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Apr 30, 2020

Mr. Student Body President: Finn the Human Rules the School

You're probably wondering what the extremely bicep-gifted Jeremy Shada has been doing during the two years since Adventure Time ended, sending Jake the Dog and Finn the Human into Ooovian history.

The answer is: running for student body president at Beringer High, a position of unlimited power and prestige.

Mr. Student Body President is a rather awkward title; we're apparently supposed to read it as Mr. President, with "Student Body" in parenthesis.

The 15-minute long episodes are called "Clips." I watched the first.

1. Teen operator Tyler Prendergast (Jeremy) and his entourage (cheerleader girl on one side, smart clipboard holding girl on the other, nonbinary person carrying his coffee) discuss his morning schedule and the new principal's hassles over the upcoming pep rally. He hyperbolizes: "This pep rally will be the most important thing any of us will ever do."  It will be big, with fireworks and live music.




2. He argues with Principal Helfrick, who is young enough to be a student, but a stick-in-the-mud.  She makes a reference to Van Halen, and Smart Girl explains: "It's something old people are into, like Twilight or email."

3. He negotiates with his Vice President, Jenna, and Lance, the Spirit Chair (whatever that is).








4. The Student Council deals with the crisis of the day: Star quarterback Damion was suspended for appearing with a red cup in an instagram post, so now he can't play in the Big Game. 

Other players and cheerleaders are getting suspended for social media posts where they use terms like "get turnt," which the oldsters don't understand but think must refer to sex or drugs.  To try to defuse the situation, Tyler decides to cancel the party being held by Cheerleader Natalie tonight.  He can do that?

Unlimited power.

5. Tyler tries to use his executive privilege to grant clemency to the suspended students, but the Principal vetoes him.  She assures him that it doesn't matter: once you graduate, you move into the world, and never think about high school again.

Wrong!  The memories of high school stay with us forever.  High school defines us, Tyler explains.

But...no one cares except for football players and cheerleaders: there are many other groups pursuing their own interests, like the ecology club and the honor society.

6. So Tyler invites them all to Natalee's party and has them post contraband or bad words to social media, so the whole school will be suspended.

The Principal can't suspend them all, nor can she suspend just the football players and cheerleaders and not the honor society president and chief cellist, so she backs off.

7. Tyler gets his vast, expensive home coming, with the theme "The Sexual Awakening of Miley Cyrus."  Dancing in Miley Cyrus drag, Tyler waves at the Principal.

She says: "You want a war, Tyler, you got it."

Beefcake:  None.  They're all at school all the time.  I  got these photos by googling "Mr. Student Body President" and "shirtless" or "nude," so there are apparently shirtless shots later on.  Gabriel Conte (3rd photo) appears in 36 episodes, Spencer Watson (4th photo) in 17. and Michael J, Murphy (2nd photo) in 8.

Location Shots: None.


Gay Characters;  None specified.  There's a lot of drag in the last scene, suggesting that these people are mostly post-gay  "you like guys, whatever."

The non-binary person in Tyler's entourage is Rory, played by Caelan Scrivener.  According to his Facebook page, he identifies as male in real life.

Heterosexism: None.  No one mentions or engages in heterosexual activity, even at Natalee's party. No "Girsl are the meaning of life!" rhetoric

Will I continue to watch:  I've seen it all before, many, many times.  There are similar premises in Parker Lewis Can't Lose, Saved by the Beill, and even Our Miss Brooks. But it might be interesting to see a kinder, gentler, non-bullying, non-homophobic take on the old Principal vs. Golden Boy trope.  Sure, why not?

1 comment:

  1. Absurdly powerful student government, check. High school social life matters, check. You'd almost expect them all to be hormone-addled teens, except maybe recognize gay kids exist..

    By the way, Zack Morris was more a trickster type.

    ReplyDelete

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