Excuse Me

Excuse Me

Episode	Season 1, Episode 11
Airdate	December 5, 2009
Writer	Scott Kreamer
Storyboard	Lane Lueras
Supervising Producers	Shaun Cashman, Jason Meier
Director	Jim Schumann
Production code	122

“	Don't you know what this means? If a note got us out of being late for school, who knows what else your elf could get us out of?	”
— Fanboy

Excuse Me is episode 11a of season one of Fanboy and Chum Chum.

After Fanboy and Chum Chum cause themselves and Kyle to be late for school, they get Scrivener Elf to write a fake excuse note to get out of being tardy. Then they wind up sending various "notes" one fake excuse after another.

Plot

After getting pushed over by Cher and being laughed at during a game of tag, Kyle insists Scrivener Elf to take a note. Scrivener Elf decides to write a complaint form to the school board and begins writing it as Kyle dictates it. The note writing is soon cut short when Fanboy and Chum Chum literally spring by, letting Kyle know that next week is "Spring Break" and they are breaking their springs. After learning that he's writing a note before school, they suggest he needs a pre-Spring Break and bounce him into outer space. As they fall back to earth, the late bell rings, and all three boys are late for school.

The boys land just outside the classroom, and Kyle discovers that class is half-over. He begins worrying as they don't have an excuse, and are tardy. Fanboy begins to write a note on his glove, much to Kyle's chargin. They wonder where else to get a note, and soon turn their attention to Scrivener Elf.

In the classroom, the boys quietly enter, only to be caught by Hank's "Late Net". He asks them for an excuse note, and Kyle puts it on his trident. Hank reads the note, it states the boys have to be excused because they knitted tea cozies for elderly ninjas. Hank loves it, and releases them.

As the boys go sit down chatting about their excuse, Hank breaks their attention by revealing that he'll be collecting everyone's homework, so Kyle immediately summons Scrivener Elf. Hank receives another excuse, stating the boys saved kittens from an oil spill, causing him to excuse them from their homework. Kyle gives him an addition to the excuse, stating the kittens had puppies in an avalanche. Hank tells the boys they don't have to do homework for the rest of the week, just before breaking down. This is later followed by a long-winding round of false note distributions all over the school.

Back at the Fanlair, the boys have just tricked Hank into believing they had low blood sugar, and Kyle summons Scrivener Elf to go over tomorrow's notes. When Fanboy tells him the excuses, Scrivener Elf tells them he can't fit it all on one note, so Kyle suggests he put it on many notes. That is the moment when Scrivener Elf reveals he has only one note left, and disappears. The gang begins to wonder over what to write, and Chum Chum suggests that they should be excused from all school forever. A bit satisfied, Kyle accepts.

Just after Kyle writes the note and leaves it to dry, Fanboy brings out a fan to get it to dry faster, but that causes the note to fly everywhere and pass through the back of the fan, shreading it to pieces. Just before Kyle could punish Fanboy he realizes his wand and tries to conjure more notes, but every time he tries to do so he winds up conjuring things with an N sound in it. Eventually, they are late for school again, and after Chum Chum frees them from the conjured nets with an axe, Kyle begins to panic again. Luckily, Fanboy discovers the ripped up note, and tells him they have all the note they need.

At the school, Hank sees the boys' taped up note and reads it. He accepts the excuse, but upon realizing the unusal name "Fan-Kyle-Chum", he calls out for an actual student who has the name and excuses him, much to the horror of Fanboy, Chum Chum and Kyle. After a brief moment of calmness upon asked where their excuse was, Kyle tells Hank that Fanboy and Chum Chum forced him to write the notes, eventually revealing they were fake. Fanboy adds they were real notes, just with fake excuses on them. Hank then tells them as punishment, they have to make up every work they were excused from during the entire week of Spring Break. That's just what they do, and as everyone bounces about on springs, the boys sadly sit at the window watching them, while Hank forces them to work.

Transcript

For a full transcript of Excuse Me, click here.

Gallery

Click here to view more images from Excuse Me.

The image gallery for Excuse Me may be viewed here.

Running Gags

Once Scrivener Elf is summoned, he is doing something.
The boys writing notes with false excuses.
Kyle tries to conjure notes but instead he conjures things with an N sound in them.
Hank falling for the fake excuse notes and crying whilst doing so.
Scrivener Elf annoyed that he has to write a note.

Trivia

This episode focuses more mainly on all three main characters: Fanboy, Chum Chum and Kyle.
Kyle breaks the fourth wall when he looks at the audience and says "I'll simply conjure more notes."
This is the first appearance of Fankylechum.
First episode where Scrivener Elf has extended dialogue.
Before the sequence of the main 3 falling to earth and Chum Chum mistaking Kyle's disorented face for a smile, look closley as they bounce into space earlier and you can see Kyle is actually smiling.
This episode is formally known as "Note (Un)worthy".
Spring Break, one of the events at Galaxy Hills Elementery School, is introduced in this episode.
This episode had many FanKyle instances: Fanboy leans in to Kyle and even taps on his head. Also, he takes Kyle's hands and is seen with his arm around him. Also, he is next to Kyle for most of the episode.
If you look closley at Kyle's reaction after conjuring up gnats, he is in the same pose as his promotional image.
Fankylechum is voiced by Jamie Kennedy, the same voice actor for Kyle.
Getting excused from all school forever means you get expelled.
This is the first episode Kyle enjoys having fun with Fanboy and Chum Chum. It's also the first time he gets into the spirit of having fun and acting like them.
This is also the first time Kyle went into the Fanlair.
Fanboy's name was not said, but part of it ("Fan") was said in the letter.
Notes that the main 3 write:

Knitting tea cozies for elderly ninjas (get out of the Late Net)
Saving kittens from an oil spill (excused from homework)
The kittens had puppies in an avalanche (excused from homework all week)
Six-month mission to Mars (extra pudding)
Unknown (allowed to race in the classroom)
Unknown letter from the President of the United States (Have Hank fight a bear)
Have low blood sugar (excused from school for a whole day)
Excuse from all school forever (Failed, had an actual student named "Fankylechum" who got excused)

This episode marks the mention of other classes, but weren't shown yet. The classes mentioned were art, gym, math, history and social studies.
It's revealed that Chum Chum does not like making paper-mache donkeys, because their eyes follow him.
First episode in which the final scene says "THE END".
In the script, during the part where Fanboy said "So, shall we get a jump on tomorrow's notes?", before he says his line, he says "Too true, my pasty amigo." In the final version, he doesn't say it.
This episode and "Night Morning" are the first pair of episodes to feature Kyle in both.

Continuity

In this episode, Chum Chum yells "Happy Birthday, Kyle!" but Kyle's birthday takes place one day after "Sigmund the Sorcerer". This may take place after the episode, showing that Chum Chum remembered his birthday and wanted to give him a late cheer, or before the episode as Chum Chum remembered it, but then suddenly forgets it, and Kyle reminds him.
Fankylechum wasn't seen again until "Fanboy A'Hoy!".
The main 3 will all be focused on again in "Fan vs. Wild" and "Kids in the Hall".
When Kyle's arm comes in to give Hank the "note" of the kittens having puppies in an avalanche, it mimics the effect of Hank's secretary giving him the application for Kyle's first day in "Wizboy".
This is the second time Chum Chum says "Just look at that smile!" ("The Hard Sell")

Goofs

When Fanboy hears the bell ring, the gnats aren't surrounding the nets anymore.
Fankylechum was excused from school forever, but is later back in the school (because the note might have been a fake).
When Chum Chum cuts the nets down and the boys hit the floor, the knights aren't there anymore.
In the overshot of the main 3 falling to earth, you can see various duplicates of many buildings, including the Fanlair and Frosty Mart.
When Kyle says "Read the note" his mouth doesn't move.
After Kyle falls down by Cher, his ears tilt down. Then, his right ear tilts up while explaining the note but returns to normal when he walks closer to Scrivener Elf. Therefore, his left ear tilts backward when he hands in the note (though it might be tilting due to Fanboy's head leaning on it). Then, while the main 3 are watching the note fly, Kyle's ears tilt down (though it may be due to the wind blowing on them) then return back to normal in the next shot. Then, when Kyle tells Mr. Mufflin that the notes were fake, his ears tilt down a moment.
The main 3 have newts on their heads when the nets catch them, but in the next shot and for the rest of the Fanlair scene, no newts are on their heads.
Most of the times you see the main 3 while and after Hank reads the note, Kyle has no ears.
When Mr. Mufflin is upset that the kitten-puppies are not in danger, Kyle is lying behind F&C, Fanboy is leaning back and they have nervous expressions on their faces, but in the next shot, Kyle is standing up with his fists clenched, Fanboy is leaning forward and the boys look quite shocked.
When the main 3 are watching Hank fight the bear, Kyle is seen eating popcorn in the background. In real life, you shouldn't eat popcorn when wearing braces as it would break them. It may be okay for Kyle, as he may be wearing wizard braces and that kind doesn't break.
When the note turns into notefetti after it flies into the fan, the main 3's hair stops blowing before the fan turns off.
In the very last shot of the episode, when we see the main 3 in the classroom working during Spring Break, the room they're in has the kindergarten's room's layout. It's like they're in a kindergarten room at Elementary School.
Fanboy twists his glove and throws it out of the scene, but in the next shot he has it back. He could be wearing a spare glove under it.
When the main 3 bounced into space, they wouldn't have fallen back down to earth because there's no gravity in space. They would've fell to earth by blasting through the earth like a meteor, but this would've burned them to death.
Chum Chum was said to get rope burns and trident strikes, but he never got hurt in the Late Net.
When Kyle fires his wand to call Scrivener Elf to make the "excuse note" of not doing homework, his wand glows when he fires it, but in the next shot his wand isn't glowing and Scrivener Elf appears instantly.
In the scene where the main 3 are on the couch telling the Scrivener Elf what to write, Chum Chum has a camera in his hands. But when Fanboy explains how Chum Chum doesn’t want to make a paper-mache donkey, it’s gone.
When Fanboy wonders where to get a note and the boys turn to Scrivener Elf as he asks what writing to use, Kyle's cape is missing.
The main 3 would've lost their oxygen while in space due to wearing no space suits.
It would take longer than just a few seconds to break the sound barrier to outer space in real life.
When Fanboy says "Hmm...well, first, Chum Chum's gonna need a note to get out of art class" his ear moves.
"When Fanboy says "One note left, we'll have to use it wisely" Kyle's hair passes through his lower cheek.
When the bell sound dies down when Kyle says "If only we weren't trapped in these nets", a low beep can be heard faintly in the background, possibly due to a sound error.
At 1:44 when Kyle says "My Elf and I have notes to write", his right eye isn't closed all the way.
During the close ups of Fanboy explaining what notes to write, Kyle isn't there, and in the close up of Scrivener Elf when he says "I don't think I can fit all that on one note", Chum Chum isn't there.
When we see a close up of the main 3 as they get caught in the Late Net, Kyle's hair appears to go inside Chum Chum's tummy.

Allusions

Title - The episode's name is the phrase "Excuse me", that most people say when they do something that is not good manners (burp, sneeze, fart, etc.).
The Powerpuff Girls - The flight-punch sound is heard when Kyle is trying to conjure more notes.
Winnie the Pooh - When Kyle said "Think, think" this is a play on one of Pooh's catchphrases, "Think, think, think".
Spongebob Squarepants - The episode almost completly parodies the episode "Ditchin".
G-Force - When Kyle says "IT'S THE G-FORCE! ARRGH!!!" he's making a refrence to the movie from Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
Good Luck Charlie - The main 3 faking excuses to get out of work is similar to Gabe trying to get out of homework in "Dance Off".

Cast

David Hornsby as Fanboy
Nika Futterman as Chum Chum
Jamie Kennedy as Kyle and Fankylechum
Dyana Liu as Yo ♣
Josh Duhamel as Oz ♦
Jeff Glen Bennett as as Hank Mufflin and Scrivener Elf
Wyatt Cenac as Lenny ♦
Candi Milo as Cher Leader, Lunch Lady Cram and Madame LaVache

♦ designates a character that did not appear in this episode

♣ designates non-speaking role

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