Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!

Larry-Boy! and the Fib; from Outer Space!
Directed by	Phil Vischer; Chris Olsen
Produced by	Chris Olsen
Written by	Phil Vischer
Music by	Kurt Heinecke; Phil Vischer
Released	April 11, 1997
Runtime	30 minutes
Previous episode	Very Silly Songs!
Next episode	Josh and the Big Wall!

This article is about the episode. You may be looking for the book.

Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space! is the eighth episode of VeggieTales and the first Larry-Boy episode.

Plot

Bob and Larry greet the kids once again while on the Countertop, before Bob asks who has a question. Larry then remembers that he got an e-mail from a kid named Ezzio Vietti from Hackensack, New Jersey. Bob is confused about the concept of e-mail (because at the time this video was released, e-mail was still a fairly new thing on the web, as was the internet), which Larry tries to explain to him. Bob then states that he got cable last month, before Larry replies rather condescendingly, "You are so early 90s," which briefly offends Bob. Larry then explains that Ezzio said that he just did something that he knew that he wasn't supposed to do, so his friends are telling him to lie about it so that he won't get in trouble, and wants to know what he should do. Bob then notes that a lie can be a very dangerous thing, before asking if they have any stories about that. Larry has it covered, stating that the same thing happened to Junior Asparagus once, before telling Ezzio to grab his popcorn and turn down the lights so that he can get ready for "Larry-Boy! and the Fib From Outer Space!". Larry then yells "Roll film!" before the lights go dim after that, leaving Bob in the dark.

The story begins with Percy and Lil' Pea seeing what appears to be a comet flying by in the sky one evening. Jimmy and Jerry Gourd, who staff an early-warning radar station, alert Larry-Boy of an approaching alien. Larry-Boy begins to search for the alien but gives up after finding nothing. The scene then shifts to Junior Asparagus and Laura Carrot having a tea party. Junior decides to take his father's prized "Art Bigoti" bowling plate for his teddy bear, saying that since it is a special bear, it deserves a special plate. While trying to retrieve it he accidentally breaks the plate. The tennis ball-sized alien "Fibrillus Minimus" (Fib, for short) emerges and convinces Junior to lie to his dad claiming, "A little fib couldn't hurt anybody." Junior lies to his dad and claims that Laura is demonstrating her new apple chopper which works perfectly but broke the plate by accident. However, Junior soon discovers that every time he lies, his "little fib" grows larger and larger. He and the Fib go downtown where Laura, Percy, and Lenny form an angry mob and confront him about his lies. When Junior tells a lie about alien cows coming to earth and destroying the plate, Fib grows to be a 50-foot tall giant who holds Junior prisoner and starts wreaking a quarter of havoc and destruction in the city.

Larry-Boy is then summoned and is forced to pursue the Fib and Junior in his Larry-Mobile as the Fib tries to escape by climbing to the top of the 100-foot tall water tower. Larry-Boy transforms the Larry-Mobile into the Larry-Plane and flies into the sky. He then ejects above the Fib, but is grabbed and squeezed until one of his plungers pops out. As the Fib starts to eat Larry-Boy, Alfred informs Larry-Boy that Junior is the only one who can stop the Fib. Junior then admits the truth about his lies to his parents (who are watching from below) and as he tells the truth, the Fib shrinks into nothing but air. Junior then apologizes to his father.

Back on the Countertop, Bob congratulates Larry, now in his Larry-Boy costume, for doing a good job. Larry thanks Bob before saying that he has a meeting with the action figure people in 10 minutes. When Bob questions this, Larry says that "Larry-Boy mania is sweeping the nation. If you're not on board, you're gonna miss the train". Bob then says that they're over by Qwerty to talk about what they've learned today, before Qwerty once again plays the "What Have We Learned" song. Bob hops off to turn it off, but Larry uses his Super-Suction Ear to pull Bob back. When this happens, Larry claims he likes the song and has Bob let it play. After the song ends, after Larry retracts his Super-Suction Ear again, Bob then explains that Junior thought that the best way to get out of trouble was to tell a lie. Larry then adds that Junior had to keep telling more and more lies until he was trapped, "A slave to his lies". Qwerty then brings up the verse, which is "The truth will set you free. John 8:32b", before Bob then explains to Ezzio that the only way to truly be free is to tell the truth; while you might still get punished for what you did, facing your parents and confessing the truth is a lot less painful than getting stuck in a big lie. Larry then agrees before telling Bob that they need to clear the stage because it's time for the premiere of his new music video. We are then treated to a music video of The Larry-Boy Theme Song.

Characters

Larry/Larry-Boy
Junior Asparagus
Laura Carrot
Lenny Carrot
Percy Pea
Li'l Pea
Archibald Asparagus/Alfred
Bob the Tomato
Mike Asparagus
Lisa Asparagus
Scooter
Jimmy and Jerry Gourd
Fibs
Art Bigotti (debut, cameo)
The Grape Family (including Pa Grape)
The Peach
Scallions
Phil Winklestein
Mr. Nezzer
Harry the Penguin (Banner)
The Lemon (Banner)
3 female Asparagus Singers
Woman Voice (Singing)

Songs

Production

After the production for episodes two and three were done, Phil wanted to do a Tim Burton Batman parody episode. Originally, it was going to be Bat-Bob and the concept was that he tends to be serious. But he also wanted to add Larry as his sidekick, so he created a character named Larry-Boy, who attends to be the funny one. During Dave and the Giant Pickle, Larry roleplayed Larry-Boy and both fans and crew actually like the character so much, Phil decided to let Larry-Boy be the main hero. As a result, Bat-Bob never fell through but later became Thingamabob in The League of Incredible Vegetables, which came out a couple decades later.

Home media

VHS

Word Entertainment/Everland Entertainment (original release)
Lyrick Studios (February 9, 1999)
Warner Home Video (May 18th, 2004)
Sony Wonder (May 18th, 2004)

DVD

Warner Home Video (May 18th, 2004)
Word Entertainment (regular release)
Sony Wonder (May 18th, 2004)

Fun Facts

Moral

Honesty is the best policy.
Don't live off a lie otherwise you'll run into trouble sooner or later.

Explanations

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a markup language to create webpages.
As you'll notice during the Fib scenes, he crushes every vehicle except for the VW van. That is because Ron Smith modeled it, which is an exact one that he owned and refused to destroy it.

Trivia

This was the first episode for several things:
- The first episode where Bob and Larry receive e-mail messages from kids.
- The first appearance of Art Bigotti.
- The first episode where both Junior and Laura get in a conflict, despite Laura receiving no apology from the person who accused her of his own wrongdoing in this one.
- The first episode where the animated Big Idea logo from 1997 is used.
- The first episode Joseph Sapulich, Daniel López Muñoz, and Joe McFadden worked on. It's also the first episode with more crew members like Aaron Hartline, Cara Bukovski, Lena Spoke, Nathan Tungseth, Jennifer Combs, and Jon Gadsby.
- This is also the first episode to have a lighting department.
- The first episode not to have any of The French Peas since their debut appearances.
- The first episode where Bob and Larry don't say the normal closing signature sign-off message, "Remember kids, God made you special and he loves you very much!" as the LarryBoy music video at the end replaced it. This would also apply to the TV version of the series nearly a decade later, but for a completely different reason.
This is the only Larry-Boy episode that Frankencelery, Scallion #2, Pa Grape, Ma Grape, Tom Grape, Rosie Grape, The Blue Wind-Up Lobster, and The Peach appear in.
This is the only Larry-Boy episode to use the VeggieTales logo and intro used from 1993 to 1997.
This is also the only Larry-Boy episode to use the Book Antiqua font for the end credits.
This marks the last appearance of Rosie.
There were a few differences between pre-production and the final version:
- The beginning was going to have Larry-Boy stopping a burglar, but was cut due to time constraints. This was, however, carried over in the next Larry-Boy episode.
- Concept art shows Alfred with a motorcycle.
- The shot of Dad from Junior's perspective was going to be upside down.
When this episode aired on Qubo, the scene of Larry-Boy saying he's tired of searching was cut.
There is a rare teaser of this episode that's featured on the original 1997 Very Silly Songs! (originally "A Very Silly Sing-Along!") VHS copy.
This is the second episode not to have a Silly Song.
According to Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki on the DVD commentary, they received a few angry letters for this episode on several subjects:
- Larry insulted Bob at the beginning, despite no response from him.
- Larry was way too serious in this episode.
- This episode was a bit controversial as it was too intense for some kids.
- It was wrong for Mike Asparagus to faint twice in the water tower scene. They were originally going to make Lisa Asparagus faint but it was changed to Mike because it would be deemed stereotypical of a woman to faint in a bad situation and they thought it would be funnier if it was the other way around.
This episode was featured as a bonus feature on a re-release of The Ballad of Little Joe.
The classroom edition of this has the Sonny Bono version of Love My Lips.
Some international versions as well as the Slovenian dub cut the Larry-Boy Theme Song and put an instrumental of the theme song in the credits.

Remarks

The back cover shows an image of the Fib smiling when he's about to eat Larry-Boy, which never occurred in the episode. The shot was either an alternative take or was edited for marketing.
Bob saying he doesn't remember the story is odd, considering he made a small cameo in the climax.
It's unknown how the Fib got into Junior's house.
The Fib is really small when it lands, but why is it able to be seen from so far away, with the exception of the Gourds' screen?
The Peach is either standing or sitting, but he's in the middle of the road while Larry-Boy is searching for the supposed alien. One can only hope he got out of the road in time before being run over by a car.
Alfred's research reveals the Fib is a monster called a "lie." Even with the magic of 1997 Internet, what kind of research did Alfred do to learn this? Apparently, no one except the Internet knows anything about the Lie for some reason.
The Fib mysteriously gains lips while chewing on Larry-Boy.
Lisa Asparagus calls her husband "Dad." This may have been done likely so giving Lisa Asparagus' husband's real name away to the audience could be avoided.
Junior's house looks like it is a single-story building, yet it has a staircase inside.
Junior thinks he can climb the shelf without proper shelf-climbing equipment.
Larry says he's been stuck in the Molasses Swamp for 38 turns, which is unrealistic since he would've been out by that point.
Officer Scooter doesn't drive away but instead chooses to flee on foot when the Fib is near him. It'd be just as easy to flee from the Fib on wheels.
The car alarm is where the gear shift should be.
The red Fib landing on the street is the exact same shot as the previous one, except for the different-colored Fib and the fact it's flipped.
The previews menu on the DVD edition has a preview for the next episode.
In the DVD-ROM section, it shows pictures from Dave and the Giant Pickle, Madame Blueberry, and Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie.
An Old Maid card game based on this episode was released a year later.

Goofs

Some animation errors are seen when Larry-Boy is searching for the alien.
- Scallions 2 and 3 are sliding in place, and 3 is standing on the fire hydrant.
- The wind-up lobster is hovering.
Dad Asparagus' broken bowling plate appears and disappears randomly between shots.
Something flashes after Alfred says "What do you mean, you can't find it?".
Alfred's bow-tie floats in some shots.
Larry-Boy's straps are missing in the shot where he tells Alfred he never found the Fib.
As Larry and Alfred are playing Candy Land, Alfred appears to be holding down his card in a way it's clipping into Larry.
Part of the police car flashes after the Fib steps on it.
The light behind Larry and Alfred blinks for a second.
Percy's mouth gets scrambled after Larry-Boy arrives to stop Fib.
After the wipers pop out, the background freezes for a split-second.
When the Fib tells Junior he made a big lie, the background is black.
Larry-Boy is missing his tooth when the Fib is about to eat him.
The yellow part of Larry-Boy's costume clips through his body after Alfred's computer shuts off.
The cow from the billboard that the Fib destroys suddenly disappears after it passes by Scooter's police car.
As Alfred is about to reveal who can stop the Fib before he unplugs the computer, his monocle somewhat clips into his nose.
Bob is shown without QWERTY behind him but appears in front of him in the next shot.
QWERTY's verse background is still on his screen even when he's done displaying the verse.

Inside References

Few nods from Are You My Neighbor? are referred to in the episode:
- Jimmy saying they've been searching for space aliens for two years, which was when the video was released.
- Mention of Mr. Slushy.
- Scooter was listening to I Can Be Your Friend, which appeared in his debut episode.
Larry states he's been stuck for 38 turns.
"I'm a Cucumber Records" is most likely a reference to Larry's quote whenever someone mistakes him for a pickle.
When Junior says Who said that? His television from the first show can be seen.
As the giant garage door for the Larry-Mobile to be let out opens up, the fence it contains was previously used on the previous two episodes, The Toy That Saved Christmas and Very Silly Songs!

Real World References

The game Larry and Alfred were playing is Candy Land. The Molasses Swamp is an area that the player can get stuck on if they land on a black dot.
The Fib climbing the water tower and holding a small figure is a reference to the climax of King Kong.
Jerry, in the laboratory scene, can be seen wearing spock ears. Spock is a fictional character from the 1960s Sci-Fi television series, Star Trek.
When Larry-Boy accidentally knocks Alfred over, Alfred says "I've fallen, and I can't get up." This is a reference to a television commercial that ran in 1987 for a medical alarm and protection company called LifeCall, now called Life-Alert.
The song the Larry-Mobile was honking was "Dixie Land."

Fast Forward

Larry-Boy would once again yell "Goodbye, Bumblyburg!" in his next episode.
Bob would later drive the van the Fib didn't crush in Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie.
There's a later episode with the same moral.

Episode Transcript

Transcript