It is hard to deny the gold that Ugly Americans puts out on a weekly basis. Some of the more adult cartoon comedies like Super Jail come off as way too weird and hard to follow for people who aren’t really invested. Ugly Americans strikes a great in-between chord where you can pick up most of the show in any episode without having to know too much of the backstory. In an age where cartoons geared for an older audience are starting to falter its nice to see some that don’t have to resort to side clip gags.
“Attack of Mark’s Clone” has our main protagonist, Mark Lilly, replaced by his clone who for some reason is blonde. The whole reason of which the real Mark never learns is because his demon pseudo-girlfriend Callie Maggotbone never tells him that she created his clone to win at the upcoming bowling league tournament. We start off immediately with Mark being replaced by his clone, that I will be referring to from here on as M2, who knocks him out by repeatedly hitting him with a glove. Mark then spends the majority of the episode in a sack in his closet being attacked by mice and having to listen to Callie and M2 have sex.
In the B-story of the episode we see that Twayne has hired a new assistant to replace Callie with. Leonard tries to immediately kiss his ass only to have to then start throwing people under the bus starting off with M2 who immediately turns the tables on Leonard causing him to go live his dream as a matador. The second storyline merges nicely with the A story and we get to see it all come together through Frank Grimes who is amazingly well used in this episode.
A lot of the comedy from Ugly Americans comes from its one liners by its characters. Most of the time these things would become tiring but with the plot that each episode develops its hard not to laugh hysterically when one delivered line sends the whole scene over the edge. In “Attack of Mark’s Clone” a lot of the one liner comedy also strangely, and hilariously, is centered around Saved by the Bell. The plotting of the episode also helped lend to its ridiculousness. From Grimes’ lack of control with his inner thoughts about Callie sexually and his loneliness to the repeated glove slapping of M2 causing Randal to believe he is in an abusive relationship. The introduction of M2 really helped send off each character into their own little world with some great results.
The mystical and surreal of the Ugly Americans version of New York just works so well and doesn’t go out of its way to act like its surroundings are shocking. Yes, we have episodes that bring light to these situations but they are so well crafted that they rarely miss. The surreal that occurs inside the Ugly Americans universe only helps bring the comedy to new heights with things like a Larry King virus, which is still one of my favourite episodes. Ugly Americans is a rarity now with most cartoon comedies. It has a great amount of originality without having to fall on side gags to make its humor look fresh.
Grade: B
“You look like a Saved by the Bell era Mark-Paul Gosselaar.”
“His pussy factor seems to have decreased by 30%.”
“I miss his beautiful brunett hair just like Mario Lopez.”
