Sonic Boom, Episode 1.47: Fuzzy Puppy Buddies

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.47: Fuzzy Puppy Buddies

Original Air Date: October 10th, 2015

Five episodes out from the end of "Sonic Boom's" first season and they throw another Amy centric episode at us. This time, Amy has become a fan of a collectible tabletop game called Fuzzy Puppies, in which adorable puppy game pieces are pitted against each other. At a local meet-up, Amy discovers that Eggman is also a Fuzzy Puppies player/collector. The two soon begin a secret friendship, meeting up at odd hours to play together. This raises suspicion in Amy's friends. At a local Fuzzy Puppies convention, Eggman's villainous nature and his new friendship with Amy come into conflict. 

It's easy to see what "Boom" is doing with "Fuzzy Puppies." When "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" debuted in 2010, it quickly garnered an unexpected fan base of adult men. There's been multiple papers and whole documentaries made about this phenomenon. At the time, the so-called "brony" community was a source of fascination and novelty. Adult men being way too into a cartoon and toy line for little girls was mocked and derided as "cringe." Bronies, not always unfairly, were widely considered to be weirdos and creeps. It was also examined as challenging gender norms and as an embracing of sincerity and wholesomeness among an older generation. 

The brony concept was also an act of irony by terminally online edge-lords. The fandom has its roots on 4Chan, after all. "Oh, look at how funny it is that we're into this girly show" was the thought process behind many of these guys. That had an obvious downside. A full decade after the fact, we've seen a whole swarth of toxic fanboys, perverts, and literal Neo-Nazis co-opt a program designed for young children. Right-wing shitheels taking over whole corners of geeky fandoms have had horrible ramifications for the whole world. That makes it hard to consider the "Brony" movement as anything but a negative force in the history of the internet and nerd culture.

In 2015, that wasn't obvious yet. Or, at least, it wasn't to people who only had a surface familiarity with the "brony" concept. Such as the "Sonic Boom" writers. They were clearly just happy to riff on the idea of a grizzled adult being invested in a cutesy, frilly hobby. Two years earlier, "Teen Titans Go!" made nearly the exact same joke and I'm sure there are other examples out there of shows spoofing "Bronies." So the concept was already a bit overexposed by this point but, like always, "Boom" was a few years behind the zeitgeist. At least Fuzzy Puppies is not a direct "Friendship is Magic" spoof. It's clearly also inspired by "Littlest Pet Shop," "Pound Puppies," (which have much smaller brony-like fandoms of their own) and the frenzied fan base for tabletop gaming in general. 

"Boom" did not make an episode about fascists infiltrating internet fandoms in order to radicalize vulnerable nerds. Instead, "Fuzzy Puppy Buddies" builds comedy around a much more easily understood concept. Amy is sneaking behind her friends' backs to spend time with someone else. Sonic and the others slowly pick up on this and become concerned. Amy, on the other hand, is exhilarated by finding someone to embrace her geeky passion with.  This leads to the potent comedic premise of conversations with two meanings, of Sonic mistaking Eggman appearing at Amy's hut as an attack. And the villain being forced to play along. Classic sitcom stuff. 

Even though this is an Amy episode, Eggman still emerges as the show's most interesting character. Eggman's oft-noted insecurities appear in him wanting a friend to enjoy Puppy Buddies with, to teach him to play. Amy fills that niche. This episode also has fun with another idea this show often returns to. Despite being sworn enemies, Eggman is basically friends with the heroes. He even refers to his battles with the Boom team as a "job" and his bond with Amy over Fuzzy Puppies as an off-the-clock activity. When Eggman's inherent villainous qualities emerge, that powers the conflict in the last third. Which is a pretty juicy little character arc and I'm satisfied with the place the show ends it at. It wouldn't be easy being friends with a would-be world conqueror like Eggman but maybe there's hope for him yet. 

I'm also glad that this episode doesn't build all its jokes around big, burly Eggman being into a cute little puppy game. Or Amy embarrassing herself with her indiscreet passion. That's definitely the source of some of the jokes but "Fuzzy Puppy Buddies" finds more fruitful avenues. The sequence devoted to Amy sneaking away from her friend is amusing. The biggest laugh comes when Tails determines, via process of elimination, that Amy must be the main character this week. Sticks unfurls an amusingly baroque monologue afterwards based around misunderstanding the word "con." The dialogue is pretty sharp here, with Sonic and Knuckles getting some solid one-liners in. Knuckles putting on sunglasses or cracking a line about "overwatering" got snorts out of me.

It also amuses me that the writers and animators of this episode clearly put some thought into how "Fuzzy Puppies" work. The rules are discussed and they generally make sense. I don't know how fun a game like this, with so many varying rules, would be to play. But I hate any tabletop game more complicated than "Monopoly," so I'm not the person to ask. If nothing else, it's obvious the animators enjoyed designing the little puppy figurines. They are genuinely cute. I can totally see people actually collecting them, just to have them. I say this as an adult man with a nearly complete Super Hero Squad collection. Anyway, this episode probably could've been something a little deeper but I enjoyed it nevertheless. [7/10]