Super Friends Season 2, Episode 11, Storyline B – “Cheating”
Original Airdate – November 12, 1977
Safety Segment
Aquaman is teaching this young man a special skill:
NO YOU PERVERT, he’s teaching him how to expel water from his lungs. Sheesh.
Short Synopsis: “In the local countryside, just outside of Mid City, athletes from the neighboring high schools are about to start their annual cross country race.” – Narrator
Three teenagers discuss hoping to win and the guy with the “F” (for foreshadowing) brags that for sure he’s going to win.
A man who looks like what would happen if Obama and Telly Savalas had a baby who grew up to hold the world record for “Longest Index Finger” starts the race:
F is for Foliage hides behind some bushes while the others run past, the cheater.
No, they did not give this dude a name.
F is for Fearless Cheater arrives at a gorge, where he has either followed the cheater’s code of “be prepared,” or he has happened upon a rare grappling hook bush.
As he crosses the gorge, he looks below and sees two stranded kids:
F is for Fuck Stranded Kids decides that someone else will surely help them and stays focused on his cheating plan.
“Knowing that if he rescues them, he will be exposed as a cheater, Jack continues with the race.” – Narrator.
JACK! Why didn’t y’all say that in the first place (the first place Jack wants to cheat his way to).
Ugh, it’s time for The Wonder Twins to enter the picture.
They are alerted of the missing boys and head out to the area. Jayna REALLY has a tight grip on Gleek’s butt this time:
They can’t find the kids and a storm rolls in with heavy lightning. No, unfortunately The Wonder Twins are not struck by lightning.
Jack wins the race and announces he’s the best (at cheating), and Zan and Jayna show up asking if anyone’s seen the kids.
Jack has a guilty conscious after he sees lightning strike in the area he knows the kids are at, so he fesses up.
The Wonder Twins find the boys, who are in immediate danger because a flash flood is heading for them.
Now we play a game.
As suggested by Christian of Point Counter-Point Point Point, try and guess how The Wonder Twins saved the boys based only on what they morphed into (answer will be at the bottom):
The lesson is…
Jack is disqualified and says he learned something more important than winning: something about self respect.
Personally, I think the lesson is that if you cheat, you will save at minimum two children’s lives.
And the answer to the “riddle” is: Zan became an Ice Dam to stop the flash flood and Jayna became a kangaroo so that she could hop the boys to safety:
If you would like to see these shenanigans for yourself, Season 2 is available on DVD.
How did those children get stranded in there? I would assume, by their outfits, they were on a scout trip of some sort? Where are the rest of the scouts? Did they just abandon them? Did they wander off? WILL NO ONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?
Also, a kangaroo seems like the last thing I’d think of when I was thinking of rescue. Everyone knows kangaroos have very little traction on ice-dams. What, everyone knows that. EVERYONE DOES, I SAID!
Maybe the kids were teleported there by a far more interesting villain that we didn’t get the privilege to meet.
Is the kangaroo going to hop up the cliff face to safety? She doesn’t even have enough sense to put the boys in her pouch where they would be dry. Fail, Wunderkids.
Yes, the pouch would have been much safer but maybe more traumatic for the kids.
I was my middle daughter’s age when this episode was out – 9- and like her, I was a smartass that laughed at kinda sorta bad words on tv. Everytime “ice dam” happened, it was hilarious. Glad to know I haven’t changed since 1979/1980.
F is for the episode. A is for the my friend who posted it.
Thanks, Lance.
I also think “ice dam” is funny, and they use it so often.
Crossing a dangerous gorge does make so much more sense than, you know, running fast. And why didn’t the scouts just turn around and walk back the way they came? It didn’t look like they fell in the gorge. There’s a path in the picture. So many questions.
I would almost say they were psychic and knew the path is where the flash flood would be, but if they were psychic, they wouldn’t have been lost in the first place.
I kept thinking this was the safety lesson part of the episode. Like, this can’t possibly be the whole episode. Where are the aliens? Where are the mad scientists? Where are the women wanting to take over the world? Seriously? Just a stupid fucking race and trapped scouts? Superfriends, you disappoint me. Well, you always disappoint me, but…
It was The Wonder Twins storyline, there’s one in every episode – the second story of four every. single. time. I always dread it.
Seems unfair for the nameless runner to take the rap just because the 2 boy scouts were not as skilled at gorge-crossing cheating as he is.
Yeah, for all we know, they were cheating in some boy scout related mission.
Holy crap, the coach really does look like the love child of Obama + Telly Savalas!!
Doesn’t he?
The theme of these captions seems to be “oddly compromising positions.” Not sure if that’s the life lesson the creators intended 😛
Sweet, the game! I guessed that Jayna became the kangaroo and blew the flooding water away (look at the picture and tell me that’s not what she’s doing) and Zan became an ice bridge for the kids to cross. Wrong.
That makes just as much sense.
There is so much awesomeness in this post, but I have to admit that “Ugh, it’s time for The Wonder Twins to enter the picture” is the part that made me snort. That and Telly Obama.
It’s always a sad time when The Wonder Twins arrive.
I was a “sheltered” youth. I wasn’t allowed to watch this sort of TV. Instead I entertained myself with documentaries about Kelp. Did you know it’s in like everything??
I think I missed a alot…..