Mexican't Buy Me Love

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Drawn Together episode
“Mexican't Buy Me Love”

Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 6
Guest star(s)	Carlos Mencia as the King of Mexico
Writer(s)	Reed Agnew
Director	Dwayne Carey-Hill
Production no.	307
Original airdate	November 8, 2006
Episode chronology
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"N.R.A.y RAY"	"Lost in Parking Space, Part One"

"Mexican't Buy Me Love" is the twenty-eighth episode of the animated series Drawn Together.

1 Storyline
2 Notes and inside references
3 Goofs
4 Cultural references
5 References

[edit] Storyline

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The housemates are split into pairs to play The Newlywed Game for a trip to Mexico. Toot and Ling-Ling win, but their vacation immediately hits a rough spot when they accidentally kill a Mexican whore in their motel room one night. The Mexican police chief says he will let the pair off scot free in exchange for a 500 billion-peso bribe (which according to Ling-Ling is approximately twelve American dollars). They try to earn the money by putting on a donkey show starring Toot, but their endeavors are unsuccessful, as the Mexican people would rather spend their money on cockfights. Upon seeing a cockfight, Ling-Ling decides that this is an honorable form of battle, and promptly enters the ring in the hope of earning the pair enough money to bribe the police. By using his battle powers, Ling-Ling becomes the most successful cockfighter in the land, even becoming something of a celebrity in the process (and causing the Queen of Mexico to become smitten with him). He is invited to appear on a talk show hosted by Jose Leno, a Mexican version of Jay Leno. Leno asks Ling-Ling if he considers cockfighting to be unjust, to which Ling-Ling responds that he considers battling to the death quite honorable. Leno remarks that it is easy for Ling-Ling to say that given how good he is, then informs Ling-Ling that the chickens he is killing in battle are defenseless creatures being forced to fight against their will. This causes Ling-Ling to suffer a crisis of conscience. In the middle of a cockfight, Ling-Ling pulls off his disguise and declares that he refuses to take part in such a horrible activity any longer. This greatly angers the King of Mexico, who orders Ling-Ling and Toot arrested.

Toot in the Mexican confessional.

That night, as Ling-Ling and Toot rot away in the prison cell, the Queen of Mexico suddenly shows up to bust them out of jail. Ling-Ling and Toot attempt to escape under cover of night, but as they are leaving, Ling-Ling stops and insists they go back and rescue the chickens. Toot refuses to help him, so Ling-Ling returns to the chicken pen to do the job himself. He tells the chickens that they must revolt, then leads them back to the arena where the fights are held to take on the man in charge of the cockfighting business, the King of Mexico. Ling-Ling prepares to go into battle mode to attack the King, but the King declares that he cannot be defeated as long as he has his magic potion. He then drinks the mezcal worm in a bottle of tequila and transforms into a giant worm. He grabs Ling-Ling and prepares to eat him, but just Ling-Ling is about to enter his mouth, Toot suddenly returns to the scene in a spaceship and kills the King in his worm form with a laser blast (after which she crashes the spaceship into a mountain and explodes). As the chickens devour the giant worm, Ling-Ling states the lesson he learned, that cockfighting is not honorable at all. He walks out of the arena carrying the now-single Queen of Mexico in his arms.

Meanwhile, back at home, the remaining housemates have split off into two cliques: the Cool Kids (Spanky, Foxxy, Clara, and Steve from Long Island) and the not-so-cool kids (Hero, Xandir, and Wooldoor). Hero is desperate to become one of the Cool Kids, but when he approaches them about joining their group, they laugh, then stuff him into a garbage can and light him on fire. Humiliated, Hero runs away from the Drawn Together house. As the Cool Kids are "tickle torturing" Xandir (actually, they are beating him savagely), Foxxy sees a news report on TV that there is a giant meteor speeding toward Earth. Realizing that Captain Hero is the only one who can save them from the meteor, Foxxy manages to track down Hero, but when she tries to convince him to return, Hero balks. Foxxy then tells Hero if he returns to the house and saves everyone from the meteor, she will get the Cool Kids to allow Hero into their ranks. She does this by making over Hero into a suave figure she dubs Hero Calrissian and telling everyone he is her boyfriend.

The Cool Kids.

The Cool Kids are skeptical, but they take Foxxy's word for it and allow Hero into the group. Hero Calrissian proves to be quite a hit with them; before long, his popularity eclipses that of Foxxy. The attention goes to his head, however, as Hero decides he is now too good for Foxxy and dumps her. Foxxy responds to being shunned by announcing to the group that Hero's "coolness" was all a sham on her part, and tells them that Hero isn't cool at all. The Cool Kids decide Foxxy is right, and shun Hero once again. Hero tries to go back to his non-cool friends, Xandir and Wooldoor, but angry at the way he treated them earlier, they won't take him back either. The next day, when the Cool Kids try to give Xandir a chainsaw wedgie, Hero decides enough is enough. He steps in and reminds the group that there was once a time when they all hung out together as equals, and tells them that they're all dorks on the inside. Everyone decides Hero is right, and they all become friends again. The episode ends with the meteor crashing into the planet, which apparently doesn't destroy the world after all.

Musical number: A mock-Spanish version of "Ling-Ling's Battle Song". The song was originally featured (in English) in "Gay Bash". Also, a song called "Honey Baked Ham" plays during the dance in this episode; the song was also played during the dance in "A Tale of Two Cows".

[edit] Notes and inside references

The King and Queen of Mexico.

There is some debate regarding the title of this episode. Some sources list the title as "Captain Hero and the Cool Kids" because Comedy Central listed the episode under that title on their schedule. However, Executive Producer Bill Freiberger has confirmed that "Mexican't Buy Me Love" is the correct title. "Captain Hero and the Cool Kids" was the episode's original working title, and Comedy Central ended up printing that title on their schedules by mistake. [1]

Cree Summer voices the Queen of Mexico in this episode opposite guest star Carlos Mencia as the King of Mexico. In real life, Mexico is not ruled by a king or queen; the nation is a democratic republic with a president serving as both head of state and head of government.

The episode opens with a voice over intoning, "Last week on Drawn Together" and a montage purporting to show scenes from last week's show, suggesting that this is the second part of a two-part episode. This is not the case, however; the episode stands completely by itself, and the "recap" is merely a literary device to provide a large amount of exposition in a minimal amount of screen time.

During the Newlywed Game competition, the pairs are Ling-Ling/Toot, Hero/Xandir, and Clara/Spanky, with Wooldoor as the host. Foxxy apparently does not participate. Though none of the pairs are actually married to each other, each of the two losing couples is comprised of people who had actually dated one another before: Clara and Spanky in "Dirty Pranking No. 2", and Hero and Xandir in "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree".

Many of the show's conventions are altered to reflect the Mexican setting of Toot and Ling-Ling's story. Toot and Ling-Ling's confessional segments in this episode are conducted from a cheap wooden room, with a wooden crate as a confessional chair (one of many references in the episode to the country's perceived poverty). Also, the music played during this episode's opening title sequence is a Mexican version of the Drawn Together theme.

This episode marks the first time that Ling-Ling has been the star of the main plot of an episode. Previously, he had only been featured in supporting roles or B-stories.

When Hero tries to advance in the social hierarchy, he offers to show a picture of his sister's frontal bodily contours. It has been revealed in "Unrestrainable Trainable" that Captain Hero does indeed have a sister, though it is impossible to tell whether the picture he shows here is Captain She-Ro due to the image being blurred. Oddly, the pictures of Captain Hero's sister's breasts that he gleefully shows to the Cool Kids are censored despite the fact that in each shot the woman is clad in a bikini top or bra. The pictures are shown uncensored moments later when the cool kids push him into a garbage can.

The female of the couple that Captain Hero refers to as his foster parents is also one of the main seniors that Toot meets in the episode "Alzheimer's That Ends Well"; she is voiced here by Cree Summer.

When the Mexican police ask Toot and Ling-Ling for a 500 billion-peso bribe, Ling-Ling states that amount is approximately twelve American dollars, an exaggerated reference to the Mexican peso's relatively low worth in comparison to the American dollar. In reality, 500 billion pesos would equate to approximately 46 billion dollars according to the current rate of exchange at the time of the episode's airing.

When Ling-Ling goes on the Esta Noche Show, Jose Leno shows a clip from Ling-Ling's last cockfight. A short clip is then played of a young girl in a Ling-Ling costume jumping around, someone waving around a cardboard cutout Ling-Ling, and a confused chicken. This is the first time live action "character" footage has been played on the show.

Steve from Long Island makes a return appearance in this episode as one of the Cool Kids. Though his personality is essentially the same, his role is somewhat different from his previous appearance in "Clum Babies". In that episode, he was described as "Ling-Ling's lame friend"; in this episode he is considered cool rather than lame, and he does not interact with Ling-Ling at all. He also has an extra arm.

This is the second episode where Hero and Foxxy are depicted as romantic partners. The first was "Requiem for a Reality Show". In both cases, their romance proves to be short-lived, and only started in the first place so Hero could gain something.

Spanky recording his lines.

After Hero reveals that Spanky is voiced by Adam Carolla (an instance of breaking the fourth wall), Spanky says he will now talk in his normal voice. The scene then cuts to Spanky in a recording booth talking in Carolla's normal speaking voice. According to creator commentary, the sound clips used here are outtakes from a past recording session with Carolla.

During one of his cockfighting battles, Ling-Ling develops spikes on his body, the first time he has done so for a battle since "Hot Tub".

Though the bottle that the King of Mexico drinks the worm from says "Tequila" on the label, true Mexican tequila does not contain "the worm". However, the alcoholic drink mezcal sometimes does.

This is the second episode to feature a story in which all or most of the cast is depicted as out of character or playing a role to some degree. The first was "A Very Special Drawn Together Afterschool Special".

[edit] Goofs

At the beginning of the episode's final scene, the lunchroom scene, Clara is wearing the cheerleader outfit she wore through most of the episode. However, in the next shot, and throughout the rest of the scene, she is back wearing her regular dress.

[edit] Cultural references

Ling-Ling on Leno.

The Hero/Foxxy story in this episode is based on the 1987 film Can't Buy Me Love, in which a nerdy teen (Patrick Dempsey of Grey's Anatomy fame) pays a popular girl to pretend to be his sweetheart so he'll move up in the social hierarchy.

At the beginning of the episode, the housemates play The Newlywed Game for a trip to Mexico. Toot wins the trip by answering "up the butt". This refers to a famous blooper from that show in which a woman who was asked for the strangest place she and her husband had ever had sex gave "in the ass" as a response.[2]

Early in the episode, Hero refers to the Cool Kids as "the fast and the furious", referring to the film of that title.

The Queen of Mexico refers to Home Depot as "her castle", a reference to the stereotype that the store is staffed mainly by Mexican immigrants.

Spanky says that the group is going to tickle torture Xandir, then they proceed to beat him savagely, causing Foxxy to remark that, "This is just as uncool as the Rodney King tickling," referring to King's beating at the hands of the Los Angeles Police Department.

After being shunned by the Cool Kids, Captain Hero runs away to a farmhouse where he says he grew up, a reference to the farmhouse in Smallville where Superman/Clark Kent was raised by Ma and Pa Kent. However, the elderly couple who inhabit this particular farmhouse are complete strangers rather than the people who actually raised Captain Hero. Additionally, after Captain Hero has broken the old man's arm and departed, the man's wife pulls out a revolver and shoots him, a reference to the fate meted out to horses who break bones.

Upon hearing that he and Toot need a substantial bribe to pay off a cop, Ling Ling exclaims "Jesu Christo" (Jesus Christ), but his subtitles read "Billy Crystal". Additionally, several supposedly Spanish words Ling-Ling speaks are actually English references to the stereotypical occupations of Latino immigrants to the United States, such as "leaf-blower" and "day laborer".

Ling-Ling appears on The Esta Noche con Jose Leno Show, a Mexican version of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. "Esta noche" is Spanish for "tonight". A Mexican equivalent of Tonight Show bandleader Kevin Eubanks also appears.

Foxxy makes Hero over into a suave figure she calls Hero Calrissian, a reference to the Star Wars character Lando Calrissian, whom past episodes had established Foxxy as having a crush on.

After Hero finishes explaining why he now files electronically, Spanky comments that he is so much cooler than Lobot, Lando Calrissian's cyborg assistant in the Star Wars series.

After dumping Foxxy, Hero states that he is now single, "like Lance Armstrong's left testicle", a reference to Armstrong's battle with testicular cancer.

When Ling-Ling tells Toot if she doesn't want to help him, she can just go, Toot says, "Later, asshole!", then tries to run off. As she does this, she goes "beep beep" and begins moving her legs in a speedy circular motion like the Roadrunner from the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons.

Ling-Ling cockfighting.

The chicken's speech is a reference to Shylock's speech ("If you prick us, do we not bleed?") from The Merchant of Venice.

The King of Mexico transforms by drinking the mezcal worm in a bottle of tequila. As he changes, he says, "By the power of Mencia!" This is a reference to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, in which Prince Adam would say, "By the power of Greyskull!" as he changed into He-Man. "Mencia" refers to the character's voice actor, Carlos Mencia.

Toot's spaceship resembles the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. The scene in which she blasts the King of Mexico parodies the destruction of the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

After she rescues Ling-Ling, Toot crashes her spaceship into a mountain which would appear to be a Mexican version of Mount Rushmore. The four faces on the mountain are Speedy Gonzales, the Taco Bell chihuahua, Jose Leno, and a donkey.