Cheater By The Dozen (The Loud House): Reaction.

Cheater By The Dozen

This episode was pretty funny. The setup was predictable from the start, but the story still contains a solid level of humour regardless. Right off the bat, you can tell where this story is going. Lincoln and Clyde will misunderstand a situation after overlooking something Bobby is doing, assume he is cheating on Lori, end up having the Loud sisters help them investigate (spy on) him to find out for certain, come to the conclusion he is, and then discover he wasn’t cheating on her all along. That is essentially what the plot amounts to (except that there is more filler to it than that, as they conclude he is cheating, find out he isn’t, and then Lincoln and Clyde gather more evidence and convince everyone he is cheating AGAIN, and then the resolution occurs), which may be something which turns some people off, as they will dismiss the story as cliché, overly predictable and thus uninteresting. But here’s the thing; original or not, a well-executed story is a well-executed story. That’s what Cheater By The Dozen is. It’s not groundbreaking or spectacular or something which will change your life, but it is a nice little 11 minute long piece of entertainment. Yes, it’s predictable, and even has a lot of filler (seriously, they think he’s cheating, get proved wrong, then begin to think he is cheating once again all before the ending is reached), but even still, it’s funny and enjoyable enough and is a serviceable episode of the show.

There are quite a few laughs to be found here. Clyde’s reaction to Bobby supposedly cheating is rather humorous, as he attempts to bulk and toughen himself up in order to “beat Bobby in fisticuffs” in order to win Lori over. He undergoes some exercises to accomplish this, with hilarious results. His failures to lift weights in the gym and open a jar of anchovies were pretty funny, as were the scenes in which is he was performing push-ups or working on his legs, all the while speaking with Lincoln about how Bobby is a two-timer who needs to be dealt with. Then of course there’s his attempt to actually attack his “love rival” which spectacularly fails. His efforts were hilariously pathetic, if that makes sense. I guess the humour comes from the fact that Clyde is usually such a weak, nerdy, friendly and somewhat passive and effeminate boy and sidekick, and his attempts to play the tough guy, with the expected results being generated, were funny, at least in this reviewer’s view. There were also other effective gags in this episode, such as the mention by Lynn that Lori once beat her over the head with a loaf of bread after she falsely stated they had no bread left. Later in the restaurant, Lynn hides the baguettes upon hearing Lori’s statement that she should beat up the younger sisters for trying to sabotage her anniversary date and relationship with Bobby. There was a decent level of humour in this story, so at the very least, the episode succeeds in relation to its basic requirement to entertain the viewers.

Another strength of this story is how Lori was portrayed. In particular, I liked her reaction to the Loud sister’s meddling in her relationship with Bobby during the climax. So, the sisters confront Bobby and then Lori arrives and questions what they are doing. While she refers to the option of a violent reaction and that she should beat them all up for their actions, she decides to thank them for them consideration and for looking out for her, as well as the extent to which they all went to do so. Some fans dislike Lori because she’s considered one of the meaner Loud sisters, along with Lola and sometimes Lynn, but this episode shows she’s actually a fair bit nicer, as well as more reasonable and understanding, than perhaps some people care to recognise. She had a right to react with more hostility than she did to the main cast in this story, but actually rejects that option, because there is a level of compassion, fairness and appreciation in her to balance out her firm, antagonistic and sometimes harsh behavioural traits. This was a neat example of character development for Lori. Bobby also gets bonus points for being such a nice guy about the whole situation. When the Louds ask him to explain what he was doing with all these other girls, he immediately agrees to do so, and does so while retaining a friendly expression, tone of voice and overall demeanour the entire time. Like Lori, he displays no resentment towards the Louds or Clyde for their actions in trying to sabotage their anniversary due to false assumptions.

There are faults to this story, of course. No episode is perfect. For a start, what is it with the references to zoo philia and bestiality in a kids show like this? I’m serious! It was bad enough in Study Muffin where the Loud pets, along with the rest of the family, became attracted to Hugh, but now we had the scene where Bobby is fussing a dog and Lincoln comments “Disgusting, now he’s crossing species!” Then Luna later asks Bobby if he brought the dog to the date? This wasn’t even subtle. I’m not sure if implications of humans having romantic or sexual relationships with dogs is something appropriate within a children’s cartoon. There’s also the scene where the Louds bust into Lincoln’s room and demand he tells them what he knows when they overhear him and Clyde talking about their suspicions of Bobby cheating on Lori. Lynn threatens to physically hurt Lincoln if he doesn’t tell them immediately. Now, unlike with previous episodes such as No Such Luck, Making the Grade and Brawl in the Family, this episode tones down its mean-spiritedness to far more acceptable and justifiable levels. Sure, the Louds act a bit jerkish towards Lincoln at certain points in this episode, such as the aforementioned scene where they demand Lincoln tells them everything he knows, or later when they conclude Bobby is not cheating on Lori the first time, and they blame Lincoln for wasting their time, even though they demanded the information from him in the first place and suggested to execute a “steak out!” But then again, they were just concerned for their sister’s feelings and were acting under pressure and were a little angered as a result, so the slight levels of mean-spiritedness were understandable, and at the very least were not completely over the top to the point where all the sisters became unlikable. Still, did Lynn have to yet again threaten to brutalise her brother? I may have to make that post about her characterisation soon as I have a lot to say on the topic, though I have some other topics about this show to discuss first (but I’ll talk about that later). Oh, and one last gripe, and I know this is a personal one, but where in the blue hell was Ronnie Anne in this story? Seriously, her (boy) friend’s sister and her own brother are supposedly having relationship faithfulness problems, and she doesn’t even make an appearance? Where has she been so far in season 2? It’s as if she suddenly vanished off the planet and then died like Poochie the Dog did in Itchy and Scratchy in that classic Simpsons episode… but now I’m really just nit-picking.

Still, most of the faults I identified here were nit-picks at best, and nothing that ruined the overall experience. This episode was a fair amount of fun, had some decent characterisation and wasn’t overly mean or harsh towards any of our main protagonists. Many of the main characters have their little moments to shine and despite being a predictable narrative, its predictability was more than made up for by its entertainment value.

Final rating: 7/10.

Side note: Before writing any other episode reactions or that one I keep mentioning about Lynn’s characterisation, there is another topic I want to focus on. Let’s just say, it has a lot to do with the subject of concern within the fandom about the mean-spiritedness in the show as well as the fan-base’s reaction to it.