"Bleeped" is the first segment of the fifty-sixth episode of Big City Greens.
Synopsis
Cricket is amused by a new socially unacceptable word in his big city world and tempts fate by repeating it against Bill's wishes.
Plot
All the kids of Big City are gathered at the community center by Community Sue for an informal choir production that she put together. Sue takes great pleasure in hearing Tilly due to her ability to hit a high note. This results in Tilly wanting to try and reach the highest note that only animals can hear, which she trains herself to do throughout the episode. As they take a break, Gramma Alice is setting up chairs for the night's performance. After injuring herself, she utters "Blort!" which Cricket finds amusing. Tilly informs him that she just said a cuss word and that they should simply forget about it. However, Cricket, being the troublemaker that he is, cannot resist repeating the word and instead wants to take advantage of it by telling everyone about it.
Cricket tells Remy the word and he soon becomes amused by it. Soon, all the children begin to repeat it, angering Sue who calls Cricket into her office. Bill is brought in and learns what Cricket has done and forbids him to repeat it, but he refuses as he finds it too much fun. Bill gathers all the children and tries to get them to stop, but they disobey him. Afterwards, he recruits Officer Keys to help who comes up with the idea to "speak their language" which consists of speaking dated slang. However, Keys ends up telling them more cuss words which makes the problem worse. Bill finally becomes fed up and threatens the children from ever repeating any of the cuss words ever again, which actually seems to work.
As the show begins, Nancy compliments Bill for setting the kids straight, but Bill deduces that Cricket plans to say the word anyway. As the children begin to sing, Bill chases Cricket through the gymnasium before finally catching him. Cricket tells him that he can never control what he says when he is out of sight and will cuss no matter what, and Bill agrees. Telling him that he has to decide what kind of person he wants to be and allows him to say whatever he wants. Cricket runs up and prepares to cuss, but realizes he cannot do it upon seeing Bill in the audience, and simply sings the final lyric. Tilly sings her high note which causes the zoo animals across town to escape and hear Tilly. Cricket tells Bill that he decided that he did not want to be a jerk and ruin everyone's fun. A frustrated Alice tells everyone, "Let's get the blort out of here!"
Cast
- Chris Houghton as Cricket Green
- Marieve Herington as Tilly Green
- Bob Joles as Bill Green
- Artemis Pebdani as Gramma Alice
- Wendi McLendon-Covey as Nancy Green
- Zeno Robinson as Remy Remington, Lil' Cuss (uncredited)
- Betsy Sodaro as Community Sue, Mr. and Mrs. Lanemoto
- Andy Daly as Officer Keys
- Luke Lowe as Benny
- Monica Ray as Kiki Kitashima
- Lamar Woods as Weezie
- Tim Robinson as Gregly (uncredited)
Song
- The Community Song
Trivia
- Despite the title, the cuss words are not bleeped out, but were replaced with random G-rated gibberish sounding near similar to how they actually sound:
- Blort
- Swip
- Cret
- Cuft
- Chris Houghton joked that "Blort" is more powerful than the real swear words combined.[1]
- Cricket's middle name is revealed to be Ernest, after his paternal grandfather.
- While Gregly appears and can audibly be heard among the other children, his actor is not credited for the episode.
- Three of the children in the community center choir are modeled after background painter Brianne Neumann, storyboard artists Caldwell Tanner,[2] and Kiana Khansmith.[3]
- For some unknown reason, the only families seen at the choir concert are the Greens and Benny's mom. Remy's parents are absent, but Vasquez appears.
- Officer Keys and Bill's awful attempt at trying to curb the kids' swearing is most likely a reference to the American government's notoriously disastrous attempt at trying to educate children on drugs with D.A.R.E. which many found had actually increased illegal drugs among the youth.
- This is a special episode that deals with swearing and profanity.
- Other family-oriented shows that have dealt with bad words include:
- SpongeBob SquarePants with "Sailor Mouth"
- The Loud House with "Potty Mouth"
- Arthur with "Bleep"
- The Powerpuff Girls with "Curses"
- Baby Looney Tunes with "Who Said That?"
- Rugrats with "Word of the Day"
- Recess with "The Story of Whomps"
- Tiny Toon Adventures with "To Bleep or Not to Bleep"
- Dexter's Laboratory with "Rude Removal"
- Rolie Polie Olie with "Dinglie Danglie Doodle"
- Franklin with "Franklin's Bad Word"
- Yoko! Jakamoko! Toto! with "The Bad Word"
- Seven Little Monsters with an episode of the same last title
- The Berenstain Bears with "The Big Blooper"
- Caillou with "Caillou's Crossword"
- Rabbids Invasion with "Curser Rabbids"
- Angela Anaconda with "The Curse of Baby Lulu"
- Wimzie's House with "Please Don't Say That!"
- Henry Hugglemonster with "Huggle...Whaaa?!"
- My Gym Partner's a Monkey with "The 'A' Word"
- Bluey with "Dunny"
- TV Tropes refers to this trope as a "Swear Word Plot".
- Animal names: Bradley the mouse.
- Morals:
- Be careful what you say.
- Only you are in control of what you use in a sentence.
- This episode was banned in Southeast Asia due to the fact that the main plot revolved around swearing and the word "blort" was used as a swear word.
- "Blort" is used as a name for an in-universe drink brand in Monsters at Work.
International Premieres
- March 7, 2021 (Canada)
- July 5, 2021 (Latin America)
- September 11, 2021 (Japan)
- October 11, 2021 (Portugal)
Gallery
References
- ↑ "Tumblr Blort Post". Tumblr (April 27, 2021).
- ↑ "Twitter Neumann and Tanner post". Twitter (March 7, 2021).
- ↑ "Twitter Khansmith post". Twitter (March 7, 2021).
