You know, when I was young I wanted an Art Bigotti limited edition collector’s plate, but I just couldn’t buy one after my dad showed me how he had a performance-enhanced bowling ball. Once you saw that he was remote controlling it with his other hand behind his back, well, you can’t go back.
So, here we are, looking at Larry the Cucumber’s first foray into being Larry-Boy. Well, not the very first. The very first was in Dave and the Giant Pickle where Larry wanted to be a super hero because he wasn’t feeling all that super1.
This adventure doesn’t begin with Larry, but with Junior Asparagus playing with Laura the Carrot when, what should happen, but his father’s plate falls and breaks. Laura high tails it out of there, and Mr. Asparagus wants to know what happened.
What I want to know is, if it was that important, why didn’t he have it insured!
In any case, while all of this has gone on, a tennis ball has fallen from outer space and found its way into Junior’s house. When Junior lies to his dad– a little fib, perhaps– the alien starts to grow. Junior is called out on his lie, and has to tell another one. This continues until the lie has arms, legs, and is carrying Junior up the side of a building like the old King Kong movie we’ve seen in black and white.
Larry-Boy comes to save the day, showing us that the Larry-mobile can fly, but like typical Larry, he can’t actually do anything to save Junior. Junior must start confessing the lie to make the alien turn back into a ball. Presumably he could then find some time at the local tennis court on some distant planet or something.
The lesson? A lie may seem like a little thing, but it has a way of growing as you have to tell lies to cover for the previous one. And who can keep their story straight! Best to tell the truth.
- Hence the whole “little guys can do big thing too” song. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that song over and over again… Oh, where was I? [↩]