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Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas

(1992)

This cartoon starts at Santa's sweatshop, I mean workshop, where all the elves are waking up to make toys. Every single one of the elves looks exactly the same, except for one who seems to be in charge, and there aren't any girl elves, so I'm guessing they're all imperfect clones of that one, which is an interesting insight into how Santa runs his sick operation. Things get worse though when this evil guy with a cat shows up and possesses the elves, drops Santa in the dungeon,* and takes the whole dump over. As my little nephew always says when his dad pulls out the whisky, "It looks like Christmas is fucked!"

Not quite, though, because they send Inspector Gadget to check things out. Inspector Gadget is basically Get Smart! crossed with Machine Man, so the big joke is that he can't do anything right and everyone else has to actually save the day. Needless to say that joke gets old pretty fast, but if you like Get Smart! you're probably used to that by now. That show only had like three jokes and was on for what, fifty years? It's pretty fucking sad when you stop and think about it. If you like Machine Man, on the other hand, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe you should get out of the house more.

*You kind of have to wonder why Santa Claus has a dungeon in the first place. Just what the fuck is going on up there anyway?