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"Even a little lie can get really big, really fast, and a big lie can just swallow you up. And Junior, you made a really big lie!"
— Fib to Junior
LarryBoyAndTheFibFromOuterSpace
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

Distributed by

Word/Everland Entertainment

Released

April 22, 1997

Runtime

33 minutes

Previous episode

Very Silly Songs!

Next episode

Josh and the Big Wall!

Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space! is the eighth episode of VeggieTales. The story is about Larry the Cucumber's super alter-ego, Larry-Boy, as he tries to battle an alien from outer space named Fib who grows from lies created by Junior Asparagus after he accidentally broke his father's plate depicting Art Bigotti. It deals with the theme of telling the truth.

This is also the first of many episodes to feature the superhero centric misadventures of Larry-Boy.

Plot

Opening Countertop

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, 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-90's", which offends Bob. Larry then explains that Ezzio said that he just did something that he knew that he wasn't supposed to do. Now 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.

Larry-Boy! And The Fib From Outer Space

The story begins with Percy and his little brother leaving a movie theater and noticing an odd comet-like object flying by in the sky. Jimmy and Jerry Gourd, staffing 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.

Meanwhile, Junior Asparagus and his buddy Laura Carrot are having a tea party. Junior decides to make use of his father's "Art Bigoti" limited edition collector's plate for Mr. Snuggly since the duo ran out of plates. While trying to retrieve it, the shelf tips and the plate breaks. Laura immediately flees the scene. A tennis ball-sized alien named "Fibrillus Minimus" (or Fib, for short) emerges inside Junior's house and convinces him to lie to his dad about breaking the plate claiming, "A little fib couldn't hurt anybody." Junior is later confronted by Percy in an alleyway, who is oblivious to the situation involving the plate and wants to know the truth of what happened, in which Junior lies again. Soon, Junior notices the Fib starting to grow in size, but the Fib shrugs it off as the two make off into town while their crime goes unpunished.

Later that evening, Junior is approached by Laura, Lenny and Percy, who confront him in unison about his lies. When Junior tells a lie about aliens snatching all of these cows, swapping brains with the cows and the cows with the alien brains coming back to earth and breaking the plate (which happens to be the plot of the entire movie Percy and his little brother saw at the beginning of the story), the Fib grows to be a massive giant with hands who has swapped out his friendly demeanor for an extremely callous one and holds Junior captive and pretty soon, the Fib starts wreaking havoc all over Bumblyburg by destroying stuff. Scooter, the city's resident police officer witnesses this, and tells the police force to alert Larry-Boy. He escapes just in time before the Fib crushes his car flat.

Moments later, Larry-Boy appears and confronts the Fib, demanding he release Junior. The Fib dares LarryBoy to come after him and takes Junior to the water tower. Larry-Boy goes after the monster in his jet and jumps out to try and save Junior, however, Alfred figures out Junior is the one who can stop the Fib just as Larry-Boy is about to be eaten by it.

Junior realizes what he needs to do and finally confesses to breaking his dad's bowling plate. He further admits that he also lied about both Laura and Lenny, each time causing the Fib to shrink until he finally kicks the bucket. Junior then apologizes to his dad about what happened. His dad wishes that he told him in the first place because he would have been sure it was an accident. While Junior was worried he'd be in so much trouble, his dad forgives him by letting him know that his son is more important than "any old bowling plate." While Junior feels that he should be punished, his parents decide that the scary experience he just had with Fib was already a good enough punishment. His dad then reminds his son to be honest the first time in the future, which Junior agrees to do.

Later that evening, we see a new red Fib falling into another neighborhood, and it hops away in the opposite direction looking for someone else to help it grow.

Closing Countertop

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 makes it play. After the song ends, after Larry retracts his Super-Suction Ear again and lets Bob go. 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". Bob then says that Junior thought that a lie would liberate him, but in the end; the only way for him to be free was to tell the truth. 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 do what God wants him to do. That is, to tell the truth. Bob further explains to Ezzio that he's not saying that he won't get punished for what he did; but as Junior learned, facing our parents 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

Major

Minor

Cameos

Featured in the Larry-Boy Music Video

Voice Cast

Songs

Production

After the production for episodes two and three were done, Phil wanted to do a Tim Burton Batman parody episode because they had already spoofed both Star Trek with The Gourds Must Be Crazy and Gilligan's Island with Larry's Lagoon. 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 role-played Larry-Boy and both fans and crew actually liked the character so much, Phil decided to let Larry-Boy be the main hero. As a result, Bat-Bob never fell through, but Bob later became a hero named Thingamabob in The League of Incredible Vegetables, which came out almost 2 decades later.

Home media

Main article: Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!/Home Video

Features

Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!/Features

Trailer Appearances

Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!/Trailer Appearances

Other Languages

  • تيخة العجيب يواجه الأكاذيب (Arabic) (The Amazing Tikha Confronts the Lies)
  • 力仔與來自外太空的小偽 (Cantonese) (same translation not counting Larry-Boy's name change)
  • Ihmelari ja puppu ulkoavaruudesta (Finnish) (same translation not counting Larry-Boy's name change)
  • Ο Λάρι και η Ιστορία απο το Διάστημα (Greek) (Larry and the Story from Space)
  • LarryBoy dan Fib Dari Luar Angkasa (Indonesian) (same translation)
  • 래리보이외 부공킹바 (Korean) (Larry Boy and Bugong King Bar)
  • 外星人危機 (Mandarin) (Taiwan) (1st dub) (Alien Conquest)
    • 黃瓜超人大戰外星謊怪 (Mandarin) (Taiwan) (2nd dub) (Cucumber Superman vs. Alien Liar)
  • Super-Snurk! Skrønen fra verdensronnet (Norwegian) (Super-Snurk! The Cliff from Outer Space)
  • لری بوی و دروغ از فضا (Persian) (1st dub) (same translation)
    • لری قهرمان و چاخان فضایی (Persian) (2nd dub) (Larry the Hero and Space Lier)
  • Super-Larry e uma mentira do outro mundo (Portuguese) (Brazil) (1st dub) (Super-Larry and a Lie from Another World)
    • Larry-Boy e a Grande Mentira (Portuguese) (Brazil) (2nd dub) (Larry-Boy and the Big Lie)
  • Pepinho e o Petas Espacial (Portuguese) (Portugal) (Cucumber and the Space Taradiddle)
  • Super L. in laž iz vesolja/Laž iz vesolja (Slovenian) (same translation not counting Larry-Boy's name change/A Lie from Space)
  • Larry-Boy y la Fib del Espacio Exterior (Spanish) (Latin America) (same translation)
  • Larry Boy và kẻ nói dối ngoài không gian (Vietnamese) (Larry Boy and the Space Liar)

Fun Facts

Morals

  • A single lie will only grow worse.
  • The only way for you to really be free is to do what God would want us to do; which is to always tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
  • While one still might get punished for whatever it is they did, facing both the consequences of their actions and their angry parents or any authority figure is certainly a lot less painful than getting stuck in a big lie.

Explanations

  • HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a markup language to create web pages.
  • "Call the shots" means to take the initiative in deciding how something should be done.

Trivia

  • This is the first episode for several things:
  • This is the only episode for several things:
    • The only 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" and a normal goodbye, as the Larry-Boy music video at the end replaced it. This would also apply to VeggieTales on TV nearly a decade later, but for a completely different reason.
    • The only Larry-Boy episode to use the VeggieTales logo and intro used from 1993 to 1997.
    • The only Larry-Boy episode to use the Palatino font for the end credits.
    • The only episode where Tom Grape and The Peach appear, but do not speak.
    • The only Larry-Boy episode with the countertop segments rendered in Softimage.
  • This is the only Larry-Boy episode that Phil Winklestein, Ma Grape, Tom Grape, Rosie Grape, The Blue Wind-Up Lobster, and The Peach appear in.
  • This is the last episode to use the fanfare variant of the Lyrick Studios logo. Starting in mid 1999 to early 2001 on several VHS releases, the still variant for said logo is used.
  • This is the last episode to have Ma Grape and The Peach to be done at Big Idea.
  • This marks The Blue Wind-Up Lobster and Rosie Grape's last appearances to date.
  • Larry's voice starts to become more high-pitched starting with this episode.
  • 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 Mr. Asparagus from Junior's perspective was going to be upside down.
    • Original design sketches of the Fib suggest it was going to have arms from the beginning. In the final version, it never grows arms until it holds Junior captive.
    • In the script, the closing credits were going to have the Red Fib hopping through the black background, but this never came to be in the final version.
  • In the Norwegian Dub Ezio is Renamed to Mario and The Location New Jersey is referred as Oslo
  • When this episode aired on Qubo, the scene of Larry-Boy saying he is tired of searching was cut, most likely due to time constraints.
  • There is a rare teaser of this episode that is featured on the original 1997 Very Silly Songs! (originally "A Very Silly Sing-Along!") VHS copy. This makes it the first VeggieTales video to have a trailer made for it.
  • This is the second episode to not 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:
    • Bob was insulted by Larry at the beginning, despite no direct 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 chose to have him faint instead of Lisa Asparagus 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 episode has the original Sonny Bono version of Love My Lips.
  • Almost all international dubs except for Arabic and Taiwanese Mandarin cut the Larry-Boy Theme Song and put an instrumental of the theme song in the credits.
  • This is one of the few episodes whose original unremastered visuals in almost their entirety are available on DVD, including its own classroom edition. This includes most of the episode, minus the opening and closing countertops and the Larry-Boy music video. The title card on the beginning of the closing credits, however, has an added copyright byline below the screen.
  • The sound of the Fib landing on the ground was done with Mike Nawrocki bouncing a tennis ball. And Nawrocki also did the sound of the cow's moo.
  • There exists an extremely rare early 2002 VHS reprint of this episode by Lyrick Studios/HiT Entertainment. It has a black tape with a white ink label, and it has a print date of March 15th, 2002.
  • Bob's face after Larry told him that's "he's early 90s" would become an internet meme.
  • I Can Be Your Friend song appears in Officer Scooter's Car.

Remarks

  • When Scooter shouts, "Larry-Boy! Where could he be?!", there is an echo on the word "be." This was muted in the 2004 Classics release for unknown reasons.
  • The back cover shows an image of the Fib smiling when he is about to eat Larry-Boy, which never occurred in the episode, and the sky was during sunset. The shot was either an alternative take or was edited for marketing.
  • It seems like Ezzio's been hanging out with the wrong crowd because if Ezzio's friends were his real friends, then they'd encourage him to tell the truth rather than lie after he did the thing he knew he wasn't supposed to do. Why Ezzio is hanging out with friends who want him to lie is definitely beyond us.
  • Bob saying he fails to remember the story is quite odd, considering that he makes a cameo when Junior is about to fess up.
  • It is unknown how the Fib got into Junior's house. Although it is possible that he came in as Laura arrived at the house before the plate broke or he went down the chimney and eavesdropped the incident.
  • 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 is 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 essentially 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 Fib for some reason.
  • The Fib mysteriously gains lips while sucking on Larry-Boy.
  • Lisa Asparagus calls her husband "Dad." This may have been done likely because neither of Junior's parents had names at the time of this video's creation.
  • Junior's house looks like it is a bungalow, yet it has stairs.
  • Larry says he has been stuck in the Molasses Swamp for 39 consecutive turns, which is exceedingly unrealistic since he would have been out by that point, he was probably exaggerating.
  • This episode was extremely vauge about Ezzio's problem because all we know is that he "just did something that he knew he wasn't supposed to do".
  • Officer Scooter does not drive away but instead chooses to flee on foot when the Fib is near him. It would be just as easy (if not, easier) to flee from the Fib on wheels.
  • The horn is where the gear shift should be.
  • The red Fib landing on the street is essentially Fib landing in Junior's neighbourhood at the beginning of the episode. Except this time, the fib is red and it is flipped.
    • It is unknown what happened to the red fib at the end of the episode. It either went to somebody else's house or (hopefully) it was stopped by LarryBoy before it could do anything. Who knows; whatever happened to the red fib at the end of the episode is a mystery.
  • Was it necessary for John 8:32b to be split from John 8:32a?
  • It is unknown how Larry-Boy got his plunger ear back after Junior admitted to all his lies and then apologized to his father about the shattered plate.
  • The preview 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.
  • The Fib crushes every vehicle except for the Volkswagen van. That is because Ron Smith modeled it, which is an exact one that he owned and refused to destroy it (even in a piece of media).
  • Junior told the carrot siblings that they did not break the plate, and it was the cows with the alien brains that broke the plate instead. But when Fib shrinks, Junior never admitted that the cows with the alien brains breaking the plate was a lie too. He just went straight to how he framed the carrot siblings for breaking the plate, then it was him.
  • Bob is seen with the other veggies looking up at the water tower at The Fib.

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.
  • Mr. Asparagus' broken bowling plate appears and disappears randomly between shots.
  • Something flashes after Alfred say "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 is clipping into Larry.
  • There is no glass in the window behind Larry and Alfred when they are playing Candy Land, which was acknowledged by Phil and Mike on the commentary.
  • Junior says that the Fib has got legs. They are actually feet.
  • Part of the police car flashes after the Fib steps on it.
  • Percy's mouth gets scrambled with a question mark on it for one frame after Larry-Boy arrives to stop Fib.
  • When the Peach hops, his mouth gets scrambled with a question mark.
  • A rendering mistake occurs for one frame when the Larry-mobile drives towards the screen.
  • The road to the water tower gets incredibly long during the Larry-plane scene.
  • After the wipers pop out, the background freezes for a split-second.
  • When Junior realizes that he just created 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 is done displaying John 8:32b.
  • In the 2000 Word Entertainment VHS, the captions mistake Scooter saying "Larry, what's happening?" instead of Alfred.
  • When Junior notices that the Fib now has feet, Fib has no shadow.

Inside References

  • A few nods from Are You My Neighbor? are referred to in the episode:
    • Jimmy saying they have 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.
    • Bob tries to stop the What Have We Learned song, only for LarryBoy to pull him back with his super suction ear and then lets him go after the song ends.
  • Larry states he has been stuck in the molasses swamp for 38 turns.
  • Larry's bathrobe is just a recolor of Goliath's robe from Dave and the Giant Pickle.
  • "I'm a Cucumber Records" is most likely a reference to Larry's quote of him being a cucumber whenever someone mistakes him for a pickle.
  • When Junior says, "Who said that?", which is likely a reference to The Toy That Saved Christmas, 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 in The Toy That Saved Christmas.
  • Mr. Snuggly is just a recolor of Mr. Nezzer's bear from The Toy That Saved Christmas.

Real-World References

  • This episode is mainly intended to be a spoof of Tim Burton's Batman film released in 1989.
  • 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 Life Call, now called Life-Alert (which is headquartered in Encino, California). He may also be refrencing one of Steve Urkell's famous lines.
  • The tune which the Larry-Mobile's horn was honking was "Dixie" which is also similar to General Lee from The Dukes Of Hazzard but instead of using air horns, it uses standard car horns.
  • The first car the Fib crushes is a Volkswagen Beetle, a German car which was built from 1938 to 2003.
  • When Scooter saw the fib from the inside of his police car, he said Great Scott, the line that is used by Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the future.
  • LarryBoy's "Ayayayayay ay ay!" yelling when he is falling towards the Fib is based on the scene from the 1987 movie Ishtar where Chuck Clarke yells out a similar phrase.

Fast Forward

Transcript

Credits

Commentary

Larry-Boy! and the Fib from Outer Space!/Commentary

Gallery

LarryBoyAndTheFibFromOuterSpaceTitleCard


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