Both Ends of the Spectrum: Ed, Edd n Eddy

By David Eng 

            For this week, I will be talking about a show that has mixed reviews. A lot of my peers were not allowed to watch this show as a kid because their parents deemed the show too dumb. The show I am talking about is Ed, Edd n Eddy. This show was somewhat over the top due to the fact that while the show was based in reality, the show broke rules of reality too often. This was probably the reasoning why the show would be shielded from the minds of the children by their parents. Despite the reality breaking aspects of the cartoon, another reason why the show was disliked by parents was the main characters and their sense of humor. Ed was dumb as a brick, Eddy was a scam artist and Edd was a smart and nerdy kid who would get caught in the plans of Eddy. The humor was sometimes of a lower tier and relied on slap stick and randomness, but the show was not always this way. The story writers knew how to write a coherent story, mostly, with some more interesting humor involved throughout.

            Pinpointing a few episodes of the show is hard to do because the show is quite hit and miss. It also would not be fair to pick a bad and a good episode and compare and contrast them because all the episodes differ on the good-bad spectrum too much. So instead, attacking the show as a whole is the fairest and easiest way to approach this review. For those who do not know, the whole show's concept is that the Eds are all trying to scam the rest of the neighborhood out of their quarters so that they can buy jaw breakers. This is the basis of the show, but the show also tackles other subjects where they do other things. One is about Ed following a comic book's rendition of a demonic summoning, and other are the Eds just playing in the dump using their imagination. This aspect of the show is good as the writers do not feel the need to limit themselves to the basic premise of the show. A show that suffered from this, in my personal opinion, would be Scooby-Doo. Every episode was basically the same concept and did not really change between the episodes very much. Even in the episodes where the core concept is to steal money, often the episodes feel different from each other in important aspects rather than just scenery. In one they try to make a makeshift cruise to make money, this leads to other characters portraying themselves as pirates which makes comedy. In another episode Ed's little sister gives him money to get her fudge, Eddy wants Ed to use the money for jaw breakers instead. The concepts are vaguely similar because the end result is candy for themselves and gaining money, but the episodes are clearly very different.

            The writers of the show also know mostly how to right a good and funny show. Sometimes they slip up, but many of the episodes have an interesting plot, good comedic material and a good moral ending. The episode “Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?” is the one where Ed is given his little sister's allowance money to buy her fudge. I want to preface this part of the review by saying that this episode is probably one of the best in the series. I know I also said before I would not review single episodes, but this one shows Ed, Edd n Eddy at its highest point. The episode's comedy is not just slap stick, but full of jokes that after watching the episode again for this review, made me laugh. The moral dilemma of the episode is when Ed is convinced by Eddy to buy jaw breakers instead of her sister's fudge. The challenge of the episode comes now, what would make the situation right again? The episode does it very well. Eddy does some half effort scams that involved pain for Ed and Edd, this is to help give Sarah back her money while also causing pain to two of the characters that wronged Sarah. Eddy becomes angry in this scene because all the money he is making is going to the morally right cause of reimbursing Sarah. If this is the ending then it would be wrong because Eddy is never punished. However, Ed and Edd escape the pain and redirect it back at Eddy. This scam works the best and only causes pain for Eddy. Ed and Edd only charge a cent for a turn to hurt Eddy showing that he has the most pain coming his way because he does not believe in the morally right cause. This episode upholds all aspects of the show at its best.

            This show can be for everyone I believe. There are episodes that are dumb and not written well, just as there are with every cartoon literally ever. The inconsistency of the show helps to understand exactly why parents would not want their kids watching it. This and the obvious violence and occasional episodes seemingly dedicated to torturing certain characters would be good reason to have kids avoid watching. Being older, I think everyone can enjoy the show and can tell which episodes are bad and good. I give the show a 7.5/10 rating, but I do recommend that everyone tries the show for a few episodes. It was a great show that had the occasional fault, like any show.