S09E14: The Last Laugh

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S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Wayoshi (?) » Wed Jul 31, 2019 11:46 am

When Pinkie Pie seeks help from her old friend, the super-silly Cheese Sandwich, in finding her life's purpose, she discovers the unimaginable has happened.
This thread is for discussion of the episode. This episode airs at 11:30 Eastern / 8:30 Pacific on Saturday, August 3!

Official preview clips and images are okay to post, as is speculation about the episode. Spoilers from non-US releases are NOT OK to post.

Early spoiler thread: http://www.roundstable.com/forums/viewt ... =16&t=1957

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Applepie2017 (?) » Thu Aug 01, 2019 3:46 am

removed
But...
This one's too young

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by SlateSlabrock (?) » Thu Aug 01, 2019 2:23 pm

One morning, as Cheesor Sandsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous changeling.

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Applepie2017 (?) » Thu Aug 01, 2019 4:19 pm

deleted
Last edited by Applepie2017 on Sat Aug 03, 2019 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
But...
This one's too young

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by RudeCyrus (?) » Thu Aug 01, 2019 5:30 pm

Pinkie discovers Cheese Sandwich laughed himself to death.

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Applepie2017 (?) » Sat Aug 03, 2019 11:23 am

deleted
Last edited by Applepie2017 on Sun Aug 04, 2019 8:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
But...
This one's too young

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by PonyHag714 (?) » Sat Aug 03, 2019 12:08 pm

This was fun. Weird Al did another great job as Cheese Sandwich, and the song was good. For a while, I thought that Sans Smirk would turn out to be a villain who wanted to take over the factory.

I liked the Willy Wonka references. Image
Image ("Don't try to reform me, Hag, because I'm made of cold stone.")

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Niels Olof (?) » Sat Aug 03, 2019 12:11 pm

That was indeed a cute, fun, and straightforward episode, fitting Pinkie Pie perfectly.

Take away quote: “I FEEL LIKE I'M SMILING”.
In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libroEverywhere I sought tranquility but found it nowhere save in a corner with a book

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Perpetual Motion (?) » Sat Aug 03, 2019 11:22 pm

Something interesting but rather unimportant to the overall episode's themes is the fact that for the first time the show has purposefully drawn attention to the fact that the main cast are in the endgames of their character arcs (and the fact that Applejack never had or needed one to begin with). This has been an ongoing issue for the show's writing since around season 5-6, which has led to what I think have been the most interesting developments for the show: Starlight Glimmer (with her own friend circle) and the school. Combined both have led to a veritable explosion of the side cast, thus helping the problem of running out of stories to tell about the Mane 6. Pinkie's story here feels like a last hurrah for the self-discovery stories the show built its foundation on, with it's conclusion of "yeah, I'm happy where I am" putting a definitive cap on things. I'm not saying we're not going to see Mane 6 focus episodes in the last half of this season, but I think we can safely say that the major character development is over for everyone except maybe Twilight, as the finale will surely leave her with a ton of growing to do when all is said and done.

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by SigmasonicX (?) » Sun Aug 04, 2019 1:22 am

Pinkie eating the paper cupcake got me.
Surprised it took this long for a Willy Wonka parody to show up, in retrospect.
I'm glad that Sans Smile didn't turn out to be the reason why Cheese lost his smile, and that he didn't have to undergo a big personality change in the end.

I thought this was an interesting episode, and a pretty natural development for Cheese. He wants to bring a smile to more faces and does what he thinks will accomplish that but loses sight of what he enjoys in life. Then in the end, Cheese is happy, Sans is happy, and the factory workers... well, can't expect this show to go all the way in criticizing late stage capitalism.

I connected with Sans a lot for whatever reason, so I'm glad he was treated well by the episode.

Biggest weakness of this episode is that the gags aren't all that funny, which is a problem with a lot of Pinkie episodes involving the concept of humor. Heck, even "Pinkie Pride" was carried more by the songs than the gags. Plus there is actual scientific research into humor, but despite that being a big part of this episode, we don't see much of the real thing besides the rule of three. That was one gag I liked, actually, along with the super slip banana. That said, I didn't find the gags bad enough to get annoyed at or anything.

I recall before this episode that there was some concern about the premise of Pinkie finding her place in life, when she should already know it's where she is now. I think it was justified well here, especially in light of Pinkie learning about Cheese's new job.

Lastly, the song in this episode was alright. I liked the chorus, and the bits with Pinkie singing backup, but the rest was eh.

Overall, if this is Pinkie's last episode, like the title implies, I think it was a good send off.

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by SlateSlabrock (?) » Sun Aug 04, 2019 2:39 am

Good:
  • Nice to see Weird Al again.
  • A much better take on Pinkie Pie than the Fox brothers' previous episode, Yakity-Sax
  • In fact, Pinkie here avoids the "just scream and say weird non-sequiturs" Pinkie we get from a lot of writers
  • Nice that the core message of Cheese and Pinkie getting their validation from seeing that they are helping others came across clearly and didn't get swallowed up by the big corporation framing device.
Eh:
  • Strange having a Cheese/Pinkie-centric episode wind up being so sedate. That's kind of the point but still... strange.
  • The song couldn't live up to the masterpiece that was "The Super-Duper Party Pony." That's a tall order, but when you pull in Weird Al, you try to give him some good material.
  • Agree that the humor was a little bland. Pretty much all the good jokes were prop ideas.

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by The Doctor (?) » Sun Aug 04, 2019 11:53 pm

It was a good Pinkie episode, the jokes worked and it was fun to see Cheese Sandwich again, even if the episode wasn't as good as his first episode.

I do appreciate that Sans Smile wasn't some secret villain, and was genuinely someone who wanted Cheese's business to bring happiness to others.

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Mr. Big (?) » Mon Aug 05, 2019 12:49 am

It was a decent episode. Not the funniest (ironic given the theme), but it was nice, and gave a good send-off to Cheese Sandwich for one last hurrah.

And yeah, I was pleasantly surprised Sans Smile was actually a good guy. I figured it was gonna reveal he was secretly sabotaging Cheese Sandwich, but no, he was genuinely concerned for him and his interests.

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Applepie2017 (?) » Mon Aug 05, 2019 2:50 am

delete
Last edited by Applepie2017 on Mon Aug 05, 2019 9:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
But...
This one's too young

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Aramek (?) » Mon Aug 05, 2019 7:59 am

Cute ep, song not nearly as good as any of the previous ones.
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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Applepie2017 (?) » Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:59 pm

That was 5 years worth waiting for
But...
This one's too young

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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Fizzbuzz (?) » Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:50 pm

I just caught up with this one after missing it during BC.

Unlike a lot of others ITT, I didn't find myself thinking of comparisons to Pinkie Pride, perhaps since the tone of this one felt so different. And it was a very valuable lesson as well, that even if the amount of good you are doing for the world has increased, if you're not the type of person who is driven by service for the collective then you're not going to be happy if you change your life to do so. Cheese Sandwich is basically the opposite, literally a wandering bard and merrymaker, who has to have the personal connection of being with those he's amusing. Having to learn to accept something about yourself, and to let others work with you when you've reached your limit, is an important lesson. (I hope I'm not reading too deep into this episode in having taken that away.)

I felt conflicted over Sans Smile. He was clearly good in his intentions, sharing Cheese Sandwich's ideal of bringing joy via humor to as many as possible, but something in me feels like making an industrialist out to be sympathetic at all is a bad idea when capitalism threatens to destroy our world via denial of global warming and concentration of wealth in the hands of the 1%. These problems are not present in Equestria, but at least for right now I don't think it's a good idea for any of our media to be the least bit kind to the class that is causing our problems IRL.
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Re: S09E14: The Last Laugh

Post by Mechanical Ape (?) » Fri Feb 14, 2020 10:38 pm

My DVR recorded this as “That’s A Laugh”. I dunno :pinkieshrug:

• Gosh, Pinkie, if only there were ponies right here in Ponyville whose entire deal is figuring out ponies’ life purposes! :smirk: :sweet: :cutealoo:
• This episode may have other things on its mind, but if we go to this factory and don’t get a boatload of Willy Wonka references, I’ll break all my furniture.
:yikes: “Are you sure this is edible?” :party: “I am not!”
• Good cold open is good.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ETHICAL FUN UNDER CAPITALISM
• (his cutie mark is a wet blanket)
• Maybe Cheese is just primed for subtler and more cerebral forms of humor. Sit him in front of some mumblecore and see what happens.
• With research, we can increase punching-up capacity by 15 percent! :twience:
• I like that Unfunny Factory Guy is well-meaning and not a villain.
• Did I see a Pinkie plushie?! Is she getting royalties? :skeptical:
• Song time! Ha, Pinkie’s backup is great.
• In conclusion, be the comedy you want to see in the world. :hiii:
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