Summary
This episode followed a different structure than the previous one, as it is an interview with Harrigo the Tree, a recurring character on the show. Jackson, who requested the interview, had some questions he wanted answered, including “Why do you like chocolate so much? What is your favorite type of chocolate? And has Fred the dog ever tried to eat you since you are a tree?” Can’t say I understood the last question, but, hey, Jackson seems to know Fred better than me! Mr. Eric got a few extra questions from his Patreon to answer in an off-the-cuff style.
Harrigo is introduced as a dangerously hungry, old, and boastful tree. He admits that he loves all chocolate equally because the “What if” question that brought him to life forced him to. Even still, he makes healthy choices.
I have an ooey gooey chocolate core, but I don’t know you well enough to describe it.
HARRIGO THE TREE (MR. ERIC O’KEEFEE)
One of the questions addressed his grandmother made of chocolate and asked if he ate her. Through a painful recollection, he admits Grandma Coco lives in his belly, but not because he ate her. Mr. Eric does not dig deeper to get to other questions.
Harrigo discloses that his biggest regret is trying to eat a talking chocolate and losing his best friend in the process. He aims to fill his loneliness by listening before giving advice and engaging in his favorite hobby: dancing.
Finally, the long-awaited question about Fred the dog eating him arrived. Harrigo was appalled, saying Fred should not eat him because his chocolate core is especially bad for dogs. Upon hearing this, Fred freaks out because he ate a stick and runs to puke it up on Mr. Eric’s nicest rug. Mr. Eric quickly wraps up the interview to stop him, but he is still too late.
Analysis
I do not have nearly as much to say about this episode since it was an interview and not a full story, but this was a lot of fun. I loved the end with Fred heaving on the rug, as that added a tense time limit to finish the episode on, especially since it is supposedly unscripted. I thought it was incredibly creative to think about trees dancing in slow motion as they twist and turn to grow. That is an image that I am confident will stick with me and young listeners for a long time.
“What’s your favorite song to sing?”
“Anything public domain.”
MR. ERIC AND HARRIGO THE TREE
Comedy
I will say I was not expecting the interview to be quite this humorous since the previous episode I reviewed was not this prominently comical and the lesson for the story seemed stronger in the description than in the actual episode. The lesson plan read “The forest, and all communities, are happiest and healthiest when we all look out for each other,” and while that was present, its screen time so to speak was next to nothing. Even though it misled my expectations, there is nothing wrong with making an episode more focused on comedy, especially since I found it to be effective.
Humor was the glowing point in this episode. It took a few minutes for it to appeal to me, but I surprisingly found myself laughing out loud at several jokes. Harrigo is a funny fella! There were several meta references, like an exchange near the opening where Harrigo’s tone of voice changed as he described his past and Mr. Eric asked “Are you doing a flashback?” and Harrigo replied, “More like dramatic narration.” My personal favorite joke was a meta joke about licensing and copyright, where Harrigo sang a portion of the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” and a spider barrister said he was not authorized to use that song.
Excuse me, my name is Strider the Barrispider, Barrister and representative of Itsy Bitsy the Spider, demanding that you cease and desist all mentions of and references to her likeness.
STRIDER THE BARRISPIDER (MR. ERIC O’KEEFEE)
This gag reappears twice more, my favorite being after mention of “with great privilege comes great responsibility,” and it was a pleasant appearance. However, I do wonder how appealing these jokes are to children. I was slower than the average child, but I am confident this joke would have flown miles above my head and my peers’ heads. Of course it is perfectly fine to include jokes kids don’t fully appreciate, but this is a joke that reappeared numerous times for extended periods of time. At the end of the day, the pop culture references seem to distract from any confusion, but it is still something worth noting. It did feel as though I was the target audience at many points of humor, even jokes like buying Valentine’s candy on sale and not visiting Grandma enough.
Speaking of the Grandma gag, I was so disappointed to not find out why she was in his stomach if he didn’t eat her! That seemed like an interesting point to build humor off of, so I believe that could have been a good addition.
Art and Photo Credit: What If World official website
