Space Dandy parodies Glee on this week’s episode “The Transfer Student is Dandy, Baby.” Dandy (Ian Sinclair) goes undercover at Baberly Hills High School to catch a Cliponian, a rare alien with a sprout on its head that blooms into a flower when they fall in love.
As usual, Dandy gets sidetracked by his libido. He doesn’t notice the Cliponian (Ashly Burch), a nerdy girl with thick glasses, pigtails and freckles. Her name isn’t given but the official website lists her as Sobakasu (ソバカス), which is Japanese for freckles.
“Oh I get it you’re one of those girls that’s secret hot,” Dandy says referencing the Unnecessary Makeover trope.
Dandy removes her glasses expecting a miraculous transformation that reveals she was Beautiful All Along. It turns out she actual need glasses (go figure). He tells the squinty eyed girl that she should smack her parents when she gets home.
Dandy tries to sit with the cool kids but they shun him the same as they do Freckles and her friends, who are anime freaks and on the bottom rung of the social ladder. QT (Alison Viktorin) discovers popularity is based on musical ability, specifically singing and dancing.
“The glee he must be feeling now,” says Meow (Joel McDonald).
Dandy decides to become homecoming king and make all the girls fall in love with him thus revealing the Cliponian. Unfortunately, every girl refuses to go to prom with him except Freckles. This time he gives her a physical makeover with a training montage that includes sumo wrestling and jogging. The result is a beautiful booty, Dandy’s favorite feature in a woman other than boobies of course. In fact, he wins a sing off with a song about her booty. The couple then breaks out into a Grease style duet that wins over the whole school.
Freckles gives Dandy a goodbye kiss before he departs to enroll in an all girls school. QT mentions that it feels like they forgetting something at which point it cuts back to the Cliponian. Her flower blooms indicating she’s fallen in love with Dandy.
Space Dandy airs Sunday 12:30 a.m. on Adult Swim / Cartoon Network.
I wonder if anybody else in the world realized that this episode is a reference to the ancient Greek legend, The Apple of Discord. The first song explains the Illuminati as if it’s a high school. Sophia is the ruling class, the jocks are the Military Industrial Complex and the cheerleaders are the Media. The final scene involves the military going wild and being ejected through a golden apple shaped hole, and the entire hierarchy is toppled as Eris reveals that everything has meaning and beauty.
I loved this episode. Hail Eris!