RiffTrax Year: 2022
Riffers: Bridget Nelson, Mary Jo Pehl
It looks like the interior of Ol' 23 is worn down and is now deemed a safety hazard. Because buying a new bus is cheaper than replacing seats for some reason, the school wants to put 23 out to pasture. But the children are here and status quo will not be altered this day! No changes under any circumstances, because that's how life should work! Together they repair the entire bus and artsy up the interior, because why not. Ol' 23 is saved! But their hard work is about to be all for naught when the school's rowdy baseball team uses the bus and ruins the interior again.
This short is a bit of a ride, let me tell you. For a while I assumed it was some sort of short trying to sell community service on impressionable children, mostly because I have never seen kids this concerned over the well-being of something as interchangeable as a school bus in my entire life. I mean, they just freak out at the sight of a bus that isn't labeled "23" and DEMAND an explanation, and then are all willing to fix the bus up during their free time in order to save it. The short then kind of prattles on through a montage of kids working, up to and including an anti-social kid who listens to classical music while painting an exact replica of the Mona Lisa on the roof, because he had it committed to memory and could replicate in a few hours I guess (this kid would grow up to run a masterclass counterfeit ring).
After the short appreciates the hard work put in on the main objective, it just continues. It was boring already, but as it keeps going my mind was turning to stone at the thought of watching these kids recite lines off of cue cards more than I have to. "Why are you still going?! What are you trying to teach me?!" I screamed at the screen. It starts to come into focus after seeing the baseball team wreck havoc onboard that the moral finally comes into focus, which is a warning about being callous about your surroundings and how damage is swiftly done unnoticed. It's an interesting circle back to how 23 was ruined in the first place, though the short doesn't seem to recognize that. Instead it has the kids and teachers pouting over what happened to the bus and one of the baseball players says in passing that they were told to fix it. Then the short just stops. The end.
'Kay. I'm way beyond done with this, so whatever.
Bridget and Mary Jo give it a solid go throughout Ol' #23. My main issue is that I found the short itself pretty annoying, so I zoned out a few times. There was a line about the teachers exploiting free child labor that made me lol, while dunks on the kids working was pretty solid fun. But as the short continues, the laughs feel like they fade in favor of a desire for the short to end. Because of that I'm a little on the fence here, but Bridget and Mary Jo are funny when I wasn't braindead so I'm going to consider this a partial success.
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