"Skate Dad" is the first segment of the third episode (and the fifth story overall) of Close Enough.
Synopsis[]
Struggling to bond with Candice, Josh goes all out to become the world's best skate dad.
Plot[]
Josh creates a special breakfast for Candice to find out that she is not impressed. Upon further inspection Josh finds out that his daughter is developing an addiction to watching unboxing videos on YouTube. Josh suggests actually unboxing things in real life to at least get her off her tablet but she insists that watching is better.
It suddenly crosses Josh's mind that his absence around the house may be the reason his daughter is developing anti-social habits. Josh quickly thinks about things he can bond with his daughter over. Josh digs up a box of his old toys (all iconic toys from the 80s) but Candice seems increasingly disinterested in them. Josh ends up pushing Candice further into her fascination with unboxing videos.
Josh is sulking, wondering where he went wrong when suddenly Emily walks by holding a box that contains a skateboard from Josh's youth. Josh realizes what he has been missing; he hadn't tried to teach Candice how to skateboard yet. Josh's family agree to the idea.
Josh and his family go to the Skateboard Shop from Josh's teen years. The Shop however has turned into an ultramodern shell of it's old self. Undeterred by the Hipster-owned transition to a beloved shop; Josh proceeded to look for Skateboard Decks for Candice.
Josh was informed that the only person in the shop who does anything skateboard-related is a man who is referred to as "The Goosh". Candice eventually picks a Deck and Josh's family reconvene to the Skate Park.
In an attempt to impress his family by doing a skateboarding trick, Josh vehemently injures himself. First he lands genitals-first into his upright skateboard, then he falls head-first into the actual skating pit despite originally wearing a helmet and then his skateboard rolls down the pit and crashes into his genital area.
Josh can later be seen at his home in a wheelchair. Emily confirms via an xray photograph that Josh has had a metal plate screwed across his genital area.
Emily decides that Candice should indeed learn how to Skateboard, so she takes the family to the Skate Park again. This time Emily is skating with Candice and Josh is inside the family car; arched back, legs spread out far apart and an ice pack across his surgically implanted metal plate.
Josh later finds out that Emily has hired The Goosh to be Candice's Skateboarding tutor this time around. After witnessing Candice accept The Goosh as a father figure, Josh goes irate. He wills himself out of his car, shattered genitals and all; and challenges The Goosh to a race down Baxter Street, the steepest road in the city.
At the venue of the race, Candice rolls down Baxter Street lying down on her skateboard. Josh, Emily and The Goosh all go in an effort to save Candice. Josh tells Goosh to respectfully let him save his daughter by himself because Josh’s own father never took him skating to which Goosh complies since his own father never took him skating either. Josh then instructs Candice to stand up so she can actually start steering her skateboard. Candice does so and avoids some impending barrels. Emily eventually catches Candice but her own board starts flaming; Josh instructs his wife with child in hand to jump onto him.
Emily does so and Josh is holding his family in his hands. Josh's board then caves in from all the weight and splits into two pieces horizontally. Josh uses his broken skateboard as roller skates and continues to skate down Baxter Street with his family in his embrace. Josh was able to zigzag past multiple traffic cones but had to slide down the top of multiple traffic barricades genitals-first.
A compartment to a big rig menacingly awaits them down the endless Baxter Street. Josh starts crying because of the impending punishment to his genitals. He does a full split, sliding down the road metal plate first in order to get low enough to slide below the compartment. Josh's entire genital region catches fire for the continuous onslaught he had ensued upon it.
Josh's momentum causes the compartment to roll down, much to the despair of the spectators above the hill inclusive of The Goosh who had made it up. Up ahead; Emily spots the head of a big rig at the side of the road with the base of it's wagon pointed upwards forming a ramp.
Josh could not bear the weight of his family anymore, he skated up the ramp genitals-first. At maximum altitude the pieces of his skateboard fell off. On his way down Josh hit the tip of a fern with his genitals then landed genitals-first onto the diving board of a swimming pool. Catapulted upwards, Josh then landed on the roof of the adjacent house, safely setting his family aside there.
Josh then jumped into the pool to put out the fire across his genital region and put an end to the torture he had inflicted upon it. Everyone in the crowd was amazed, especially The Goosh, who called Josh a "Skate Father."
Characters[]
- Josh Singleton
- Candice
- Emily Ramirez
- The Goosh
- Bridgette Yoshida
- Alex Dorpenberger
- Mr. Singleton
- Paramedics
Trivia[]
Pop Culture References[]
- After Josh is disappointed that Candace doesn't like his old toys, Emily is carrying a box to the "Donation Army", whose name and logo parody those of The Salvation Army.
- Josh’s childhood toys include Teddy Ruxpin, Simon, and a Magic 8 ball.
- In Josh’s flashback to his teen years, his dad is shown using a PalmPilot, which came out in 1996.
- Bob Jonesworth is a parody of real-life professional skateboarder Bob Burnquist.
- Baxter Street is a real location in Los Angeles, known as one of its steepest streets.
- When Josh gets "ass-knifed", the paramedics jokingly call him Tony Hawk, a famous real-world professional skateboarder.
- Emily refers to Josh as "Sore-Groin-ey Weaver", a reference to real-world actress Sigourney Weaver.
References to Regular Show[]
- The phrase "Yeah-uh!" uttered by Josh at the beginning of the episode is the same phrase used by Mordecai and Rigby from JG Quintel's previous series, Regular Show.
- When Candice chooses her skateboard, music plays with a demonic voice over it. If the scene is played backwards, the demonic voice actually says "BUY REGULAR SHOW DVDs."