Episode review: S9E14: "The Last Laugh"

"Unusual shipping can often be entertaining, Miss Pie"

It's been... well, actually it hasn't been that long a time since the last new episode of Friendship is Magic. I've managed to avoid the early Chinese releases, so apart from knowing that Weird Al Yankovic would be returning, I was going into "The Last Laugh" blind. The Fox brothers' last Pinkie episode was the below-par "Yakity-Sax", which concerned me a bit, not least because I thought its moral was dreadfully expressed. The last Weird Al episode was the sublime "Pinkie Pride", so did S9's return get anywhere near S4's original?

Well, no. That wasn't really a surprise, as episodes as good as "Pinkie Pride" are rare gems indeed. "The Last Laugh" was a very different animal, and in fact on first viewing I thought it was really poor. I improved my opinion of it quite a bit after watching it again, although it's still no classic. It has a certain amount of that slightly thrown-together feel that marks down several Fox Brothers episodes, although it does have some good stuff too in its 22 minutes. The moral works this time, too.

One thing that bothered me a lot first time round was that Weird Al seemed wasted, playing so far against type in the first two acts. It actually reminded me a little of Rainbow Roadtrip in that sense: the special's big attraction (the Toon Boom animation) was compromised by all the greyness. Yankovic's return here was was compromised by, well, all the greyness. He only got to be fun and silly and wacky in the final third, which left me feeling a bit short-changed.

Cheese looked so, so strange like this

What improved my assessment second time around was that I knew where the episode was going – and I do like the moral here. The lead-up is a bit shaky – Cheese has seen Pinkie laugh many times, and his "You laugh at everything!" line (which isn't really true in any case) seems like a rump-covering exercise by the writers. Even so, it does feel satisfyingly true to Pinkie's character that she wouldn't actually need a big, flashy "this is your life's purpose" moment.

I also warmed to Sans Smirk. Along with a number of other people, I was a little concerned for a while that he was going to be a villain in disguise, in other words a sort of Svengallop character. I was very pleased when this turned out not to be the case, and Sans proved to be one of the good guys. It's a slight shame that there isn't enough time left in the series for him to appear again, as it could be amusing to see him team up with Maud, for example.

There were some clear allusions to the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film, though some worked better than others. "This is where the magic happens"... er, yeah. The place where the magic happens is called Equestria. And the line "Nopony ever comes out and nopony ever goes in" felt unfittingly dark for the episode, given that the factory workers seemed like ordinary ponies. I wasn't a big fan of the unEquestrian factory design, either.

I was half-hoping a "Boneless 3" would somehow play a part

"Pinkie Pride" was one of the full-on musicals that we were blessed with in the middle of FiM's run. "The Last Laugh" wasn't, so I'm not going to complain too much about only getting the one song. According to the credits, it has the same name as the episode, which is mildly irritating given the potential for confusion. As for the song itself, it was fine. Once the upbeat section started, it was catchy and bouncy in the right ways. Quite good, but not very good.

You could apply that verdict to the episode as a whole, really. "The Last Laugh" was more fun than I initially gave it credit for, and it did some interesting things with Sans and with Pinkie's moral. It's certainly a far better way for her character arc to end than, say, "Yakity-Sax" would have been. What lets it down and makes it yet another three-star ep is that it's not as much fun as an episode starring Weird Al Yankovic really ought to be. I was hoping the show's final season would provide some truly classic episodes, but so far it's been a little light on those.

Best line: Spike: "Uh, Pinkie? Are you sure this is edible?" Pinkie (chewing): "I am not."
Best moment: Boneless 2's chair-twirling
Worst moment: I will never find whoopee cushions amusing.

Yays

• Solid, Pinkie-appropriate moral
• Sans Smirk was a satisfying character
• The song, while not a classic, was pretty good

Neighs

• Rather dull at times in the first two acts
• Some slightly shaky justifications for some things
• Cheese's factory didn't fit in Equestria

★★★