.

Then, I found Regular Show.

I may not have liked it much at first, but once I warmed up to it, I fell in love it. Watching the surreal adventures of these two slacker best friends, Mordecai and Rigby, something just clicked. It had a great mix of humor for both kids and adults. I loved it, especially the numerous holiday specials. 

Regular Show did a bunch of Halloween specials, and while those are my favorite, I have a great love for their three Christmas episodes. So, why not? Let’s look at a Regular Show Christmas special.

Full disclosure: this one is split into two segments, so I’m going to do each in a separate article. With that out of way, here’s White Elephant Gift Exchange.

The park gang is getting ready for their annual white elephant gift exchange, which everyone despises. Why? Because every years, Muscle Man steals all the good gifts and leaves them with prank ones. And not just used tissues or gum: we’re talking gloves made out of underwear and sweaters with itching powder.

So, Benson and the others decide to rig the game this year to make sure Muscle Man won’t steal their gifts and instead open their prank gift. 

It seems like they went overboard, though, with the prank. Especially when Muscle Man reveals he got them a flat-screen TV to make up for being a jerk.

The gang gets banished to the temple of the White Elephant, who chastises them for not getting the spirit of the game: you give gifts you hate, which makes it fun. So, lesson learned about the spirit of the Holidays, they go home and have a fun time, the end.

PSYCH! Muscle Man pranked them again. Sympathy gone, they go ahead with the plan, leading to what has to be one of the funniest moments I have ever seen in a cartoon:

When I first saw this on TV, I couldn’t stop laughing at how funny it was. Seeing Muscle Man’s reaction to one prank after another in slow motion while everyone laughs at payback was funny enough. But doing it over “Holly Jolly Christmas” sung by Burl Ives had me in stitches! By the time the elf elbows him, I was practically rolling on the floor laughing.

This was comedy gold to me. The pacing, everyone’s reactions to the events, the choice to play it over a classic Christmas song was perfect. Some may say it was still pretty mean, but Muscle Man never knew when to stop pranking others. He needed to be taught a lesson for a while, and I doubt he’d hold any ill will over it. This is one of my favorite Christmas episodes, and I hope you like it as well.

Click here to see my other animation stuff. Or here to see all holiday related posts!