One of the Boys (The Loud House)

One of the Boys (The Loud House)
If you want to make an episode that uses the Rule 63 concept, make sure you handle it wisely.
Series: The Loud House Part of Season: 1 Episode Number: 23a Air Date: October 17, 2016 Writer: Kevin Sullivan Director: Chris Savino Previous episode: A Fair to Remember Next episode: A Tattler's Tale

"One of the Boys" is the first half of the twenty-third episode from the first season of The Loud House.

Why It's One of the Worst Episodes

1. The Loud House is widely known for avoiding gender norms and stereotypes as it maintains characters with unique personalities (at least until seasons 4-present), so this episode goes against the purpose of the show itself as it has bland and rushed writing, and it somewhat feels like executive meddling.
2. This episode also goes against the intro itself since it was mentioned in the aforementioned song that Lincoln wouldn't trade his sisters for the world no matter what.
3. The Loud Brothers are just stereotypical representations of their original female counterparts as they never act anything like them (aside from Leon and male Lynn, who are somewhat close). They are also bastards towards Lincoln, act more like generic bullies, and have no unique traits or personalities unlike their female counterparts, also, the brothers' "parents" are just Lynn Sr. and Rita wearing their clothes, except with swapped colors.
   • Also, the Loud brothers' names are corny and dull, it would make sense and be creative if it was, for example, Larry (Lori), Lenny (Leni), Logan (Luan), Lucas (Lucy), Lolo (Lola), Lance (Lana, however, there is already a character that occupies this name), Louis (Lisa), and Leroy (Lily).
   • While the Loud sisters can be sometimes mean to Lincoln, they still have strong devotion for him; nonetheless, the brothers are even worse and never show any form of sympathy, empathy, fondness, or regard towards Lincoln unlike the Loud sisters; only when Lincoln suggests the idea of going to Dairyland and Gus' Game and Grub is when they are first shown how bratty they are.
   • Nevertheless, it was decent when the Loud brothers start to treat Linka (who is the female counterpart of Lincoln) with endearment and kindness, but it was still sexist of them.
4. An earlier episode from the first season, "Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru", proves that not all girls can be the same, so the same couldn't be said for the boys, which shows that this episode has sexist and mean-spirited writing.
5. In this episode, all of the sisters reject Lincoln's proposal of going to Dairyland, even Luna, Luan, Lynn, Lana, and Lisa for some reason; as seen in "In Tents Debate" the aforementioned sisters were interested in going to Dairyland, especially Lana, who was eager to visit Dairyland, as seen in "Toads and Tiaras".
6. It gives a horrible and (somewhat) sexist message to the audience, saying that "abusing your male sibling(s) and making them miserable is cool", when almost all the population of those with siblings aren't actually like this.
   • In addition, not all brothers are this disgusting and abusive.
7. Because of the brothers' behaviors, the premise of gender-swapped sisters has never been done in the show anymore since this episode.
8. Lots of gross-out/toilet humor is present here, including a sexist running joke where one of Lincoln's brothers would randomly belch or fart "because they're guys", the Dutch oven running gag, the bathroom scene (including Luke (male Luna), swirling Lincoln), Lincoln burping in front of Luan as well as eating the peanut butter, and also the "touching food with the booger-picking finger" running gag. In general, it feels like the episode gives a message that "brothers love to belch/fart".
9. The final nail in the coffin is when it is revealed that the episode was just Lincoln's nightmare, which not only is a pointless usage of the overused "it was all just a dream" cliché, but also renders the whole episode entirely meaningless.
   • It also contradicts the beginning as Lisa said Hmmm after Lincoln said that he wished he had brothers. So did Lisa make his dream? If so, that means that she is cruel and insensitive and caused Lincoln's torture.
   • After Lincoln wakes up from a nightmare, when the sisters, alarmed by their brother's screams, burst into his room and ask him if he's all right, he assures them he's fine and expresses his appreciation for having sisters instead of brothers (confusing his sisters until he claims he was talking about nuns). Of course, because he is afraid they will tell him the truth about not wanting sisters in the loud house.
10. Plot hole: If the Loud brothers said that Ronnie Anne was Lincoln's princess, and this was a gender-bent world, shouldn't there be a gender-bent version of Ronnie Anne?
11. None of Lincoln's brothers receive any comeuppances nor get punished for mistreating Lincoln, making them Karma Houdinis.
12. This episode is somewhat sexist and seemingly promotes misandry as the Loud brothers are all portrayed as complete jerks to Lincoln just to make them bad fools to the Loud sisters and make the sisters look better by gender. The episode suggests that being a jerk and a bully are inherent traits for boys.
13. Hypocrisy: While this episode strongly suggests that being a jerk and a bully are traits for boys, episodes before and after this one had the Loud sisters treat Lincoln poorly with some of their actions being worse than what the Loud brothers did.
14. The episode is a rehash of the Dexter's Laboratory episode “Oh Brother” as both of these episodes had the protagonists wish that they had a brother instead of a sister only to have that wish granted and have them realize that their brother counterparts are jerks who are worse than the sister counterparts. Both of these episodes were even directed by Chris Savino and given that these episodes were made years apart and taught the same messages, it shows that Savino didn’t listen to the criticism from the “Oh Brother” episode.
15. Half-Bad Ending: After Lincoln’s nightmare, his sisters comfort him. But when Lincoln tells them that he’s glad they’re not brothers, this nearly angers them. Then, when he is given a watch that was similar to the dimension watch, he breaks it and this gets Lori and Lola mad at him. After that, right before the episode ends, Lynn Jr. pulls down Lincoln’s pants.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Despite being poorly executed, there were still some good ideas interpreted by the gender-bent Loud brothers:
   • The designs for The Loud sisters as the boys were decent.
   • The voices for the four oldest Loud brothers were great casting choices.
   • They weren’t that much of a problem towards Lincoln, since they were only part of Lincoln’s dream.
   • At least they were nicer to Linka Loud, who was practically a gender-bent Lincoln during the dream, even though that was sexist of them.
   • At least the fact that they torment Lincoln isn’t all the time, like when they’re first introduced.
   • Levi Loud is the only tolerable out of all of the brothers.
2. Half-Good Ending: Lincoln doesn’t have to deal with his mean brothers since it was all just a dream. And while he does make Lori and Lola angry, they don’t physically torment him like his brothers.
3. The scene with Linka Loud is decent.
4. It has a moral saying be careful about what you wish for and that having siblings isn't that bad.
5. Lincoln, his sisters, Clyde, and the gender bend parents (alongside Bun-Bun) are all likable characters.
6. The scene where Lincoln mistakes Lori's watch for the interdimensional watch from the dream and breaks it, followed by Lori saying that he has to pay in money and Lola saying, 'You, sir, have no class!' was the only good joke in this episode.
7. It at least didn't screw up the Rule 63 concept the same way Teen Titans Go! did.

Reception

Despite the episode getting an 8.6 on IMDB with A Tattler's Tale (probably because of its sister episode A Tattler's Tale), this episode got mainly negative reviews from fans and critics and is considered one of the worst episodes of the series.

Trivia

1. This is the first episode in which Collin Dean voices Lincoln.
2. The male counterparts of the four oldest Loud sisters are voiced by the actors of the turtles in the 2012 series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Seth Green (Leonardo in the last three seasons) as Loki, Sean Astin (Raphael) as Loni, Greg Cipes (Michelangelo) as Luke, and Rob Paulsen (Donatello) as Lane. Meanwhile, the rest of the Loud siblings and their gender-swapped counterparts each share the same voice actors and actresses.
3. The Loud brothers have gotten a cult following, with a lot of fans wanting them to return and/or get their spin-off series.

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