Sonic Boom, Episode 2.30: Flea-ing from Trouble

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.30: Flea-ing from Trouble

Original Air Date: June 3rd, 2017

After they stymie his attempt to shoplift a candy bar from a department store, Eggman deploys his latest death machine against Sonic and the gang: The accurately named HugeBot. Despite – or actually because of – his hugeness, the robot is easily defeated. Since making his robots progressively bigger hasn't worked, Eggman goes the opposite route. He builds a series of tiny FleaBots, designed to latch onto Sonic and friends and reduce them to an itchy, uncomfortable mess. The scheme is wildly successful, until the heroes realize that they are dealing with Eggman-built robo-fleas and not your typical shitty ol' fleas. 

I speak from an experience when I say fleas are no joke. It's story time. Once, not too many years ago, I had an old dog whom I loved very much. I loved her so much, I let her sleep on the foot of my bed. When she started to scratch herself a bit, I didn't think anything of it. Dogs get itchy sometimes, ya know? However, I soon started to have a very intense, chronic itchiness on my legs, to the point where they were covered in scabs from constant scratching. It took me an embarrassingly long time to put two-and-two together and realize my dog had fleas and had spread them to my bedding. And here's some advice: If your pet catches fleas, spring for the expensive anti-flea solution right away. I tried a number of home remedies and cheaper options and they didn't accomplish much besides making my house smell like Christmas cookies. This is not a paid shilling from PetArmor, I am a genuine enthusiastic user of their product. 

The point of this meandering diatribe is that I relate to Sonic and friends' pain in this episode. A constant itchiness is quite distracting from your daily life. Having said that, it's also fairly low-stakes as far as supervillainous schemes go. You can't imagine Lex Luther using this one on the Justice League. (Though maybe the Bug-Eyed Bandit would...) That speaks to one of the best running jokes of this show: The sheer pettiness of Eggman as a bad guy. His entire scheme begins with him wanting to eat too many chocolate bars. He's even willing to pay for them at first, simply objecting to the high price! That's not very evil of you, Eggsy. While this version of Eggman has certainly expressed a desire to brutally murder Sonic from time to time, it seems he's much more satisfied simply inconveniencing his archenemy. Which is an amusing subversion of your typical action/adventure cartoon plots, which is definitely the main running joke of "Sonic Boom" by now. 

It's a solid gag to build your eleven-minute-long cartoon around. Writer Marie Beardmore, previously of "Strike!," manages to cook up a number of amusing scenarios based on this set-up. While most "Boom" episodes derive their comedy from pithy sarcasm and hyper-verbal bickering, "Flea-ing from Trouble" focuses on elaborate physical comedy. Tt actually works well. A scene where all the members of Team Sonic pretend not to have fleas, while cooking up increasingly silly distractions so they can scratch themselves, is a good example of good ol' fashion goofiness. Even when facing off with Eggman, the gang is preoccupied with easing the infernal itching they feel. This results in a scene of Knuckles doing the Curly Shuffle. And I ain't gonna lie to you, that made me snort-laugh. Never underestimate the comedic power of a big doofus running around in a circle on the ground while making a silly noise! 

That commitment to pratfalls leads to another surprising scene. Upon realizing that they are dealing with robotic fleas, and that smashing Eggman's robots usually works, Team Boom begins to pummel the shit out of each other. If you are an overgrown man-child who watches a lot of children's cartoons despite being an adult, you might have noticed an odd bit of reoccurring censorship. Usually, when characters on a cartoon show punch each other, the actual fist-on-skin impact is often covered by a flash of white light on screen. Once you've noticed this trend, you start to see how common it is. "Sonic Boom" wasn't immune to this and the punching scene makes it clear, as almost every strike is obscured in this manner. (Perhaps revealing another reason behind the commonality of the "cartoon brawl turning into a whirling cloud of smoke" trope, which is also used here.) One assumes this kids' TV standard is another guard against what they call "imitable behavior," an attempt to keep impressionable young'uns from socking each other in the jaw. It's a silly tactic, as it does nothing to disguise what's going on. I guess it's not a hard rule either here. While the fight scene features lots of these white flashes, a lingering close-up of Sonic upper-cutting Knuckles in the gut goes uncensored. I guess you can show full-on punching in a kids' show as long as it's funny. Which this is, showing that all you need to get a laugh sometimes is people bashing each other over their head for little reason.

What I'm saying is this episode provides plenty of yuks. Sticks' reaction to Cubot and Orbot attempting to stealthily add the fleas to her hovel is another solid gag. As is the local law enforcement reacting to Sonic and the others having parasites by instantly quarantining them. This might be a less funny reality in a post-COVID era, when we've all had to self-quarantine for a while. It does expose another amusing element of this setting: After the good guys are hidden off, Eggman runs rampant over the village. This forces Mayor Fink and the police to beg Team Sonic to come back, prompting Knuckles to ask why can't the police defend things for once. Drawing attention to another bit of the show's depressingly realistic satire, that cops are so useless and corrupt that they can't be relied on to keep the public safe. Not that I support the notice of a group of vigilantes being called upon to safeguard the populace but I certainly understand the instinct. 

Also, is it just me or is this episode hornier than usual? I mean, I know I'm a deviant degenerate into all sorts of unspeakable sex acts that would attract the attention of Google's arbitrary censorship droids if I described them in any detail. But did the writers know what they were doing when they wrote a scene of Sonic putting a collar on Amy's neck, only to have this fact humiliatingly exposed to a crowd? Or when Knuckles and Sticks moan in ecstasy when Eggman's robots are grinding on them? It's not just my perverted imagination, right? You guys see this too? Either way, we do get a scene of Knuckles flexing for Perci, suggesting some mating displays and interspecies bonding is on the minds of the characters in this episode. Whether this was intentional or not, it's good to see "Boom" carrying on the proud tradition of a "Sonic" cartoon, unwittingly or not, triggering some disturbing fetish in a young budding furry somewhere. 

Anyway, "Flea-ing from Trouble" is a funny episode. Sometimes, "Sonic Boom" doesn't leave me with much to say other than I laughed a few times. Comedy is hard to write about! If nothing else, "Flea-ing from Trouble" does nicely carry on the show's tendencies, gives the characters plenty of amusing things to do, and cooks up some solid gags. You don't need much more than that, sometimes. Keep yourself and your pets flea free, my friends. [7/10]