Sonic Boom, Episode 32: Mayor Knuckles

Sonic Boom, Episode 32: Mayor Knuckles

Original Air Date: July 20th, 2015

“Sonic Boom” races into politics with its thirty-second episode. The Ed Wynn sounding Mayor Fink, the seat of political power in Sonic's village, decides he wants to take a couple hours off to go fishing. Knuckles is the first person who walks into his office, so the mayor temporarily gives his power to the echidna for the afternoon. Knuckles is instructed to just stamp everything that comes across his desk. This, immediately, goes wrong as Knuckles approves every crazy bill that's presented to him. The town is plunged into chaos, Knuckles' friends turn against him, and even Eggman gets pissed off by the whole thing. 

I don't think "Sonic Boom" was making any sort of political statement with "Mayor Knuckles." Nor do I imagine Reid Harrison, by far the most gag-centric of "Boom's" regular crop of writers, intended a message. However, once politics enter the matter, one can't help but see certain things. It wouldn't take too much work to perceive "Mayor Knuckles" as a criticism of government spending too much on niche projects or glad-handing politicians that promise to please everyone, without considering the realistic consequences of that. Mayor Fink, from his name on down, definitely seems to be a self-interested fool. Him assigning Knuckles, the biggest buffoon in the village, any sort of power is obviously the clearest sign he's foolish. So maybe we should just read the message here as "politicians are smart enough to get elected but not smart enough to lead." 

All of these are, I suppose, valid interpretations but they are all kind of a reach, even by my standards. Instead, I think there's only one clear moral to "Mayor Knuckles." That would be "power corrupts." Knuckles enjoys the feeling of stamping shit. (I think this episode was largely inspired by the pure satisfaction of laying your stamp of approval on something.) He enjoys the praise people give him, for approving whatever stupid idea they have. His position allows him to change everything but this shields him from the consequences. Most of all, he enjoys the power to decide things. Keep in mind, this whole episode takes place over the course of a few hours. By the end, Knuckles is ready to grant himself absolute power over everything. The message that nobody should have that kind of power is clear, even if everything around it is goofy absurdity. This idea even extends to the other characters. Everyone in town having their ideas approved inevitably leads to chaos. Nobody should have absolute freedom to get whatever they want nor the authority to grant that freedom to anyone. 

While most "Sonic Boom" episodes seem to have a message of some sort, I think making the audience laugh is the show's primary goal. Luckily, "Mayor Knuckles" succeeds in that regard as well. The confounding bureaucracy of government work is always a good source for laughs, especially when surrounded on all sides by sheer goofiness. Eggman's constant frustration with his inability to get discussion time with the mayor, constantly being told to "take a number," even though the number dispenser is empty, speaks to a very real type of frustration. Once the absurd number of new bills and laws Knuckles has approved start to kick in, you get some really fun goofy shit. Like Eggman forced to try and activate his wrist-mounted laser with his elbow. Or the reoccurring walrus lady refusing to walk because the moving sidewalk she asked for has stopped working. 

I think most sitcom episodes can be boiled down to a simple pitch. This is absolutely true of "Sonic Boom," where the stories have to be even more constrained to fit a limited runtime. "Mayor Knuckles'" pitch is right there in its title: What if big dumb-dumb Knuckles became mayor? And it's certainly a funny enough premise to support an eleven minute cartoon. The contrast between Knuckles' idiocy and the elevation of his newly assigned role is a consistent source of laughs. Knuckles is obviously too goofy to do this job. The lady walrus simply asking him if he "wants to live in a world without moving sidewalks" is enough for him to approve the bill. He says a list is too long to read before approving it anyway. When the garage man asks for some time off, Knuckles waits exactly 12 seconds – which hilariously plays out on-screen – before deducing there are no consequence to this. 

Probably the best gag here is when Knuckles draws a picture of himself stamping stuff and then stamps it. As funny as seeing Knuckles in a position of power is, the occasional display of brilliance the character has is well used too. Despite being so dumb he can't pronounce "library" correctly, Knuckles quickly gains a mastery of government forms. Subverting expectations like that for laughs is good shit.

This is at least the second time Knuckles and his friends have been put at odds, due to him getting caught up in some wacky scheme. (It happened in the comic book too.) Sticks is the first of the gang to turn against him, after he approves a mall to be built by her burrow. This matches Sticks' already paranoid opinion about any form of authority. Which us to the least surprising reveal about that character they could've engineered: Sticks is a libertarian. She goes on a rant to her friends about how the government needs to stay out of people lives. When Sonic points out the valuable existence of public-funded programs like firefighters and sewer system, Sticks concedes the point and then retreats back to her paranoid ranting. Just like a real libertarian! And considering this village is repeatedly attacked by Eggman, forcing independent vigilantes like Sonic and his friends to step in, they should probably be spending more on disaster averting programs in general. 

In fact, I was pretty surprised to see the village has a mayor at all. "Sonic Boom" has never given us much of a look at the local government. Since there are police officers, businesses, and forms of currency, I guess it was a given that there would be elected officials. Yet other times, it's definitely seemed like just a bunch of people living out in the jungle, without much in the way of societal structure. Considering this is a silly comedy primarily for children, I'm not surprised that the writers seem to be making the setting's system of government up as they go along. 

There's even repeated mentions of paying taxes here. Do the Gogobas pay taxes too? Are they exempt under some religious rule or do they just guilt people into never having to do that? Are Sonic and his friends paid to protect the village? Because I've seen them cash paychecks before. How does Eggman, whose status as a citizen of this town seems to vary from episode to episode, fit into all of this? Obviously, I'm overthinking how orderly the show's setting is at any given point is dependent totally on whether it's funny or not. I'm just saying though, they better address what level of democracy this village is on or else I'll complain. 

Anyway, "Mayor Knuckles" is another really funny, joke-packed episodes from Reid Harrison that successfully exploits its goofy premise for as many yuks as possible. There's just a lot of good silliness here, like the inevitable way Knuckles rubber-stamping rampage is averted. Or good uses of minor characters like Dave the Intern, Fastidious Beaver, and even Eggman's Octobot. Only a couple of meta jokes – Mayor Fink waiting for Knuckles to enter his office and kick off the story – fell flat for me. Otherwise, this is goofy fun that is executed smoothly. That gets my rubber stamp of approval! [7/10]