| “Max's Big Day” | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animated series episode | |||||||
 "These are my people. My unique brand of wisdom and armpit noises are all these poor savages got." | |||||||
| Episode # | 03 | ||||||
| Original airdate | October 11, 1997 | ||||||
| |||||||
Max's Big Day is the 3rd episode in the series The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police.
Synopsis[]
After falling out a plane onto a remote tropical island, Sam and Max encounter the New Guinea Pigs, who take Max as their chosen one.
In-Depth Synopsis[]
While looking for a restroom, Max accidentally opened an exit hatch on an airplane and the episode starts with Sam and Max falling hundreds of feet to their undoubtful messy deaths. Max's quick thinking of using his latex skull, it made the perfect parachute for Sam, until a whiff of smoke made Max sneeze. They luckily land in a cauldron of hot water.
Or unluckily, as they had interrupted a ritual that the native New Guinea Pigs were having. Before Sam and Max were to be put to death, the New Guineas instantly change their minds when Max farts in the water and later shows his talent of making armpit noises. They are in total awe with Max, thinking he was sent by the Gods, and crown him the new ruler of the tribe.
Max's new found rulership role goes to his head quickly as he has the power to judge domestic affairs and has people to chew his own food. His contentedness with his pampered lifestyle follows through with a refusal to return to duty when The Commissioner gives them a new assignment. Sam, who can not resist the opportunity of serving justice, reluctantly accepts Max's decision and so leaves the island without him (but with as much unnailed-down stuff he could take). Unknowingly to Sam, the natives are keeping an eye on him, ready to ambush him at any moment.
Max regrets his choice soon after. Seeing their leader bored and depressed, the New Guinea Pigs present him a gift. Excited for what may be inside the box, he opens it eagerly before suddenly taken aback by the grotesque display of Sam's pelt inside (though it "feels nice" when he sobbed into it). While Max couldn't make of the situation, that's when Sam assures Max in a hushed voice that he is okay (as he has a weasel-like ability to collapse his bones and organs).
Max then turns to the natives and tries to politely decline the gift. This didn't please the gift-bearers as "no true Chosen One would turn down a gift from his people, especially one as nice as the hollowed out carcass of a close personal friend". Despite Max's attempts to conciliate, the natives are beyond angry and want to kill both Sam and Max.
Sam and Max make a run for it, but gets surrounded on a log bridge. When all seems lost, out of nowhere the Rubber Pants Commandos comes to the rescue. After fighting off the natives and summing up the so-called morals of the day, the episode ends with them flying safely off into the sunset.
Characters[]
Character Development[]
- Apparently, not only does Max have a metal plate in his skull, his head is also made of latex.
- Sam states he used "a like ability" the weasel uses to collapse himself into a pelt. Weasels (or rats, which are more commonly associated with so-called collapsible skulls and bones) don't actually have such an ability. Their skeleton and bodies are shaped in such a way to fit through most tight places, but nothing smaller than their head. So exactly how Sam was able to flatten himself out is questionable.
Mistakes[]
- The animators tried an animation shortcut with Max after his "I can't leave" speech, but ended up making his arm look extremely odd. His head was put on a different cell from his body and the technique is obvious in the few seconds when he looks up.
Notes[]
- The intro short parodies the beginning of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey with a loud, drawn out, orchestral shriek introducing a large, black pillar surrounded by a group of inquisitive primates. Furthermore, Sam appears dressed in Fred Flintstone's trademark black-spotted orange furs and green necktie.
- The episode is a loose parody of The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling.
- Sam freaking out and attacking the natives when he mistakingly assumes that they did something to Max's brain is a reference to the scene from Planet of the Apes in which the main character Taylor has a similar reaction upon finding a rounded scar on the head of his fellow astronaut Landon, now speechless due to a brain surgery Dr. Zaius subjected him to, prompting Taylor to yell "You cut up his brain, you bloody baboon!" before attempting to attack the orang.
- The "gratuitous blowing up of the local filling station" at the end could be a reference to a scene in the comedy movie 1941.