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Raisin the Stakes: A Rock Opera in Three Acts is the ninth episode of Clone High.

Synopsis[]

The kids of Clone High start smoking raisins which turns JFK, Abe, Cleo and the others into hippies. Gandhi goes on a journey through his subconscious and Joan attempts to bring everyone back to sobriety. Meanwhile, Scudworth takes advantage of the worried parents and gets them to build a giant fence.

Plot[]

The episode opens with the musical number, "Normal", where all the clones sing and dance, celebrating how everything is completely perfect and nobody's feeling bad or upset at all.

Clone High High School has an anti-smoking PSA, hosted by guest speaker, famous musician Larry Hardcore, who tells the students that he used to be a pot addict, which led his life on a downward spiral of writing music, making money, and helping others. He warns kids to stay away from drugs or else a miserable life of success and prosperity could await them as well, especially if they smoked a dangerous new drug known as "Raisins".

The students are all interested in trying out these raisins and JFK buys a few bags from a mysterious hooded figure. While Joan tries to convince everyone that raisins are bad, her warnings are swiftly discarded when JFK comes in and starts giving out raisins to everyone. Cleopatra peer-pressures Abe into going to smoke raisins with her. Joan urges Abe to stay away from Cleo but Abe disparages her and stands by his instinct to go smoke raisins with Cleo, since he's been dating Cleo for two weeks at this point and trusts her too much to leave her alone with JFK, with fear she might hook up with him.

Principal Scudworth hears about the PTA and not having any idea what it means, assuming its some kind of a secret association of parents and teachers. Mr. Butlertron tries to explain what the PTA is really about but is, of course, ignored. Scudworth has a burning desire for whatever power they may hold and plots to become their leader.

That night, in JFK's Van, the teens all smoke raisins. Gandhi gets insanely high and jumps out the window, entering a liquid light art-inspired world of hallucinations and meets a Hunkycorn, (hybrid of a hummingbird, donkey, and unicorn) named "Galdemore". Galdemore invites Gandhi on a magical journey into his subconscious, after giving him a bag of magical Trail Mix that makes him shrink down to size, so he can hop on Galdemore's back and she can take him for a ride through the vibrant world of psychedelia.

Back in the van, Cleo compels Abe to compromise his principles of abstinence and finally smoke raisins. Abe very quickly plummets into psychedelia and ends up becoming the leader of a 1960's, new age hippie movement. He calls himself "Captain Lavender" and his common-law wife, Cleo, is "Rain Melon". The new hippie movement dances provocatively to "Mud Dance Gravy Trance". After his high wears off, he finds himself, laying face flat in a puddle of mud in the middle of the night. Joan berates Abe for changing and becoming a druggy but Abe argues that Joan isn't being a true friend for supporting his decisions and tries to convince her that it's actually her who's changed for the worst.

The first step on Gandhi's journey through his mind is to find the legendary Amulet of Balthazul, which will lead him to save a beautiful princess, who's trapped in The Castle of Fusilor. Gandhi gets distracted by all the cool sexually suggestive hallucinations and ends up falling off of Galdemore and landing in a living room, where he gets eaten by a giant live-action cat.

Abe comes home, where his foster mom and foster dad tell him that they found raisins in his pocket and accuse him of smoking. Abe defends himself with an array of excuses, with each one contradicting the last. As he does, Abe goes into a whirlwind of mood swings, still recovering from his trip.

Joan sits on a tree and ponders how to solve the raisin problem. There, she's visited by the mysterious hooded figure, who introduces himself as "The Pusher" and then sings the song, "I'm the Pusher", which details his intentions. He profits off of selling raisins to rebellious teens, who are otherwise told to stay away from said drugs by their parents and schools. The Pusher then tries to sell some raisins to Joan and after thinking for a second, she asks how much raisins he's got.

Inside of the cat's belly, Gandhi is approached by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who are supernatural Siamese twins, offering Gandhi to partake in any of their golden riches, they sit upon. Gandhi discovers Galdemore's aforementioned Amulet of Balthazul among the riches, which was apparently gifted to the twins by Dave Coulier. Mary-Kate and Ashley instruct Gandhi to venture forth to defeat a dragon to take him further to the princess, (who is lamented to be a royal descendant of some kind of celestial deity called "Rivinojaneelankavil"), where he'll be thrice laid.

At the next PTA meetings, the parents all clamor over raisins and their affect on their children. Principal Scudworth comes forth to propose an idea to build a fence around Exclamation! U.S.A., to block their children off from the dangers of the outside world. However, he asserts the only way such a fence could be constructed is if he was elected king of the PTA. On the roof of the school, Abe and Cleo prepare to go to "first-and-a-half base", (Abe touching Cleo's breasts under the shirt and over the bra) but before Abe can make his move, JFK drives his van up and interrupts them. Abe tries to escort him out but JFK is so zonked out, he gets into an argument with the moon and ends up bodyslamming through the sky window and crash landing in the middle of the PTA meeting.

Principal Scudworth, now "King Scudworth the Lionhearted", enslaves the parents and teachers of Exclamation! U.S.A. to build his colossal picket fence around the town, while he sings his maniacal villain song, "Building a Fence" and lashes his slaves with barbed wire as they wheelbarrow more bricks and mortar to his construction.

Inside of Abe's house, the song "Grounded" is performed, where Abe's foster parents ground Abe for smoking raisins and running around with the hippies but Abe is clearly out of his mind, as he demands to be addressed as "Captain Lavender", hallucinates more, and lashes out at his foster parents. Abe eventually sneaks out of the house to go join his hippie clan again.

Gandhi is faced with his dragon adversary, Daniel Feldspar, a stereotypically Australian basilisk, who he defeats in a pacifistic way, taking a note from the Original Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi tells Daniel that he's planning to go on a hunger strike but has never tried Vegemite before. This distracts Daniel, as he runs on down to the kitchen to make him some Vegemite, allowing Gandhi to sneak right past him and go to the prison, where the princess is held.

When Gandhi enters, he's perplexed to see Galdemore there but no princess. Gandhi uses the Amulet of Balthazul to refract light onto Galdemore, beautifully transforming her into a princess. Upon the revelation that she was the sought-after ingenue, Galdemore extends her gratitude to Gandhi for his heroism, with the invitation to thrice lay her. Gandhi pauses in mild shock and disappointment for a second and then awkwardly trips over his words as he stutters a few excuses as to why he can't engage in any thirce-laying. Galdemore kind of takes the hint and feeling a little embarrassed, nervously suggests some chasers to help Gandhi feel more comfortable, like maybe getting coffee first or just laying once instead of thrice. Wanting to leave but not wanting to offend, Gandhi tells Galdemore that he could call her and hang out with her sometime in the future, just not lay as he finally slinks out of the very awkward situation.

Abe and his hippie crew run through the streets and sing the musical number "Higher and Higher", wherein they protest the oppressive fence to have it torn down. However, Scudworth isn't going down without a fight as he orders his slaves to build the fence even higher. Abe climbs the wall of the fence as the other hippies try tearing it down with love but as Cleo points out, they'll have no luck destroying a physical object with an abstract concept. As Abe makes it to the zenith of Scudworth's barrier, Scudworth fatally strikes him with his barbed wire whip and sends Abe plunging to the ground, where he hits his head on a rock, knocking him unconscious. While out cold, Abe has an out-of-body experience and ends up in Heaven with the Original Abraham Lincoln. The Original Abraham Lincoln sings the song "My Son" to his clone and reveals to him the dark truth about how the raisins enslaving him and his people and redirects him to free the hippies.

When Abe awakens, now in the arms of Joan, he sobers up and realizes how foolish and misguided he's been. Joan enacts her ultimate plan to put an end to raisins. She draws the attention of the concerned parents and teachers toward a massive pile of raisins she bought from The Pusher earlier, and at Scudworth's demand, they set the raisins ablaze, causing the intoxicating smoke from the raisins to cloud them all and get them high on raisins as well, much to their ecstasy. Witnessing the adults doing the same drugs they are, the clones all decide that smoking raisins just isn't cool anymore and they give it up in favor of crack instead. This diminishes the power of The Pusher, as now he's lost his influence over his target demographic.

With The Pusher rendered powerless, Abe unmasks him to reveal to everyone that he's really Larry Hardcore, much to everyone's surprise. Now that the jig is up, Larry Hardcore confesses that he used to be the band manager for The California Raisins but after the band fell out of favor, he needed a publicity stunt to get kids into raisins again. He figured using reverse psychology to get kids to smoke raisins would start up the crazin' for raisins once again. Furthermore, Larry admits that raisins can't actually get you high and all of the euphoric feelings, personality changes, and hallucinations were purely the placebo effect. Afterwards, Gandhi is shown, flying overhead, riding on Daniel Feldspar.

Characters[]

Major Roles[]

Minor Roles[]

Songs[]

Trivia[]

  • The title of this episode is a pun on the phrase "Raising the Stakes".
  • Only episode not to open with the Narrator giving an introduction. Rather, a parody of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo appears, with Abe in the place of the lion.
  • Julius Caesar's voice is deeper than usual, during his solo in "Normal".
  • Ironically, The Anti-Drug Presentation was funded by a beer company.
  • Larry Hardcore is a parody on his voice actor, Jack Black.
  • Instances of messianic symbolism, connect Abe Lincoln to Jesus Christ.
    • At the end of "Normal", Abe holds his arms out and hangs his head, alluding to the crucifixion of Jesus. While he does this, the beams from the sun shine from behind his head, looking like an aureola, which is often portrayed in pictures of Jesus.
    • When Abe got high on raisins, he grew his hair out, and wore a long, white robe.
    • During the first line of "Higher and Higher", Abe walks on water.
    • Also during "Higher and Higher", Abe includes the lyric. "Raisins are from Heaven. Now we're raising Hell." This can be attached to the Heaven and Hell of Christianity.
    • When Abe reaches the top of the fence, he makes the same position and symbolism as he did at the end of "Normal", with the red sun, shining behind his head again.
    • While Abe was in said crucifixion position, Principal Scudworth whips him, like how the Romans did to Jesus, when he was crucified.
    • Abe's encounter with the Original Abraham Lincoln is an obvious stand in for Jesus Christ in heaven, talking with God. Abraham and Abe's indirect father and son relationship, counterparts that of God and Jesus'. Abraham is also sitting on a heavenly throne, with angels surrounding him.
    • Abe's goal is to lead his followers to "redemption", by word of his father.
    • Joan of Arc appears at the end of the song, "My Son", and a subliminal message portrays her as Mary Magdeline. Abe and Joan's relationship mirrors Jesus and Mary's, with their friendship and untouched upon romantic tension, coming from Mary.
    • Abe hit his head on a rock, which knocked him out, and sent him to heaven. This can easily be considered either a death or a knock out, strongly alluding to his death. Abe came back to life afterwards, referencing to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
    • When Abe wakes up from his death/coma, he says he looks like a jackass in his new outfit, basically saying that Jesus is a jackass.
    • Ironically, Jesús Cristo, the actual clone of Jesus Christ has no association with this.
  • Gandhi gets devoured by a live-action cat in this episode. The footage used for this live-action cat came from Phil Lord and Chris Miller's friends, Jim Donnelly and Jill Marshall, who had a pet cat named Indigo. For a behind-the-scenes look at Phil and Chris training Indigo for her scene, see here.
  • First appearance of Abe's Foster Mom and Foster Dad.
  • Galdemore is said to be a descendant of the great "Rivinoja-Neelankavil", an unseen entity named after show writer, Erica Rivinoja and her husband, Jacques Neelankavil.
  • Mr. Butlertron only has one line of dialogue in this episode and that's "Are you referring to the PTA?" He is also seen singing in unison with the others during the breakdown of "Normal".
  • Although this episode premiered in 2003, it was produced in 2002 according to the credits.

Subliminal Messages[]

In reference to the common instances of backmasking in several rock albums of the 60's and 70's, this episode contains a bunch of subliminal messages.

  • At the very start of the episode, a picture flashes on screen, depicting DNA Dan next to a phonograph, with a speech bubble, reading "Let's go to the dark side!"
  • Cleo's first puff of smoke forms the shape of the word "Sex" just before deteriorating.
  • At the beginning of the second act, when the "Clone High" title shows up, an anthropomorphic raisin smoking human in a spliff flashes on screen.
    • In the televised airing of the show, the human’s face was censored out for some reason. However, his face is left uncensored on DVD.
  • During The Pusher's song, the second time The Pusher's face disappears, the words "Smoke Raisins" appear in the smoke, just before deteriorating.
  • When Principal Scudworth first speaks at the P.T.A. meeting, a message shows up, reading "Scudworth is your favorite character."
  • Cleo and Abe sit on the roof and for a flash second, they appear completely naked.
  • JFK talks backwards, after crashing through the skylight. What he says in reverse is "I am talking backwards and telling you to watch Clone High and for us to get an Emmy. I'm saying that backwards ... cuz it's sneaky."
  • When JFK is in his wheelchair during "Higher" the message "I Buried Ponce" flashes for a single frame.
  • When Joan sings at the end of the song, My Son, a single frame shows Joan wearing the head dress of Mary Magdalene in a backdrop of the sun, while she puts her hands together and prays.
  • At the end of the episode in the last scene (right before the Clone High Screen) with the Dragon there is another message for one frame "For More Information About Raisins Consult Your Local Library"

Continuity[]

  • Gandhi and JFK behave like friends, during the first musical number, continuing their newfound friendship in the previous episode.
  • A subliminal message, reading "I Buried Ponce" shows up on screen, during JFK's refrain. In the very next episode, the character Ponce de León dies.

Cultural References[]

  • The famous Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo is parodied at the beginning of the episode, with the same frame being shown, only with Abe Lincoln taking the place of Leo the Lion.
  • Much of the episode had references to the 1969 album and 1975 film, Tommy.
    • When Abe smashes the mirror with a chicken it parodies the mirror smashing scene
    • JFK says "Watch me, hold me, sign my cast for me, wheel me". In "Tommy" it's "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me."
    • "Higher" sounds like the song "Pinball Wizard".
    • "The Pusher" was inspired by "The Acid Queen".
    • "My Son" is a parody of the song "It's A Boy".
  • Some of the code names for raisins are references. "La Uva Loca" is Spanish for "Crazy Grape" and "California's Finest". is a reference to the claymation TV show and their eponymous fictional rhythm and blues band, The California Raisins.
  • The puff of smoke emitting from Cleopatra's blunt reading the word "SEX" is a reference to the urban legend from a scene in the 1994 film The Lion King. The scene depicts a frustrated Simba lying down on a patch of flora, which fly away in the wind, subtly appearing to read "SEX" for a few frames.
  • "Mud Dance Gravy Trance" is essentially a rewrite of "Incense and Peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock.
  • During "I'm the Pusher", Abe's Parents appear, with the father holding a pitchfork. The two are holding bland and stoic expressions. This is modeled after the famous painting, American Gothic.
  • Abe telling his father "You, alright!? ... I learned it by watching you!" in regards to raisins is a reference to a quote from an iconic 1987 anti-drug PSA, called "Parents Who Use Drugs".
  • The fence subplot is a parody of Pink Floyd's "the Wall".
  • There are multiple graphical references to the animated movie Yellow Submarine based on the eponymous album by The Beatles
    • JFK's van has the same color scheme as the submarine in the movie.
    • When Gandhi rides the humkeycorn into his subconscious the whole environment and creatures look like those who appear in the movie when the Beatles end up in the deep sea.
    • The animation at the beginning of the refrain from "Higher" looks like the animation during "It's All Too Much" in Yellow Submarine.
    • The part where the hippies shoot the word "LOVE" at the wall is inspired by "All You Need is Love".
  • Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen got The Amulet of Balthazul from Dave Coulier, one of their co-stars on Full House. The inscription on the amulet reads "Cut It Out", which was the catchphrase of his character, Joey Gladstone.
  • The "I Buried Ponce" message is a reference to the famously misheard Beatles lyric, "Cranberry Sauce" (misheard as "I Buried Paul".)
  • "Sgt. JFK's magical mystery tour" is a reference to the Beatles' albums "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
  • The part when JFK removes The Pusher's disguise is a reference to the original Scooby-Doo series.

Historical References[]

  • Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen tell Gandhi that like his clonefather, The Original Gandhi, his quiet strengths will lead them to redemption.
  • Abe Lincoln, who at the time went by the name, "Captain Lavender", claimed that "Abe" was his slave name. This was a connection to Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves.
  • During The Pusher's song, Abe's parents are depicted as farmers, referencing American Gothic. Naturally, Abe's Foster Dad was portrayed as a farmer. Abraham Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, was a farmer.
  • Near the end of the episode, Abe gets a spiritual visit from the angel of the Original Abraham Lincoln.

Gallery[]

External Links[]

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ved Clone High episodes
Season 1

Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of SandEpisode Two: Election Blu-GalooA.D.D.: the Last D is for DisorderFilm Fest: Tears of a CloneSleep of Faith: La Ru D'AwakeningHomecoming: A Shot in D'ArcPlane Crazy: Gate ExpectationsA Room of One's Clone: The Pie of the StormRaisin the Stakes: A Rock Opera in Three ActsLitter Kills: LitterallySnowflake Day: A Very Special Holiday SpecialMakeover Makeover Makeover: the Makeover EpisodeChanges: The Big Prom: The Sex Romp: The Season Finale


Season 2


Let's Try This AgainSleepoverAnxious Times at Clone HighThe Crown: Joancoming: It’s a Cleo, Cleo, Cleo, Cleo WorldSome Talking but Mostly SongsSaved by the KnollSpring BrokenSexy-EdFor Your ConsiderationClone Alone


Season 3


Blinded With Pseudoscience: Magnetic DistractionsDon't You Get It? Sports Are Huge in This TownBible Humpers: A Much Needed PraycationThe Principal Principle: Sub Zero to Sub HeroMoney Can Buy Me Love: Stupid Is as Cupid DoesGo Yell It on the Mountain: Snow Way OutGrave Mistakes: The Virgin HomicidesCyranos: A Portmant-OpusCloney Island: Twist!The Cloniest Place on Earth: Missile While You Work

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