A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Clown (Zhu Zhu Pets)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Clown is a Zhu Zhu Pets episode aired on February 1, 1992

## Characters

* Mr. Squiggles
* Pipsqueak
* Num Nums
* Chunk
* Patches
* Scoodles
* Jilly
* Nugget
* Winkie
* Prof. Scidmore the black and chartreuse hamster (cameo)
* Principal Groucho (cameo)
* Stinker (flashback)
* Rocco (flashback)
* Zu Zu (flashback)
* Bucky (flashback)
* Nutters (flashback)

## Plot

Mr. Squiggles is dismayed when Winkie’s clowning around becomes disruptive at home, college and even church. Patches then suggests that Winkie take the course in clowning offered at ZhuZhu Community College, assuring Mr. Squiggles that his age won’t be a factor. Pipsqueak thinks it will be an outlet for Winkie’s creativity while Mr. Squiggles compares it to “taking your cat to the park for an hour so he won’t jump up on the furniture.” Winkie agrees, with Mr. Squiggles was stipulating that he stops being inappropriately funny elsewhere. Winkie shows up for his first day of class with a blue wig, rubber nose, polka-dot bow tie, and oversized shoes. Upon entering the class the instructor, Prof. Scidmore, imperiously declares “Great clown are not born. They are made, right here. I make clowns.” He tells those who wore wigs to class that unless they can explain humor as he expresses it in an algebra-like formula, they should dispense with the props. When asked to name a funny part of the body, Winkie suggests “armpit;” Prof. Scidmore compliments him on the pathos of his attempt but declares that it’s still not funny. Winkie sees Prof. Scidmore to ask why he’s not connecting with the class material after all his years of being otherwise funny. Scidmore refers him to the “flow chart of funny” and assures Winkie that he hasn’t been “properly trained.” He assigns Winkie supplemental reading. Winkie is soon analyzing humor in the same pedantic manner as Prof. Scidmore, citing “Aristotle’s dictum” and “the ha-guffaw-aw-ha,ha formula.” Scidmore is impressed enough to move Winkie up to the study of *commedia* *dell’arte.* Drawing on a remark Num Nums made that Chunk the white hamster was “dumb as a dog,” he flips the script and creates a *commedia dell’arte*-type character: Tartuffe, the Spry Wonder Dog, “a dog as smart as a boy” and “a precocious trickster.” Scidmore characterizes it as “magnificently absurd.” Mr. Squiggles still doesn’t want Winkie doing his thing at home so Winkie doesn’t tell him. Winkie then decides to work up a Tartuffe routine for the Zhu Zhu Middle School Talent Show, complete with 16th century-style costuming. On the day of the Talent Show, Prof. Scidmore takes it upon himself to call Mr. Squiggles at work to get him to attend and show support for Winkie’s clowning. Mr. Squiggles is horrified when he hears the Professor tell Winkie to “Practice your flouncing” and leaves the office. The Talent Show is about what you’d expect a middle-school talent show to be: the cheerleaders do one of their dance routines, Chunk the white hamster bangs on a drum kit. Mr. Squiggles gets to the school by way of home where he picks up some of Winkie’s old comedy props, which he calls “gag toys.” He tells Winkie he doesn’t think Winkie’s funny but he also thinks that his *commedia dell’arte* “jester crap” isn’t funny either, just weird, so he wants Winkie to do his old shtick to save himself from impending social embarrassment. Winkie, convinced that he’s learning to be a “real clown,” goes into his Tartuffe routine but realizes he’s losing his audience (except for Prof. Scidmore). Mr. Squiggles then tosses Winkie’s whoopee cushion onto the stage and Winkie starts doing fart jokes, to the dismay of Prof. Scidmore and Principal Groucho, who puts Winkie in detention, and to Mr. Squiggles’ relief. This echoes Mr. Squiggles' pulling Winkie out of the fashion show in "Husky Red" before Stinker and his crew start whipping donuts at the boy models. In the subplot, a kickball rolls into the alley and the residents start up a game. Scoodles gets picked last, but Nugget the orange hamster proves to be absolutely hopeless at the sport. Jilly then kicks the ball out of the alley and everybody gets on with their lives.

## Trivia

* A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Clown is the episode that doesn't has any animation errors or deleted scenes.