Tom Goes to the Mayor and all the images you see in this recap are owned Warner Bros and Adult Swim
Created by Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim
Welcome back to another adventure with our loveable hero Tom Peters just trying to make it work in the big city and be the best darn stepdad in the process! Okay, Jefferton is HARDLY what I’d call a “big city”, but it’s the place that Tom calls home and is where he goes on his wacky adventures with The Mayor; only half of which end in massive casualties! Now first things first, this episode has a slightly different visual style than any other episode in the series as it goes for more of a classic sitcom vibe with new music cues that evoke the feeling of shows like Full House or Family Matters (inoffensive instrumental tunes during scene transitions) and a few Tom Goes to the Mayor bumpers at the bottom of the screen like you’d see on network television. Now these are all fine ways of subverting the traditional sitcom formula, but I guess I’m a bit confused as to why these gimmicks were used for THIS episode specifically. The whole series is one great middle finger to the corporatized artifice masked over the realities of middle and lower class America which corny American sitcoms have reveled in and have helped perpetuate for decades, but I don’t really see THIS episode as being PARTICULARLY biting in that regard. Sure it’s messed up and has some dark moments as we’ll get to soon enough, but that basically describes every Tom Goes to the Mayor episode already! Still, it’s a decent enough gimmick for this kind of show and limiting it to a single episode ensures that it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Anyway, the episode begins with Tom’s step-kids having heart attacks (all at the same time), so Tom goes to The Mayor to propose a health camp for children that will help his kids and many others lead more active and healthy lifestyles! Sounds like a great idea, right? Well too bad he brought it to The Mayor who’s already got a plan to twist it into something horrible that will not doubt get Tom in a whole lot of trouble. The Mayor has been a very stead patron of Pipe’s Buffet (an establishment right above his office) where he smokes copious amounts of tobacco while eating fatty meats.
“Oh, The Mayor! You wacky sassafras!” “Ha ha ha, oh Tom. Don’t you ever talk that way to me again…”
