Episode 511: The Prize Fighters (spoiler)

Last night, MTV showed 'Prize Fighters' here in the world I live in. Talk about a twilight zone experience. Nobody has posted a thing about it here, today, but it was great.

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Daria and Jodie don't have enough money to get into College and UpChuck can't get a date to save his life. UpChuck's dad is president of the the local Elks Club. UpChuck talks his dad into sponsoring a charity boxing match for Daria and Jodie, where the winner gets a scholarship, and also gets to go to some spiffy French Restaurant, but they have to go with UpChuck. They get Ms. Liu to be the referee.

Daria was really cute in her tank suit, even though it was too big for her. Both girls faked getting knocked out. Ms. Liu finally gets mad and claims she won, and goes to the French Restaraunt with UpChuck, who raises his eyebrows and says a lot of smarmy things about exotic older women.

Daria and Jodie are lying on the mat in the boxing ring. Daria turns to Jodie. There is this halloween violin shriek music in the background. Daria says, "Don't worry, Jodie .... there's always (...shreik!... shriek!... shriek!...) Junior College!"

It was a really good episode, I thought. I can't believe that there isn't one single post about "Prize Fighters" in this newsgroup so far.

Winkie

Why did you leave out the part where Daria and Jodie's seconds, Jane and Brittany, got into their own fight and knocked each other out simultaneously, to which Kevin reacted "Cool!".

M Man

Know all men by these presents, that the aforesaid [email] (MMan37x) did write in news:[email], on the date of 12 Jun 2001: w a s a b i - f l a v o r e d - s p o i l e r - s p a c e

But neither of you has mentioned the most startling part of the whole episode. Did you miss the scene where Stacy was expelled from the Fashion Club after she decided to revive the practice of 'streaking'? I knew the FC storyline was changing radically, but I *did not* expect that.

(OTOH, if they do one more reference to Jake's restaurant - I mean, *who cares* if he's the best cook in Lawndale?)

-Mark Steese a/k/a Corvus Marinus

Why should we mention it? They had Stacy *talk* about streaking, but they didn't show her *doing* it. Talk about dashed hopes ....

Helen does. She's very competitive. How's she ever going to make partner if her husband can out-cook her?

M Man

Know all men by these presents, that the aforesaid [email] (MMan37x) did write in news:[email], on the date of 13 Jun 2001:

w a s a b i - f l a v o r e d - s p o i l e r - s p a c e </spoiler>

Hmm...I begin to see the light. You didn't get the raw satellite feed, then, I take it? I'm glad I taped it! I'd love to post some screen grabs, but I just can't afford the software and hardware I'd need for that. (Of course, I'll accept any gifts people might want to offer...)

Huh? They dropped that part of the plot line after the scene in "Camp Fear" where Helen blew up the kitchen by mistake. She decided to go to Law School instead. Don't tell me they cut that, too?

-Mark Steese a/k/a Corvus Marinus

I hear Helen's mother is loaded. You gotta be Rita's boyfriend, though, if you want any of her money.

They certainly did, along with the part where Daria ditched Tom and moved in with Skylar - uh, until winter. :-)

M Man

MMan37x wrote:

Why didn't anybody mention Mr. Demartino's plot to take over the world?

That's why Stacy was supposed to go streaking. It was a diversion so DeMartino could capture Washington, Beijing, Moscow and Baghdad. And maybe Reykjavik - good fishing in Reykjavik.

M Man

Winkie Marmelade wrote in message news:[email]...

What universe would that be? Perhaps the land of the trolls?

In article , [email] says...

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Oh, my goodness. Look, At ten o'clock PM on the Pacific Coast, we saw 'Prize Fighters.' I am very, very surprised that I didn't find a long thread the next day on alt.tv.daria discussing this new episode. I didn't mean to bother anybody.

I am still surprised that nobody saw 'Prize Fighters' but me.

What episode did *you* see this last Monday night?

Winkie

<requisite spoiler space> / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / </requisite spoiler space> Winkie Marmelade wrote in message news:[email]...

I guess everyone is just in denial that this episode showed up at this point in the series.

Comments in no particular order:

_Some things just didn't seem right -- Like, Daria had never even considered that going on to college may involve getting some sort of scholarship or grant? Disbelief not suspended, sorry. (Of course, if she just wants to get a degree out of the way, generally someone with her brains will get admitted AND a quite adequate FA package at a decent school, unless she's applying to one of the Ivies or other Big Names.)

_But, if she seriously wishes to folllow a specific program, as Helen implies when asking "you do want to go to your choice of school," (but then again, *does* she?) she would have had to have been in absolute denial for years to not have realized she'd be in a competitive situation at some point. (BTW, we had a wickedly delicious foretaste of this in Fizz Ed when the superintendent raised the question, that since she had never before shown any symptoms of activism, how does he know she's not just padding her resume.) Yet Daria seems completely unprepared for the idea that others may join the same competition.

_Turning Wizard Co. into an evil corporate Straw Man was lame -- it cheapened Daria's conflict as to whether she's ready for the competive world, by making the competition itself unworthy. Daria's apparent acquiescence her mother's and Jody's father's reasoning then just serves as a device to keep her in the running until she can mouth off to the interviewer's face. Of course, the interviewer gets the last laugh on her when he lets her know that her cynical 'essay' was understood as a spoof.

_Jane's fit of hostility seemed exaggerated -- but anyway it was Daria who was tormenting herself the most with the idea that she may be selling out, so Jane's just giving voice to that. And it is understandable that Jane may have felt threatened that her friends may be leaving her behind in disaffected-artist land; maybe a bit of self-doubt at her own calling.

jrd

"Jose Diaz" wrote in message news:[email]...

point

As great Confucius said, "Hey, whaddaya want? They can't all be gems."

Jose Diaz said:

That bothered me, too. Wizard Co, which was obviously a parody of Microsoft, and its Bill Gates-like CEO were made out to be Generically Evil -- which was not, incidentally, supported in "Gates'" behavior in the interview.

Yep.

This is hardly the first time Helen has bugged Daria about extracurricular activity for this very reason.

Yet we've never heard Daria mention a desired school or even what she'd major in.

And you're quite right about Daria having zero trouble getting into most colleges.

The problem, however, seems to be money rather than getting in. Maybe the Morgendorffers can't afford to send her to some schools she could get into.

Could be. Plus, if Ashfield isn't disillusioning to an artist, I don't know what would be.

M Man