The Acme Bowl

The next episode I'm going to look at is "The Acme Bowl." The title card would imply it's a Plucky centered episode despite Buster being the one to appear in the opening. Okay then...

Who is that guy?  Anyone?

This episode starts off by giving us a brief review of Acme Looniverty's Football Team. TL;DR, they suck. We're shown several scenes where Plucky, Hamton, Furball and... uh... ...er... random dude, I guess, get killed early on in the game.  So obviously, they need a new strategy, especially now that they're going up against Perfecto Prep, a team that has never lost a single game in the history of ever

So they decide the best course of action is to get a new Quarterback, and who else would they pick besides Buster Bunny? Plucky basically sums up my thoughts on this issue here. But there's another who would like to see Plucky in the spotlight and it's none other than Sneezer. What can I say, besides the kid being kind of annoying at times, he has good taste.

Buster promises a win because he has (get this) A BRAND SPANKING NEW PLAYBOOK. So there's no way they can fail now, right? I mean how could anyone possibly trump a new playbook? Well unfortunately, someone else has another plan as Plucky goes the wrong way home after a team meeting. We know it's the wrong way because Shirley says so. Considering she treats Plucky, who's supposed to be her BF, like utter shit, I'm amazed she knows where he lives. Anyway, Plucky then sneaks around on an empty street, looking for someone, to finally be greeted by a limo of one of the Perfecto Prep gang. Rodney Rat, who's sitting in the back of the limo, rolls down the window and ask Plucky if he has "it."

The "it" he's referring to is the playbook. It appears Plucky intends to hand over the playbook to Perfecto in exchange for him being let into the snobby school. Well, golly, gee that Plucky sure is a big dumb jerk. Betraying his friends, his team, his school and poor little Sneezer.

What?  This didn't work?  NO WAI!

The next day the team prepares for the "Acme Bowl" game. One has to wonder how they made it into the Acme Bowl without winning any games, but whatever. The game starts off bad, so Buster decides to bring out the playbook and use a play he calls the Statue of Liberty play. A play that consists of him getting a hold of the ball and backing up within an inch of the opposing team's End Zone. I'm not kidding, watch it for yourself. That's what the play is. I'll admit I'm not a fan of football, but I'm pretty sure trying to score for the other team is a bad idea. Rodney is waiting for Buster and is able to make an easy score by simply swiping the ball from him. Buster is in absolute shock that his "back up into the opposing team's scoring area without paying attention to where you're going" play didn't work. So why didn't this work? Aside from the play being utterly fucking stupid, especially seeing as how it's obvious that Buster would have ended up in Perfecto's End Zone even without Rodney stopping him, Plucky is also signaling the Perfecto team to let them know what play is going to be in motion. Geeze, he sure is a meanie.

Seeing that scoring for the other team isn't working (for some reason), Buster decides to bring in the secret weapon. Dizzy Devil. After putting a little mustard on the ball, Buster throws it long to Dizzy who charges into the Acme Looniverity End Zone, while the Perfecto Team... stands and watches? Agan, not kidding, watch it yourself. I know I don't know much about football, but I'd think at least making an attempt to stop him would be a good idea. Either way, Dizzy ends up scoring and Acme Loo is on the board with 7 points!...er... wait why is it 7 points? There was no field goal... Perfecto only got 6 and never even had a chance for a field goal. I just... okay... I guess... whatever...

Say it ain't so

Perfecto decides to get rid of Dizzy by tossing him a jet powered football. Apparently this is within the rules but that doesn't surprise me. It is then half time, but instead of going to the locker to meet with his team, Plucky heads into the boys bathroom to speak with Rodney. It turns out, Rodney is none too happy about Acme Loo having scored a touchdown. Not that I can blame him, those 7 point touchdowns can really piss one off when all your team can do is a regular old 6 pointer. After threatening Plucky that they better not get any more points, Rodney storms out. This is followed by a teary eyed Sneezer coming out from one of the stalls. He's heard everything and can't believe Plucky would do such a thing. He begs Plucky to "Say it ain't so..." but all Plucky can do is look down in shame. Man, don't you just wanna kick that duck's ass? What a piece of trash he is.

Sneezer asks Plucky to "say it ain't so" a few more times in this episode, but eventually things go so bad for Acme Loo, that they need more players. At this point, Babs and the other cheerleaders decide to join in. Buster isn't so sure about it but Babs excitedly exclaims "Let's hit a home run!" Take a note folks, thats one of the funniest things you'll ever hear the pink bunny say.

Babs soon has a temper tantrum due to her losing her contact lens on the field. Everyone, even the ones from Perfecto crawl around on the ground looking for it as she rubs her blue eye... which is then brown in the next scene for a joke where she can yell at Buster for pointing out her brown eyes. While everyone is distracted, Babs runs to the End Zone to score a touchdown. Unfortunately for them, it's only worth 6 points this time.

Plucky scores the winning touchdown

The girls then cause Perfecto to fumble the ball with 10 seconds left. Buster huddles with his team telling him to pass the ball to Shirley, but then Babs points out that Plucky has been signaling Perfecto the whole time. Buster is shocked and appalled to hear this news. Who wouldn't be? He storms up to Plucky, and throws him out of the game. As the play is about to commence, Sneezer tries one last time to reason with Plucky. "Say it ain't so, Plucky." This times Plucky responds with, "It ain't so, Sneezer." and runs onto the field to help his team. Buster realizes what's going on and passes the ball to Plucky instead of Shirley. The Perfecto Team is caught in a state of shock, and try as they might, they are unable to stop Plucky as he charges into the End Zone and scores the winning touchdown for Acme Loo!

It's a miracle! Acme wins the Acme Bowl, thanks to Plucky and a 7 point touchdown. The crowd goes wild and Buster heads to congratulate Plucky. They high five each other and Plucky remarks that Buster's "Play Book Scam" worked like a charm... wait what? It was a scam? .... Buster then notes that he can't believe that Perfecto thought Plucky would cheat his own team to get into Perfecto...

wait...


WAIT...

WHAT?


SO...


the whole thing?....


was Buster's idea?


I...


really?



Buster put Plucky into a potentially dangerous situation, and made his other class mates like Babs and Sneezer think Plucky was a low down jerk, all so he could win a football game? Are you kidding me? And all the while Plucky's the one out risking his neck so that Buster looks like a good Quarterback? Can you get more selfish than that? Buster, who's supposed to have all these great moves and ideas, can't come up with a way to win at football that doesn't involve making Plucky look bad?

And not once in the remainder of the episode does Buster say, "Hey guys don't be mad at Plucky, it was all my idea!" No, not even to Sneezer who hands Plucky a soda at the end.

Here's another question. Why couldn't Buster TELL anyone? Did he really think Babs or Sneezer or his other team mates were going to squeal on him? Obviously Buster doesn't have nearly as much faith in his team as it first seems. Not even when they're huddling and Babs points out Plucky signaling Perfecto does he say it's cool and part of the plan. So, Buster doesn't even trust Babs or what here?

Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe Buster really did tell his other team mates, but didn't have the chance to tell Babs or the other cheerleaders. It would make sense. But the fact that Buster selfishly put Plucky in that spot to make himself look like an amazing Quarterback really shows a lot of his true character and what's really important to him. At least Plucky will always have Sneezer to never lose faith in him. I'm sure he and Plucky can have a long talk and a good laugh about Buster's little plan someday.

Until Next Time