The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 5: Inquisitor Badman

Monkey Challenge: Pigsy Woos A Widow

This is a memorable - in a good way - episode for two reasons.

First, the story is pretty unusual for Monkey, in that the threat of the week - The Spirit of All Great Snakes - is a relatively minor antagonist, who is only a threat to Tripitaka because Pigsy and Monkey have been separated from him by the consequences of Pigsy's actions.

It is actually the antics of Pigsy that takes up most of the episode. Having decided he wants to marry a rich widow they met on their journey, Pigsy has left the others to stay at her house. The widow, on the other hand, wanted to marry Tripitaka - who naturally refused this - and only accepts Pigsy as a worker, not a potential husband.

When Pigsy finally accepts this, he changes his appearance to that of Tripitaka.

This perfect disguise is foiled by one thing - Monkey. Monkey has put a spell on Pigsy so that whenever he has "rude thoughts" (Monkey's words) he will turn into a full pig. This is very amusing, and ensures that Pigsy can't have any success with the widow, disguised or not.

Actually, Pigsy was well on the way to ruining things for himself even without Monkey's interference, due to his complete inability to act anything at all like the saintly Tripitaka.

Unluckily for Monkey, while he is disguised as an insect to spy on Pigsy, he is hit on the head by the serving girl. The narrator sums up what happens next:

"The wicked go to hells, the good go to heavens, and the pure neither live nor ever die. But those hit on the head tend to fall unconscious. Monkey has lost his memory."

He is then found by some locals and kept in a cage for some free public entertainment, until Tripitaka - under threat of torture by the Spirit of All Great Snakes - uses the headache sutra on Monkey and causes him to get his memory back. After this he makes short work of the villain.

The second reason for this episode being memorable is the trippy effects during Monkey's fights with the villain at both the beginning and the end of the episode - they're not great or impressive effects (though pretty good by the standards of the series) but used well.

When the Spirit of All Great Snakes is defeated by Monkey, he turns into an animated green snake, slithers up into the sky, and then explodes like a firework.

Overall this is a very imaginative episode, and well worth watching.

"Stephen Fry Up" sounds a bit rude

Everybody's Big Gay Boyfriend Sir Stephen Fry has made us noms.

Nom nom nom.

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 4: Space Orks

Monkey Challenge: The Beginning of Wisdom

The episode begins with Monkey and co arriving at a seemingly deserted town. There is a drought and they are all near the point of dying of thirst. This bit is very atmospheric, as they explore the town and we, the viewers, catch glimpses of the hidden townspeople while the characters remain oblivious of them.

Eventually it moves on to the next part of the story - Tripitaka is captured by the townsfolk and they plan to hand him over to the Drought Monster who has been terrorising their town, giving them water only in exchange for young boys, whom it eats.

The locals are not evil though, and quickly see the error of their ways - but there is still the problem of the Drought Monster. Pigsy - as part of a sub-plot about how he has taken over from Monkey as the 'leader' of the group - agrees to go and fight the monster, but he does not return.

The final part of the episode is when Monkey goes to fight the monster (it would have been a lot shorter if he had done this to begin with) and the final twist is that it turns out to be Sandy's long-lost father, who believed humans had eaten Sandy as a child and so he turned to eating human boys as a form of revenge.

Sandy is reunited with his father and magic is used to bring all the dead children - and Pigsy - back to life, so it is a happy ending all round.

This is definitely an episode of three 'acts' - the atmospheric beginning, the silly middle (silly because of Pigsy's antics in trying to solve the town's problems without Monkey's help), and the somewhat soppy ending.

Big Gay Longcat says: Pigsy is my favourite character. He is very silly in this story. He tries to make it "rain buckets" and it does!

Valentine's Day

Here is a video about Everybody's Big Gay Boyfriend Sir Stephen Fry.

I am posting it because it is Valentine's Day today and Everybody's Big Gay Boyfriend Sir Stephen Fry is my Big Gay Boyfriend.

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 3: Anybody Here?

Monkey Challenge: Even Monsters Can Be People

This isn't an episode I particularly like.

So there are three demons, colour-coded and called "Red," "Blue" and "Yellow," who take it in turns to lose a fight with Monkey while appearing - to Tripitaka, Pigsy and Sandy - to be a girl, and old woman, and an old man respectively. Tripitaka then thinks Monkey has murdered them in turn and punishes Monkey by sending him away to his mountain of flowers and fruit.

It's not clear how Tripitaka perceives Monkey's fights with the demons, but presumably he doesn't see them fighting at all, or else it would be obvious that something was up. Suffice to say that Monkey is proved right only after he has been banished, when the Yellow demon captures Tripitaka.

The priest is only saved from being eaten when the demons double-cross each other. The Yellow demon is the most human of the three and he has a wife and daughter. Red and Blue kidnap Yellow's family and force him to exchange Tripitaka for their freedom.

By the time the exchange takes place Sandy has persuaded Monkey to come back and help, and they rescue Tripitaka. Yellow takes a fatal wound saving his family and dies in their arms having sacrificed himself.

I think this may be a difficult one to like without a better understanding of the Buddhist philosophy underpinning the concept behind the demons in this story - how they were created from Tripitaka's own repressed desires, and how they can transcend their origin to become human in some ill-defined (at least in the episode) way.

Or maybe it's just not a very gripping or involving story, with three particularly silly-looking monsters, even by Monkey's standards.

Possibly the best bit is a scene where Monkey's magic wishing staff disappears between shots, leaving the Narrator to explain that it "did eventually catch up with him."

The Space Adventures of Little Gay Longcat

Part 2: Set Up

Monkey Challenge: The Power of Youth

This is one of the best episodes of Monkey in my view - it is a very witty script that complements the silly nature of the plot and the acting - particularly by Monkey himself, who capers throughout the story.

The King of Youth - a spirit who seems to be an anthropomorphic personification of everything, both good and bad, to do with the concept of 'Youth' - captures Tripitaka. Not to eat him, as is already the default reason for spirits to do this, but so he can blackmail Heaven into giving him his father's kingdom. Heaven, he presumes, will not let Tripitaka die.

The king is brash, but he is also clever and knows powerful magic with which he defeats Monkey and Pigsy and prevents them from rescuing Tripitaka easily. His weakness is that he loves a mortal woman (though he also beats her in some scenes that I doubt they would get away with these days) and Monkey eventually uses her to get to him, kidnapping her and arranging a prisoner exchange.

The king tricks Monkey by releasing fakes of Tripitaka and Pigsy, but Monkey has a trick of his own and the King of Youth is captured by old Earth Spirits, who are jealous of his youth and power. They want to kill him, but Tripitaka forgives the king and this causes him to be saved.

My summary of the plot can't do this episode justice - the wit is all in the dialogue between the characters, and of course the narration.