Obscure FIndings: The BEST Johnny Test Episode!?!?

Welcome to Obscure Findings, were I take a 2nd look at the overlooked… yeah, I am still trying to make a web series… having huge year gaps between stuff….

Anyway, I originally wanted to make this a video review, with clips and everything… however, due to my busy work life at home and my day job, my bad habit of just vegging out on computer too much when I do have time off; not to mention the long and painful process of making and editing scripts, video clips, and narration, and to fit them all just right, only to find out you are unable to finalize or upload the whole thing due to glitches in the materials used, so go back to editing to fix the problems while omitting already great amount of work and detail, only to find out it still doesn’t work , and you repeat the process only to find out you can’t use the whole thing together and just rage quit!

But I really want to talk about this SO badly, and it fits in so well with current events this year, I want to get this out ASAP. So, taking inspiration from my friend ’s review series, I decided to go back to basic text reviews and post them online.
Now that I got all of that out of the way, let get into what I started: The possibly THE BEST episode… of Johnny Test. And despite how awesome PhantomStrider is with his Top10 videos, it is NOT “Johnny Strikes Back Again”.

For the few online geeks who haven’t heard of Johnny Test, let me ruin that blessed ignorance for ya. Johnny Test was a mid-2000s Canadian cartoon show that was basically a cheaper take of Dexter’s Lab with reverse gender roles, where the main character is a blonde boy who messes around in his red-headed sisters’ lab and crazy stuff happens. Other than that, the only differences to Johnny Test was that there were two genius sisters as well as Dukey, Johnny’s  talking dog best friend.

The show originally aired on Kids’WB lineup, and when that line up was trashed like all the other major network kids lineup (even for Saturday mornings), the show not only got on Cartoon Network, but they continued it, even promoting it as a prime time show of theirs… which would be okay,  if not the fact the show was incredible bland in story-telling and the animation for it started out decent… only to be downgrade to really basic and wobbly Flash-animation, as well as having a bad habit of using WAY too many sound-effects in everything (the most infamous being a whiplash sound effect whenever someone made a sudden movement of any kind).
Despite the worst things said about Johnny Test was how bland and mediocre it was, it has earned a nasty scorn outside of the fan-base, due to the fact that the show somehow managed to last nearly over 9 years on the air, while other more popular shows on the network got canned under 3 seasons.  It has been theorized that the only reason why it lasted so long because it was so cheap to make and used as filler for air time for the shows that do need a lot of money and effort to make.

From what I heard and experience, an episode of Johnny Test was like a basic potato chip. Somewhat enjoyable,  but has a short lived taste and not very filling as other, better, shows can be, but you’ll end up binge watching it if you are not prepare for it.  Basically, think of it as that kind of “entertainment hypnosis” the Nostalgia Critic brought up in his review of the “Smurfs” movie. Nothing really happens but your mind is being tricked that is because things are happen on screen…. A tactic that seems to continue in some other CN shows today. –COUGH-Teen Titans Go –COUGH-SuperNoobs-COUGH-

… Yeah… I coughed in a written format… it is a real thing, I swear.

Okay. Now that I got the opening rant and backstory out of the way, time to actually TALK about the episode itself…

It starts off with Johnny and Dukey going through a candy withdrawal as they crack and eat the last of Johnny’s candy from Easter in the middle of July and Halloween is still 3 months away. With none of their own candy left, they sneak into Susan and Mary’s room to steal their candy, which happen to have a trap for Johnny and Dukey, because they know they pull this stunt before.  But they still end up giving the boys their candy regardless... so yeah, no real point for the trap scene, just another standard scene in Johnny Test….

Dukey and Johnny then lament how the long the gap is between Easter and Halloween for free candy. And with the 4th of July coming up, Johnny decides that instead of having fireworks, they should have free candy (pretty much ignoring the pies that are served on the 4th as well).  This scene kinda confirms something…  Johnny gave a speech of celebrating the 4th of July with the American Flag in the background… which kinda means that show was literally made for the States. Looks like M.A.C. can’t blame Canada for this show.
So the Test kids and dog then prepare to set up candy for the 4th of July Eve, the twins using their lab to make the candy and Johnny using their “Turbo Time Tea House” (it’s a kid’s toy house that travels through time), recruits the past presidents to give out the candy that night ala Santa with presents on Christmas, hoping to start off small in the town itself and have it grow bigger over time.

They’re plans are almost ruined by the Bee Keeper, a reoccurring villain who is an old man who dress up an evil bee-keeper to destroy candy so it can’t ruin the health of kids (and he has A LOT of “Bee” puns to boot); but the test deal with him easily with a press of a button… which leads them to fail regardless, as the presidents have trouble doing the job(one president who I think is Jefferson has trouble getting on the roof, Washington is just sleeping,  and Lincoln gets into a house… only to be beaten by an angry woman). With that, Johnny moves onto Plan B: Make their own NEW Holiday.

“Kids Get Free Candy Day”, where the Kandy-Roo, a purple kangaroo that the twins made, gives candy to boy and girls at night so they can have it for breakfast. As soon as the Roo is created, the Bee Keeper shows up again, ready to attack, startling the Kandy-Roo who kicks him out of the house… and kicks Johnny, Dukey, Susan, and Mary as well… turns out the Roo is too violent to let loose in the town.

After having LOUD SCREAMING FOR NO REASON (ANOTHER THING JOHNNY TEST IS KNOWN FOR)!!! The twins decided to stop inventing things, but Johnny is still determined to have “Kids Get Free Candy Day” happen, and Dukey fills the role of the “Candy Giver”. Bee Keeper shows up again and is defeated via trap door. At the first house Dukey, gives a some candy, only to be told that she can’t have candy with nuts… or have candy made in a factory with nuts… and doesn’t want a lollipop because they rot teeth… Dukey then settles with giving her sugar free gummies… which she complains about she won’t eat them if they’re artificial flavored. Dukey then loses his cool, screaming at the kid and waking up her mother (whose the same woman who beat up Lincoln), who then chases him out.

We then cut to Johnny as the “Candy Ninja”, who doesn’t talk to anyone and leaves the candy at people’s doors without entering a house. And then we are treated to the “full fluid” animation that cheap Flash can give us and OH BOY is it bad… But overall, this outing actually works. No Bee Keeper attack, and the kids all over town have candy, making Johnny and his new holiday (despite the fact nobody should know who was and what’s going on since he never talked to anyone while doing it) a great success…  that IS until the Easter Bunny’s lawyers come in, claiming that EB has the exclusive right to deliver chocolate to children as they sleep, which means that Johnny enacted “Candy-Right Infringement” (their own words), and take all the candy that was delivered to kids for evidence.

Yes… the Easter Bunny, or at least his legal representatives, are pressing for harsh legal action over “candy-right infringement” because he somehow got the legal right to do something that anyone can freely do. You can see why I wanted this review to be video, cause it would fit perfectly with #WTFU, Fine Brothers, or the Cool Cat parody videos; and another reason which makes this episode more amazing, Johnny Test kinda predicted ALL of that before it actually happened as this was made in 2007. Johnny Test had made a social satire of current events BEFORE they occurred! The only other show that did something like this with great accuracy would be The Simpsons predicting Trump’s political campaign years before it even started. Say what you will about Johnny Test, but THAT is a really high note for shows in general, let alone one known for its mediocrity.  

Anyway, the Bee Keeper shows up yet again, full prepared and ready for anything that the Test would have… only to see them given up and totally uninterested. Asking why they’re so down, Johnny states how he just wanted a holiday with free candy.  The Bee Keeper than give his support, as he has lots of honey bars, something that the Easter Bunny can’t claim candy rights to since they’re not chocolate and kids can enjoy as they’re all natural. And with the Bee Keeper’s swarms of bees, they can delivery all of it all over the world with eases. And thus we get “Bee Happy Day”. The lawyers try to complain too, but get buried under a pile of honey bars while everyone just enjoys the free candy.

THE END.

And I have to say… this is an interesting episode.
Most Johnny Test episodes, especially the ones in the flash-era, either have Johnny trying to get out of something he doesn’t want to do or trying to get something with illegitimate means, like “Having a parent that says ‘Yes’ all the time instead of ‘No’ all the time” or “Cheating at Dodgeball”: All of which come off as your run of the mill After School special, especial with a “hip” and safe “wild” kid like Johnny. Other episodes are just blatant “homages” to better cartoons, like “Tom and Jerry”, Scooby Doo, and “Wacky Races”.  But here, they’re actually doing something more unique, something that seems like a real adventure.
But it still has all the points you expect from a Johnny Test episode
• Poor/stiff animation with brief moments of spastic movements as well as really badly drawn/ugly  background and extra characters
• Pointless scenes/dialogues which includes UNNECESSARY LOUDNESS!
• Random movement accompanied with loud sound effects (the whiplash sound being the most infamous).
But overall, it is still a good episode, back when everyone actually “like” the show when it was starting out. “Like” being a keyword for a show that tried too hard to look like the newer seasons of Dexter’s Laboratory.

Now I know what you’re asking next: “If this Episode takes place between Easter and Halloween, why make a review of it around Halloween?” Well, that’s easy.
I got a special DVD that has a collection of DiC/Cookie Jar cartoons at my Books-A-Million  store (which is no longer around and has turned into a hardware/tool store), it has Halloween episodes from shows like “Where on Earth on Carmen San Diego”, “The Busy World of Richard Scarry”, “Bump in the Night” (though my copy of the DVD has the audio/visual WAY off track and not sure if it is on others discs), it even has the first episode of “Mummies Alive!” and the holiday episode of “Hey Vern, It’s Earnest.” And you may have guess, this episode of Johnny Test is on that DVD too. SO yeah, it is in good company…  Granted, it is also partnered with an episode “Johnny Test Monster Starter”, where Johnny wears a helmet that turns anything he sees/imagines into a monster; but it is really your standard “bad” Johnny Test episode and there are actual Halloween/spooky episodes of Johnny Test…. But I think they used “Johnny Holiday” because it actual mentions Halloween and is just better than the rest from what they could have picked.

Overall, a good episode from a mediocre show with an AMAZING sense of clairvoyance for a certain internet campaign, that you can enjoy between Easter and Halloween. Definitely something that deserves a 2nd look.
This is SilverZeo, signing off.