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Funtasia / Rip Van Prickle / Great Mastadon Robbery
Season 1 · Episode 18 · Apr 30, 1988
Funtasia:
It's too soon for another one of these. Okay, so Pokey and Prickle are playing catch with a wooden block, which suddenly turns into a guy with a camera, who takes their picture, eats his camera, and turns into a variety of monsters. Ooo! Suddenly, Gumby drinks a milkshake, turns blue, and starts rolling around on a bridge in a different scene, occasionally jumping into the water. This wasn't what he'd bargained for when he decided to drink his milkshake, so this time he opens his head and pours it in. He's quite happy with this until a thirsty animator opens his head, sticks in a straw, and sucks out the shake. Finally, Gumby and Prickle arrive at an outdoor restaurant where they're waited on by a Blockhead, who does something terrible to Prickle's face every time he passes by. Unfortunately, when he sprays Prickle with water, Prickle becomes huge and crushes the Blockhead, eats a nearby cake, and carries Gumby away. Gumby reads a book about Origami and promptly folds together a thing, which flies away. Unhappy with his work, he takes a new sheet of paper and folds it into a horrible mechanical monster, which terrorizes him and Pokey until the Groobee arrives to capture it. So Gumby decides to ride his skateboard around, at least until the Blockheads smash him flat and steal his board. But Gumby has his revenge, molding himself into a giant boulder and chasing them around. With the Blockheads locked away in a Lego jail, Gumby rides happily away. Surprisingly, the cartoon still isn't over. Gumby and Prickle take a moment to color in a beach scene in a coloring book. Then they enter, presumably to take a nice, peaceful vacation after this strange head trip.
Rip Van Prickle:
Prickle sleeps for many, many years, as evidenced by the long hair and beard he wakes up with. Gumby's farm and studio have fallen into disrepair. On his way to reunite himself with his lost friends, Prickle makes many startling discoveries:
Pokey is president of a delivery company, "Pokey Express"
Granny is his secretary
Goo is Secretary of State, and she's negotiated lasting peace in the Middle East
Professor Kapp, as head of NASA, has created a new space craft and a miracle fuel source
And Gumby is, of course, president of the USA. One of his accomplishments, as revealed in a terribly exposition-oriented press conference, was to create some vague equal rights bill.
And yet, like in an episode of The Twilight Zone, none of his friends recognize him, and he's hauled off, thought to be a nut case. Fortunately, it was all a dream, but his friends torment him a bit by pretending not to know him.
Great Mastadon Robbery:
The Blockheads lure Denali out of his home with a trail of peanuts, take him to the zoo, and sell him for a giant wad of money! Money! The plan goes off without a hitch. Well, except for the fact that the zoo has no way to safely contain elephants, seeing as how Denali easily busts his door open and escapes. He finds a phone and calls Gumby, who picks Denali up and still finds time to make sure that the Blockheads and their peanut truck get stuck in a lake. The money floats away and a lucky fisherman goes home with a giant wad of money! Gumby and friends sing a bar of "Merrily We Roll Along", since the cartoon wouldn't be complete without that finishing touch.
