 | |
| Series | Sonic Boom (TV series, 2014–2017) |
| Season | Season 1, episode 16 (S01E16) |
| Episode no. | 16 of 104 |
| US premiere | 7 March 2015 · Cartoon Network |
| France | 21 January 2015 · Devenir un génie du mal en 10 leçons |
| Written by | Dan Milano |
| Storyboard | Jean-Charles Andre |
| Directed by | Natalys Raut-Sieuzac |
| US viewers | 1.11 million (Nielsen, premiere) |
| Previous | Aim Low (S01E15) |
| Next | Don’t Judge Me (S01E17) |
How to Succeed in Evil Without Really Trying is episode 16 of Season 1 of Sonic Boom, the CGI comedy series made by OuiDo! Productions with Sega of America. It premiered in the United States on 7 March 2015 on Cartoon Network.
Synopsis
A spy disguised as a tree watches Tails’ new berry-picking machine run wild and grind a whole orchard to pulp, including the berries Sticks needed for the pie festival. To the hooded members of the Lightning Bolt Society, that looks like the work of an evil genius.
While his friends go off to the festival, a guilty Tails is left replanting trees, so when the hooded strangers turn up offering membership and a handy seed gun, he says yes without asking what the club is for. Its members, Dave and Willy Walrus among them, make him their leader, and only when they unveil their master plan, a takeover of every fruit stand around, does he realise they are crooks.
Eggman, who knows the Society mainly as the people who raid his bins, storms over to stop a team-up and bursts in at the same moment as Sonic and Amy. Each side assumes the other is signing up. In the chaos the villains mob Eggman for autographs, the heroes slip away, and Tails’ machine finally earns its keep by mowing down the mutant plants sprouting in the orchard. Sticks forgives him. The replanting, however, remains his job.
Trivia
- The title riffs on the musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
- On DVD: Universal’s UK volume Hedgehog Day (30 May 2016); in the US, NCircle’s Season One, Volume One (2019), Go Team Sonic! (2019) and The Complete Season 1 (2021).
- French title: Devenir un génie du mal en 10 leçons. The episode aired in France on 21 January 2015, before its US premiere.
- About 1.11 million US viewers watched the premiere broadcast (Nielsen figures as listed by Wikipedia).
Watch the Episode
This episode does not have an official full upload on YouTube at the time of writing. Season 1 is on DVD from NCircle in the US (The Complete Season 1, 2021) and Universal in the UK (2016), and has been available on services including Hulu, Netflix and Tubi; see the series page for details.
Part of our Sonic Boom Season 1 guide. See the series page for the cast, the redesigns, the games and the comics.
Sources: air dates, writers and storyboard artists from Luke’s original Sonic Scene episode list, cross-checked with Wikipedia, Sonic Retro (Wayback copy) and Sonic Wiki Zone; synopsis written for Sonic Scene from the episode summaries on those sites; title card and screenshots via Sonic Wiki Zone, copied to our media library.