Imposter's Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)
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 More like, "Imposter's home for, um...terrible episodes".
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Imposters Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals is an episode from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. It is the fourth episode of season 3, and is overall the thirty-first episode of the series.
Plot
A strange imaginary friend known as Goofball John McGee comes to Foster's, and makes a total nuisance of himself. Frankie thinks Goofball is actually a teenager, passing himself off as an imaginary friend, as he always needs help with homework, and someone to wash his football jerseys, and eats all the food that Frankie buys from the store, but everyone else believes otherwise. So now, Frankie is out to prove him, as a fraud.
Why It Won't Make 'Em Up
- To get the elephant out of the room, it's an extremely evil Frankie torture episode, due to Goofball and Mr. Herriman consistently mistreating Frankie throughout the ENTIRE episode.
- This episode is also extremely mean-spirited, due to all the mistreatment Frankie gets throughout the episode, as stated earlier.
- In general, everything about Goofball, from his voice, to his characterization, to the fact that he's the one that makes Frankie go through hell throughout this episode, to even his design makes him insufferable.
- Frankie keeps getting blamed for things that Goofball and the others do and is forced to clean them up, and is incredibly hard to watch.
- Similar to Plankton in the infamously hated SpongeBob SquarePants season 7 episode, "One Coarse Meal", this episode literally tries way too hard to make Frankie suffer even though she did absolutely nothing wrong in this episode, all she did was yell at Bloo and told him to pay the "Frankie is right, and Bloo is wrong" jar afterward and was trying to get her chores done, she has the right to be like that, since she's the caretaker!
- Mr. Herriman himself is at his absolute worst here, possibly even worse than as he was in "Crime After Crime", as he acts like there isn't a thing wrong with Goofball, and accuses Frankie of trying to harass him and yet he treats Frankie unfairly throughout, as well. Mr. Herriman also acts hypocritical towards Frankie and scolds her for suggesting take-out for dinner, but was okay with Goofball ordering pizza while Frankie went out grocery shopping, and the worst part is when Mr. Herriman has enough of this after seeing Frankie dress up like Goof-Goof, he bans Frankie from a concert she wanted to attend.
- Mac's cameo has come off as hated as it’s implied that he betrayed Frankie and told Goofball off-screen that Frankie was going undercover as Goof-Goof.
- Many, many, many, MANY extremely mean-spirited moments, that are utterly unwatchable. One of the most noticeable examples is the scene where Frankie puts a bunch of babies to sleep, then Goofball comes in and wakes up the babies, promises them all candy to calm them down and after Frankie says no to candy, the baby that Frankie is holding says, "I hate you Frankie!" with all of the other babies crying. This is one of the most mean-spirited things to appear in the entire Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends series, and is probably the main reason why everyone hates this episode.
- When Frankie dresses up as Goof-Goof, none of Foster’s residents realize that Frankie is in a freaking costume. This is quite frustrating if you think about it, as this shows that the Foster's residents treat her like a servant, not a caring owner.
- The writing in this episode is just as bad as Everyone Knows It's Bendy, if not worse.
- The look that Frankie makes after Goofball mocks her for missing the fake-outs is EXTREMELY horrifying, out-of-place and WILL give you nightmares.
- Terrible and utterly horrible ending that comes off as extremely insulting and is a humongous slap-in-the-face: In the ending, Goofball mocks Frankie for missing the fake-outs, which causes Frankie to snap and go all out on him. After catching up to him and pulling his clown nose off of him, do you think this episode will give Frankie justice after all she went through? Wrong! Because it's revealed that Goofball really was an imaginary friend all along, under his clown nose was an elephant trunk. This proceeded to have everyone look down on Frankie and now hate her, which allows Goofball to get away scot-free with his actions. Now Frankie is forced to pay Bloo the "Bloo is right, and Frankie is wrong" jar for the very first time, and has to apologize to Goofball for "being wrong". As such, not only did this ending make Frankie look like a complete idiot, and a fool in front of everybody, but it’s nothing more than the episode delivering one big fat middle finger to her after all she went through.
- Goofball and Mr. Herriman never get any comeuppance for their ungrateful actions against Frankie, and Frankie never gets any compensation for how harshly she was treated.
- The hints to show that Goofball was a human, come off as pointless, considered that Goofball was, indeed, an imaginary friend.
- Massive plot-holes, the biggest example is probably the ending, Goofball was an imaginary friend all along, so in that case, why didn't Goofball tell Frankie that he was one in the first place?!?
- Adding into that, Mr. Herriman also says an EXTREMELY infamous line, "Oh, who would fall for such a disguise?", from that line ALONE, it’s revealed that Mr. Herriman has secretly KNEW that Goofball was an imaginary friend as well, WHY didn't he just tell Frankie that is beyond anyone's guess.
- There’s a very lame attempt at a heartwarming moment between Goofball and Frankie, as it's ruined by all the amount of torture that Frankie's been through, as well as the infamous "twist". It could have been better if, as stated in "Why It Won't Make 'Em Up" #15, Goofball showed his nose in the first place.
- The terrible “being a bully to others is okay and standing up for yourself is wrong” moral is not only taught in this episode, but also repeated from the Season 2 episode, “Everyone Knows It’s Bendy”, as Frankie snaps and stands up to Goofball for tormenting her, yet she is portrayed as the one in the wrong for it, as shown by the "twist" revealing that Goofball was an imaginary friend. The show even adds emphasis on this by having Frankie admit that she was wrong to Goofball and then pay Bloo up for being wrong, which is not true.
- Goofball and Mr. Herriman never apologize to Frankie, for the way they mistreated her.
Redeeming Qualities
- The title is an amusing simplification of the show's name.
- At least Goofball doesn't appear anywhere in the show afterwards, even better he doesn't even get so much as a mention.
- Bloo at least gets his punishment during the end credits.
- Thankfully, plots of this episode have been ignored, so you can say that this episode is 100% unofficial, and skip it.
- Frankie is still a likable character.
Reception and Controversy
Since today, "Imposters Home for Um... Make Em' Up Pals" has received very controversial reviews, and has been universally and critically panned by fans and critics alike, many have considered this not only the worst episode of season 3, but it also considered by fans as one of the single worst episodes in the entire Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends series, as well as being considered as the single worst, if not, THE worst episode of any show on Cartoon Network. It got to the point that fans and critics even went so far as to say that it's even WORSE than "Everyone Knows It's Bendy".
Many fans criticize Frankie for being ungratefully mistreated throughout the whole episode, fans felt very sorry for Frankie being tortured and felt like the episode is literary making Frankie suffer for no reason whatsoever, with the ending being one of the worst examples.
Goofball would also be the primary criticism for this episode, due to his annoying personality, Goofball being the cause of all of the amount of torture Frankie goes through, as well as his ungrateful actions against Frankie, next to Bendy, Goofball would often be considered by fans to be one of the WORST characters in cartoon history, let alone one of the worst in the ENTIRE Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends franchise.
In addition to Goofball, Mr. Herriman would also be considered as the secondary antagonist, and the second worst character in this episode, being strangely and unusually nice to Goofball, all the while acting very strict and cruel to Frankie, even to the point of banning Frankie from going to the fake-outs, fans declare that this is one of Mr. Herriman's worst episodes to appear in.
Another example of this episode being critically panned by many fans is Mac's cameo, as there is a high possibility that he might have secretly betrayed Frankie, it's heavily implied that Mac told Goofball off-screen that Frankie was going undercover as Goof-Goof McGoof, even going so far as to use Frankie's own money that she bribed him to buy "The Fake-outs" t-shirts, this scenery makes it even worse as Mac is shown to have a crush on Frankie.
One final example of this episode being universally hated and critically panned by fans is the out-of-nowhere, random and EXTREMELY unfair ending, with Goofball being revealed that he really WAS an imaginary friend all along, allowing Goofball to get off scot-free and receiving zero punishments, while feeling little-to-no remorse or even guilt for his actions against Frankie, all the while Frankie now looks like a complete fool and an idiot in front of everyone that is the nail that sealed this episode, fans considered the ending as one of the single worst endings in the ENTIRE Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends series. They even went as far as to say that it's even worse than the ending of "Everyone Knows Its Bendy".
Because of this episode's massively poor reviews by critics and fans, like the outcome to "Everyone Knows It's Bendy", "Bye Bye Nerdy", and the later four episodes "Duchess of Wails", "Foster's Goes To Europe", "I Only Have Surprise For You", and "The Big Cheese", it was soon officially declared as unofficial to the entire Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends series. Thus, making it the third unofficial episode of the series. Goofball would also be the third "one-time-only character" in the Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends series and would never be seen or even mentioned again for the rest of the series, with the first two being Bendy and Jamze, and the huge amount of unfair mistreatment to Frankie, as well as the negative actions and punishments enforced by Mr. Herriman to Frankie would also never happen.
The episode was placed at #2 on Jem Reviews', "Top 10 WORST episodes of GOOD cartoons", video, for he criticizes Goofball's actions, and the cruel, unfair, and out-of-nowhere ending.
In the YouTuber Ethan Broussard's review of "Imposter's Home for Um... Make Em Up Pals", he gave this episode an overwhelming negative review, and also considered this as the single worst episode in all of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, for he criticized the amount of torture that Frankie goes through and he even states that despite having a chuckle, Ethan Broussard says that it's even WORSE than, "Everyone Knows it's Bendy", he even says that the episode was so bad, it hurt and broke him and even drove him insane so much, that he had to take breaks from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Ethan Broussard also state that he felt the most uncomfortable since watching the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "Good Neighbors".
Trivia
- Though Goofball was the one in conflict with Frankie, Mr. Herriman could be considered the true main antagonist of the episode, due to his nonchalant behavior towards Goofball, and his uncharacteristic unfairness towards Frankie.
- Throughout the episode, there were possible hints, and clues, to show that Goofball wasn't a true imaginary friend:
- When Goofball comes to Foster's and Frankie asks his name, Goofball had to think of one, implying that he faked his so-called "imaginary friend" name.
- Goofball's attitude was the typical teen human attitude, not the colorful and bizarre attitude of an imaginary friend.
- Goofball forced Frankie to do his homework, showing that he goes to school, despite being an imaginary friend.
- Goofball has teen friends, that have similar attitudes to him and also one of them called him John, implying that Goofball isn't his true name, though it could be his middle name.
- When Frankie confronts Goofball regarding his creator, he had to think the name of his creator and he didn't know the phone number of his creator either, despite his claims that he and his creator were, "very close".
- When Frankie begins to yell at Goofball, saying that she is no longer going to do any of his chores and homework because she knows that Goofball is not an imaginary friend due to her finding a clown nose on the floor, Goofball seemed scared, was gasping in horror and was even hiding his nose with his hands.
- On that topic, Goofball's face, was hidden behind an arcade game, as Frankie approaches him, to criticize him, as she found a clown nose.
- He, besides Mac, can see through the, "Goof-Goof" disguise of Frankie while the rest of the imaginary friends were easily fooled by her costume, implying that Goofball was a human-like Frankie and Mac.
- What's probably the biggest hint is near the end of the episode, when Frankie ultimately snaps and gives chase to Goofball after he mocks her for missing the fake-outs, Goofball attempted to keep Frankie from pulling off his clown nose and was even scared as he hid his nose with both of his hands after Frankie pulled off his clown nose, suggesting that he has a human nose.
- By all of these hints however, many fans were extremely outraged with the final part in that Goofball revealed that he was in fact a true imaginary friend. Many fans think that this ending was a forced plot twist just to bash poor Frankie in the head to avoid getting justice by the unfair treatment that she must endure in the episode. As such, not only does this entire ending make Frankie look like a horrible person in front of everybody, but it also made all of these possible hints beyond pointless and made all of the fans look like complete fools for even believing that he was a human.
- This twist makes it even worse as Goofball's elephant trunk is way too thick and large to fit inside of a small clown nose that's about the size of a small marble, and throughout the episode when we see Goofball from the sides, it looks like a human nose, so it is possible combining with the hints, that they were originally going to make Goofball reveal that he was a human, but decided to change it for some unexplained reason.
- Due to Goofball, and the episode's massively poor reviews, by fans and critics alike, this episode has been considered unofficial for the rest of the series. Goofball himself has also been declared a removed character, and has never made a second appearance, nor does he even get mentioned.
- This is the third episode to be declared unofficial, the first two being "Everyone Knows It's Bendy" and "Bye Bye Nerdy", for similar reasons.
- Despite this episode being declared unofficial, it does prove that it can be difficult to identify some human-like imaginary friends as imaginary friends, due to their appearance.
- Lauren Faust had stated on her Twitter page that the original pitch to Goofball's story was that he was supposed to be a strange man in his 30's pretending to be an imaginary friend and leaching off Foster's, as well as a much more satisfying and justifiable ending to Frankie. However, due to the direction it would be when aiming towards children, especially since having a strange, lazy, confused and lonely 30-something-year-old man wouldn't be seen as relatable, quirky and not quite child-friendly, a change had to happen. They were asked by Cartoon Network executives to make Goofball a teenager and later revealed to be a real imaginary friend. This was done to be relatable to kids, be family-friendly and prevent backlash from parents from a creepiness factor. Unfortunately, all of the possible hints and clues that were shown in the episode to show that Goofball was not an imaginary friend, as well as the "Frankie torture scenes" were not properly removed or remade, Faust also said because of this, the original plan and expected plot of Imposter's Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals was ruined, thus not only creating one of the most controversial and hated episode in the Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends series, but also creating one of the worst endings in the entire Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends series.