Imposter's Home for Um.. Make Em Up Pals (Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends)

“'Imposter's Home for Um.. Make Em Up Pals'” is the fourth episode in season 3 and overall the thirty-first episode of mh:besttvshows:Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.

Summary
Frankie is suspicious of a so-called new imaginary friend named Goofball, who looks very human and tries to prove to everyone that he's a fraud and not an imaginary friend.

Why It Won't Make 'Em Up

 * 1) This episode is extremely mean-spirited, due to all the mistreatment Frankie gets.
 * 2) It is overall an extremely evil Frankie torture episode.
 * 3) In general, everything about Goofball, from his voice to his characterization to the fact that he's the one that makes Frankie go through hell throughout this episode to even his design, makes him insufferable.
 * 4) Frankie keeps getting blamed for things that Goofball of the others do and is forced to clean them up, and is incredibly hard to watch.
 * 5) Similar to Plankton in the infamously hated SpongeBob Squarepants season 7 episode "One Coarse Meal", this episode literary tries way too hard to make Frankie suffer even though she did absolutely nothing wrong in this episode, all she did was yell at Bloo and told him to pay the "Frankie is Right, and Bloo is Wrong" jar afterward and was trying to get her chores done, she has the right to be like that since she's the Caretaker!
 * 6) Mr. Herriman himself is at his absolute worst here, possibly even worse than as he was in "Crime after Crime", as he acts like there isn't a thing wrong with Goofball and accuses Frankie of trying to harass him. And yet he treats Frankie unfairly throughout as well, Mr. Herriman also acts hypocritical towards Frankie and scolds her for suggesting take-out for dinner, but was okay with Goofball ordering pizza while Frankie went out grocery shopping, and the worst part is when Mr. Herriman has enough of this after seeing Frankie dress up like Goof-goof, he bans Frankie from a concert she wanted to attend.
 * 7) Mac's cameo has come off as hated as it’s implied that he betrayed Frankie and told Goofball off-screen that Frankie was going undercover as Goof-goof.
 * 8) That look that Frankie makes after Goofball mocks her for missing the Fake-Outs is EXTREMELY horrifying and out-of-place.
 * 9) Many, many, many, many, MANY extremely mean-spirited moments that are utterly unwatchable. One of the most noticeable examples is the scene where Frankie puts a bunch of babies to sleep, then Goofball comes in and wakes up the babies, promises them all candy to calm them down, and after Frankie says no to candy, the baby that Frankie is holding says "I hate you Frankie!" with all of the other babies crying. This is one of the most mean-spirited things to appear in the entire Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends series and is probably the main reason why everyone hates this episode.
 * 10) Terrible and utterly horrible ending that comes off extremely insulting and is a humongous slap-in-the-face: In the ending, Goofball mocks Frankie for missing the Fake-Outs, which causes Frankie to snap and go all out on him. After catching up to him and pulling his clown nose off of him, do you think this episode will give Frankie justice after all she went through? Wrong! Because it's revealed that Goofball really was an imaginary friend all along (under his clown nose was an elephant trunk), this proceeded to have everyone look down on Frankie and now hate her, which allows Goofball to get away scot-free with his actions, which proves himself as a Karma Hodini. Now Frankie is forced to pay Bloo the "Bloo Is Rite And Frankie Is Wrong" jar for the very first time. As such, not only did this ending make Frankie look like a complete idiot and fool in front of everybody, but it’s nothing more than the episode delivering one big fat middle finger to her after all she went through.
 * 11) When Frankie dresses up as Goof-goof, none of Foster’s residents realize that Frankie is in a freaking costume. This is quite frustrating if you think about it, as this shows that Foster treats her like a servant, not a caring owner.
 * 12) Goofball and Mr. Herriman never get any comeuppance for their ungrateful actions against Frankie, and she never gets any compensation for how harshly she was treated.
 * 13) The hints to show that Goofball was a human come off as pointless, considered that Goofball was, indeed, an Imaginary Friend.
 * 14) Massive plot-holes, probably the biggest example is the ending, Goofball was an Imaginary Friend all along, so in that case,  why didn't Goofball tell Frankie that he was one in the first place?!? 
 * 15) * Adding into that, Mr. Herriman also says an EXTREMELY infamous line: Oh who would fall for such a disguise? From that line ALONE, it’s revealed that Mr. Herriman has secretly KNEW that Goofball was an Imaginary Friend as well, WHY didn't he just tell Frankie that is beyond anyone's guess.
 * 16) There’s a very lame attempt at a heartwarming moment between him and Frankie, as its ruined by all the amount of torturer that Frankie's been through as well as the infamous "twist". It could have been better if (as stated in #14) he showed his nose in the first place.
 * 17) The terrible “Being A Bully To Others Is Ok And Standing Up For Yourself Is Wrong” moral is not only taught in this episode, but also repeated from “Everyone Knows It’s Bendy”, as Frankie snaps and stands up to Goofball for tormenting her, yet she is portrayed as the one in the wrong for it as shown by the "twist" reviling that Goofball was an Imaginary Friend. The show even adds emphasis on this by having Frankie admit that she was wrong to Goofball and then pay Bloo up for being wrong, which is not true.
 * 18) Goofball and Mr. Herriman never apologize to Frankie for the way they mistreated her.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The title is an amusing simplification of the show's name.
 * 2) At least Goofball doesn't appear anywhere in the show afterward, even better, he doesn't even get mentioned.
 * 3) Frankie is still a likable character.

Reception and Controversy
Since today, "Imposters Home for Um... Make Em' Up Pals" has received very controversial reviews, and has been universally and critically panned by fans and critics alike, many have considered this not only the worst episode of season 3, but it also considered by fans as one of the single worst episodes in the entire Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends series, as well as being considered as the single worst (if not, THE worst) episode of any show on Cartoon Network. It got to the point that fans and critics even went so far as to say that it's even  WORSE  then "Everyone Knows It's Bendy".

Many fans criticize Frankie for being ungratefully tortured/mistreated throughout the whole episode, fans felt very sorry to Frankie being tortured and felt like the episode is literary making Frankie suffer for no reason whatsoever, with the ending being one of the worst examples.

Goofball would also be the primary criticism for this episode, due to his annoying personality, Goofball being the cause of all of the amount of torturer Frankie goes through, as well as his ungrateful actions against Frankie, next to Bendy, Goofball would often be considered by fans to be one of the WORST characters in cartoon history, let alone one of the worst in the ENTIRE Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends franchises.

In addition to Goofball, Mr. Herriman would also be considered as the secondary antagonist and the second worst character in this episode, being strangely and unusually nice to Goofball all the while acting very strict and cruel to Frankie, even to the point of banding Frankie from going to the Fake-Outs, fans declare this one of Mr. Herriman's worst episodes to appear in.

Another example of this episode being critically panned many fans is Mac's cameo, as there is a high possibility that he might have secretly betrayed Frankie, its heavenly implied that Mac told Goofball off-screen that Frankie was going undercover as Goof-Goof McGoof, even going so far as to use Frankie's own money that she bribed him to by "The Fake-Out's" T-Shirts, this scenery makes it even worst as Mac is shown to have a crush on Frankie.

One final example of this episode being university hated and critically panned by fans is the out-of-nowhere random and EXTREMELY unfair ending, Goofball being reviled that he really WAS an Imaginary Friend all along, allowing Goofball to get off scot-free and receiving zero punishments while feeling little-to-no remorse or even guilt for his actions against Frankie, all the while Frankie now looks like a complete fool/idiot in front of everyone is the nail that sealed this episode, fans considered the ending as one of the single worst endings in the ENTIRE Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends series. Even went as far as to say that it's even worse than the ending of "Everyone Knows Its Bendy".

Because of this episode's massively poor reviews by critics and fans, like the outcome to "Everyone Knows It's Bendy", "Bye Bye Nerdy" and the later four episodes "Duchess of Wails", "Foster's Goes To Europe", "I Only Have Surprise For You" and "The Big Cheese", it was soon officially declared as Non-Canon to the entire Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends series. Thus, making it the third non-canonical episode of the series. Goofball would also be the third 'one-time-only character' in the Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends series, and would never be seen or even mention again for the rest of the series, with the first two being Bendy and Jamze. And the huge amount of unfair mistreatment/torturer to Frankie, as well as the negative actions and punishments enforced by Mr. Herriman to Frankie would also never happen.

The episode was placed at #2 on Jem Reviews' "Top 10 WORST episodes of GOOD cartoons" video, for he criticizes Goofball's actions and the cruel, unfair, and out-of-nowhere ending.

In the Youtuber Ethan Broussard's review of "Imposter's Home for Um... Make Em Up Pals", he gave this episode an overwhelming negative review and also considered this as the single worst episode in all of Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, for he criticize the amount of torturer that Frankie goes though, and he even states that despite having a chuckle, Ethan Broussard says that its even WORSE then "Everyone Knows it's Bendy", he even says that the episode was so bad, hurt/broke him and even drove him insane so much that he had to take brakes from Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, Ethan Broussard also state that he felt the most unconformable since watch the SpongeBob SquarePants episode, "Good Neighbors".

Videos
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=namxe3Qyh_g

Trivia

 * Though Goofball was the one in conflict with Frankie, Mr. Herriman could be considered the true main antagonist of the episode, due to his nonchalant behavior towards Goofball and his uncharacteristic unfairness towards Frankie.
 * Throughout the episode, there were possible hints and clues to show that Goofball wasn't a true Imaginary Friend:
 * When Goofball comes to Foster and Frankie asks his name, Goofball had to think his name, implying that he faked his so-called "imaginary friend" name.
 * Goofball's attitude was the typical teen human attitude, not the colorful and bizarre attitude of an imaginary friend.
 * Goofball forced Frankie to do his homework, showing that he goes to school despite being an imaginary friend.
 * Goofball has teen friends that have similar attitudes to him, and also one of them called him John, implying that Goofball isn't his true name (though it could be his middle name).
 * When Frankie confronts Goofball regarding his creator, he had to think the name of his creator, and he didn't know the phone number of his creator either, despite his claims that he and his creator were "very close".
 * When Frankie begins to yell at Goofball saying that she is no longer going to do any of his chores and homework because she knows that Goofball is not an Imaginary Friend due to her finding a clown nose on a floor, Goofball seemed scared, was gasping in horror and was even hiding his nose with his hands.
 * On that topic, Goofball's face was hidden behind an arcade game as Frankie approaches him to criticize as she found a clown nose.
 * He, besides Mac, can see through the "Goof Goof" disguise of Frankie, while the rest of the Imaginary Friends were easily fooled by her costume, implying that Goofball was a human-like Frankie and Mac.
 * Whats probable the biggest hint is near the end of the episode when Frankie ultimately snaps and gives chase to Goofball after he mocks her for missing the Fake-Outs, Goofball attempted to keep Frankie from pulling off his clown nose and was even scared as he hid his nose with both of his hands after Frankie pulled off his clown nose, suggesting that he has a human nose.
 * By all of these hints however, many fans were extremely outraged with the final part in that Goofball was revealed that he was in fact a true Imaginary Friend. Many fans think that this ending was a forced plot twist just to bash Frankie in the head to avoid she can getting justice by the unfair treatment that she must endure in the episode. As such, not only does this entire ending make Frankie look like a horrible person in front of everybody, but it also made all of these possible hints beyond pointless and made all of the fans look like complete fools for even believing that he was a human.
 * This twist makes it even worst, as Goofball's elephant trunk is way too thick and large to fit inside of a small little clown nose that's about the size of a small marble, and though out the episode when we see Goofball from the sides, it looks like a human nose, so it is possible (combining with the hints) that they were originally going to make Goofball be revealed that he was a human, but decided to change it for some unexplained reason.
 * Due to Goofball and the episode's massively poor reviews by fans and critics alike, this episode has been considered non-canonical to the rest of the series. Goofball himself has also been declared non-canonical and has never made a second appearance, nor does he even get mentioned.
 * This is the third episode to be declared non-canonical, the first two being "Everyone Knows It's Bendy" and "Bye Bye Nerdy" for similar reasons.
 * Despite this episode being declared non canon, it does prove that it can be difficult to identify some human-like Imaginary Friends as imaginary friends due to their appearance.
 * Lauren Faust had stated on her Twitter page that the original pitch to Goofball's story was that he was supposed to be a strange man in his 30s pretending to be an imaginary friend and leaching off Foster's, as well as a much more satisfying and justifiable ending to Frankie. However, due to the direction, it would be when aiming towards children (especially since having a strange, lazy, confused, and lonely 30-something-year-old man wouldn't be seen as relatable, quirky, and not child-friendly/appropriate), a change had to happen. They were asked by Cartoon Network executives to make Goofball a teenager and later be revealed to be a real imaginary friend. This was done to be relatable to kids, be family-friendly, and prevent backlash from parents (from a creepiness factor). Unfortunately, all of the possible hints/clues that were shown in the episode to show that Goofball was not an Imaginary Friend, as well as the "Frankie torturer scenes" were not properly removed/remade, Faust also said because of this, the original plan and expected plot of Imposter's Home for Um... Make 'Em Up Pals was ruined, thus, creating one of the most controversial and hated endings in the entire Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends series.