Throwback Thursday: China, IL ‘Coming out of the Casket’

china

 Spoilers Below

It may be the worst school in America, Blabberfans, but what it lacks in academic…well, anything, it makes up for in funny.

So as you know, this show, presented in 12 minute shorts, tells the story of the worst school in the US. It has a quirky faculty and a student body that can be described only as zany. It features the voice of WWF wrestling sensation and known creeper, Hulk Hogan (I’m aware they changed it to WWE years ago, but I’ll be dead in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Vince McMahon’s rebranding!) as the dean of the school. The episode I chose this week is entitled “Coming out of the Casket” and features the voice of Seinfeld alumnus Jason Alexander. Needless to say we’re off to a good start already. So when Harold (voiced by Jason Alexander), one of the history department’s best professors dies, the history department is faced with an enrollment crisis. Everyone is ditching history to take Spanish. This proves problematic for the history department, and Steve has to figure out a way to save their jobs.

Working late at night, history professor Frank is visited by a paranormal figure in the form of Harold, who is determined to help Frank and Steve because he can talk to anyone in history through his magic, ghost cell phone. The history department experiences a rise in popularity much to the chagrin of Crystal, who makes a bet as to which course will experience better numbers come registration… at the expense of Steve’s nuts.

It turns out that Harold is gay and this only increases the popularity of the History department and when he declares his feelings for Frank, Frank must choose between the success of the history department or his own heterosexuality. Heterosexuality be damned! The history department needs him! The whole episode is wrapped up when, in a last ditch effort to win the bet, Crystal uses a contraption Babycakes uses to trap ghosts (highlight of the episode is the entire premise of Babycakes being a paranormal investigator,) to kidnap Ghost-Harold and trap him in his corpse. The plan backfires and Crystal loses the bet.

I really didn’t want to review this one at first. The animation looked really cheesy, as if Ugly Americans and Adventure time were incestuous cousins and they had a cartoon baby, but the animation only adds to the fact that UCI is indeed the worst school in America. I was pleasantly surprised with the cast, which features Arrested Development star Jeffrey Tambor as Professor Cakes. This only adds to the legitimacy of this ‘toon. There were some really laugh out loud moments, like when Babycakes describes heaven as a ghost town because the only people there would be Jesus playing fetch with Old Yeller. All in All, I was originally going to give China, IL a failing grade, but I’m glad I didn’t. It actually scores higher than George W. Bush at Yale. Which is why I give Coming out of the Casket

7.5 out of 10.

Check out John Blabber’s original review of this episode here

 

-Paulie Von Doom. Dictated but not read.