Time Squad/Ho Yay

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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Time Squad is packed to the gills with Ho Yay, most of which center on Buck Tuddrussel's Ambiguously Gay Robot Buddy the Larry 3000, as seen in these examples below.

  • In nine episodes out of ten, Larry's relationship with Tuddrussel is portrayed like a typical love/hate sitcom marriage, with Otto as the kid, as seen in "Larry Upgrade" (where Larry is downgraded into being a mindless slave to Tuddrussel) and "Love at First Flight" (the one with Amelia Earhart as a mysophobic). This was lampshaded on season one's "Island of Dr. Freud," where, before the Time Squad leaves, Freud analyzes the trio as a dysfunctional family, with Otto as the helpless child in the middle, doomed to be permanently traumatized by his squabbling "parents." The most blatant example of Larry and Tuddrussel as a couple can be found in "Ex Marks the Spot," in which Buck and his ex-wife appear to have renewed feelings for each other, and Larry tries to sabotage their "relationship" in every manner possible. There's the ending line of the episode:

Larry: (to Buck): Don't touch me! Tonight, you're sleeping on the sofa!

    • Larry's exclamation right after Buck invites Sheila to dinner:

Larry: SEE?! They're falling in love again! Just when everything was going so well!

    • And the beginning:

Otto: Uh, don't take this the wrong way, but why are you being so nice to Tuddrussel? Making his favorite meals, cleaning his phasers, fumigating his underwear?
Larry: Well, Otto, as you know, I'm programmed to be a humble housekeeper and a delightful companion. So, recently, I decided, "Why fight it?" (giggling): Well, sure, he's a stupid, repugnant, arrogant, smelly, ignorant, selfish, insulting man-child.
(Beat as Larry puts a cherry on top of the gravy-smothered turkey, which promptly sinks)
Larry (sighing and flutters his eyelids): But he's my stupid, repugnant, arrogant, smelly, ignorant, selfish, insulting man-child!
Otto shoots Larry a confused and suspicious look.
Larry: Oh, you'll understand when you're older.

      • This is pushed even further in the next scene where we have Buck devouring the chicken in a rather revolting manner, sending the gravy flying all over the place (including on Otto and Larry). Otto tries to shield himself from the gravy, but Larry just stands there with a dreamy expression. He then proceeds to giggle like a high-school virgin and say "He's just incorrigible!" after Tuddrussel slaps him on the back with his gravy-stained hand.
      • And even in the scene after this, Tuddrussel bluntly calls Larry; "Rust-Butt" (a name he had used more than once to insult Larry). As Tuddrussel walks off the screen, Larry giggles yet again and treats the name as a term of endearment, dreamily sighing; "Rust-Butt!... I have got to write that down..." as he wistfully places his hand over his chest. There was an article on the Internet that came out around the time this episode premiered about how dating couples often write down pet names and nice things they've said to one another so in case they ever get angry at each other or fall out of love, they can look in their journals and remind themselves of the good times.
    • After Tuddrussel pronounces the "disgusting" dinner Larry prepared for him and Sheila to be "mag-ni-fique":

Larry: WHAT? "Mag-ni-fique"? This food is terrible! I cooked it!
Tuddrussel: You made this? Lawrence, I am impressed.
Larry: You were supposed to hate this meal. Because, you see...nobody's taking Tuddrussel away! I don't care how in love you two are!

    • In the aforementioned "Larry Upgrade," Tuddrussel and Larry's "adult conversation" is instigated by Larry's refusal to "fetch [Tuddrussel's] slippers." Fetching the husband's slippers was a stereotypical responsibility of housewives in the first half of the twentieth century.
    • Another stereotypical image of rebelling housewives is of them throwing kitchen utensils in rage at their incompetent/ungrateful husbands, an action almost always accompanied by the line "[Insert directive here] yourself!", a line of Larry's right after he hurls his pink frilly apron at Tuddrussel's face.
    • "Lewis and Clark and Larry", which has Lewis and Clark breaking up a la a dating couple, including such commonplace lines as "I love you. I'm just not in love with you" (only the line went, "I love exploring with you. I'm just not in love with exploring with you", which makes the line sound more risque than it really is) and Lewis lamenting that no one will want to explore with someone over 30. Then when Lewis and Clark get back together, Clark discovers that Lewis was "exploring" with Larry the robot.
      • Lewis and Clark end this episode literally holding hands and skipping happily off into the distance.
    • "The Prime Minister Has No Clothes": When Larry is showing home videos of the Time Squad's adventures, it's revealed that Larry taped two things that Buck Tuddrussel did not give him permission to film: one was Buck getting his butt kicked by Julius Caesar as seen in "To Hail With Caesar,"; the other is a clip of Buck singing in front of the sink, wearing nothing more than a towel (it would make more sense if Larry had a video of Tuddrussel singing in the shower, but it seems like either the show's writers actually had some limits or the censors didn't want them to go too far), which falls off at the end of the video. At first watch, it is funny, but when you really look into it, something just seems...off. Why exactly would Larry have that video of Tuddrussel in the first place? Unless he did it solely to humiliate him, which is highly unlikely, considering that the only person who'd have seen it, let alone gotten laughs from it, apart from Larry himself is Otto.
      • Also in the episode, you have Larry acting absolutely giddy over the idea of a naked British military. And, in a Call Back to the beginning, most of the video Larry shot of his trip with Winston Churchill seemed to focus an awful lot on his rear end.
    • "Pasteur Packs O'Punch": due to an electrocution scrambling his circuits, Larry starts acting...seemingly drunken. First, his eyes go pink, then he clings to Buck's chest and exclaims "I love you, guys!" Later, when Pasteur states that his drinks will give him the respect he deserves, Larry comes from behind (drunk again) and tipsily replies, "I respect you, buddy," before kissing Pasteur and resting his head on his shoulder. Later still, during Pasteur's party, Larry (dressed in a pink cape, a sausage garland, and a pineapple centerpiece for a crown) is seen standing on a table and declaring himself "the Queen of France."
    • A more symbolic example: in the episode with Napoleon, Buck and Larry are riding on one horse, despite that even Otto has his own pony, with Larry holding on to Buck's waist and sitting behind him much like a woman would if she were riding in the back (or "bitch seat") of a motorcycle.
    • In the episode "Child's Play", Shakespeare is dissatisfied with the type of theatrical plays that his manager demands him to make. When they meet Time Squad, they decide the characters are perfect for a new play. However, Shakespeare includes a number of scenes which Larry finds inappropriate for a play for kids. We are then shown a montage in which Larry corrects the play's scenario, including a scene where the actor versions of Buck and himself argue fiercely, whom he instructs to hug each other instead of fighting.
    • How can you mention Ho Yay on Time Squad without "Day of the Larrys," specifically, the Non Sequitur Scene-cum-possible-Censor Decoy where Otto and Tuddrussell are inside "Studio 3K," which can only be described as a gay nightclub for robots (it's about as subtle as Nickelodeon trying to cover up the fact that Helga's mom on Hey Arnold! is an alcoholic: they didn't need to say it; they just showed the implications so that way the older audiences got it while it flew over the heads of the younger audience). To make sure the line of decency has been crossed more than once, there was a short part where a Larry clone dressed in cowboy chaps, a cowboy hat, pink boots dances up to Tuddrussell and flirts with him after Tuddrussell takes his guns away.
    • "Forget the Alamo": Buck and Otto get imprisoned and are forced to sew ponchos. Otto's creation later serves as a trap for the warder watching them (Davy Crockett), but Buck gives his to Larry. Larry is absolutely delighted and attempts to hug Buck, only to be thrown off which leaves him rather broken-hearted.
      • Ah, but you forget why Tuddrussel gives him the poncho in the first place—earlier in the episode, Buck yelled at Larry for teaching Otto how to sew (something Buck finds to be "women's work") and rejected Larry's present to Buck: a denim jacket with the words "Tuddy Bear" embroidered on the back in sequins. Also, earlier in the episode, one of the designs Larry shows Otto is a rainbow, which is a gay pride symbol.
    • "A Thrilla at Atilla's": the three protagonists each voice their own version of what happened during their mission so they can complete the report. Tuddrussell's features Larry dressed in a pink tutu, acting very much like a Damsel in Distress would, and having hearts float above his head as Buck shows off his strength and muscles, making you wonder if that's how Tuddrussell regularly sees Larry. Larry's reply to this portrayal of events is the icing on the cake: "Well I certainly don't remember wearing a tutu! At least I don't think I did...".
      • "A Thrilla at Atilla's" also had Larry as a fitness instructor (in both Larry's and Otto's side of the story) wearing an aerobics get-up straight out of the 1980s, complete with pastel purple leotard, pink and fluffy leg warmers, a torn, purple half-shirt, and matching sweat band. Think Jane Fonda [dead link]. He did. The rather off-color exercise moves he taught to the Huns didn't help either.
    • In "Father Figure of Our Country," Larry spent most of the episode shopping at the colonial stores, and showed up in the end with more pink and purple than you can imagine. He also had a pink poodle and a face full of make-up.
    • In "Shop Like An Egyptian," it comes across quite clearly that half the intent of this particular episode was to show viewers that Larry just plain isn't attracted to women, by having him only like Cleopatra because of her fashion sense and her plans on turning the Great Pyramids into a mall (the writers did try to subvert this by having Larry declare that Cleopatra was gorgeous, but once he mentioned her matching sandals and dress, any thought of Larry not being gay was tossed out the window). There is a stark contrast between how both Tuddrussel and Larry try to attract Cleopatra's attention. The average viewer might see it as the old "two guys fighting for one woman's affection and getting rejected by a third man" plot cliche, but, if one was to look a little closer, you'll see that only Tuddrussel genuinely has a crush on Cleopatra (him mentioning "love", "Putting the moves on Cleopatra," and had hearts floating above his head for her, the latter of which is quite similar to what Larry had for Tuddrussel in a separate episode). Tuddrussel even cries uncontrollably when he and Larry get rejected by her for Julius Caesar at the end. Whereas in Larry's case, all his love for Cleopatra is actually only for her fabulous fashion sense, proven numerous times, by numerous statements, with him claiming that they both "Have so much in common," in that aspect. While Tuddrussel cries his rejected heart out at the end, Larry frankly looks like he doesn't care and instead goes on to comforting Tuddrussel.
    • On "Big Al's Big Secret" (the one with Albert Einstein as a car dealer in Texas), Al referred to Larry as "the missus" (which Tuddrussell finds funny), then suggests that Larry and Tuddrussell are engaged to be married and smacks Larry on the butt. Okay, how many lines did that cross exactly?
    • Dr. Freud returned in a later episode, "Horse of Horrors" (in which it happens to be Larry's birthday) only to be interrupted by the trio while conducting his couples' therapy on a random couple. Right after which, Freud is seen taking down notes as the dialogue goes:

Larry: ...but everything we tried just made things worse! Typical!
(Freud nods in acknowledgment)
Buck: (to Larry) : You're just mad 'cause robots don't have birthdays!
Larry (dramatically with his hand over his forehead): You don't care about me! You don't care about anyone!
Freud: Ja, ja, this relationship is a disaster. There's codependency, boundary issues, hostility, not to mention poor hygiene. But I think improvements could be made with a few decades of analysis.

      • Also in the same episode, Larry starts sobbing for Buck having devoured his birthday present from Otto and the fact that Buck had been horrid to him on his birthday. Buck (seemingly) has a change of heart:

Buck: Aw, look, I'm sorry. I want you to have a happy birthday. I LOVE you, buddy.
(Larry lights up and manages a smile of hope and joy)
Larry (voice full of hope): REALLY?
(As expected, Buck ruins the Crowning Moment of Heartwarming)
Buck:(scoff) NO!

    • And what about in "Ludwig Van Bone-Crusher" in which Larry tries to conjure up a cheer for Tuddrussel during a wrestling match? He produces:

"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Beethoven's tough as cookies;
and so are you!"

      • The original "Roses are Red" poem is commonly used as a love poem and uses the line "Sugar is sweet" instead of Larry's improvised "Beethoven's tough as cookies".
    • Here's a fun mental exercise for all: Imagine a scene in one of those family movies in which its the kid's birthday. The parents stand side by side, staring adoringly at their son excitedly opening his presents, father with arms folded and mother with her hands clasped by the side of her head. They then turn heads to glimpse affectionately at each other. Now imagine Otto as the kid and Larry and Tuddrussel in the parents' places.(Tuddrussel being the father and Larry the mother, of course). That's exactly what happened in the season two episode "Love at First Flight". Twice.
      • And at the end, Larry exclaims; "Let's NEVER discuss this DISGUSTING mission again!" This line seems to make sense in context, after a rather unhygenic mission. But it isn't like the trio haven't been through much worse. So what made Larry have such an aversion to this particular mission? The fact that Amelia Earhart had wanted to marry Tuddrussel towards the end? Tuddrussel pushes this line into effect even more when he shudders; "You got that right. Marriage!" Understandable for Tuddrussel (since he was married before and it didn't work out), but Larry?
        • Right before this incident, after Tuddrussel forces Amelia Earhart into a plane (after she had wanted them to get married), Otto, clad in a Time Squad uniform, cries; "Hey! What'd you do that for? We coulda been one big happy family!" which angers Larry considerably. As the three watch Amelia Earhart fly off out of sight, Larry's frown seems to have turned into a very smug smile, hands on his hips in triumph.
          • Actually, Larry was angry because Otto (who was wearing a mini-version of Tuddrussell's Time Squad uniform) was acting too much like Tuddrussell. There wasn't enough subtext to make it seem that Larry didn't want Tuddrussell to be with Amelia Earhart (though Larry groaning, "This cannot be happening," after Amelia tells Tuddrussell to teach her "how to be...dirty" does seem a bit questionable).
    • "Cabin Fever" had a short scene where Otto, Larry, and Tuddrussell were playing Twister—or, to be more precise, Otto was operating the Twister spinner while Tuddrussell and Larry are on the mat in some Head-Tiltingly Kinky positions.
      • Even "Napoleon the Conquered" featured the two in a similar position after Josephine takes out Napoleon's entire army in a fit of rage, as head tilting as ever.
        • This troper will see your Head-Tiltingly Kinky positions from "Napoleon the Conquered," and raise you Larry stretching and doing toe-touches on "Forget the Alamo", his posterior clearly in view of Tuddrussell who is caught ogling it, mouth agape.
    • What about the fact that almost every single thing in Larry's wardrobe (including the tutu seen on "A Thrilla at Atilla's" and "Day of the Larrys") is either totally pink, more suited for women to wear (i.e., the sun hat he wears for gardening, the pink, frilly apron as seen in "Every Poe Has a Silver Lining" and "Ivan the Untrainable," and the red dress he wore to a gala in "Feud for Thought") or has a pink accessory that goes with it? Or the fact that in the episode, "Blackbeard, Warm Heart" Larry's pirate costume not only featured the pink bandanna that he wore as a scarf, but also a black vest, no pants, and an earring on the right side of his head (where his ear would theoretically be). Wearing an earring on your right ear if you're a male means you're gay.
      • In "Kubla Khan't," Larry briefly disguises himself as a lawyer to rescue Tuddrussel from a public execution. While the suit is probably the only manly thing Larry has in his wardrobe, part of said costume includes a skinny red tie, which was considered popular among gay men in the 1920s.
    • Also notice how Larry tends to cling onto either Tuddrussel's arm, or shoulder when frightened.
    • In "Day of the Larrys", the portrait painting of Larry in blue Renaissance-style clothing is a Larry-fied replica of a famous painting, The Blue Boy. Even more interestingly, Blue Boy is also the name of a well-known naughty magazine targeted at homosexual men (as mentioned in the Cyndi Lauper song, "She Bop"). It also doesn't help that someone (possibly Tuddrussel) wrote the words, "Weenie Boy" on the picture.
      • It's no wonder too that Tuddrussel had those words written. There's some serious Freudan imagery going on there. That circle that Tuddrussel drew by the side of Larry's face is meant to be a testicle, essentially rendering Larry's head to resemble an erect penis. (Even more so.)
    • As proof that not all of the Ho Yay was contained to just the episodes, we have this clip from when the Time Squad hosted the interstitial bumpers on Cartoon Cartoon Fridays of Tuddrussel and Johnny Bravo getting into a Pec Flex match. Larry's reaction really sells the fact that he's drawn to human men here.

Larry: Ugh- this is so uncivilized! Yet, oddly compelling..."

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