Be A-Fred, Be Very A-Fred (The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy)

"Be A-Fred, Be Very A-Fred (The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy)"
Be annoying, be very annoying.
Series: The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy Part of Season: 5 Episode Number: 22 Air Date: July 24, 2006 Writer: C.H. Greenblatt Director: Sue Perrotto Previous episode: Spidermandy Next episode: The Crass Unicorn

Be A-Fred, Be Very A-Fred is the 22nd episode from season five of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.

Summery

Grim is tasked by a company that he works for, Big Moves, to give Fred Fredburger the best day ever by spending a day with Fred Fredburger at a Frozen Yogurt shop to avoid getting fired, but that turns out to be a horrible experience for all.

Why It’s Annoying, Very Annoying

1. The biggest issue with this episode is that it is mostly loaded with boring, moronic, and unfunny filler while ultimately leading to an incredibly predicted and downright insultingly sadistic ending. This is also typically just one of those cartoon episodes in general that start out good but soon goes downhill.
2. Having an episode like this that's lazily written is one thing, but this episode also marks one of the many moments in the series where Grim's Butt-Monkey status is way too exaggerated, if not at its worst particularly in this episode, mainly due to him receiving more unnecessary amounts of mistreatment and torture than usual, just for cheap laughs, especially in the ending.
   • In fact, the episode tries too hard to make Grim unlikable and suffer even tho he did nothing wrong to deserve this (aside from an incident that will be explained in #8).
3. The lead executive from the Big Move company that Grim works for is a very unlikable one-time character, he calls Grim a failure for not doing so well at his task and also blames Grim for their sales going down since both he and the other executives hired him, and after Grim makes a vale promise that he will give Fred Fredburger the best day ever and that it will be a success, the lead executive then proceed to threaten Grim with termination and violence if he fails, which by the end, both he and the other executives do exactly just that, fire Grim with an actual flamethrower and beat him senseless, which is cruel, especially for something Grim was at no fault for. More on that later.
   • On that subject, the executives are also incredibly sarcastic jerks, as shown by the lead executive asking who's "dumb" idea was it to hire Grim, only for one of executives (who looks like SpongeBob from Spongebob SquarePants) to hide down, this scene is quite frustrating as they act like its not their fault that Grim's been hired, even tho they were the ones who hired Grim in the first place.
4. On the subject of Fred Fredburger himself, he's the main focus of this episode and serves nothing to the episode other than failed humor due to providing gross-out and toilet humor. Granted he did make lazy humor in the episode "Keeper of the Reaper", but at least that had charm in his first appearance in the series. Fred Fredburger's second appearance in this episode just brings out the worst of him. In fact, despite being the main focus, he is generally just here to be portrayed as more of a comic relief. This is a bit pointless considering that The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is pretty much a comedy show as a whole, and even Billy is already used for this purpose.
   • Likewise, the only reason Fred Fredburger even enters Grim's essay contest was for a petty reason: "I want to eet sum frozun yogert.". No really, thats how he wrote it, and yes, he just wants to go to a frozen yogurt shop.
5. All of the other jokes with Fred Fredburger in this episode are unfunny, annoying, dumb, lazy, and they drag on for way too long, particularly in a frozen yogurt shop, such as:
   • Fred Fredburger repeatedly asks the cashier which color of the flavors are while Grim, Billy, and Mandy wait in line for him.
   • Fred Fredburger and Billy shouting 13 times in a row combined in "brain freeze stereo" while Mandy looks on with annoyance.
   • Mandy repeatedly snapping a picture of Grim and Fred Fredburger when they were not ready, and Fred Fredburger being distracted by his pathetic yogurt which also messes up the photo.
6. Speaking of the frozen yogurt shop, most of the episode takes place there, so it's visually uninteresting.
7. Billy and Mandy themselves serves as nothing other than being filler and are cardboard cutouts, as they don't do anything to help Grim other than to annoy him in their ways (at least until near the end of the episode were Billy and Mandy do eventually help Grim by given him the idea for them to go to Sassy cat Land), making them no better than Fred Fredburger himself.
   • In fact, both Billy and Mandy are literary drop out of the episode after being shown on the ride in Sassy Cat Land with Grim and Fred Fredburger, and are never seen again, so it makes you wonder as to what their inclusion in this episode was even there in the first place.
8. The scene where Grim smacks Fred Fredburger's trunk when the latter attempts to eat the Frozen Yogurt, causing Fred Fredburger to cry is incredible mean-spirited and utterly harsh to do that on a fun loving character like Fred Fredburger (Granted, Grim did that because he's trying to get a good photo of himself and Fred Fredburger, but Fred Fredburger keeps getting distracted by the Frozen Fogurt, but that's still kind of mean).
9. After Billy gets in the way of the camera Mandy tried to snap a picture of both Grim and Fred Fredburger, and Grim smacking the table out of anger due to Billy's stupidity which accidentally causes Fred's frozen yogurt to fly into the air and down to the floor, Fred Fredburger has a pointless emotional breakdown, accuses Grim of "killing" his yogurt, runs off and hides in the freezer. Billy then calls Grim a "yogurt killer", even though it was Billy's fault.
   • Even worst, Grim never calls out Billy for that reason and just brushes it off as he goes after Fred Fredburger.
   • On that subject, this scene in particular leads to a plot hole: Why doesn't Grim just buy Fred Fredburger another Frozen Yogurt?
10. The infamous moment near the end of the episode when Grim, Fred Fredburger, Billy, and Mandy go to Sassy Cat Land, Fred Fredburger accidentally goes flying off on one of the rides that they're on due to him not properly holding on as a result of his hyperactive stupidity. Grim then sorrowfully confesses the situation to the executives, tho rather than given Grim time to say that Fred Fredburger might be fine since they never found Fred Fredburger, believing Fred Fredburger to be dead, the lead executive punches him in the face, causing Grim to fall to the ground and whimpering, then the other executives beat him senseless using baseball bats for ruining their company, then the lead executive fires Grim from their company, then another executives burn Grim with a flamethrower and later on both the lead and other executives spill hot coffee on Grim, this is, without a dough, one of the cruelest and downright meanest moments to have ever happen to Grim, especially considering that it wasn't Grim's fault that Fred Fredburger is too stupid to hold the bar, and is the main reason as to why fans dislike this episode.
    • This scene also fibs what would have been a happy ending for Grim, this episode could have easily followed up with the lead executive giving Grim a promotion for his excellent work for given Fred Fredburger the best day ever after the Sassy Cat Land scene and ended right here, so it would have the very least made the episode passable.
11. Incredible insulting ending were in the final scene of the episode, it shows an unknown location where Fred Fredburger winds up completely fine and is rescued from a snowdrift by a yeti, and yet HE gets a happy ending when Fred Fredburger gets to live with the yetis, and its reviled that the yetis eat nachos and frozen yogurt, so basically, Grim DID sucsess in giving Fred Fredburger the best day ever, so that also means that Grim gets punished for no reason.
12. Both the lead executive and the other executives that Grim works for never get punish for their harsh actions against Grim.
13. Despite its poor plot, this episode is actually a Wasted Potential of a great concept, the idea of an episode about Grim, Billy and Mandy spending a day with Fred Fredburger was a great idea on paper, the episode could have been about Grim, Billy and Mandy and Fred Fredburger doing many sinanikings and have creative funny gags along the way, but instead, this whole episode is nothing more the Grim and co. being at a frozen yogurt shop for most of the episode, and Grim getting mistreated for no reason.
14. Despite Fred Fredburger being portrayed better outside of this show (Notably the second Grim & Evil TV Movie, Underfist: Halloween Bash, the cross-over film "The Grim Adventures of the KND" and Cartoon Network's "Yes Era" bumpers), he wasn't even given a chance to redeem himself or even apologize to Grim for not showing empathy to him, making Fred Fredburger himself a karma houdini.
15. Overall, due to its filler-like plot, this episode serves no impact on The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy series (or the Grim & Evil series as a whole) what-so-ever since plots of this episode were never mentioned again, you can watch any episode from the Grim & Evil series, skipping "Be A-Fred, Be Very A-Fred"(and a few other stinkers that people like to considered non-canon to the Grim & Evil series), and anything too importing will not be missed.
16. This episode even sends out a bad moral showing that being abusive to your fellow employees or worker is okay as shown by the lead executive and the other executives getting agressive with Grim by threatening to shoot him with flamethrowers and have him assaulted with baseball bats.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Grim and Fred Fredburger are tolerable characters.
2. The first few minutes were okay.
3. One of the executive members looking like SpongeBob from SpongeBob SquarePants, which could be amusing and a bit funny to fans to critics who are a fan of the said Nickelodeon cartoon.

Reception

"Be A-Fred, Be Very A-Fred" received mixed reviews by critics and fans alike, while some fans do praised the gags and its heartwarming ending, others criticize Fred Fredburger's character and Grim unfairly getting mistreated though out the episode.

Trivia

• C.H. Greenblatt (the writer of this episode) is also the writer of SpongeBob SquarePants, which explains the reference in this episode.