Well fillies and colts, it looks like I have a new favorite episode. Party of One has been knocked down to #2. Party of One was about Pinkie Pie's existential crises when she believes her friends have rejected her as friend and party pony. Well, this episode had that exact same basic premise, but with the schizophrenic party of inanimate objects replaced with Pinkie competing against "Weird Al" Yankovic.

 

Let me repeat that last part with greater emphases: FUCKING WEIRD AL!!!

 

Can we just let that sink in? "Weird Al" Yankovic....was on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And it was a musical episode at that. The hyped Pinkie Pie musical episode. It's really is an episode plucked straight from my fondest dreams.

 

 

First of all, let me just express how much I frickin' love Weird Al. I wouldn't say I grew up on him, but he was always creeping around in the background of my youth. I caught

as a kid while it briefly aired Saturday mornings on CBS, immediately attracted to his goofiness. During my early teen years when I was infatuated with Avril Lavigne, I heard his parody of Complicated and found no end to annoying my sister with it. In 2006, his major hit helped influence my acceptance of myself as nerdy and odd from the inside-out, when it seemed like it was just at turning point in our culture when being a "nerd" was "cool". Not something of which to be ashamed, but a title to wear as a badge of honor. I ended up buying that album Straight Outta Lynwood and I've enjoyed Weird Al's novelty music and comedy ever since. Movie recommendation: UHF.

 

 

Many Weird Al fans (Al-oholics?) likely have similar stories, but even among casual people he has this inherent likeability, even if you don't find him particularly funny. Being such a lighthearted clown with strong appeal to kids really helps him fit right at home in the world of My Little Pony, while his comedic spin on popular music and his status as an OG nerd also greatly suits the "brony" title and fandom. Could this be a match made in Heaven?

 

 

Enter Cheese Sandwich. It's as if Weird Al's DNA was spliced with a pony, a smidgen of Clint Eastwood (as a cowboy, not the crazy old kook who talks to empty chairs, although he could've used that skit to further one-up Pinkie Pie), and a literal cheese sandwich. Fitting for both My Little Pony's tradition of assigning ridiculous themes to ponies, and as an allusion to Al's early obsession with food. Specifically cheese, which for some reason is considered the edible epitome of quasi-weirdness, although my pals at Illogicopedia protest this. To top it off, Cheese Sandwich is a male counterpart to Pinkie Pie, the eccentric, reality-bending party pony known to play ten polka instruments at once. Yes, this is the best possible angle they could've took to justify Weird Al on MLP.

 

And yet, while having "Weird Al" Yankovic as a guest star is a big deal, his presence didn't steal the show. They easily could've written this exact episode around the premise of Pinkie Pie having a competing party pony. This isn't so much "the Weird Al episode" as it is "Pinkie Pie, featuring Weird Al". Cheese Sandwich may be all the rage in Ponyville, but Pinkie's struggle with the feeling of inadequacy is the true heart of the story.

 

And what a Pinkie episode it was. In my review of Pinkie Apple Pie, I mentioned how disappointed I was with Pinkie, finding her far more annoying than amusing. In fact, this whole season has felt like an exercise in Flanderization and character regression. She started to become more mature after Baby Cakes, but now she's doodling in a coloring book and playing an organ like a child with a plastic piano. And that squealing voice! AGH!

 

To my relief and ecstasy, this one hit all the correct notes. She was appropriately crazy, excited without piercing my ears, and she had moments of depression that evoked real emotion from me. This is the correct way to do Pinkie Pie.

 

 

We follow Pinkie suffer the most universal of griefs: Realizing someone else is superior in what makes you you. Why even try, ya know? This was the first time MLP has touched on the premise of two ponies having the exact same special talent. (All the exiled Time Lords unaddressed.) A pony's natural talent prescribes their place in the given area's division of labor. However, Cheese is a universal loner, with a life of experience spanning all over Equestria. Not so much throwing a wrench in the system, but making Pinkie Pie obsolete.

 

When Cheese Sandwich comes to town and steal's her role as party planner for Rainbow Dash's "birth-iversary" (really Amy?), she's knocked down the second place as the quintessential party equine. To make matters worse, her friends seem to have abandoned her - again. Whereas Pinkie's state of sadness in Party of One was brief with a moment of full mane deflation followed by insanity and anger, this had a mild deflation, but more emphasis on depression and self-realization. This stallion is a professional party planner, and all you have is balloons and a piddly-ass banner. Oh, and a cannon. How adorable.

 

 

Even beyond the novelty of "hurr hurr ponified Weird Al", Cheese Sandwich is now one of my favorite supporting characters. He's introduced as a serious Western figure, but, c'mon, we know that's Al under there. They don't even humor us for 30 seconds before he gets his 'cheesy sense' moment and we're all, "Mmm-hmm." Later in Ponyville, he milks this "serious cowboy" schtick for his introductory monologue, going all the way with a lame bait-and-switch, "Oh, I don't think so." *GASP!* "I KNOW SO!" Only then through the power of polka could his true form be summoned.

 

As a musical episode, this vastly exceeded Magical Mystery Cure. Putting all the controversy aside, that episode straddled the line between so-so and suck. While the first half had three good songs out the four, Alicorn Hell had absolute zilch. Fortunately, all the songs in this one worked and were perfectly distributed.

 

This opening song '

' was purposely molded after 'Belle' from the opening of Beauty and the Beast, with everyone in town singing. A lot of people liked Diamond Tiara singing and throwing a scrap of approval within her brattiness. I personally liked Mr. and Mrs. Cake.

 

The second one 'The Super Duper Party Pony' where we introduce Cheese Sandwich is a polka style tailor made for Weird Al. We get to see Cheese as a colt, with a rounder mane perm and big glasses like Al's trademarked look for decades. "Hey, good looking. Want some mayonnaise?" was the one time I chuckled out loud. This party polka sets the stage for silliness, yet it ends by turning bittersweet with Pinkie asking, "But what about the super party pony named Pinkiiie?" THE FEELS!

 

. It's the sad part. Pinkie trying to incorporate her special talent into other jobs was amusing. I wonder if the surgeon scene was a reference to Weird Al's ' '. It's also been suggested the possibility that there may have been a subtle fandom nod to the infamous gorefic "Cupcakes", seeing as Pinkie offers a Mane 6 color-striped cupcake to the head surgeon. I say split the difference and make a creepypasta of Pinkamena and Cheese Sandwich.

 

 

One thing that irked me was when Pinkie used the interlude to explain the previous episodes as featured on her party wall of fame. Not only did it hurt the mood, wasn't it kind of hacky writing?

 

Even in the context of her talking to herself, she wouldn't narrate exactly like this. It feels as if they were treating us, the audience, as if we're stupid. For the kids at home for whom this was intended, which is a bit condescending. Well, okay, children under five watch it, but still. I realize most kids are not as obsessively and religiously devoted to all the episodes and every last painful, excruciating detail of the show as we are, but they do air reruns everyday, so maybe we could've managed without this walkthrough.

 

Be that as it may, her voice sounded very cute with this cringey narration, and I did like this trip with the Ghost of Pinkie Past.

 

Pinkie going out on the balcony and looks over Ponyville was really beautiful, invoking more Disney. This is followed by sad Pinkie turning in VENGEFUL PINKIE!

 

 

Leap frogging over THE GOOF OFF!! to Pinkie's epiphany moment when she realizes she's failed Rainbow and decides to leave town. All her friends apologize for being neglectful of her...again...and she admits her pride ruined everything. Then comes Cheese

to being liar.

 

I swear this must be the first serious, non-humorous song I've ever heard Weird Al sing. We see filly Derpy, a quick freeze-frame shot of filly Colgate wearing braces (nice), filly Cheerile and a grown Berry Punch who apparently keeps like a fine wine. Oh hey, and now the map of Equestria is canon.

 

Cheese and Pinkie reprise 'Pinkie the Party Planner' when they learn a lesson about working together blah blah blah PARTY TIME. Holy hell, this party is so awesome it has a Rainbow Dash Macy's balloon.

 

The last song, '

', was this electro-pop thing like the ones from Equestria Girls. It's pretty nice, upbeat and short. That's really all I can say. This scene speak for itself:

 

 

I've reviewed the rest, now time for the best...

 

 

Remember when I said 'Apples to the Core' was the cheeriest song this show has ever done? Well that song is a dead pet compared to this one. When I stand in front of the personification of Eternity, and he asks me what was the purest expression of happiness, I'll answer, "The Goof Off."

 

I mean, everything about it makes you smile. Pinkie throwing cupcakes in Rainbow's mouth and blowing bubbles. Cheese playing accordion on a giant wheel of cheese, manipulating Rainbow's face and oh God, those are cheese shoes. The combined powers of Pinkie Pie and Weird Al are so magnificent we get a live-action dancing rubber chicken and a real world Gummy who still could not give enough of a fuck to do anything in light of this strange new dimension.

 

The entire mitzvah escalates in exuberance until we have Pinkie singing in Spanish on top of giant birthday cake piñata. The song she sings, a traditional Mexican tune, translates to: "Hit it, hit it, hit it / Don't lose your aim / Because if you lose it / You lose the way!" This was apparently supposed to allude to Pinkie missing the mark in her mission and her following epiphany.

 

Speaking of gleeful songs, I love when Cheese starts singing a polka cover of "Smile, Smile, Smile", the most Weird Al-esque thing of the entire episode. Congratulations, Pinkie. You've finally made it as a musician!

 

Actually, the fact that she was pissed itself was a joke. For the sake of good faith, Weird Al always asks the artists he parodies for permission before spoofing their songs. In this instance, Cheese made her angry by downright stealing her song.

 

Taken to a more meta level (as I always do), we could find a parallel to the conflict between Weird Al and Coolio. Due to a miscommunication, Al wrote '

', a parody of ' ', without permission, leaving Coolio not exactly thrilled.

 

And who have we established comes from a background that is a living parody of the Amish life?

 

Keeping within the context of the show, we should look back to The Cutie Mark Chronicles, the episode is notable for exploring MLP's theme of destiny. We learned that Pinkie Pie became the fun-spreading party pony thanks to Rainbow Dash, and now we know Cheese Sandwich himself was influenced by Pinkie. Coming full circle, here he is throwing a party for Rainbow with the pony who inspired him. He even gave Pinkie Boneless back (now at Chili's!), which will come into play when she opens the Tree of Harmony box.

 

On that note, there's one flaw in this episode that may or may not be considered a plot hole: Since when does Rainbow Dash live in Ponyville? Cloudsdale can easily be rationalized as a party of Ponyville, and I suppose her family moved to Cloudsdale when she was a filly. Yet, more importantly, wouldn't her birthday have always coincided with the day of this move? Why is it suddenly a big deal this year? Could it be some kind of calendar overlap, like when the first day of Hanukkah fell on Thanksgiving? Or is this overlap a consequence of counting birthdays by "horse years"? (I challenge you come up with explanations that are both satisfactory and more badass than those.) This set-up doesn't make sense to me. Couldn't they have come up with a better reason for this birthday to be extra special that doesn't make my head hurt?

 

Then again, I've learned to accept the fact that ponies have names given to them at birth by their parents that match their cutie marks years before they earn said cutie marks. I'll simply invoke the MST3K Mantra and call it a night.

 

On last thing I'll touch on that many viewers noticed was that Pinkie has a new sister not featured in The Cutie Mark Chronicles, supposedly to keep in line with 'Pinkie Pie And The Rockin Ponypalooza Party'. There definitely will be more light on this mystery in the upcoming episode in which Pinkie's sisters come to Ponyville, the next one I'm strongly looking forward to.

 

As for the episode at hand, it was more than satisfactory. It was..."epiiic?" Good songs, great character work with Pinkie, the best possible guest star for this show, a rubber chicken. My new favorite episode, I'll be watching it alongside Party of One when my own birthday rolls around.

 

I'll end this review with the Brony Polka, a testament to what can result from the collision of Weird Al and bronies. A polka medley of popular original fan songs, creating a self-referential style parody of "Weird Al" Yankovic. Because this fandom hasn't nearly reached the summit of irony and meta. We need to crank out more inspiration in this vein while we wait for Al's appearance at BronyCon. *knocks on wood*

 

 

What can you do? Dare to be derpy!