“Just once, I’d like to burn him back.”

Any episode that comes after Coach Steven is probably going to be a step down, so I’m some ways I’m glad they shoved Joking Victim in there so the high of its predecessor can amp it up a little.

Oh, Lars. Coach Steven actually used him well as a minor character, but the reason he works there is the same reason he’s awful here. There’s an important rule for pre-development Lars that unfailingly dictates how I feel about him:

When things happen to him and it causes him to act like a jerk, I think he’s interesting, but



When he acts like a jerk and it causes things to happen to him, I think he’s boring.

This is at odds with how comedy usually works. Folks love seeing jerks get taken down a peg (see: Looney Tunes). I can’t say for certain why Lars is different for me, but my theory is that he’s a little too realistic and low-key mean. If he were more of a cartoon (so to speak) there’d be more pleasure in seeing karma take its toll, but as it is, his attitude doesn’t make me hate him enough to revel in his punishment. It just makes me not want to hang out with him, and watching him suffer is still hanging out with him. There are so many great characters on Steven Universe that I rarely enjoy spending an episode on Jerk Phase Lars, even if he’s getting his comeuppance.

In Coach Steven, we see enough of Lars getting pestered by Steven for his crankiness to be warranted. In Joking Victim, Steven again causes him misery, but only in the form of a minor slip, which Lars uses to immediately turn nasty, taking advantage of Sadie for no external reason. He’s just a naturally selfish person, and that may be realistic, but it’s not fun or interesting to watch.

The premise of the episode is that Sadie sees some good in him, but that doesn’t work if we don’t see some good in him here. The whole plot is spent wanting Sadie to set her sights higher, but the show seems to have no intention of going that route, instead showing his irascibility as something she’s occasionally attracted to. She’s the frog to Lars’s scorpion (he even switches out his Ekans tee for a scorpion shirt); try as she might to change his nature, she’s gonna get stung.

Maybe past episodes have shown a hint of Lars’s heart, but as a single episode, Joking Victim falls into the pitfall of telling and not showing. A flashback over Sadie’s tale of waiting in line and playing video games all night (cutting away from any implied smooching to maintain the mystique) would’ve done wonders. It would make us see Lars as Sadie does, even if we don’t share her feelings, and make her climactic speech all the more powerful. Instead, we have to take her word for it that he’s worth caring about. Sadie’s great, and she shines in this episode, but she deserves better plots than this.

While Lars keeps it from being a good episode (by Steven standards), at least it’s a funny one. The highlight is Mr. Smiley’s Do or Donut, which was silly enough before my friends introduced me to the Wendy’s training video it parodies, but becomes comedy gold after knowing the reference. Sinbad gives it his all in the video, and turns out to be a good sport when Steven all but calls Smiley a has-been considering the comedian’s low post-90′s profile. Beyond the video itself, Steven’s reaction to it and his love of work evokes the best of early Spongebob. Passion for the service industry just gets funnier the older you get.

Steven backpedals a bit in Joking Victim, with more enthusiasm than usual at the expense of his social intelligence. He can’t read between Sadie’s lines and doesn’t care to try, and has no idea when to stop talking. It’s hardly as bad as the Annoying Steven heyday, as this stupidity is well-intentioned, but alongside an underdeveloped Lars the whole thing feels like it should’ve aired earlier in the series. But it couldn’t have, as he wouldn’t be hanging out with the Cool Kids. What a mess!

I’ve made it clear by now that I’ve got issues with Lars, but of all the problems he has, I should note that voice acting isn’t one of them. Matthew Moy’s biggest job is portraying frustration, which he excels at, but he gets a chance to go a step further once his character eats that donut. Comic screaming is an underrated skill, as the tone can easily veer too serious to be funny or so silly that you don’t feel the pain; also, professional screaming is rough on the throat. Moy’s scream work is just fantastic, both frantically funny and bursting with understandable rage.

The fire sequence as a whole is pretty great, taking what appears to be a cartoonish reaction to spicy food only to reveal that Lars is literally breathing fire (the Fire Salt is from Amethyst so I guess it’s magic). This lets us have a glorious Mayor Dewey cameo, whose giant bowl of ice cream keeps Beach City weird even when the Gems aren’t involved.

Also it lets the title Joking Victim fulfill its destiny as a pun on “choking victim,” so that gets some points.

Amethyst fills in for all three Gems this time, and while she’s barely in it, her apathy towards Steven’s troubles and Michaela Dietz’s killer read on “Steven…that’s hilarious” are all we need.

So yes, this episode’s got laughs, but that should be a given for this show. It’s got a tainted core in a thoroughly unsympathetic Lars and a plot that makes little sense due to undeveloped relationships. Maybe I’d believe Sadie sees something in Lars if I saw something worth believing in. The New Lars and The Good Lars can’t come fast enough.

Future Vision!



Man, that VCR would sure gonna come in handy if Steven was to find a videotape in Lion’s mane or something.

Frozen donuts will finally be replaced by fresh ones by Steven Floats, when the lawsuit over the, erm, incident is concluded.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

Rewatching this episode is just a chore, given how great its immediate surroundings are. Not even Purple Puma can make up for its flaws.

Oh well, it’s the last bad episode until the midseason finale, at least!

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