"The Big Cheese" is the eighth episode of season 4 of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
Summary[]
SPOILER: Plot details follow.
Foster's is going to be highlighted on the news, and everyone is getting the house ready, except Bloo, who finds it boring. One problem that unfortunately arises is that Cheese is at Foster's, even though he does not live there. Everyone keeps reminding him and telling him to go home while he annoys them in the process. While Wilt goes to get lightbulbs on Frankie's request, Mr. Herriman installs a new security system to keep Cheese out. The manual he reads instructs to "enter a code at random", so he enters a rather long code without even looking at the keypad. Cheese happens to witness the code input.
Herriman informs everyone of the system and tries to demonstrate how it works while not looking, since the manual told him to enter it randomly. Frankie tells him it didn't mean to input a random code every single time to use it and realizes they're locked out. The news crew will be coming, Eduardo is naked from his shower earlier, Bloo is even more bored, and Wilt arrives not knowing what's going on. Cheese happens to be at Foster's again, which prompts everyone to tell him to leave again, and as he does, he sings a bunch of beeps and boops, which Frankie realizes are the sounds of the keypad and thus Cheese knows the code. Bloo and the others run off to get Cheese, which Frankie fears will scare him, so she tells Wilt to buy a net at the store. The friends get Cheese and bring him back, but he screams perpetually due to his fright from the mob.
With Cheese screaming to no end, the others try to calm him down with nursery rhymes, but each one they try has a "scary" word that just scares Cheese more. Wilt returns with the net, and Frankie sends Wilt to get a storybook. Bloo sings a grotesque- and horrific-sounding song, but this happens to calm Cheese down at first until the end, sending them back to square one. Cheese continues to yell and following all the agitation, he stops and vomits. Frankie gets a call from Erin Peterson, who tells her that the interview will be happening an hour earlier than originally planned, much to her irritation.
Frankie tries to get Cheese to sing the code by playing a game where everyone sings a song and gets a piece of candy as a reward, although the "candy" is a bunch of rocks. When she tells Cheese to sing the code, he instead sings something else and takes his "candy". Wilt comes back with the storybook and Frankie sends him to get candy. Goo arrives to see what's going on and Mac explains the situation to her. She starts dancing with Cheese, who turns it into a new game. Everyone follows along with Cheese's dancing, and he sings them the parts of the code one-by-one while Mac enters them in. But soon, the game goes from fun dancing, to doing grotesque actions, to destroying the house, until Cheese finishes. Just before Mac can hit the "enter" button, Cheese gets in his way and Mac pushes him into the keypad, nullifying the input. Furious at his stupidity, Frankie rages at Cheese for not leaving when he was told. At that moment, she realizes that the news crew is right outside the gate, having seen the whole thing. Wilt returns with the candy, sees the mess, and runs away.
The interview turns into a tragic exposé on Foster's in its deteriorated state and how the friends appear miserable there. The only thing that's not so negative is Cheese, whom Erin thinks is staying hopeful through supposed tough times. Frankie turns this around and announces a charity drive, requesting views to donate to Foster's to help repair it.
The drive is a success and sometime soon, the house is big in order and Frankie gets a new security system, one that she knows the code to. Unfortunately, Cheese knows it too.
The credits show Cheese mentioning all kinds of diseases he believes he has to Erin.
Running gags[]
- Bloo thinking that something is boring.
- Cheese being told that he doesn't live at Foster's, being ordered to go home, and agreeing, but never leaving.
- Frankie sending Wilt to the store and immediately discarding anything he brings back.
Spoilers end here.
Characters present[]
Speaking:
Bloo, Cheese, Coco, Eduardo, Erin Peterson, Frankie Foster, Goo, Mac, Madame Foster, Mr. Herriman, Wilt
Non-speaking:
Belly Bob Norton, Billy the Squid, Bloppy Pants, Boris the Florist, Burple Bear, Chester n' Nester, Chief Hoseynose, Clambake, Cowboy Cow, Crackers, Creaky Pete, Don Lickles, Duchess, Dusty, Fluffer Nutter, Galoot Palooka, George Mucus, Handy, Hootin' Andy, Iris, Jackie Khones, Jambalaya, Jethro Precious, Jimmy Shoes, Keystone Blop, Mabel Licorice, Madame Mustachio, Moptop, Mr. Edmonton, My Pet Donkey, Myopic Patootie, Myron Giant, New Guy, Nose Allison, One Eye Cy, Phineus B. Vurm, Piggy, Pinecone Cola, Pirate Pig, Pisgetti, Pokey Toehair, Preparation Ape, Prince Charming, Rainbow Simmons, Ramone, Ringo Rango, Rodney Squiddlebeak, Satyr, Sassyfrass, Scissors, Sloppy Moe, Socket Tubey, Spritz Coleman, Stoolie Dan, Sunset Junction, The Tortoise in the Air, Two Head Fred, The Unknown Friend, Vic Trolla, Witch Itch, Yogi Boo Boo, ZZ Pops, Unnamed Imaginary Friends
Trivia[]
- This is the second time that Frankie gets locked out of the house (the first time being "Bloooo"). This (as well as "The Little Peas") is also the only time where everyone from the house (except Peas, who remains left inside, as seen in "The Little Peas") gets locked out of the house.
- This is the second (and last) time Cheese, Goo, and Duchess are seen in an episode together. Only this time, Duchess appears in only one scene, not Cheese.
- This is the only appearance of Ringo Rango and Cowboy Cow in season 4.
- When Frankie picks up her foot to lick it, she is shown to have five toes rather than four, making this one of the few times (if not the only time) to show her with an anatomically correct foot.
- A rather noteworthy oversight: Numerous windows are broken over the course of the dance with Cheese. This is significant because not only does this not trigger the security system (many home security systems are designed to detect forced entry among other things), but there is nothing stopping a friend from entering through a broken window and opening the front door from the inside, which would negate the entire conflict of the episode.
- It is unknown how Cheese was able to get in and out of the house, because the doors should've been locked, although he could've picked the lock.
- During the news report, Bloo is seen wearing a "I ❤️ FB" cap, a nod to "World Wide Wabbit".
- This is the third episode to begin with "The Big", the first two being "The Big Lablooski" and "The Big Picture".
- This episode shares its title with two other episodes of other Cartoon Network shows, being from Dexter's Laboratory and Camp Lazlo. The former episode centers around Dexter preparing for a French test, only for his efforts to backfire, causing him to be unable to say anything but "omelette du fromage", and the latter focuses on the main cast playing with a large cheese wheel.
Cultural references[]
- The scene where Eduardo is taking a shower and Cheese comes in and stabs him with a carrot is a reference to the 1960 film Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- When Frankie accuses Mr. Herriman of “screwing up the code”, she calls him "Bugs Dummy", which references Bugs Bunny from Looney Tunes.
Goofs[]
- When the news crew is first shown, Wilt can be seen standing to the far right before walking to the Foster's entrance, as if he was waiting for his cue.
- When Cheese is sucking on the rock, it appears to be large. When he throws it at Frankie, it's the same size as the tiny rock Frankie threw at Bloo.
- When the imaginary friends are chasing after Cheese, Eduardo is wearing pants. However, for the rest of the time they are stuck outside the house, he is only wearing either a towel or nothing at all.
- When Frankie yells at Herriman that they're locked out of the house, there are no black stripes on the back of Bloppy Pants' head.
- When Mr. Herriman is inputting the code into the keypad for the first time, he is clearly only pressing the 1, 4, and asterisk (*) buttons, yet when Mac is seen inputting the code towards the end of the episode, he is clearly pressing 7's, 5's, 8's, and 2's.
- When Cheese is dangling to Wilt's arm, there is a white border on the left of the screen.
- In the end credits, Herriman's name is misspelled as "harriman".