"Hercules & the Comedy of Arrows"
This was a seriously sick episode. I liked it, but it was sick, evil, cute, and cuddley" :-)
First off the title sounds like it was meant to be a triple entendre (re: "Comedy of Errors" or "Comedy of Eros").
Did you see P&P reading "Elle" magazine only it had a small "H" in front of it "Helle"...which, despite the inference to "Hell" (the Underworld), the term may actually refer to the land of Greece ("Hellen" is Greece's ancient name) or to "Helle", a variation on the word, which is the name of the little girl, who with her brother Phrixus, was rescued by Zeus, but fell to her death from the flying Golden Ram into the waters then named This was a sick episode. I liked it, but it was sick, evil, cute, and cuddley" :-)
First off the title sounds like it was meant to be a triple entendre (re: "Comedy of Errors" or "Comedy of Eros").
Did you see P&P reading "Elle" magazine only it had a small "H" in front of it "Hellespont" (of course the Golden Ram's pelt became famous to Jason's Argonautical quest).
Another subliminal reference used was in Cupid's chart when he was talking about all the different "loves" (Puppy, Endless, Tough, etc.). Any Bible scholar has probably learned about the different "forms" of love known to the Greeks: Agape, Storge, Eros, Philos, etc.). Kudos.
I also liked the reference to "Loathe Arrows", which is true to the myth of Cupid. While most people know that he had "Love Arrows", it is not as widely known that he also had arrows that caused the opposite (i.e., hate) emotions. It's also true that the love arrows were ocassionally used as a form of punishment to induce a mortal to fall in love with someone (or something) that would be a bane to them.
Melampus, who, for intents and purposes, was an exact duplicate (in almost every way that matters) to Icarus, is another strange character from Greek mythology. Depending on the specific Melampus, there was one who, like Cassandra, could fortell the future (had the gift of prophecy from the gods), and then there was another who, like Cassandra, was a child of King Priam (thus making him her brother... eeeew. Now that's really sick). Of course, the name Melampus could have just been a common Greek name for the time, but I'd like to imagine that it was because of his ability to forsee the future that Cassandra was so atuned with. That would be the ONLY thing that seperated him from Icarus. I'm sure the intended humor was found in the issue that Icky & Mel were so much alike and yet Cassie snubbed Icarus still. Anyhow, Melampus means "black footed" which may explain why he was depicted as much darker in skin tone.
The cherubs stuck to the *no-pest strips* with them doing their best immitation of *The Fly* from the original Vincent Price version had me rolling. And the song at the end was so saccharine I couldn't help bursting into laughter again.
Icarus' agony over Melampus & Cassandra was truly sad, and I still wonder if Cassie was truly in love or just being mean.
I think I like Cupid a *little* better after this episode... Having an army of cutsey-wootsey itsey-bitsey cherubs is really funny.
A lot of puns based on greeting cards and old R&B songs.
All in all, this was an unexpected treat. I'm sure anyone looking at the surface might find it very close to a "Care Bears" episode, but looking just below the surface you'd know it was more of a spoof! Thanks! :-)
Rich (xephyr)
CUPID: "Remember, EVOL is just LOVE spelled backwards. Well almost. If you sound it out and you trade the 'O' for an 'I'. [Hmmpf!] Hey, I'm a lover not a scholar!"