A Fistful of Ed (Ed, Edd n Eddy)

Not to be confused with "A Fistful of Meg (Family Guy)". A Fistful of Ed is the 22nd episode in the fifth season of Ed, Edd n Eddy and the 124th episode overall. In this episode, Edd becomes the school tough guy after a scuffle with the infamous Lee Kanker. Edd must now try to prove to the other kids that he is not tough and mean.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Much like the previous episodes, such as "My Fair Ed" and "Cleanliness Is Next to Edness", this episode is very much a mean-spirited, if not torture or otherwise miserable scenario, towards Double D (Edd).
 * 2) The first half of the episode tries too hard to make Double D, who's the smartest but weakest of the three Eds, look like he was a downright tough guy, only for everyone to fear him and even costs him his friendship with Ed. It was obvious to the viewer that Double D meant no harm to anyone.
 * 3) The slapstick is very graphic, even if it's not as bad as "The Good, The Bad, and The Ed", but still very painful nevertheless:
 * 4) * Double D accidentally dropped the book on Lee Kanker's foot, causing it great pain and swelling. If that isn’t unwatchable enough, she even sucks on her entire foot to relieve the pain, which is disgusting to look at.
 * 5) * Double D accidentally rolls over a bottle of white-out he dropped and ends up hitting Rolf in the head with his foot twice, fracturing Rolf's skull, and then pins him to a locker with pencils.
 * 6) * Double D accidentally pricked the flesh on the underside of his fingernail with the teeth of a fork. His hand recoiled in pain, hitting Jonny and launching him at Marie, injuring the latter two in the process.
 * 7) * Double D tried to pry the chair that Ed was holding so that he could talk with him, but Ed reacts out of sheer emotion and falls on him, which wrapped Double D's arms around Ed's back. Ed, fearing for his life, began to run in circles, tying himself up with Double D's arms, and as Ed ran and destroyed the cafeteria, it appeared as though Double D was beating Ed up.
 * 8) Ed and Eddy are flanderized beyond likability until the end of the episode:
 * 9) * Ed is such an emotional crybaby, even more so than in previous episodes of this season, that he refuses to listen to reason. The infamous moment is when he tells Double D that they can no longer be friends which causes both him and Double D to break down heavily is seriously one of the most mean-spirited moments in the show. His emotional outburst here, including the part where he wrecks the cafeteria, just comes off as exaggerating and annoying rather than sympathetic and humorous.
 * 10) * Eddy just greedily exploits Double D's unfortunate status as a tough guy to have the kids do things for him, while Double D wants no part of it.
 * 11) Although Jimmy and Double D come up with a plan to remove the bully image from the latter by having a mock fight at the Pit in which Jimmy beats up Edd was decent, however, it was ultimately cut short when Eddy starts taunting and harassing Jimmy by throwing numerous hot dogs at him, thus interrupting the mock fight.
 * 12) Likewise on that note leading up to Eddy's shenanigans, the beginning of Jimmy and Double D's mock fight was rather lazily and pathetically done, due to them just raising their fists while both are unwilling to throw the first punch and it goes on for at most 10 seconds or so. It especially does not help at all with the fact that Jimmy and Double D are two of the series' weakest characters.
 * 13) Making matters worse, after Double D unintentionally and accidentally hurts Jimmy when the former attempted to restrain the latter from going after Eddy, Jimmy suddenly snaps out of rage and gives Double D the worst beating in the entire series, even going as far as to rip off a part of his tongue, thus officially ruining the original intended purpose of the mock fight. The other cul-de-sac kids then hail Jimmy as a hero and carry him off. It served no purpose other than to shove in the fact that Double D has to be tortured even after all he's been through in the episode.
 * 14) It was an awful way to end the show's fifth season overall.

Good Qualities

 * 1) It is arguably one of Double D's best roles in the series.
 * 2) The ending, after the mock fight, isn't so bad. At least Ed comes to his senses and reconciles with Double D, while Eddy defends Double D from the Kanker sisters by maliciously telling them that he's had enough already and to take a hike, forcing the Kanker sisters to visibly leave in fear. The episode ends with the Eds happily eating hot dogs together.
 * 3) Jimmy at least tried to help Double D during the second half of the episode. He also was visibly shocked and horrified at seeing what he has done out of anger to Double D by the end of their mock fight, while the other cul-de-sac kids just remained oblivious.
 * 4) At least Rolf and the Kanker sisters get karma handed to them here for what they did to the Eds in previous episodes, especially since the Eds did nothing wrong to them in those episodes in question.
 * 5) There are still a few funny moments from Ed and Eddy.
 * 6) We could at least say that the way Ed came to Sarah's defense despite Double D meaning no harm was heartwarming, despite all Sarah has put Ed through in the series overall.

Trivia

 * The title's a reference to A Fistful of Dollars and A Fistful of Pain.