Review: Wild Grinders “Lights, Camera, Denise! / Gas Knight”

I can’t believe I am going to say this, but this double episode was actually enjoyable! Both “Lights, Camera, Denise!” and “Gas Knight” focused on characters other than Lil Rob, which is good to see, because Rob still can’t voice act. Then again Chanel West Coast isn’t any better, so it’s a small godsend that she has a small part even though she is a major part of the plot of “Lights, Camera, Denise!”

It was a change of pace to see Denise actually help Rob when one of the props goes haywire in “Lights, Camera, Denise!,” because she is always trying to screw up Rob’s plans. To be fair, she’s supposed to be the annoying older sister type, like Candace in Phineas and Ferb. To see her help out, even though her motives were pure greed, was pretty cool to see.

The plot wasn’t very tight for “Lights, Camera, Denise!,” because it played like a satire on how to make a sequel to Sharknado. They just took everything that made Texas Skateboard Horrorland Zombie Activity 3 great, and added robots and ninjas to make it Texas Skateboard Zombie Superhero Shark Ninja-Nado Activity 4. It is definitely not the worst plot, but it could be better. At least we know Jackknife can do multiple roles for any occasion, right?

The gem for this double feature, though, was “Gas Knight.” If the writers were going for a spoof, they should have just done this spoof of Batman. Normally, I shit on parodies, because they get lost in themselves. Meaty played the hero of the episode, when Goggles gives him a skateboard that harnesses the power of Meaty’s ass, and turns into the Gas Knight. What’s funny, is that Lil Rob is dressed like a tiny Alfred when Meaty first dresses like the Gas Knight. I kind of lost my shit there.

The story kicks in when Stubford is begging for a fart powered skateboard. His father, who is dressed very close to a certain clown antagonist from a certain bat-themed comic, just blows him off while he on his way out the door to a clown party. So, of course, Stubford steals the skateboard, under the guise of Major Totally Rad-Cool. This comes full circle when Gas Knight and Stubford go across the city for the gasboard. Again, I lost my shit when Rob and Meaty are talking about the gas problem in the city, and Rob goes “Some people just want to watch the world stink.” Couple that with Stubford’s social experiment with the explosives, and you have a straight The Dark Knight parody.

Meaty was great as the protagonist in “Gas Knight,” because he’s actually funny. Meaty is one of the new redeeming characters on a normal episode of Wild Grinders. The lack of other characters, and focus on Meaty (and later Stubford) made the episode great to watch. The plot, unlight “Lights, Camera, Denise!” was very tight and concise. “Gas Knight” is how a parody should be done, because there’s the basic plot of The Dark Knight, mixed with original content and jokes that parody the original work that work together to make an enjoyable experience.

This double episode was exactly what I needed to enjoy watching Wild Grinders. There were some errors, like not getting Stubford in the Joker outfit, but that’s played off by him having a crippling phobia of clowns. If Wild Grinders produced episodes like “Lights, Camera, Denise!” and “Gas Knight,” I can sit and watch them. It would be awesome if there was a viable way to watch these episodes online, but Nick dropped the ball again. I’m sure you can find these on reruns on NickToons, though.