If You Click One "Classic Ep Talk", Click This One: Leonardo Lightens Up
 

To hell with the first five episodes. Everybody and their cat loves the first five episodes, and if their cat doesn't, it's never too young to be taught to love them.

You know what episode everybody doesn't love? 1990's "Leonardo Lightens Up." But, I assert, everyone should love it for one simple reason:

Splinter. Skateboarding. Contest.

Repeat that over and over again until you can fully appreciate the robust blend of awesomeness. Also, Leo becomes such a hilariously over-the-top douche in the episode that it's one of the funniest in the series, even if some of it is unintentional.

Lol, this is one of the "bad" episodes that I never skip. I'm gald Cam Clarke got to goof around for once, Leo was such a one dimensional dingus in the OT.

I kinda enjoyed it really because it was revolved around Leonardo. It's great to see even a fearless leader to have some sense of humor every once in a while! Yes, the whole Splinter skateboarding thing has been scientifically proven to be...awesome!

No joke, this is one of my favorite Turtles anything ever.

It's great because by the time you get to the third act you think "This couldn't possibly get more ridiculous." I mean, the episode starts with Donatello conveniently pulling a "Personatlity Modifying Ray" out of the closet and Leo puts a bomb in a turkey. That alone is enough to earn a place in TMNT's hall of fame. But this episode, bless its heart, had to outdo itself. And it does it in the form of Splinter somberly delcaring that he must out-skateboard Leonardo.

And I forgot to mention it has one of the best one-off villains in the series.

EDIT-- Plus, f*cking earmuffs? Top five material for sure.

Dude, you caught me off guard with THAT one! :lol: :lol:

Well I loved that episode when I first watched it. But then, I am a Leonardo fan.

Doesn't everyone have one of those in their closet?

But anyway, I love this episode, it's just full of awesome! :tlol:

I often mix this ep with leonardo is missing(final ep of season 4) for some reason:ohwell: Well, anyways, it's a cool ep, maybe not my fav, but cool.

This episode is so bad it's good. I cringe when I watch it, but there is something that every die hard leonardo fan should realize about this episode. Leonardo is sticking it to his brothers on purpose!

And the Splinter thing was cute, for some reason I got a 2k3 Splinter vibe off of him when he challenged Leo to a contest. LOL!

I really, really doubt the writer had any kind of character epiphany in mind. And to be honest, I don't see it in the episode either. It's just so over-the-top ridiculous that you can't help but love it.

But, for the sake of discussion, I'll humor the other side. Is there anyone who absolutely hates this one?

what's to hate? This is one of my favorites because I remember it sooo well. I must have taped it and watched it over and over again as a kid becuase as I rewatched it on dvd I had that wave of dejavu/nostalgia hit me like never before.

I was just watching this episode a couple of weeks ago. It always makes me chuckle!

This one is classic in that respect but "Cowabunga Shred-head" takes the cake for me in that department. Watching Shredder act like a stoned surfer is just hilarious. His facial expressions and the way he phrases things is dead on. I love the part where he goes nuts and starts blasting his holographic machine with a laser gun.

Just watched this one on Youtube when I read this topic.

Just... thank you :)

Not a huge fan. I preferred Unidentifying Flying Leonardo of the three Leo eps from season 4 but next time I watch this one, I'll open my mind a bit based on the love. I typically don't skip this one though. And yeah, the earmuffs thing was absolutely gonzo. LOL!!!

The difference between that episode and this one is that the former was actually well done and hit most of its jokes just right.

"Leonardo Lightens Up" tries to be a little bit funny, but is so bad that it ends up being incredibly funny by accident.

Still one of my favorites.

Glad I could spread the love.

I'd say this episode is right up there with the one where Raph becomes a stand up comedian.

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Uhh.. thanks for the encouragement? I own all the seasons. I just havent watched every episode of every season. Relax, homie :) I'm all about having a pretty DVD shelf.

For all those people who hated the scene from Turtles Forever in which Donatello uses a wrench as a hammer... watch this episode, he does the exact same sh*t lol.

Mean-spirited parody my ass.

I noticed this too. Like he was deliberately messing with the other turtles to get back at them for calling him "so serious". They got OWNED, and it was great!

Honest to God, I love how the other Turtles don't think twice about using a personality-altering ray on their own brother. :lol:

"No more katanas, no more hooks, no more Sensei's nasty looks!"

Hah, I like this episode a lot, probably because it's the one I can most clearly remember watching as a little kid. When I think of the OT or the TMNT in general, this episode usually pops up in my mind :D

The Personality Modifying Ray IMO gave Leo turned into something of a Michelangelo/Raphael (OT Style) combo. Being one of the Sewer Heroes VHS titles, this was watched alot, and its interesting to see what would happen if Leo simply resembled the others, and it turned out not to be beneficial to the team. I feel that the morale of this episode it shows that if you are too uptight and bossy to your followers, you are apt to be taken advantage of, and even after doing so, it won't help at all and potentially make things worse.

This episode was great. The exploding tukey and Splinter skateboarding were my favorite parts, just so over the top XD. The villain was also great, especially how the music was able to blow apart the Channel 6 Van with Vernon in it and everything else, haha. :tlol:

This episode is great, but I gotta say that "Cowabunga Shredhead" takes the cake as far as outrageous OT episodes go. :tgrin:

*sarcastically* "That Leonardo...heh, what a cut-up!" Funniest line in that ep!