Review: Regular Show ‘Birthday Gift’

Spoilers Below:

On Mordecai’s birthday, Rigby overheard him saying the presents he gives are usually not very good, and vowed to find the perfect one this year. After lamenting about the expensive prices at the video game store, a weird man named Zaxon offered to help Rigby make a custom game for Mordecai. The situation seemed too good to be true, so of course Rigby bought into it.

After a super intense journey inside the video game world, Rigby ended up barely winning, and secured a copy of it. Upon receiving the gift, Mordecai played it, only to find out it was five seconds long and lame. Appreciating the thought and work that went into Rigby’s present, Mordecai declared it the best ever.

In Case You Missed It:

1) The past presents given by Rigby to Mordecai included: a box of already eaten donuts, a t-shirt that said “Mordecai’s Friend” (for himself), and a card with a note inside reading, “I owe you.”

2) Shade from the elitist video game salesman: “I guess you’re not into quality. Feel free to rifle through the discount bin like a peasant.”

3) Zaxon had a classic “Hang in There” cat motivational poster hanging in his garage.

4) Poor ol’ Rigby just couldn’t resist that cupcake.

5) The end of Rigby’s video game said: “Your a winer!”

After an extended hiatus from Regular Show reviewing, it’s good to be back. (And by “back,” I mean temporarily covering it for one week.) It’s especially good because the episode was good. I always enjoy chances for Rigby to run wild and be his energetic, zany self, and exploring & battling through a virtual world was a great example of this.

I also really enjoy whenever Mordecai and Rigby have a chance to interact with each other and some of the other characters, but unfortunately there wasn’t much of this last night.

However, the show made up for it by introducing a new character, Zaxon. As an aging video game developer and inventor, he was ripe for laughs, especially since he was clearly confident in his nerdy role. Lines like, “Time to put on a really cool helmet that I invented myself!” and his final one, “I’m not really dead; I’m just video game dead!” were fantastic.

In the end I can honestly say I laughed more during this episode than ones from other shows that are twice as long. If Regular Show can make an 11-minute episode seem like a couple minute-long short, then you know it had to be a success.

Is this what I’ve been missing by not watching the show every week? Because if so, I may have to sub for John more often.