Super Nanny (Drawn Together episode)
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"Super Nanny" is the fourteenth episode of the animated series Drawn Together.
Storyline
Upon seeing the reality TV show Super Nanny, Captain Hero purposefully acts out so he can summon Super Nanny and challenge her once and for all, believing that anyone or anything with the word "super" in front of their name is a foe to him and must be defeated. Super Nanny proves to be more than a match for Hero, however. She responds to each and every one of his tantrums by making him sit on the naughty stool. Hero starts behaving himself, gradually earning her approval and lollipops. Hero even thanks Super Nanny for helping him.Everything goes awry, though, when he angrily asserts that the barrette Toot is wearing is actually his. Toot tells Super Nanny that Captain Hero is trying to steal her barrette, and she sends him to the naughty stool once again. During his extended stay on the stool, Hero learns that the White House is being invaded by mini-troopers. He tries to call all of his superfriends, only to find that none of them can help because they're all stuck on the naughty stool as well. Captain Hero puts two and two together, and realizes that it's all part of Super Nanny's evil plot—she has rendered the world's superheroes helpless while she leads an invasion of mini-troopers (who are in fact, a bunch of super-disciplined children she has brainwashed) to take over the White House. Hero is reluctant to leave the stool, but after Foxxy proves that the barrette in Toot's hair really belongs to Captain Hero (because it has his logo on it), the housemates finally convince him that saving the world is more important than being a good boy, so he flies to Washington to foil Super Nanny's plot. He does this by stomping on her foot really hard, causing her to use foul language, and then sends her to the naughty stool. This breaks her spell over the children, and they promptly tear her to shreds. Having saved the day, Captain Hero flies off to seek out his next adversary - the evil Supercuts.
Meanwhile, Ling-Ling is trying to get his driver's license. He aces the written portion of the exam, but fails miserably at the driving test. Wooldoor explains that Ling-Ling is a bad driver because he is Asian (playing off a well-known stereotype), and decides to help Ling-Ling pass by making him more American—namely, by Scotch-taping his eyes so that they are round instead of slanted. In addition to gaining the ability to speak perfect English, Ling-Ling now sees the world as everyone else does, and aces his driving test. By doing so, he inspires all Asians everywhere to do the same. The NAAYP even wishes to present Ling-Ling with an award for opening up everyone's eyes. However, at the award ceremony, Godzilla calls Ling-Ling out and accuses him of turning his back on his culture. Ling-Ling resists the notion, but finally comes to agree. He makes a speech to everyone present at the ceremony that they should just be themselves, and not to forget who they are. He removes the Scotch tape from his eyes and begins speaking his normal language again. All of the Asians in attendance listen to his words and do the same. Unfortunately, after leaving the ceremony, they all promptly crash their cars into the auditorium.
Musical number: "Who's That Guy", sung by Spanky and the crowd at the Department of Motor Vehicles, expressing awe at Ling-Ling's successful driving test. The scene is a parody of Grease 2, with Spanky in the Michelle Pfeiffer role.
Notes and inside references
- This episode contains a shorter opening credit sequence, eliminating the roll call of all the characters' names. It would only be shorter for this one episode, however; in the next episode, the credit sequence would be restored to its normal length.
- The man taking photos at the DMV is the same man who shushed Foxxy in "Ghostesses in the Slot Machine."
Toot and Foxxy as seen through Ling-Ling's eyes.
- In this episode, we learn that Ling-Ling, and presumably all Asians in the Drawn Together universe, see everyone as anime characters.
- Among the shows Foxxy flips past before landing on Super Nanny are an exercise program (which Captain Hero watches later in the episode), a Godzilla movie (setting up his appearance later in the episode), Now Where They At? (from "Captain Hero's Marriage Pact"), and Drawn Together.
- The man lying on the massage table during the "Thank you, Ling-Ling!" montage is the same man who appeared in Foxxy's sex ed lesson in "Clara's Dirty Little Secret."
- When Ling-Ling tells Spanky that he doesn't have a driver's license, Spanky immediately understands him, confirming that Spanky Ham can indeed understand Ling-Ling's speech. This was previously implied in the episode "Clara's Dirty Little Secret" when Spanky proclaimed, "Misinterpret Ling-Ling" after the other housemates had done just that.
- When Captain Hero confronts Super Nanny and her army of children at the White House, President George W. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice can all be seen sitting in naughty chairs in the Oval Office.
- Some of the children in Super Nanny's army, after removing their helmets, are shown to be Asian, but were not illustrated in a stereotypical fashion like the rest of the Asians in the episode.
Animated cameos
- Though he is usually thought of as a movie monster, Godzilla has been an animated character before, starring in the 1970s cartoon The Godzilla Power Hour.
Cultural references
- When Captain Hero "battles" Super Glue, he is shown hanging from a scaffolding on a construction site by his helmet (which is attached to a girder with said glue). This is a reference to TV commercials for Krazy Glue, which featured a construction worker doing the same thing.
- When Captain Hero throws a tantrum in the kitchen to make the housemates summon Super Nanny, this is a reference to a video clip being circulated on the internet featuring a boy screaming and arguing with his mother for a glass of milk while playing Rainbow Six on Xbox Live.
- Captain Hero dressing in workout gear (with a T-shirt that hangs off one shoulder) is a reference to Jennifer Beals's character in Flashdance.
- The NAAYP is a parody of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The Y in NAAYP stands for yellow, a slang term for people of Asian race. It is also a parody of the NAAAP, the National Association of Asian American Professionals.
- When Captain Hero desperately checks his electronic equipment in his cave, the sounds you can usually hear on the bridge of the Enterprise are faintly audible in the background.
- During the shot where Captain Hero shouts "Noooo!" while in his cave, a marquee can be seen with the display "Accident on North 405 Freeway/Expect Delays," a reference to a freeway in Southern California notorious for its severe and frequent traffic congestion.
- During the vision test part of Ling-Ling's driver's test, he says "R" for every letter. A shot of the eye chart shows that every letter is "L". This is a parody of the fact that Chinese people are unable to pronounce the phonetic "L" sound and instead always say "R". (The situation for Japanese people is reversed, as they can pronounce "L", but not "R".) The "L"/"R" discrepancy is one of the more famous examples of Engrish, which Ling-Ling speaks from time to time. In several episodes (including this one), Ling-Ling also pronounces "R" as "L" on occasion.
- Wooldoor gets Ling-Ling's test results by breaking open a fortune cookie. He reads, "He has suffered a mild concussion. The best thing for him now is to get some rest." He then adds playfully, "in bed!" This is a reference to a well-traveled joke that you can add the words "in bed" to the end of any fortune cookie fortune to create a funny pun.
Clara learns to see the world as Asians do.- When Wooldoor slants Clara's eyes so she sees things as Asians do, she identifies a picture of a cat as "beef and broccoli". This is a reference to how in some Asian cultures, animals that are considered pets in the Western world are considered food instead, as well as urban legends associated with the ingredients used in meals at Chinese restaurants.[link] She also identifies a picture of two obviously identical Asian men as "two guys who look completely different" (lampooning the perception that "all Asians look the same"), and is able to successfully solve an incredibly complex mathematical equation as "7" (though the equation is, in fact, complete nonsense).
- The Asian man who operates his business in the high-crime area is Korean, as indicated by the text on his sign. This may be a reference to the rampant destruction of Korean businesses in the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
- Captain Hero has a giant old Israeli sheqel coin in his crimefighting lair, similar to the giant coin that Batman keeps in his Batcave. Its color is wrong, but its design and text in both Hebrew and Arabic are correct (see [coin]). That's another hint regarding Captain Hero's roots.
- Wooldoor vows to give a "round eye to the Asian guy", a pun on the title of the popular makeover show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
- After Ling-Ling's eyes are taped, he discovers that he actually has a small penis instead of a large one, a reference to the stereotype that all Asian males have small penises. During the "Thanks Ling-Ling" montage, a man is using a urinal with his pants down to his ankles because he thought he had a large penis before taping his eyes.
- Godzilla disparagingly calls Ling-Ling a Twinkie, a derogatory term for Asians who are perceived as not being true to their heritage. It's equivalent to an African-American being referred to as an Oreo.
- Ling-Ling refers to Spanky as "Honorable Pig Demon", which is what the Vietnamese children called him in "Gay Bash." This is a reference to Japanese fairy tales and anime, within which anthropomorphic animals, who often possess supernatural powers, are referred to as youkai (demons). Perhaps the most internationally famous such program is the anime InuYasha.
- The way the children are animated disembowling and mutilating Super Nanny is a reference to Day of the Dead.
- The Super Nanny theme song in this episode, "Behave, Behave" is a parody of the real Supernanny theme song, "Be Good Johnny" by Men at Work.
- Batman, Green Lantern, and Spider-Man (Spidey) are referenced in this episode. It should be noted that Batman is, apparently, now accepting phone calls from Captain Hero again. In "Little Orphan Hero," Hero states that Batman no longer returns his calls after imitating the murder of Batman's parents. Ethan Hawkman, from the previous episode, "Ghostesses in the Slot Machine", is also mentioned.
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