Title: "Booting out Bobcat"
Story (out of 24 pages): 12 p.
Writer: Matthew A. Jencks
Penciller: M.S. "Nat" Cohen
Letterer:Noah Jewett
Colorist: Theo A. "Jet" Swann
Summary:
The issue opens with the local media buzzing over a gala opening of a swanky new restaurant downtown, Planet Morningwood. However, Prof. Bobcat, slated to officially cut the ribbon, is nowhere to be seen, and the eatery's celebrity backers--all Hollywood heavy hitters--are starting to gripe. Bob eventually shows up to the party, both very late and visibly intoxicated. Swifty, Bob's agent, knows he's in no condition to go on, but as he's promised both the money-men and the fans an appearance by local radio's bad boy, he has no choice but to let him.
Part of the ceremony involves firing a small prop cannon that is supposed to shoot confetti over the crowd; however, Bobcat's drunken lack of coordination causes the cannon to instead fire at the doors, setting off a fireball worthy of being in any of the backers' big-budget blockbusters! However, the stars are not laughing, and neither is Mr. Schicklegruber. Despite his friend and costar Will B. Caustic's attempts to smooth things over, the Professor is fired from KSSA.
To fill Bob's position, Schicklegruber has the brilliant idea to audition local talent, so Caustic suffers through having a slew of rank amateurs, ranging from the god-awful to the dangerous, sit at the mike. Bob, meantime, struggles to find a new job, but finds his penchant for telling rude disgusting stories and his outrageous behavior doesn't go over in the real world.
Notes:
page 1. "Planet Morningwood" is a parody of Planet Hollywood, an upscale restaurant chain that caters to Tinseltown's elite, and those who just like to feel that way--right down to the ostentatious design and the large roof-mounted globe logo. Despite the massive financial muscle behind it, the chain has twice declared bankrupty, a number of restaurants closed, and many planned ones were never built. There are fewer that two dozen Planet Hollywoods standing today. "Morningwood", incidentally, plays on "morning wood", a synonym for a man's early-hour erection, and has been used to similar effect in episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy.
page 1. The reporter who covers the event first appeared in "The Superhero Roundtable", and is named here: "Kootie Cowlick"--a parody of Katie "The Perky One" Couric. Couric, the onetime morning talk show diva perhaps most famous for having a colonoscopy on-air, currently is attempting a serious career in journalism as a CBS infobabe.
page 1. Roland "Swifty" Lazzaro is a caricature of wrestler, manager, and actor Capt. Lou Albano, right down to the famous beard and rubber-band earrings.
page 1. "Armhold Swinenhogger", "Manchester Spallone", and "Bruise Willkiss" are parodies of Arnold Schwartzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis all of whom own shares in Planet Hollywood (though Schwartzenegger sold all his back to the parent company in 2000). "Swinenhogger" uses the same mangled diction as a number of bad Schwartzenegger impersonators, including the famous "flabby leetle girly-man" line from the "Hanz and Franz" skit on Saturday Night Live. The Governator actually did use the word "girly man" once at a press conference, and got in trouble for what some took as an anti-gay slur.
page 1. The psychedelic bus that Bob exits is the now-iconic symbol of the Partridge Family (the logo on the side reads "Squabb Family"--a reference to squab, or young pigeon, also a type of game bird), who tooled around in such a conveyance on gigs. On page two, however, Bob mentions Mickey Dolenz--clearly confusing the Partridges with the Monkees, another fictional band with a hit TV show in the sixties. The Partridge Family bus was actually an image Photoshopped onto the page from this website.
Several panels are recycled from previous issues; see, for example, pages 3 and 6.
page 5. Swifty mentions that he once represented the character Grover from Sesame Street; there is a cutaway to Grover testifying on the floor of Congress (referring to the recent Congressional hearings concerning steroid use by players in Major League Baseball) about allegations of steroid abuse. The typical script for a Super Grover sketch--Grover dons a superoutfit consisting of a knight's helmet and a cape, flies about (often crashing) and often severely exacerbates the very problem that he's trying to fix--is played as Grover suffering from a "roid rage" delusion. Grover's lawyer is played by Gordon Robinson.
page 6. Bob mentions maybe doing another guest spot on "Herman's Rectum". This is a spoof on Herman's Head, an early-nineties sitcom about four "people" who lived in the subconcious of Herman, a mild-mannered researcher for a publishing house. Bobcat Goldthwait actually did appear in an episode of Herman's Head ("Jay Is for Jealousy"), playing Jealousy. Bob (in the story) seems unaware that the show is no longer on.
Bob also refers here to the 2008 Writer's Guild (WGA) strike that crippled television for three months, delaying production schedules, pushing up season finales, shortening the seasons of many shows, and cancelling others.
page 7. Among other things, Bob works briefly as a birthday clown. This refers to the movie Shakes the Clown, in which Goldthwait played a violent, alcoholic loser party clown. Series creator Jonathan Sweet acknowledges that a lot of Prof. Bobcat is based on Goldthwait's Shakes character.
page 8. The names Prof. Bobcat rattles off all have appeared in movies with the real-life Goldthwait; however, the Professor seems not to realize they've all passed on. They include John Candy (the voice of Goldthwait's equine costar in Hot to Trot, d. 1994), David Graf (Tackleberry in Police Academy, d. 2001), and La Wanda Page (who was in Shakes the Clown, d. 2002).
page 8. A flashback shows Bob embarassing himself on Hollywood Squares, resulting in a ban for life. This refers to an actual incident in which Goldthwait was asked about what Michael Jackson does at home. The comic answered "Blows bubbles"--referring to Jackson's pet chimp. Later he was told by producers he was never to come back.
page 9. Caustic mentions the Professor's flatulent indiscretion on "Two-Stepping With the Actors". This refers to ABC's hit show Dancing With the Stars and a much-circulated clip of contestant Julianne Hough (supposedly) passing gas on the air. This clip has been seen on Jimmy Kimmel Live (for which the real-life Bobcat is a director and writer) and is available on YouTube (here parodied as "YouBoob").
Swifty's response makes note of both Britney Spears' infamous photographed crotch flash (sans underwear) while exiting a limo, and a video of Baywatch beef David Hasselhoff, severely intoxicated and lying on the floor of his house, mumbling incoherently, with a half-eaten sandwich lying nearby.
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Title: "The Unsung Zero"
Story (out of 24 pages): 10 p.
Writers: Tawana and Che Most
Penciller: Chase Montana
Letterer: Noah Jewett
Colorist: Newton E. Haas
Summary:
Tony Moneran sees Jon guest on a late-night talk show and, disgusted, turns the channel. However, the more he clicks, it seems to him every show has a member of the Treehouse Warriors on it, either promoting a project, hawking a product, or sharing intimate dish about their lives. Monty finally has it and decides he will do something that'll make them sit up and take notice, and then he will be appearing on the late-night talk shows instead of Jon and his crew. However, his attempts to get famous by becoming a hero who is loved by the masses backfire spectacularly.
Notes:
Ironically, though it's Jon's fame that is such an issue, he only has four lines total in the whole issue, three of which are in this story.
page 14. "Darsenio Haul" is a parody of Arsenio Hall, right down to the trademark audience whooping.
page 14. The title and cover of Jon's book, "A Mendacity of Dopes", is a mockup of that of Sen. Barack Obama's (D-IL) best-selling memoir The Audacity of Hope.
page 14 . "Moron Downer, Jr." is a parody of the late Morton Downey, Jr., best known for his trash talk and on-air chain-smoking, though it's taken to a bit of an extreme here. The name "Moron Downer" was first used in a Mad Magazine spoof (Apr 1989, #286).
page 15. "Oval Windbag" is a parody of Oprah Winfrey, who has had a weight problem for years (attributed to a thyroid condition). Gort's on-air antics spoof a much-lampooned 2005 incident in which Tom Cruise manically leapt about on a sofa on Oprah's show and made outrageously mushy statements about girlfriend Katie Holmes.
page 15. "Fool Doundaphue" is a parody of Phil Donahue.
page 16. "Nontell Killems" is a parody of Montel Williams, who is indeed quite bald. Introducing Molina as a psychic is a reference to Montel's weekly "Sylvia Brown Wednesdays", in which self-professed psychic and prolific author Sylvia Brown comes on to hawk her latest book about supernatural phenomena and to make bland, cheerful predictions to audience members who ask questions about their future, how their dead loved ones are doing in heaven, or about ghosts who haunt their homes.
page 16. "Jay" is, of course, The Tonight Show's Jay Leno. The enormous chin is a dead giveaway.
page 16. "Jerkoffo" is a parody of Geraldo Riviera. The chair gag refers to the well-known incident where, during a taping, Nazi skinheads stormed the set and struck him in the face with a thrown chair.
page 17. The article "T. Moneran Hit By Falling Speedboat" was visible in the newspaper Josh was reading back in
"Small Medium at Large".
In addition, the gallery of clippings reference a number of other stupid things Monty has done in
"Soul Feud",
"Taking A Powder",
and "Little Romeoh-No"
.
page 21. "Scarredupp's" references Starbuck's, a popular upscale coffee chain.
page 23. The "Stuffitin Post" is a play on The Huffington Post, a popular and decidedly left-leaning online newspaper, made (in)famous by liberal posters who post hateful, insulting messages against conservative Republicans, especially those in ill health, in its blog. These posts frequently wish these folks dead or express longing that they fall victim to some terrible misfortune.
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There are two page of filler in this issue:
"Movie Maniacs". A crossword in which all the answers have to do with movies.
"The Last Laugh". Buddy dig up the yard; Billy reports a crime; Timmy talks to a stranger.
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Bob and Ray...Lucy and Desi...Cheech and Chong...Sonny and Cher...Caustic and Bobcat?!? The court jesters of local media may soon be joining some of the greatest ex-comedy teams in a little town called Splitsville after Professor Bobcat's buffoonery gets him bounced out on his butt! Can Caustic talk his boss out of firing the Prof? Or will Bob's next gig behind the mike be asking folks "Do you want a hot apple pie with that?"
The issue number isn't printed on the cover.
