Futurama might have been the show I was most looking forward to this summer, but I have a soft spot for Ugly Americans. It’s the underdog of the Comedy Central cartoon lineup, with South Park and Futurama both having fanbases built up over the last 10+ years. But with only one season under its belt, Ugly Americans has made me laugh with every episode, carefully walking the line between stupid and clever. I got to check out the episode premiering this Thursday (10:30 PM EST), and if it’s any indication of what’s to come, we’re going to have a very funny summer.
The main story involves Leonard the wizard training his bespectacled apprentice Lionel, who looks like a particular J.K. Rowling character (go on and try to guess which one). Turns out he should have been training him for decades now, but put it off. Now they have just a few days to get Lionel ready to become a full-fledged wizard, which he really isn’t interested in. What I love about this part of the episode is not so much Lionel, but all the other wizards we get to see, like a Sub-Mariner lookalike and a straight-up magician. But my favorite wizard was the Tolkein-esque Wizard of Copyright Infringement (“You! … Shall not! … Sue!”).
There’s also a pretty silly plot by the demons to get into the Wizards’ training fortress — that looks suspiciously like Minas Tirith — by setting up a fake day camp next door and having Mark run it. This episode really showcases why Mark is the weak link in this show … he’s dull and self-righteous. He has the same function as Ted on How I Met your Mother: all the other crazy characters revolve around his life. We need Mark in the show, but we don’t necessarily like him.
The third storyline involves Randall the zombie getting the other camp counselors to mine for silver. The best part of this storyline is Randall enthusiastically wanting to eat Doug the Koala-man, one of my favorite characters. There’s also a rather tacked on storyline involving Grimes going back to nature. It was actually funny, but could have been funnier if it had been given more attention.
All in all, a very funny episode to start off the second season. This week is going to start the Thursday lineup of Futurama at 10 PM and Ugly Americans at 10:30. What I’m hoping is that Futurama fans will stick around to give this show a chance. I think you’re going to like it.
Clacked by Katie Schenkel 
on Jun 27, 2011 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
