| Lil' Buddy | Gallery | Transcript |
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Lil Buddy is the 41st episode in Season 1 of Clarence.
Synopsis
After playing a bit too aggressively with his Lil Buddy doll, Clarence gets a timeout and his worst nightmare comes true – he misses recess and became a school's bully.[1][2]
Plot
SPOILER AHEAD! Important details about the plot or story are up ahead |
Episode begins with Clarence showing the class an advertisement for a doll called, "Lil' Buddy". After that, Clarence shows everyone his own Lil' Buddy. At recess, Clarence wants the other kids to play with his Lil' Buddy, but no one wants to. When he tries to get Reed to play with it, Reed backs away and falls into the sandbox. Ms. Shoop gets angry with Clarence for making Reed cry, so she gives him a five minute time-out. Clarence can't stand having time-out while watching the other kids play, then he starts imagining years and years going by. Suddenly, Clarence stops imagining because Ms. Shoop tells him his time-out ended 5 minutes ago, and that he should start playing before the bell rings, but as soon as Clarence gets up to play, recess ends.
In chemistry class, Clarence is too disappointed to play with the goo. That night, in Clarence's room, Clarence is still really upset about missing recess, and he throws his Lil' Buddy at the wall, causing it's arm to fall off. After that, Clarence rides his bike to Bendle Park to bury his Lil' Buddy. The next day, as Mary drives Clarence to school, she tells Clarence a joke to get him to smile, but it doesn't work. At school, a montage starts showing Clarence being very upset, and not even having fun with Sumo and Jeff because he misses his Lil' Buddy. After awhile, Clarence goes bald and starts wearing a black hoodie. The montage ends with Clarence and Belson in detention. Belson tells Clarence that he actually looks cool, but Mr. Reese disagrees. Belson thinks he and Clarence should team up, and Clarence ignores him.
At recess, Clarence appears dressed as Lil' Buddy and he tries to get Jeff to hold the Lil' Buddy's broken arm. As Ms. Shoop is about to blow her whistle, Clarence tries to stop her. At that moment, Belson pulls down Clarence's pants, and the kids laugh at him. Clarence gets really angry and punches Belson. Dustin cheers and Clarence knocks him down. Later, Clarence sits inside the 'Cool off zone' room all by his lonesome. Some of the kids watches him from the outside, wondering what's going to happen to him, then Clarence is taken to the principal's office for his special punishment. When Clarence sits down, Ms. Baker reveals that it's her in the principal's chair. Ms. Baker talks to Clarence and gives him his Lil' Buddy back, which makes him happy again. Ms. Baker also mentions that it wasn't fair that Clarence missed recess, so she allows him to have his own recess just with Lil' Buddy. Clarence hugs Ms. Baker and goes outside to play. As Clarence enjoys recess, the other kids watch him from the window and Sumo says that they got their old Clarence back, ending the episode.
| End spoilers |
Characters
Minor Characters
- Jeff
- Sumo
- Belson
- Percy
- Chelsea
- Ashley
- Gilben
- Julien
- Alison
- Ashley's Friends
- Tappy Cards Kid
- John-George
- Patsie
- Coco
- Kennan
- Reed
- Crendle
- Brady
- Dustin
- Heida
- Guyler
- Blaide
- Emilio
- Breehn
- Gabbie
- Kimby
- Nathan
- Memo
- Gary
- Vu
- Try
- Bos
- Mary
- Chad (cameo)
- Mr. Reese
- The principal (mentioned)
- Unnamed Brown-Haired boy
Trivia
- This episode premiered with a cold opening, the first to do so, later airings skip to the title card and the rest of the episode plays normally for a while, but then the cold opening was recently put back in the reruns.
- This is the first episode to have Clarence. "himself" in the title card.
Character Connections
- Jeff and Sumo get along very well in this episode, even without Clarence.
- This is the first time for Clarence to go out of character as it went further into higher depths.
- This is the third time Jeff goes out of character. (The first was "Dinner Party" and the second was "Man of the House")
- This marks Ashley's first major speaking role since "Clarence Gets a Girlfriend".
- This is the first time Clarence (or anybody) is seen hitting someone else and the first time he acted out against Belson.
- This is the first time that Clarence was bald.
- This is the second time Clarence gets detention, the first being in the episode, "Detention".
- This is Ms. Shoop's first major role.
Cultural References
- There is a reference to "Over the Garden Wall" in the episode, when Clarence is at Bendle Park, silhouettes of Wirt and Greg can be seen walking in the forest. It is a reference to when at the end of the "Over the Garden Wall" the same design of Aberdale (seen in "Pretty Great Day with a Girl") was reused for "Over the Garden Wall" when in it showed a zoom out of the hospital the characters were in.
- The song played during Clarence's progression into an emo is parody of Randy Newman's song "Strange Things", a song from Toy Story.
- Lil' Buddy is a reference to My Buddy.
- Ms. Baker says to Clarence to what the man already wanted and lived happily ever after is a reference to Willy Wonka's last line from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Episode Connections
- The Lil' Buddy doll reappears in "Chalmers Santiago".
- A photo of Clarence in this episode is in a file which appears in "Freedom Cactus".
- After Clarence digs and buries his Lil' Buddy, he shouts in rage during a thunderstorm. This is similar to when Sumo shouted during a thunderstorm in "Dream Boat".
Reception
- From both sides, the episode received mixed reviews, on the positive side: many phrased the outcome of Clarence changing from his former to latter (As Emo Style to Bad Boy Style), as well as they as the part where he punched Belson as an assumption for comeuppance (even though it is not considered the reason why for this), and described as a "Wham" episode on how kids feel in real life would have to go through similar to what Clarence did, however on the negative side: Some fans described negatively on the episode for being too violent, scary, dark and depressing, described that it was one of the episodes that went too far, as Clarence for going far out of character, as it was deemed a "shock value".
Clips
References