This is going to be a review of Lazy Town episode by episode to decode the lore for adults. It should theoretically enhance your viewing experience with the ridiculous things I notice.

Episode One: The Plastic Town

So Sportacus is a man who lives in a blimp and backflips as his main mode of transportation. Also, I want his vegetable and fruit bar. And his aircraft that is powered by pedaling. Also, his mustache looks fake. He might be the one singing the opening theme (I could look this up, but I enjoy the mystery more, so I won’t.)

Mayor Meanswell is a bozo. Miss Busybody is too. I suspect her swirling mass of hair is a chaotic portal to a void. Not much more to say about these two clowns right now.

Robbie Rotten is a villain who wears his pants at just the right height and desires everyone to be lazy. He also has the strongest chin in existence (might be an implant). This may be the source of his power. He breaks the fourth wall, so there may be an unnamed secret character in his subterranean lair. He possesses an extremely intriguing machine that can create anything with the wrong ingredients, thereby making Robbie an alchemist. His first creation is a cake, but we don’t get to see the ingredients. He drops it on the floor. We shouldn’t forget that his periscope has realistic eyes. Whether he created them with his alchemy machine or actually stole someone’s eyes to put in there, I don’t know. We’ll see if he explains their origin later.

Stephanie is your protagonist who visits Lazy Town to stay with her uncle, Mayor Meanswell. She wears pink a lot. Can you tell she’s a girl? Girls wear pink a lot. Right? Right? I think she is either secretly Tommyrod’s daughter or she scalped him and is wearing his hair as a wig. More on this to come as we go.

Cut back to Robbie and he has the cake again. So he either made a new batch or is eating floor cake. Oddly enough, Robbie is a villain who cares about laziness, yet puts more effort into life than most of the other characters. He is obsessed with maintaining the constancy of this state of laziness, but why? We will discern this.

At this point, we should address the issue of the puppets. If we interpret this story as literal, Stephanie is in a town where only two people are real. And the rest, her uncle included, are replicants. If we go this route, is Stephanie unaware of her circumstance? Or is she simply playing along to not give away her intentions?

So after a couple of cake debacles, Stephanie goes out to play with a blue ball where she meets Ziggy, a costumed child with a crippling addiction to candy. (While writing this review after watching nine episodes, I might have to say that Ziggy is the worst character. I’ll address this later though.) He mentions that Trixy often hides his candy, which might make her the only figure who has any semblance of caring to prevent his future diabetes. Ziggy is actually insufferable with how much he pushes his candy agenda.

He brings her to meet the other children, but she has a soccer ball now. I have a suspicion about how this happened, but I’ll address this when I mention her mysterious saxophone. You’ll know it when you see it.

So the other children are Pixel, Stingy, and Trixy. Each one is a character archetype: technology-obsessed, greed-incarnate, and trickster, respectively. Pixel has futuristic technology seemingly built into him so he may be a young Cyborg for all we know. Also, “romantic” music plays when he meets Stephanie, so I’m guessing the story might push them together as crushes. When Trixy mentions he’s losing the game, he responds with “That’s okay,” showing that the presence of a real human has astounded him. They are hesitant to follow her outside until Pixel leads the way, causing me to think that the satellite dish on his head might have low-grade mind-control properties.

This cuts to a song and dance number involving splits and high kicks. The splits are a reoccurring action in Lazy Town and may be the source of Stephanie’s and Sportacus’s power. The splits may also cause time loops, but we’ll get back to that later.

Next, Robbie shows up and is introduced by Trixie, showcasing that they know who he is and what he’s been doing. I guess they’re fine with it because they’re all intrinsically lazy bums too. So he decides to foil Stephanie’s playdate by initiating a slew of bribes. Rather than the stereotype of a creepy adult trying to lure children with candy, Robbie is the exact opposite, opting to give sweets to send Ziggy far away. He gives Pixel a videogame, but claims that it was Stingy’s, which would involve burglarizing a boy’s house (so that’s a little creepy.) This gets rid of those two. For Trixy, Robbie delivers one of the best lines so far (“Would you like to?”), baiting her into vandalism.

Stephanie gets sad, blah, blah, askes her incompetent uncle for advice and he tells her about the mysterious hero who I’m going to simply call, Number Nine. So after her uncle provides her the mail tube, she sets off to uncork the device, giving Robbie conniptions.

When Sportacus gets her letter, he states, “I have heard of Lazy Town before,” yet immediately takes out an ancient text about the history of Lazy Town. Odd. Also, he tosses the book up, but it doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Did it get sucked into one of the holes in his ceiling? Does he have a library up there? Not really important, but still confusing. Now that I think about it, the text is called History of Lazy Town. Was it always called that? Was it lazy in the first place and that’s why Robbie singled it out? Or was Robbie a founder of the town or something? Anyway, when Sportacus finally leaps out and lands without breaking his ankles, he flails his arms around in a spastic, yet regimented fit. Stephanie asks if he’s Number Nine. He responds with “Number Ten” without addressing what happened to his predecessor. However, Robbie exclaims, “Another one,” indicating he knows Number Nine, but most likely not what caused his disappearance.

Then we cut to Stingy trying to hog a seesaw. Trixy is about to slam the buffoon into the ground, which reveals that Sportacus has a crystal that can tell when anyone is in trouble. He performs a bunch of saves, but one thing to note is during frame 21:18, Sportacus looks and smirks seemingly at Robbie because Busybody and the kids are far too short to focus on at that height.

Cue the ending dance number for them to power through their work. More splits ensue, one in particular when Sportacus seems to freeze time for a second. Robbie does an amazing stalk towards the camera and falls into his own hole, symbolizing the cyclical nature of his self-destructive habits.

(I know a lot of this was summary heavy, but I’m doing that mainly since this is the first episode.)

Episode Two: Sportacus Has a Bad Memory

In this episode, the mayor asks Sportacus if he remembers teaching everyone baseball last year. Sportacus acknowledges with quite a confused manner about him.

Robbie reveals that the autonomous shoes are his invention, yet later on, Pixel somehow knows its name. Either Robbie was lying to himself about it being his invention or Pixel’s been snooping around the villain’s lair. Or perhaps Pixel’s implants allowed him to have an intrinsic knowledge of the device. (On a side note, Robbie’s machine is now on the right side. He moved it for some reason.)

To switch out Sportacus’s shoes, Robbie splashes the material of that gum monster, Gooey Gus, from Ghost Writer. You know the one. Don’t you? Or maybe Robbie killed Ivan Ooze for the sludge.

During the dance number, Robbie is showcased being able to contort into a mailbox so he’s definitely more flexible than he makes himself out to be in front of the others (which is a smart strategy to lull them into thinking he’s a physically weaker villain). Robbie shows up as Lazicus to replace Sportacus. Does our villain have a subconscious or conscious desire to be the hero of Lazy Town. Theoretically, he already is the hero of Lazy Town in terms of the town’s name because he keeps a town that’s always been called Lazy Town lazy. Secret protagonist? I like this interpretation.

Robbie makes an interesting note on the topic of absence when he says, “With Sportacus gone, I’m your only choice.” This is an important commentary on the notion of isolation and the resulting desperation and thoughts of villainy that can arise. Up to this point, he is essentially a hermit with a house underground, spending little time with anyone. He may have a mental conundrum involving the lack of understanding of how to relate to others on in an intimate manner, so he chooses tyranny and ultimatums instead. It’s the easy lazy way, so it is a fitting interpretation, yet we’ll have to see how he evolves from here to determine if that reading of his character sticks.

Episode Three: Vomit Apple

Stephanie now possesses the History of Lazy Town. I guess Sportacus gave it to her or there are multiple old texts lying around. Robbie has another odd machine that can “print” out any of the outfits and disguises in his “wardrobe tubes.” Even though it prints his main costume too small (infant sized), he can spin until he fits into it. Either that suit is fully elastic or he has powers. He then mentions that he had four-hundred lazy ideas this week alone. He is neurotic about this. I’m telling you, he possess the most effort out of the entire cast.

To stop the children from playing on the sports field, he decides to buy it, indicating he is quite wealthy. And their incompetent mayor signs it over without reading the contract. Dunce. However, rather than simply bulldozing the field as Robbie could’ve, he takes their challenge to race. I don’t believe Robbie is stupid, so I’m going to say that he wants to give them a fighting chance. Either that or his plan was to add the stipulation of getting Sportacus to leave town forever.

During the exercise montage, Robbie showcases how much effort he puts into creating inventions. Perhaps he used to be an inventor who was shunned for his ideas and efforts, so he decided to taint a town with laziness.

Sportacus begins delegating jobs to the kids, yet when it comes to Ziggy, Sportacus offers the job of “Sports Candy Supervisor.” Yet he should know better by now because Ziggy is an incorrigible addict who only brings back more candy. I want to note that I like the way Sportacus hits the tree and says “Apple” as if summoning it with a command-word spell. When revealing his sugar weakness, Ziggy talks about keeping sugar in his underwear. As I said, incorrigible. Someone help this child. While he’s looking for more apples, Robbie reveals what is actually a rotten and truly vile device. He dumps candy, wrappers and all, into the machine and it releases…an…apple. It’s so shiny and wide that it looks nauseating. More horrifying alchemy from our villain. During the race, Sportacus bites into the damned thing and it oozes a sickly orange substance. Probably melted plastic and sugars. Truly revolting.

Also, I noticed that during the race, Robbie’s contraptions are waiting for him. Who is setting them up? The only pre-established character who is missing is the mayor. Or we could interpret this as the “viewers” or whomever Robbie was talking to in his house. I’m suspicious of the mayor more so because he only reappears after Robbie’s last invention has been set up.

I need to know what type of tech Pixel has that can trace the exact location of Robbie’s unplugged machine. Something doesn’t add up about this. Either he has the most advanced tracking system on the planet or he has some kind of intimate knowledge of Robbie’s devices.

After they give Sportacus real fruit instead of a cancer-infested “apple,” Stingy refuses to pass the baton. He is the second worst character. Even after Sportacus says he’ll give it back later, Stingy still has a conniption.

Also, the apple tree is magic or has the ability to spontaneously grow fruit because when Robbie crashes into it, the thing buries him in over a hundred apples.

During the ending song, Stephanie looks into the camera and a montage of past scenes play out. Is she creating time loops via song? Does she have sound wave powers that create ripples in time? Unlike the dance number from episode two, even though she looks into the camera, no past scenes play out. So her powers may be developing without her knowing it. More on this to come.

Episode Four: Cats Aren’t Real

So Sporatcus saves a kitten from a tree. Not a plastic kitten, no. A real cat exists in Lazy Town. Somehow. Did Robbie’s alchemy create this furred abomination? Stay tuned to find out.

When Stephanie opens a trashcan lid, the noise sounds similar to the hedge maze gates from Castlevania 64. Hmmm. Suspicious. Is my favorite dank Castlevania canon in their universe? Remember nitro, guys? That was fun, right?

Sportacus drops some more lore on us when he confirms that he can see people in trouble through his crystal. Yet that makes me wonder why he didn’t know whom he missed in the first episode when Busybody was in the hole. Perhaps I was right about her swirl of hair being a void spot. She may have a tiny event horizon floating above her head, making it impossible for him to see her. (I didn’t plan for this interpretation to follow through that way, but that’s the fun of writing. Those majestic nonsensical things that subconsciously fall into place.)

Sportacus makes the mistake of showing the kids his priceless powerful “all-seeing” crystal. And of course, the cretin Stingy wants it immediately. He becomes petulant about it. Intolerable wretch. Trixy knows. She might be the only true voice of reason in this show. To save Stingy from a fatal car accident, Sportacus lays down over the hole rather than simply stopping the car. G E N I U S.

Even though we saw Sportacus lock his crystal back into place, it somehow fell out. Whatever. It’s possible that the thing fell out, but I’m wondering if he wanted to test Stingy’s resolve by leaving it there for him to find. He might also be a future supervillain as he slowly hides the crystal while thanking Sportacus. Stingy is going to hollow-out and become Gollum is what I’m saying. (He even calls it precious later on.)

It’s worth noting that Robbie owes four-thousand dollars on an overdue book: Rotten Behavior for Dummies. Who wrote that? Did he write that? Only to take it out and owe money on it?

When Sportacus visits the mayor for help (bad idea), he proposes that anyone who finds the crystal should get a reward of one wish. Okay. That’s not f***ing stupid. Genie confirmed. So Busybody starts calling people with the news. And Ziggy is in such a sugar-induced delirium that he actually answers his lollipop instead. Really. Help this child. He has a problem. When she calls Robbie by accident (incompetence), he states “No one ever calls me” in abject surprise, further confirming Robbie as one plagued by intense soul-crushing loneliness. They also show a scene of her calling even more people. Who is she calling? Who else even exists in this town?

I love the simplicity of Robbie’s alchemy. “A lot of shiny things to make a shiny crystal.” He also makes his machine work this time with a sledge hammer. Amazing. Simply amazing. See all those dials and things. Nah. Just smash it.

Robbie calls himself a genius (which technically he might be if he created such an alchemy machine) and proceeds to make out with Sporatus’s fake crystal.

Stingy starts talking to the crystal, having completely lost his mind with unadulterated greed. Unabashed, he displays it on his car hood. (Here’s a little grammar joke. The antecedent of “it” grammatically refers to greed, but logically refers to crystal, but you can also think of it as his mind depending on how you like to interpret my pronoun.)

Robbie’s delivery of “Go away kid” in response to Stephanie’s logical question amused me. Dance number ensues about how Robbie can change. That’s not important. What is important is that at frame 13:57, we get a glimpse of Sportacus’s mysterious breakdancing doppelganger. He might have the power to clone himself in brief bursts. At frame 14:28, Stephanie’s eyes bug out in a hyper fit which was most amusing too.

After Robbie falls into the hole and offers a trade with Stingy, Robbie finds the cat in the ditch. The creature has returned to its creator. Once the treehouse trade falls apart, Robbie lowers his items, but we can see him holding them as he climbs down the ladder. Did he balance them all on the rungs? Hmmmm. Either way, Stingy is still not worse that Ziggy because at least Stingy learns a lesson (kind of).

During the ending dance, a small thing I noticed is that if you start from frame 22:15 and skip ahead with your right arrow key to 22:22, you can make it look like Pixel teleported out for Ziggy when they walk behind Stephanie. Also, Sportacus stops time for another split. And one last thing. Why does Robbie have a mug of Texas? Does he have family there?

Episode Five: Someone’s a Liar

This episode reveals that Robbie has insomnia. Another thing to plague our poor tormented villain. He is then bothered by an invisible fly.

When they try to play baseball with Sportacus, he doesn’t seem know what it is. Is he simply letting them explain it to him? Or does the man with sport in his name really not know what baseball is? This might explain his confused face in episode two. He even claims, “I can even learn whole new sports.” And later, he says, “I just learned today.” Hmmm. Baseball is clearly a thing in their world since the kids know it. How does Sportacus not know it? Even later, his sports closet has two bats and two baseballs. Did he bring those all home with him? We see him putting away only the glove, one bat and a ball, so that makes me think he’s not being honest. Or he has extreme lapses in memory from a sports-related concussion.

Ziggy drops his candy on the ground and proceeds to lick it. I can’t deal with him.

Robbie devises a plan to keep Sportacus awake by fusing loud items in his alchemy machine to create a putrid “noisy” ball. (This time however, he actually uses the dials…with a little bit of slapping.) None of that is as important as the red saxophone on his desk though. Remember that for later.

Pixel creates a horrifying puppeteer machine (his first act of supreme laziness). Ziggy sleeps with a giant lollipop like a body pillow (*Vomits internally*). Sportacus can also summon pillows, presumably from his airship. Must be voice-activated tech. Once they strap him into Pixel’s machine, it forces him to do a split. I thought that was worth noting. Always have to have your splits in Lazy Town. For some unknown reason. (I’m still betting on time control powers.) Perhaps that was part of Pixel’s plan. He needed the puppeteer device to simulate Sportacus’s split, so Pixel could master the art of time splitting. More time-stopping dance splits ensue as usual.

Also, where are Stingy and Trixy?

Now for the important part: the reason that drove me to want to write this review. Time for that deep lore, bois. While trying to wake up Sportacus, Stephanie is using the red saxophone. The exact same one that was in Robbie’s lair. The same one. So…how do we explain this? I don’t want to believe that she simply already had or bought the same model. I also don’t like the idea that she found it if Robbie threw it out. Besides, I don’t think Stephanie would want to play a trash sax. No. There is something more peculiar going on here. Guys. Gals. Listen. Stephanie is in on it. She has been to his lair. And another piece of possible evidence is her mysterious soccer ball. Remember that one from the first episode? Transmutation. She changed her blue one into a soccer ball. She has access to Robbie’s lab. This is almost certain. Whether he knows this or not is a different story. I’m not sure yet. She might be his secret protégée. How do we rationalize that then? It might not be her first time visiting Lazy Town because the mayor has her picture on his desk in episode one. Did Robbie recruit Stephanie during her first visit? If so, I have a possible reason for why Stephanie and Robbie act like they’ve never met. Pixel’s tech. His sensors might be always watching, so they both have to act precisely at all times. However, if Robbie doesn’t know she has access to his lab, she is smarter and sneakier than she lets on. She might be playing all sides, manipulating situations to her advantage and watching the chaos unfold.

[This endeavor was entertaining to write, but time-consuming, so let me know if you want me to continue for more episodes. If no one enjoys what I’m doing, I won’t bother.]

If you want to check out my books, here’s a link to my spicy stash: https://www.amazon.in/Christopher-Jones/e/B00CNEBA5K/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1