Friday, October 3, 2014

Episode 5x22 "Prom-ises Prom-ises"



Time for the senior prom. Both of our male leads are wearing tuxedos to cover their massive erections. They're speaking with ABC-acceptable-subtlety about how they're both hoping to have sex with their girlfriends after prom. Good work Boy Meets World, giving us a real and mature topic to explore. As a result, this episode was of course banned on Disney Channel. Cory explains that he and Topanga "made a chart" weighing the pros and cons of having sex, ending with a "maybe" from her, as long as everything goes exactly perfectly right. See that sounds more like Cory and Topanga, making a dorky little chart like that, not screaming over their interpretations of Van Gogh.

Joining us now are Cory's parents, and Alan immediately sniffs out what the boys were discussing. He drops a little warning about pregnancy and they go on their way. Which is cute since as soon as they boys leave, Amy informs her husband that she is pregnant. I don't think anybody saw THAT coming. Or maybe we just didn't want to.


We see Topangela having the same sort of conversation about sex, and they at least broach the possibility of sexing their respective boyfriends. For that alone you've gotta give this show credit. Female sexuality is almost non-existent on teen oriented shows of the 90s (and still today). Remember on Fresh Prince when Ashley decides not to sleep with Steve Urkel? My memory could be faulty, but I remember the audience cheering when she says she doesn't want to. Okay yeah I just found the episode, that's what happens.


Are you expecting the unexpected? Because that's what you're getting. This guy named Howie shows up at the door, ready to take Topanga to prom. There was apparently a misunderstanding during the time when Corpanga were split, and now we have a problem. Feeling guilty, Topanga lets Howie tag along with them to prom.

We're at prom now, and Jack and Eric are here. I guess they're chaperoning? Neither one remembers his own prom because they were both too busy making out with their dates. It's just barely not-preachy. It's close, but let's not dwell on it. Meanwhile on the dance floor, Topanga responds to Cory's advances by suggesting they get a hotel room (the prom is located at a big fancy hotel). This scene here where Cory tries to rent a room is extremely uncomfortable. He's nervous and awkward and doesn't want the hotel employee to think he's about to bang his girlfriend, saying things like "oh I'm just tired". So it drags on way too long and I don't think it's very funny at all, except for some of the receptionist's deadpan.


Eventually Cory gets his hotel room, and just then Amy and Alan show up at the desk looking for a room as well. I refuse to believe that any parents in the world would knowingly stay in the same hotel as their child's senior prom. This is so dumb, I'm actually angry that the writers decided to put it on paper. Mister and Missus agree to meet in the lounge and pretend they don't know each other, so we can already tell that this is about to devolve into "sitcom antics" reaaaaal quick.


Okay fine, I like this receptionist guy. If we're ranking one-off characters, it goes

1. Dancing Guy
2. Nunzio
3. Hotel Receptionist

Lauren would be up there, but she's not really a one-off. Hotel Receptionist is played by John Balma, who hasn't had any huge roles, but consistent minor ones since this. He's been on eight episodes of Parks and Rec as "Barney", who I don't remember at all... I'm gonna have to rewatch some of that.

Alright, time for the antics. In his excitement, Alan tells the woman next to him at the desk that he's going to be having a baby, and the woman gives him a congratulatory hug, which Eric sees from the background as adultery. Let me be clear. I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate these kinds of Flintstones Scooby Doo garbage ass scenarios.

Eric tells Jack about what he saw Alan doing.


I don't know how that's related to Alan having an affair, but Jack moves over to the exit to stop couples from going up to hotel rooms. It's pretty damn ridiculous, and Mister Feeny commends this behavior. From what we've seen of Feeny, I'd bet dollars to donuts that he was rockin' the bedroom way before his senior prom. Don't be a hypocrite, Feeny.

Cory reaches his hotel room and realizes that he forgot to bring Topanga. Is that supposed to be funny or are they just wasting time? Back down at the dance, Feeny announces prom king and queen. To no one's surprise, Cory and Topanga are the winners. How do we feel about this? Everyone at the school certainly knows that they're a long term couple, but I still wouldn't say they're popular. Cory has exactly one friend. Now there's nothing wrong with that, of course, it's just not conducive to becoming prom king.


So Cory spirits his girlfriend away, up to the hotel room, and Jack is unable to stop them. Cory and Topanga begin passionately kissing, and Topanga starts taking off Cory's suit. Way to go Topanga. Way to go writing staff. This is the man she loves after all!

Meanwhile Eric bribes Hotel Receptionist for the room number of "Mister Matthews," and he just ends up interrupting Cory and Topanga instead of his father. More Flintstones humor. Eric returns to Hotel Receptionist and tries to bribe him again, but he's looking for a bit more money this time.


That's it, I'm done. That's the best joke in the show. I don't need to go any further. Oh my god, I can't stop laughing. "And a mystery bag..." That is pure, unfiltered Eric right there. Perfection.

Back at the room, they get interrupted by Howie and then Topanga accidentally stabs Cory in the eye with her thumb. She sends him out to get ice for his eye, as well as some sodas, and now it's time for the EPITOME of Flintstones humor. Cory sets his card key on top of the ice container fridge thing, gets his ice, and walks off to find a soda machine without his card key. Now Alan comes out of his hotel room, which is of course right next door to Cory's, sets his own key next to Cory's, gets ice, and walks back with Cory's key. He tries to open his own door, then tries Cory's door and makes his way in to find a horrified Topanga. Now Cory grabs Alan's key and finds his mother. I wouldn't be surprised if they all started slipping on banana peels and telling knock knock jokes.

It's so thoroughly anti-funny that it ruins the episode for me. God, and we just had the mystery bag too. This switcheroo scene is all I can think of when it comes to this episode, so it never seems worth watching. But we were doing great up to that point.

Now Eric shows up, still under the impression that his father is having an affair.


Yes, there's the great culmination of all the contrived nonsense of this episode. That punchline is what we've worked so hard for. I'll admit that it made me laugh, but mostly because Will Friedle's delivery is so perfect.

The party's all here now as Cory and Amy emerge from the other room, and they announce to everyone that they're having another baby. This in-your-face unplanned pregnancy leads Corpanga to decide not to have sex after all, which is kind of.. ugh.. but at the same time it reaaaaaaally doesn't seem like Cory brought a condom. Not once at any point in this episode does ANYONE so much as mention any sort of contraception. That in itself is pretty disappointing. So they head back down to the dance.


Let's talk about what went right. Similar to the drinking episode, our heroes weren't preached to, or scolded, or commanded, they reached the decision together on their own. I can't tell you how glad I am that it wasn't some fragile girl throwing on the brakes under the pressure of a horny out of control male. That's what most shows do, and all that does is perpetuate the toxic idea that sex is something men do to women, rather than the healthy truth that it's something they both do together. (Or men and men, or women and women.) Boy Meets World went with the healthy truth. And so this episode got banned from Disney Channel. Fight the power.

What we have to understand is that there's no way in the universe they could ever air this episode if Topanga and Cory actually have sex (off camera, obviously). There's just no way. So with that in mind, I'm pretty happy with everything that happened, except for the glaring flaw that no one ever mentioned using a condom.

During the credits, Shawn asks Cory what happened, and Cory and Topanga give him this look like "you know what happened" which is a little... weird... Like, it really looks like they're saying "yeah we did it", which would be fine, but just based on what we saw they almost certainly did not. Unless it happened in the elevator on the way down. I don't get it.


Plot: 0.75 - I liked the first 75% of it, but then the god damn Flintstones shenanigans started and I could barely watch.

Character Development: 1.0 - A "nice girl" who wants to have sex. Thank you Michael Jacobs, for not taking the easy way out, for daring to tell the truth.

Humor: 1.0 - The BS at the end was annoying, but the fuckin MYSTERY BAG. Oh man, I'm still laughing. Wayyyyyyy too funny.

Life Lesson: 0.5 - Ehhhh I don't know, this one's hard to score. It almost seems like Alan was saying "don't have sex unless you're okay with a pregnancy", which I think is silly, but at the same time they were showing us not to be afraid of being intimate with someone you care about. WHY DIDN'T ANYBODY MENTION CONDOMSSSSSSSSSS. OR THE PILLLLL OR ANYTHINGGGGGG.

3.25 out of 4.0. I've been pretty thorough with my analysis so far, so there's not much left to say. It's a good episode, Hotel Receptionist is awesome, but you might as well turn it off when Cory leaves to get ice. What was the point of Howie? I thought he might actually impact the story but he was just a gag character. And not a very good one.



28 comments :

  1. I like how Boy Meets World actually made a nice girl character (Topanga) with sexual urges. In practically every other show, the teenage boy is horny and wants to have sex with the girl and the girl won't let him. Now, there's nothing wrong with a teenage girl not wanting to have sex, but never once have I seen a television show answer WHY. Is it because of a religious reason or something? That's the unanswered question. On teen sitcoms, sex was always treated as this really bad thing that only boys want when we all know that girls have sexual urges. Now, like I said before, there's nothing wrong with a girl wanting to wait to have sex but most TV shows never answer why and these girls in most shows act like they don't have sexual urges, when that's not realistic, because teenage girls do have sexual urges (not all) just like males have sexual urges (not all). So I commend this show for doing an episode where Topanga acts like a real teenage girl (wanting to have sex but not really sure when).
    But I'm actually getting tired of TV shows and movies portraying us men as horndogs just because we want to have sex. There's nothing wrong with a guy wanting to have sex but I'm sick of seeing the television portraying us as the stereotypical perverts who are always trying to pressure girls into doing it. For once, I'd like to see a reverse on a TV show. I'd like to see a TV show or movie where a guy doesn't want to have sex and the girl wants to.

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    1. Yeah, it's all terribly destructive and toxic and counterproductive. Hollywood is frustrating.

      And yes, it's almost certainly a religious thing. It's taught a lot of people to be afraid of sex, and those people tend to be the loudest. But that's getting into some touchy territory.

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  2. The very same hotel receptionist turns up again in the wedding episode "It's About Time" a year and a half later. It's kinda hilarious that the show is so bad at continuity as regards the big things like the main characters' backstories but so good at it as regards the little things like that.

    Bar the fact that contraception is never mentioned, I thought that this episode dealt with the issue of teen sex very well, though I would have liked it if they had mentioned what had happened in Shawn and Angela's case.

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    1. Ahhhh good point, it's definitely interesting to think about Shawn and Angela. It sure doesn't seem like they did anything, or that either of them even brought it up. I like that we got to see Cory being hormonal since it's usually Shawn. More easily relatable.

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    2. Angela tells Topanga that she’s not even going to consider sex if Shawn isn’t mature enough to even discuss the subject. Shawn offers Angela that they leave to go to the back of the limo. Angela asks what they would do there. Shawn acts embarrassed and says, “Play?”. So, yeah, Angela wasn’t going to be interested that night.
      It’s really unrealistic that a couple like Shawn and Angela wouldn’t just do it by now. Cory and Topanga, it makes sense they would want it to be really special, and perfect, and plan it out. This is similar to the alcohol episode where Shawn has never touched booze before, but everyone thought it would be something that Shawn wouldn’t consider a big deal. By this point, I’m pretty sure that John Adams High was a Christian school. Shawn is a “bad boy” by Christian school standards.

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  3. Couldn't disagree more at being annoyed at the "Flinststones" humor... I think the whole switcheroo was really well acted even if the circumstances were unrealistic. BMW rarely does this type of humor so it was refreshing to see their attempt at it. Not to discredit the parts you enjoyed either though, mystery bag always gets in stitches.

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    1. I completely agree with you. I thought the "Flinstones" humor was pretty well done and I found it entertaining even though it is unrealistic. I thought this episode was really funny and eric was great. The mystery bag is one of the best jokes in the series. The overall score was pretty good for this episode but I felt like he didn't like this episode that much when I read his review.

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    2. It's possible that the first part of the review was soured by the impending Switcheroo. It wasn't intentional though, I do like this one. I guess we'll just chalk it up to opinion on the Switcheroo itself. Glad we're on the same page with the Mystery Bag though, fuck that was funny.

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  4. How do you not remember him on Parks and Rec??? He is the guy who keeps trying to hire Ben at his accounting firm and keeps getting rejected.

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    Replies
    1. Ahhhh, okay. I definitely remember that running joke, just not the face XD

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  5. You forgot when Eric goes "I'm going to be an uncle!"

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  6. I agree with your review, this episode started out prom-ising (heh heh see what I did there) but it devolved into WACKY SITCOM HIJINKS that kind of undermines the seriousness of the issues they're addressing. There are of course many ways to integrate humor into "their first time" storyline, but WACKY HIJINKS is the laziest way to do so.

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  7. After watching this for about the millionth time I've finally realized that Howie probably gets laid. I never caught on to the way that Hertz lady is kissing his neck.

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    Replies
    1. that's basically the moral of the story. Don't date Topanga, and hey, you can probably get laid.

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  8. The Switcheroo: the real comparison isn't with the Flintstones but with classic French bedroom farce, complete with slamming doors. It's not supposed to be realistic, it's supposed to be good light theatre, and it was.

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  9. Oh man, I loved the switcheroo. It's fun and, imo, pretty funny. Sure it's predictable as soon as you see the key cards on the ice machine but that shouldn't take away from it.

    Re: the ending, I thought it was pretty clear that Cory and Topanga wanted Shawn to think they had sex, that's why they looked at him that way. Or would you have wanted to tell the story of walking in on your mom in lingerie?

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  15. On Family Matters, did they cheer because anti-sex, or because it’s Urkel? I really hope it’s not the latter. That would be just cruel and insulting.

    Also I hated Amy’s “awww oh no you’re not happy at all!” Ok you guys are at least in your early 40s and have 3 kids, and you expect him to be jumping for joy after giving him 5 seconds to process it? Ridiculous unreasonable expectations. Give him more than 5 seconds.

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    Replies
    1. It was Fresh Prince with Jaleel White as a guest star, not Family Matters with him actually playing Urkel.

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  16. If it matters to you, Rider Strong talked on the BMW podcast he does will Will and Danielle about how he actually talked to Michael about how they needed to mention any sort of birth control pill or condom and Michael just brushed him off.

    https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/boy-meets-world-star-rider-strong-says-was-very-upset-shows-handling-sex-prom-episode.amp

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  20. Cory did say that he was “so tired that if he doesn’t get a room soon, he might fall asleep on the front desk”. So, after all the foreplay, perhaps Cory and Topanga did it after going back into the hotel room for a minute and coming out to return to the prom.
    That smile on Topanga’s face is, “Gee, that was awful, but just smile at Shawn and Angela and pretend my boyfriend isn’t useless…”

    I really have a hard time gauging the popularity level of Cory, Shawn, and Topanga.
    As pointed out, Cory has one friend.
    Topanga has zero friends. She used to have Trini, but told her to get lost after she started dating Cory.
    I could see Topanga being popular, even though she’s such a “goody goody”.
    Cory doesn’t seem like he’d be popular.
    Shawn seems to go back and forth between being the most popular kid in school and a misfit.
    It’s very strange. Perhaps if there were more than four students in the school that mattered, it’d be easier to tell.

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