Top 15 Favorite Episodes of The Tick

20 years ago Fox Kids came up with an idea that was crazy enough to work. They adapted Ben Edland's satirical comic book The Tick into a Saturday Mourning Cartoon which ran from 1994-1996 to the delight of nerds and the bafflement of small children (and Fox executives). Creator Ben Edlund was somehow allowed to stay in charge of the animated adaptation of The Tick, and while some of the comic's darker elements were toned down, the show was still as delightfully insane as its title character. Making a list of my favorite episodes was no easy task but i did it.

15. The Tick vs. Proto Clown: Let's start things off with an episode from the first season where it shows us how you can take the most non senseical plot and turn it into pure genius. Here The Tick and Arthur return home from Wheatland only to discover that a raging monster is loose The Tick confronts the beast who is in fact a clown version of the hulk. Apparently Proto-Clown hates it when people laugh at him so and he rampages through The City in an orgy or destruction. Tick battles Proto Clown but Proto Clown hits him with a bus and knocks him into orbit, forcing the heroes to seek help from the superclown's creator a meek clowing engineer named Bud all while The Tick goes on a voyage of mental self-discovery. The entire sequence inside The Tick's mind qualifies as a "Tickism"; from his visit to his Pleasure Center to his encounter with his Defense Mechanisms; the entire trip is hilarious.

14. The Tick vs Education: This is it; the last episode. This was the last Tick cartoon made. It's a pretty funny episode, but not one of the best, but just knowing there aren't any more is pretty depressing. Here The Tick and Arthur are chosen to teach Superhero school, meanwhile  a freak accident turns the mascot of Uncle creamy's Ice Cream into a rampaging half human Ice cream cone. the heroes battle Uncle Creamy who isn't really evil he's really just trying to save the children from a greater evil, his old boss Mr. Fliener, Now Uncle Creamy was a very sympathetic character he's not really a monster he's trying to stop the company he used to work for because of it's evil. The funniest things in this episode are the antics of Mr. Excitment, e and the one-liners of Sarcastro two of the students who literally steal what's left of the show.

13. The Tick vs. The Idea Men: From the last episode to the first and here is the individual origins of the Tick and Arthur are wisely skipped because it's not important how they came to be. What is important is how they first joined forces to become The City's premiere crime-fighting team. Their debut enemies are the Idea Men a group of AIM-like bad guys whose insidious scheme is to extort a lot of money so they won't have to work anymore. While the Tick marvels at the Idea Men's blimp and tries to stop them from blowing up the City's dam, he also meets Arthur, a mild-mannered accountant who quits his job to be a superhero thanks to his flying moth suit. Arthur quickly realizes he's in over his head, but also realizes The Tick needs a guide in navigating... uh... reality, hence the team-up. Besides the solid superhero action, this first episode also introduces a bunch of zany supporting characters to flesh out its world, like Batman wann-be Die Fledermaus, The Chameleon ("Can't -- do -- plaid!") and Bipolar Bear. Most TV shows have dodgy pilots and take a while to hit their stride, but not so for The Tick!

12. The Tick vs The Big Nothing: The Concept of The Tick being in space is always funny and he in the parody comic stories involving a hero is summoned from earth to help an alien civilization in the cosmos fight their enemy. The Tick is recruited by cowardly aliens called the Whats who only speak the word what, to save the universe from their evil adversaries the hey empire who all resemble Arthur. During this scenario The Whats mistake Arthur for a Hey spy and interrogate him while The Tick munches on space cookies. Unfortunately, the What spaceship isn't fast enough to outrun the Heys dreaded ultimate weapon, The Infinity Ball! With the Infinity Ball closing in, things looked grim, because the What spaceship ran on fear and they were all feeling confident with The Tick aiding them. Fortunately, they had Arthur there to fill up the reserves after escaping through the speed of lint The Tick and Arthur infiltrate the hey mother ship to stop their nefarious plot of propaganda and the worshipping of nothing. The episode takes heavy inspiration from Arthur Douglass and brilliantly silly. 

11. That Mustache Feeling: When the Tick wakes up with a mysterious mustache, he and his pals think he's reached a new zenith of keen. But how did the perpetually clean shaven Tick grow such a magnificent face accoutrement overnight? Why has Nick Fury-lookalike Jim Rave assembled S.H.A.V.E., a team of '70s exploitation heroines, to hunt his new mustache down? Why does his mustache treat the Tick like a battered housewife, beating him up when he tries to trim it, and even reaching inside the Tick's nostrils to touch his brain? In addition to answering these thrilling questions, this episode also inspired Spider-Man's infamous sidewalk strut in Spider-Man 3. Unfortunately not all arachnid superheroes were imbued with the same level of swagger.

10. Little Wooden Boy and The Belly of Love: The co-dependency of the Tick and Arthur is perhaps the strongest theme in the whole series; this episode throws a giant monkey wrench into that relationship by introducing Carmelita. When she and Arthur hit it off over their mutual taste in moth-suits, the Tick feels betrayed that his sidekick is skipping Hobby Night to spend time with a woman who may have cooties. But with their partnership on the rocks, who can stop the villainy of the un-neutral Swiss & their giant Swiss army knives? In a sequence that puts Tony Stark to shame, Tick builds the ultimate sidekick: Little Wooden Boy! Meanwhile, a giant whale in lederhosen named Blow-Hole is marching across the nation. How will these random plot points converge into the greatest episode of The Tick? From the triumph of love to the tragedy of self-sacrifice of a plank of wood with a face drawn on it, this episode leaves no heartstrings untugged.

9. Ants in The Pants: The Tick (who was an asylum escapee in the comics) told Arthur in a previous episode that he was "going sane in a crazy world," which this episode elaborates on. After all, in what rational world does an ant hive dress up in human clothing to steal enough glass to forge a giant magnifying glass to destroy all humans? The Tick is initially totally skeeved out by the titular ants in pants, and seeks counseling at Captain Sanity's Superhero Sanatorium. Little does he realize that Captain Sanity's -- who is a disembodied head in a water cooler, by the way -- idea of psychiatry is to have mustached nurse Taft ("We can dig it!") wrestle the Tick while wearing a variety of ridiculous costumes. The military's solution to the crisis is to create a giant pair of pants to somehow attract the ants; of course, these giant pants catch fire. Luckily for The City (and we viewers), the Tick realizes that sanity is the most overrated one-trick pony in the mental rodeo, escapes the sanitarium, and defeats the ants.

8. The Tick vs. Arthur's Bank Account: In the Annie winning finale to season 1 The Tick is jazzed when the world's most diabolical centenarian this side of Mr. Burns, The Terror, comes out of retirement; The Tick Arthur even create their now iconic battle cries in preparation! Meanwhile, the Terror enlists Joseph Stalingrad, Tuun-La, Man-Eating Cow, The Human Ton and Handy to wreak havoc on The City from his mobile spider fortress (I maintain that Man-Eating Cow was undercover since she's a heroine in the comics). To combat their assembled villainy, The Tick buys lots of crime-fighting gizmos by maxing out Arthur's credit cards. When Arthur finds out, he kicks the Tick out of his apartment to sulk in his ramshackle Crime-Busting Tower, which may be some kind of abandoned pigeon coop. Has The Terror won without even confronting our heroes? WARNING: This episode contains graphic puppet violence.

7. Armless But Not Harmless: C-list foes Venus & Milo zap the Tick and Arthur with an experimental ray gun that makes their arms fall off. Our heroes react about the way you'd expect -- the Tick is baffled and perturbed; Arthur runs around screaming. It's priceless, as is their attempt to call American Maid for help on a pay phone. Meanwhile, the evildoers affix the duo's arms to some crude androids and send them on a crime spree, which makes them eligible for the prestigious Enemy Awards of Supervillainy. Even though the robots don't look a thing like them, everyone is fooled, and our heroes find themselves hunted by the very law they uphold, and the only person who can end this nightmare of topsy-turvydom is ... Plunger Man! Having the protagonists fight their own wayward disembodied arms is a pretty wacky spin on the old "heroes mistaken for villains" plot.

6. The Tick vs Dot and Neil's Wedding: Think of this as Fantastic voyage with spoofy superheroes It's the union of Dinosaur Neil and Arthur's sister Dot, but Chairface Chippendale, the Breadmaster and El seed team up to take over the city. While El seed and Breadmaster rig the bouquet and Wedding cake Chairface replaces Neil's medication with something that will re-activate his dinosaur gene when he's under stress. and While The Tick has his hands full Neil grows into the dinosaur again and Chairface enslaves him and makes him go on a rampage through the city. The Tick Arthur and Dot must travel inside Neil digestive system using Sewer Urchin's mini sub covered in raw meat to save Neil and change him back. Probably the two most interesting subplots in this episode are (1) the idea that just about anything can be found in the sewer (Mini-sub, 1400 pounds of rancid meat, etc), (2) the idea that the Indigestible Man wears indigestible boxers and socks, (3) the flirtation between Breadmaster's henchman Buttery Pat and El Seed's goons the Bee Twins and gotta love Big shot's new career is photography (Freeze!!! <click>)

5. The Tick vs The Uncommon Cold: This Classic episode is the first and only animated appearance of Thrakkorzog, tyrant of dimension 14B. The Tick catches a cold and gets very melodramatic, saying things like "Empires have fallen at the foot of this pox!" Arthur is capture by Thrakkorzog how ironicly moves into apartment 14B. The charismatic conqueror wants to use an army or Tick clones to conquer the Earth and he clones Arthur and sends the evil Arthur clone to retrieve a tissue sample of The Tick. Of course, because of the nigh-invulnerability, the only tissue sample he can get is from a used kleenex. This leads the Tick to confront his evil doppelganger Mucus Tick battle each other on the roof. This is a great battle and it's just too bad the Tick can't fight worthy adversaries more often...Thrakkorzog is one of the selling point of this episode unlike some interdimensional monster who are reverentially gross he's actually a polite and civilized  creature and the other selling point is the human who acts as Thrakkozog's roommate I get a kick out of this guy; he lives with a slime-based life form and he still drinks right out of the milk carton...that's guts.

4. The Tick vs Europe: Most American superhero fantasies are nationalistic in that the U.S. hogs all the cool superhumans. This show subverts that with an International Superhero Exchange Program that ships the Tick off to Belgium, while Arthur is paired with Antwerp's top superheroine, Eclaire, who's just as well muscled and philosophical as his usual partner but with the power to shoot lightning from her eyes. Together, they save The City from a nefarious plan of the Breadmaster's (which involves Die Fledermaus getting the crap beat out of him by tiny, vicious gingerbread men). Meanwhile, The Tick must protect the King of Belgium with Eclaire's sidekick, the Vespa-riding Blitzen, who describes herself as the "righteous speed-demon and trust-fund darling of justice." Together they fight villainous violin virtuoso Octo Paganini and Eastern Bloc Robot Cowboy, a Slavic roboticist who transplanted his brain into a vending machine wearing a Stetson (very possibly the greatest character in all of literature). Not only does this episode significantly broaden the world of the Tick, but the European characters it introduces are quirky enough that they could support a cartoon of their own. But yeah, it's all about Eastern Bloc Robot Cowboy.

3. The Tick vs Chairface Chippendale: Every superhero needs an arch-nemesis, and for some that goofy looking as the Tick what better villain to fill in the evil nemesis catagory then Chairface Chippendale. He's the antithesis of our hero: devious, suave, wealthy, vain, frail, immoral, and, most importantly, he has a chair for a head. When he throws himself a birthday party attended by criminals so ugly even Dick Tracy would gag at the sight of them, American Maid (The City's most professional and competent crimefighter) plans to take them down in one fell swoop by going undercover as caterers with the Tick and Arthur in tow. the heroes are shocked to learn Chairface's plan -- to write his name on the Moon with a stolen heat cannon as the ultimate act of cosmic vandalism (and his birthday present). He would've gotten away with it to if it weren't for those meddling heroes! Well, actually, Chairface does manage to write "CHA" on the moon before the Tick stops him, which is consistently shown in every single following episode of the cartoon, a joke which never, ever gets old.

2. HEROES: In a spoof of The famous reality show COPS The Tick and Arthur appear on a reality show called HEROES which chronicles superheroes. Fortunately, they manage to run into a Mysertio level baddie called The Deadly blub who steals the show and cameraman and kidnaps Arthur and plans to destroy The Tick in shameless act of self promotion only to reveal is darkest secert he has a pig for a leg seriously egad. Probably the most entertaining thing in this episode is the Tick being used as a giant lightbulb filament. He thinks he is a new star and tries to warm the solar system while Arthur flutters around (moths around a lightbulb...).

1. The Tick vs The Tick: Yeah you all saw this coming which  combines Two time-honored traditions: clubbing, and superheroes whaling on each other for flimsy reasons. When the Tick and pals go to the swank Comet Club for a night of caped go-go debauchery, Arthur is relegated to the dismal Sidekicks' Lounge by Doorman, and The Tickruns into Big shot and his friends only to meet face to face with Barry, a barely-sane "hero" who also calls himself The Tick and doesn't feel like sharing. Amidst the titanic clash to decide which hero must change his stationary, will anyone stop The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight from blowing every do-gooder in The City into pulpy bits? He's got legs, baby! He's all over the place! YEAH BABY YEAH!



Honorable Mentions

The Tick vs Reno Nevada
Alone Together
Leonardo Davinchi's Genius Fighting Commandos
The Tick vs The Mole Men
Sidekicks don't kiss
The Tick vs Arthur
The Tick vs Science
The Tick Loves Santa