Bye Bye Nerdy (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)

Note:
Not to be confused with "Bye Bye Nerdie", an episode from the 12th season of The Simpsons.

"Bye Bye Nerdy"
Why would being smart make you a nerd and being cool would make everyone like you?
Series: Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends Part of Season: 2 Episode Number: 11 Air Date: July 1, 2005 Writer: Tim McKeon Director: Craig McCracken Previous episode: The Sweet Stench of Success Next episode: Bloo Done It

Bye Bye Nerdy is the 11th episode in the second season of Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, and the twenty-fifth episode overall.

Plot

When Bloo sees Mac in school and thinks that he's a nerd, Bloo tries to make Mac cool.

Why It Should Go Bye Bye

1. The episode views nerds as stereotypical dorks who are no good at anything, which is false.
2. Bloo acts more selfish in this episode as he decides to change Mac's personality from smart to cool. Bloo is also far dumber because he sees Mac in a classroom after school and thinks that he's a nerd.
3. This episode is also infamous for being a Mac torture episode, due to how everyone mistreats Mac believing him to be a nerd.
4. Mr. Herriman tries to get Bloo adopted by another family and even cheers when Bloo is getting adopted by another family, despite him promising Mac that Bloo would not be adopted.
5. Mac abandons Bloo in Foster's to spend time with Jamez, despite knowing what will happen to Bloo if he does not appear at Foster's at a certain time.
6. Pointless filler, such as the school scene where Mac is in an odd outfit.
7. Jamez Withazee is a horrible character as he tries to keep Mac at "The Rock" with him and even calls him a nerd after Mac stands up for Bloo.
   • On that topic, he is a huge typical cool kid-type character, which is generic and lazy in a show, not even his voice sounds different to a cliched "teenage slacker from the 90s".
8. That look that Bloo makes as he gets picked on by Mac's peers is one of the worst moments in the series.
9. Very poor ending that is just plain cruel and hard to watch. Bloo gets made fun of by Mac's peers, so Mac stands up for him, but after Jamez says otherwise and calls Mac a nerd, Mac and Bloo get teased by Mac's peers, just because he hangs out with Bloo, his imaginary friend. When Bloo asks Mac why he was studying inside, it turns out that Mac had detention for shooting spitballs, and Bloo says that he is cool, but when Mac does an equation, Bloo calls him a nerd even after what happened, then Mac angrily chases him and the episode ends there, which shows that Bloo never learned his lesson.
   • To be fair, Mac outright revealing to a bunch of kids and (to a lesser extent) Jamez that he spends time with Bloo wasn't exactly a bright move since Mac is pretty much revealing that despite being a teenager, he (Mac) still spends time with an Imaginary Friend (Bloo) despite being too old to have him, and as such, Mac should have known that he would get pick on, but that doesn't make this ending that much better.
10. Mr. Herriman, Jamez, and the kids that picked on Bloo (aside from getting backlash a bit by Mac) never get punished for their actions.
11. This episode includes a terrible moral to kids, that being that standing up for others is wrong and that you will be made fun of by it, this is shown when Mac stood up to his peers for Bloo, only to then be made fun of as well after Jamez calls him a nerd.
12. This episode contains an extremely big plot hole, one big example involves the ending when the kids make fun of Bloo by calling him a nerd, and later Mac when he states that he's his Imaginary Friend, the kids have absolutely no reason to act like this to Mac and especially Bloo, the reason for this is because this episode is after "Bloo's Brothers", an episode where the kids are shown to love Bloo and even cheers for Mac's presentation of having an imaginary friend! After the presentation, many kids from Mac's class and school started to imagine their versions of Bloo.
13. This whole episode could have easily been avoided if Mac had just gone to visit Bloo and avoided Jamze.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Although it was a bit of a mistake for Mac to utterly reveal to his peers that he spends time with Bloo, it was very sweet that Mac does not laugh at Bloo unlike his peers, and even stands up for him. Mac’s speech about the only way to be cool is to be yourself was also amazingly heartwarming and the best aspect of this otherwise lackluster episode.
2. There are a few funny moments, such as the Blues Brothers references.

Reception

This episode has been heavily disliked by fans, due to how it insults intelligent individuals in a cruel way (especially mocking them and calling individuals like that nerds), Bloo being more selfish by changing Mac's personality, Mac disregarding the risks of abandoning Bloo at Foster's to go with Jamez Withazee, as well as unfairly getting mistreated and the very cruel ending were Mac and Bloo gets picked on.

Jamez Withazee is also classified as an EXTREMELY unlikable and often considered the worst character in the episode, due to his unoriginal personality and his infamous moment of dissing Mac near the end of the episode, fans considered this as one of the (if not one of the) worst and downright meanest moments in the entire Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends series.

Another thing fans criticize is Mr. Herriman's portrayal in this episode, many think that Mr. Herriman trying to get Bloo adopted is often considered one of his worst moments in the series. Fans even considered it as way out of character for Mr. Herriman.

Because of the episode's poor views, this has been labeled as 100% non-canon to the rest of the series, thus making this the second non-canonical episode of the series, in addition to that, Jamze would also be removed from the show never to be seen or mentioned again, and the negative actions of Mac' peers would also never have happened.

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