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popculturebuffet · 2 months

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Christmas in July: Nickmas!: Nickmas Unite! (Birthday Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people. Christmas in July is almost over, i'm almost on vacation, but we still have some presents for you.

FOR THE LAST TIME MICKEY ROONEY IT'S NOT YOUR TURN YET.

No we're giving you something good, as it's time to start what will be a possibly twice yearly, defintely yearly tradition as it's NICKMAS!

Nickmas is us celebrating nick's giant pile of holiday specials: Kev and Me both grew up on Nick so this is sure to be a nostalgia filled few years.

Starting us off we're tackling four childhood faviorites, the boys who headlined nicktoons unite and were some of the networks best and most notable shows: Fairly Odd Parents, Jimmy Neutron, Danny Phantom and Spongebob Squarepants. It feels like a great year to do so too: Fairly Odd Parents has a fresh reboot currently airing, Danny Phantom turns 20, Spongebob turns 25 and Jimmy Neutron... er.. fucking rips? It feels weird to do FOP without it, so it's here. It also saves me from having to do the my life as a teenage robot christmas special as while I love that show dearly, said special is contained with all the sadness and misery in the world and also kicks puppies.

I may have to rethink piling all the bad specials into one go. I may not be able to get out of that alive. But for now we have four certified classics to get through filled with holiday joy, will arnett, falsetto mr krabs, Jimmy shooting santa, holiday mob boss easter bunnies, eggnog, dead parrots, shots at arbor day and musical numbers. Lots of musical numbers. Let's begin under the cut.

We begin with our faviorite average kid who no one understands, who I was happy to revisit. I enjoy what i've watched of a new wish so far, and can't wait to binge more on my upcoming break.

For now we're back with the OG, and Christmas Every Day was a faviorite of mine as a kid and holds up just as well.

The premise like a lot of classic fairly odd parents is simple, yet crazy effective: Timmy loves christmas not just for the giant mountain of toys, enough to scrooge mcduck in, but for the genuinely sweet reason that it's the one day a year his parents don't abandon him to the cruel whims of Vicky. Also it's weird to hear her again as Grey Delise is playing her a bit younger her than she would be in later instalments. It fits, it's just weird to hear.

As a result the song about how much he loves getting the day with them is really sweet. And the interjections of "Timmy can't get a girlfriend" from both of his dads are hilarous. It gives the special heart and sets this wish apart from Timmy's usual selfish ill thought out wish: He just wants his parents to actually.. spend time with him. It's deeply sad and a reminder just how, if untetionally, sad his life is: his parents love him on some level, in the good episodes anyway, but are just ultimately oblivious to how much he really ne eds them. Good thing he got backups but still.

The wish is also accidental, simply something he muses as he falls asleep, and goes with because well.. he wants his parents to be around. That makes it so while he DOES have to undo the consequences, you don't feel bad for him nor the need for him to have some commpuance as he does in some wishes: there's no hubris here just a kid wanting more of a good thing and not thinking through the implications. It's something the early seasons of Fairly Odd Parents and the revival do well: Not having Timmy or Hazel be malicious, simply short sighted and in Timmy's case arrogant.

In this case the banks are closed, god bless online banking, the stores are closed, and the schools are closed.. which chester is fine with. This was also back when Frankie Munez did his voice. Jason Marsden was fine, but it's one of those cases where they didn't even bother to get a double. That and Frankie Voiced Chester for most of the time he was relevant, so that dosen't help. With his dad going mad from lack of eggnog which is just a great runner from his addiction, his cries of "mine" and of course lockjaw who just.. shows up out of nowhere and wins our hearts.

I also give this episode credit for finding a credible way to counter Timmy pressing undo, something the series had more trouble with as it went without either making up a rule or falling back on "cosmo and wanda loose their wands. ": Santa gets his powers FROM the fairies lending him theirs.. and after 14 or so days of not having them, his godparents can't undo it. I also like that Wanda TRIES to warn him.. but dosen't have the heart to break Timmys.

The antagonists for the specials are the other holidays represnetives: The Easter Bunny, Cupid, The April Fool, and Halloweenie Dog... whose actually just Easter Bunny's dog because Jack Skelington told him

Their simple: Cupid is camp, BECAUSE MEN BEING INTO LOVE IS GAY RIGHTTTTT, April Fool is Jerry Seinfeld back when he wasn't old man who yells at comedy for being woke, and the Easter Bunny as some form of mobster is neat. Wish he'd got a spotlight like the other two.

The antagonists are fine, their mostly kinda there. Case in point I forgot about Baby New Year whose big and a grown man now. Their fine for the plot device they are, to get Timmy to go across the world to save christmas so he can meet with Santa directly, but aren't super memorable aside from the April Fool. What's up with that? And Cupid , sterotyping aside, isn't TERRIBLE... I just don't likes him because his later special is awful and he thinks matching people is "forcing you to be with someone even if you don't want to and they stalk you a bunch".

Still Timmy's jounrey is a lot of fun, as he gets help from various kids.. including those in Quebec... which the writers think acts exactly like france, but i'll let it slide as they at least knew what Quebec was? I mean they mentioned it outright, showed plenty of canadian flags and kid me STILL thought Timmy went to france.

It also leads to a ncie climax: I like the conception of Santa here as a 90's corprate buisness man till he gets his magica nd kind to timmy, evne if he' sgetting coal for life at first for this.

The end battle is also neat as while Santa has the powers of a god... baby new year absorbs them. Thankfully the other kids all show up , the generic villians realize they done goofed, and the solution is creative: Timmy realizes the way to undo this: have EVERY KID IN THE WORLD , who belivies in santa anyway or isn't jewish or Islamic or a whole cornocopia of other religions and dosen't celebrate christmas and their repsective holidays, wriote to santa. It's a neat finish and it delivers a good lesson: Christmas is special.. because it's once a year and good to enjoy it while you got it for what it is. This special is great, a bit messy in act 2, the holidays are pretty whatever, but it has enough charm, creativity and warmth to make a truly great holiday special.

This one... is the only one me and my good friend @jess-the-vampire who watched these first three with me (We ran out of time before spongebob), didn't really remember despite growing up with all four of these. It didn't help that for her it was absent from Netflix when they had it and it's been absent from most streaming for what seems to be musical rights reasons before finally being restored to Paramount+. Even back in the day this one didn't seem to be replayed that much and unlike Danny PHantom, whose special also didn't get a lot of replay, it wasn't because the series was being shafted by the network.. yet. It just.. didn't get replayed for whatever reason while Spongebob and Fairly Odd Parents did and didn't seemingly have the OOMPH danny phantom did.

That being said.. this special's still a lot of fun and reminds me why this show is so dang good. Unlike Timmy who was on his best behavior, the special has Jimmy FIRMLY in the wrong, something the series does well. Jimmy is charasmatic, kind and often just fucks up because while he has the brain of a genius.. he also has the brain of a 12 year old and his ego and inexperince cause him to fuck up a bunch. It keeps the formula of "Jimmy's inventions cause chaos" form getting boring as how can vary: sometims it's him, sometims it's his family and why it's him, either hubris or simple childish mistakes, varies nicely.

In this case Jimmy hates christmas, specifically Santa. At first it just seems to be the typical jimmy "Science says it's not true so it isn't", questoning how it all works when Carl brings in horrifiying cheese nips from last year he left for santa, what santa didn't eat but touched. He also unintetionally breaks his friends spirit, questoning HOW santa functions enough to make carl sad. What makes this work is Jimmy dosen't do so intetnionally: Cindy won't let that shit go and spends the episode trying to humilate him for it, and let's face it more for her own ego and amusment, but Jimbo GENUINELy didn't mean to do that and apologizes later, which Carl takes easily.

He also has a resonable freudian excuse: He asked for a dwarf star 5 years ago and didn't get it, and then being who he is, spent the next 5 mathmatically proving Santa dosen't work. He's still a skeptical asshole, doubting the truth when his dna scanner picks up some of santa's dna on the cheez nips.. but Sheen's there the whole time needling him to keep it from being insufferable: he points out the obvious solution: Jimmy was just naughty (He did try to blow up the earth that year and all), and cheers on Carl whose kind and optimstic. This is the best carl: where he's not a dick, just a kind weird kid.

So Jimmy not able to let this go heads to the north pole and procides to be an absolute asshole, refusing to belivie the escalting proof from finding Santa's workshop to finding elves, figuring it's first a military base and then a toy shop

Even SHOOTING SANTA dosen't convince him. Cindy uses this to humilate him and when he sends her home.. she airs the footage, making it pretty clear that while Jimmy defintely needs to be humbled, and will be... she's in it for herself and only herself and will also get brought down a peg. It's why I like their rivalry and later relationship: Cindy isn't a super genius and can be a bully.. but she's often socially smarter than jimmy, yet just as egotistical as she razzes him for.

So this leads to our b plot which is barely there, but it's also lead by Hugh, whose the best, so it's naturally entertaining: He decides the best way to fix this? Make a pie themed holiday called Pule, sing a song about it, and then give up when Jimmy inevitibly saves christmas. God I missed him man. If All Star Brawl 2 gets another season BRING HIM BACK. BRING MY BOY BACK TO ME.

The main plot though is neat as Jimmy plans to save christmas... to prove Santa's not real

Thankfully he delivers MOST of the presents.. and also gets his hubris as trying to make his plane go super fast leads to it falling apart and Carl's happy he was proven wrong... even as Sheen poitns out

Thankfully santa saves them and I like this version: a super scientest like jimmy whose able to still deliver to retroville and while mildly sore at jimmy, is appricative he fixed his mistake. He also takes the boy down a few pegs by revealing Sheen was right. Because sheen's the best. Jimmy's proven himself though and gets his happy ending: he admits he was wrong, shows humility and gets his dwarf star. Cindy and Libby get coal as they deserve, a happy ending for all.

This specail is solid.. but I also see why I forgot it. The other specials here feel well..special. Something diffrent from the normal episode while still fitting the series like a glove. This one.. feels like a Jimmy Neutron episode that just happens to take place at christmas and be a half an hour long, not something super uncommon for this show. It's not bad, i'ts still quite good, but I can see why the other three in this batch are remembered more. They stand out more from the normal episodes and have unique hooks while this one is a pretty standard Jimmy adventure that just happens to involve him shooting santa, which is weird in of itself but really not a huge stretch from his usual adventures.

I've missed covering this show and INTENDED to do more this year, but got sidetracked by a lot of theme months and other stuff going on. I also haven't gotten back to jli

So it's nice to return to a pretty popular series on this blog and just in time for the anniversary.

It's also a great episode to come back with as Fright Before Christmas is excellent. Nearly flawless. It also has some nice character stuff as it's christmas time: Sam is not her usual self, happily celbrating everyone's holidays and loving the season. It's nice to see her not only happy , but to be the voice of reason without her usual judgmental tone: she just geninely enjoys sharing the holidays. Tucker... is sadly his usual self and dawns a missletoe hat to aid in his sexual harassment

Danny however is a real scrooge

Okay not that scrooge the other less fun one. Though Danny probably could ride a fucking lion and that's something the graphic novel writers should really consider.

No Danny hates christmas.. and for entirely valid reasons: HIs parents fight every year about wether Santa exists and unlike the other three cartoons in this block, there's no answer. I mean he could exist, we've seen nice ghosts at this point. But I like that they dont' answer their argumetn, just have the two both be dicks, with Maddie loudly telling a bunch of children he isn't real. Every year they've fucked it up from baby danny getting piddled on by a reindeer to their christmas dinner overcoking and trying to murder him and jazz when he was 5. I also like using the fact Sam is newer to the friend group for this: it makes Tucker's expositoin feel real.

So Danny goes to the ghost zone to blow off steam.. and ends up pissing off the exact wrong ghost; Ghostwriter. Ghostwriter is an amazing one off villian, one I wish came back but i'm fine didn't as his one appearnce is evne better than I remember. It helps he's voiced by batman horseman himself, Will Arnett, in one of his earlier voice acting roles and he nails it: Ghostwriter is just a write rmiding his buisness who has a legit beef with danny, unlike most of his rogues who want to kick his ass for ruining their mayhem or for mistaking them for a bully or him prevneting them from porking his mom. Danny destroys his christmas poem then dosen't apologize... and soon learns maybe pissing off ghosts after over a year of fighting them was a bad move.

Ghostwriter traps Danny in a story and what I like is this SEEMINGLY gives him the power of a god.. but it's within fair limits: he can't MAKE danny do things and while he later does directly manipulate people's actions it's in the ghost zone itslef where he seems to have more power, which makes sense: he can't manipulate the human world outside of stuff ghosts can normally do, using his power to make shit come to life (something a LOT of ghosts do on this show), so Danny will destroy it and be blamed for it with other people not having the context he wasn't responsible. He can't MAKE danny or co do anything.. but he can manipulate the situation, spending the evening making danny look bad, haunting presents, trees and reindeer to make it look like Danny's richard nixon and just wants to sneak into peopl'es homes at night and wreck up the place.

For the most part this really works: While Ghostwriter went WAY too far, danny's own anger and bad mood means he can't see what he's doing till it's too late. Ghostwriter wins.. simply by playing Danny. The only part that dosen't work is Jazz getting mad at him for destroying her bear.. when it was clearly possesed.

That said his friends clearly get something is wrong, but they'll help later. For now he finds help from the last place he'd expect it: his Rogues gallery. When he goes to tell Ghostwriter what the five fingers said to the face, Ghostwriter redirects him to a christmas party with all his foes.. not quite as good as a slumber party but still neat. In a nice twist turns out the ghosts have a christmas truce: it applies to ALL ghosts, danny included and while most of them make no secret they'll try and kill him tommorow, it's a nice gesture of good will that shows these guys aren't assholes ALL the time and adds a tiny bit of worldbuilding. It even makes more sense than I thought as most of the ghosts present, spectra, betram, ember, the princess, deseriee, are the ones either implied to be former humans or are outright said to be. Only Skulker really stands out as one that was ghost zone born and even he abides.

They don't abide people who break it and prepare to break ghostwriter. I also love how this sidelines him purely because unlike Danny's actions.. he didn't see it coming. he geninely forgot and was , not unfairly, under the impression they'd all break it. Instead they prepare to break him, but he counters. Danny counters by breaking his keyboard.. which frees everyone.. but dosen't stop thes tory. As Ghostwriter didn't get a chance to explain, there's only two ways out: for him to write an ending, which is hard to do as he's going to prison for a long time for this shit as Walker is one of the ghosts under the truce. I mean the law abiding prick is going to abide by the rules after all.

So Danny goes home miserable.. but it's his friends who pull him out. Granted I don't get WHY he never tells them what's going on, but this ending is still sweet to a point. His friends get this isn't like him and comfort him.. and Danny realizes just because his holidays mostly suck.. dosen't mean he has to ruin them for everyone else. Being a giant dick about it to everyone and everything won't make his holiday BETTER... and thankfully he can fix the damage ghost writer did as all the other ghosts show up to fix the presents because they can do that now.

Honestly I'm fine with the ending: Danny recovers, his story ends and ghost rider is fine with that in prison. My only issue is th ewhole "Maddie and jack ruin danny's christmas every year" thing is never adressed. They never.. learn anything which isn't entirely unrealistic, but is annoying. His parents... just never really get WHAT they did wrong and never get called out on it. I get Danny had to learn a lesson too but it's weird they don't. This isn't some fun tradition, it's an argument that affects their kids every. Damn. year.

Otherwise.. this is a great special, lots of fun wordplay and while I forgot to mention it, once Ghost writer takes over the whole thing is in rhyme. It's a nice touch that really gives the episode a festive feel. and the whole cast is here for it. It also helps danny as him using an orange breaks Ghostwriters concentration as nothing rhymes with orange. IT's a really great holiday special and well worth your time this july or you know during actual christmas.

Our last one and the big one here as it's the one that gets replayed the most.. granted it's because like Fairly Odd Parents it lasted forever and is still going and probably will till god emperor spongebob consumes our universe as is his destiny. It was also the only Spongebob Christmas special for a long time. We'll get to the others someday, but since they were made closer together I felt it was okay to go ahead and do the original.

We get some patchy Segments which I honestly forgot were here. I do miss ole patchy and i'm happy they used him again. It's always fun to see Tom kenny throw on the costume and it was only recently I found out that was him. I mean i'ts obvious in retrospect but eh.

The patchy stuff is fine, mostly some fun bits with potty who also looses his body. He's apparently immortal. or a puppet in universe 2. Hard to tell. Either way I fear him in the days to come.

Patchy tells us of Spongebob's first christmas, and I like the storybook style of this, complete with a few bits of Spongebob in the present getting ready and patrick.. doing the bare as minimum. Can relate.

The main story though is Spongebob finding out what Christmas is from Sandy after assuming her tree being lit up means it's on fire. Which is adorable. So she tells him about Santa and he tells everyone. Patrick's on board because he's also a children when the plot wants him to be like his best buddy, and Mr Krabs is on board because free shit boyo. Squidward naturally.. wants no part of this and is a fucked up little whiny bitch the whole episode. And his whole life but we don't have time to unpack that waking nightamare. Point is his job is to be sour and refuse to engage and call spongebob insane.. even though Sandy told him. Sandy is conviently missing from the special.

In fact I realized from this that Sandy almost never interacts with Squidward in the show's golden age. The only time I could find up to this episode was the Halloween Episode, while it would be four more episodes till Pressure, the most they really interact in this era. She tends to be either around just spongebob or spongebob and patrick, with Mr Krabs getting exactly one appearnce with her with Karate Choppers before pressure. It's not a BAD thing, Sandy easily cuts through Squidwards bullshit and he works better either being the foil to mr krabs or the ants at sponge bob and patrick's picnic.. or vice versa. Sandy's too calm and rational for his cynical nonsense while Spongebob no sells it most of the time due to his naivete and kindness. It's the same reason Mr Krabs and Sandy don't interact much either: Sandy's intellgence, level head and friendship with sponebob would make it harder for him to take advantage of our boy.

That said her absence from this one.. still feels weird. I get the story works better without her.. but it also needs her to take off, making her absence from the rest of it weirdly obvious. I didn't really notice how little she interacts with squidward and mr krabs because the show still has her go to the krusty krab on occasion, giving you the illusion they interact more than they do. Here they draw attention to her absence as her being around to tell Squidward "No santa's real you schmuck" or "He may or may not be but leave spongebob alone or else" would solve the plot.

And honestly as big and wide as this plot hole is... it ultimately dosen't matter. The story is good enough, funny enough and creative enough it just dosen't matter. Some of my faviorite gags are Mr. Krabs asking for "A Pony" (With saddlebags full of cash naturally), mostly for Clancy Brown's pitch perfect delivery. He is my faviorite and always will be. I also like the new hat guy having a head shaped for said hat, Mr Krabs falsetto in the very first christmas song, and i'm probably forgetting some as being a seaon 2 spongebob episode the joke pacing is fucking incredible.

The pacing in general works well: The specail is only 18 minutes but feels shorter as it dosen't really spare a minute: every minute either has a joke or uses the situation well as Spongebob spreads christmas to the town, Squidward continues to suck suprising no one, and we get the "very first christmas to me song" a truly heartwarming musical number with some good gags baked in. Seriously Krabs give your ex more than fruitcake. Also the star on top bit with patrick is so cute.

Santa Claus is comin tonight tonight is also adorable.. and heartbreaking when Santa dosen't come, leaving spongebob broken. Squidward does easily the most dickish thing he's ever done. April Fools as bad as it ended up... is a bit fair given both how Spongebob wouldn't stop, and how Squidward didn't mean to be the king of ashole mountain that time. This time.. he sees spongebob broke down in tears, and GLOATS taking a picture while laughing. I used to think the ending was a bit much, that because he did the right thing he hadn't earned it but... no .. it's karma.

So Squidward gets a gift from sponebob.. a custom made claranet, complete with little figures. IT's a truly sweet gesture that shows what a nice guy spongebob is.. and how much squidward sucks dirty ass in thunderstorms. And not the fun way he usually does.

So he plays santa, Spongebob buys it.. but spreads it to everyone else, forcing sqwuiardward to give away everything he owns. And this.. works better for me. I used to avoid this special as I felt the ending was a bit to omean but as I said... squidward earned it. It's somethign the middle seasons forgot: Squidward is fine being punished but he has to EARN it. It's why i'm still not a big fan of the magic conch or i'm with stupid, both feeling like predecessors to the cruller later episodes which picked on characters for no reason. Here .. Squidward can't just let spongebob have fun and while Spongebob is mildly pushy trying to include him, it's entirely well meaning and sweet. He isn't trying to force anything he just wants squidward to get a present, and Swuidward just can't let him enjoy it. He dosen't HAVE to join in.. but he also dosen't have to be a dick about it. And tha'ts why him loosing everything dosen't feel too bad for me. That and I get he'll just have it back next episode. Santa does thank him though.

Overally Christmas Who? is a solid christmas special, a true winter delight with a lot of good jokes, warmth and a well deserved karmic ending for Squidward that also has him learn some empathy

Rankings: Since any time I forget to do this kev asks me anyway let's rank these suckers.

Christmas Every Day

The Fright Before Christmas

Christmas Who?

Holly Jolly Jimmy

Not a single one of these are bad. These are all great, I just think CHristmas Every Day is the most consitent, not having the plot gaps the middle two have. Holly Jolly Jimmy dosen't have that but dosen't have the extra oomph the others do, that push to make this special feel.. special. There's nothing wrong with an average christmas episode, it's just not as memorable as the others.

So with that CHristmas in July is almost done. There's one present left i've been hinting at/threatening and it's time fo ryou to unwrap it. Until then thanks for reading.

#nickelodeon #the fairly odd parents #jimmy neutron #danny phantom #spongebob squarepants #will arnett #nicktoons

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