Rude Removal

First of all, I gotta admit that the main -if not the only- reason I watched this it’s because of its reputation. This isn’t your standard episode by any means, and rumors say that it even got banned from transmission due of its «unpolite» nature. Truth is that the creator of Regular Show, JG Quintel was asked many times about this episode and he finally did a search just to find out that it wasn't in the Cartoon Network Media Library. Because of that, big was my surprise when a friend of mine contacted me and casually said something like «hey, I was looking for something to watch and I came across this episode of Dexter’s Lab, that says «banned» in the title... should I send it to you?». That was one of those moments that make you get up from your chair, slowly walk away from it, and loudly yell «COME ON!» with a lot of soul put into every single letter.

The plot goes something like this: Dexter’s capacity to stand Dee Dee’s mischievous behavior it’s finally reaching its limit, so he builds a machine that allows the operator to isolate all rudeness from the «victim» (Because there is no way that it could backfire). But, of course, everything went horribly wrong when the pair began to fight each other at the exact moment that Dexter was activating the machine, sending them both inside of it. The results are quite dramatic as two more brothers are created as a result of the experiment: one pair is ready to break havoc because there is nothing but rudeness inside of them, while the other duo its so suddenly soft that it would make Spongebob look like Rambo. The demonic kids are ready to take over the house, while their innocent counterparts simply don’t mind it. From this point on, it’s when the cartoon really stands out.

Not long from there, evil Dee Dee and evil Dexter enter the kitchen, just to find out that «their» mom it's already there, making dinner. Big is her surprise when they start to curse in every sentence, and tell her that her food tastes like ****. But the moment that truly breaks all hope of reality this cartoon may have comes like a quarter of second later, when they simply order her to clean up the mess they did. Now, I’m gonna stop telling the plot here, but I have to highlight this part because anyone who had watched this show before knows the kids mom and her nature, so see her exposed to all this cursing and demonic behavior is kind of amazing. I don’t know who handled the animation here, but her expressions are a riot, from the wide open eyes and ridiculous tiny mouth, to the internal struggling she is having to not kill the pair. I have been a fan of the show since the pilot, and I honestly never see it look this good before. It’s all really good.

The only thing that is left to say is that the voice actors are at the top of their game here (especially when they are playing the rude duo). You can tell that they are enjoying the script and, even when I haven't seen this cartoon in english many times before, I think they did a specially terrific job here.

It’s hard to assume that this cartoon even exists. It feels like it should have been an internal joke between the staff, and somehow it got animated at the end. But whatever the case, Rude Removal stands out as one of my all-time favorite episodes of Dexter’s Lab period. I laughed during its entirety because of it simple -but funny- jokes, the quality of the plot, and some wacky WTF moments. The only thing that I regret is that, besides some attempts to re-do some of this in series like Dave the Barbarian and Invader Zim, we never saw this kind of humor again in the animated form (in the classic networks, I mean). It almost seems like the newer generations of writers, animators, voice actors and directors lack that kind of «spark» (or their networks simply wouldn't let them do something like this again). But, whatever the case, it’s a shame.

Oh, and you may wanna see the episode, so... here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbjnFvEbdaw

First posted here: http://80scartoons.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6439&highlight=