Recap / The Mask S 1 E 15 Split Personality

Never has an episode title been so literal.

A street accident splits Stanley's mask into two, leaving the other half in the hands of Stanley's high school bully Chet Bozzack (guest voiced by Dan Castellaneta).

Tropes:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Despite being exasperated by his mask half's antics, Stanley does seem to look amused at some of them:
  • He had a noticeable grin when his mask half gave Charlie a chicken costume to dress in.
  • He also grinned when his mask half took Chet's toupee off during their fight.
  • He had a smile almost as big as the Mask's when they used the "anti-anti-wedgie security system" on Chet.
• Adults Are Useless: Zigzagged and subverted when Chet and Stanley were in school. Chet had severally bullied Stanley in school, presumably for a longtime and Stanley was likely too scared to tell on him. However, once Chet glued wood on Stanley as his wood-shop project, it resulted in his expulsion.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!!: As usual, The Mask is more interested in goofing around than focusing on the task at hand, much to Stanley's exasperation.
  • When he puts half of the mask on, he has to constantly remind his alter ego to stay focused.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Stanley gets stress out over The Mask's antics, wackiness and The Mask admitting that he always wanted to give Stanley a wedgie, they really do care about each other as The Mask wants to take Stanley out to see his favourite movies, taking him water skiing and was planning to take him out to the Coco Bongo so that he can teach him how to dance.
• Barbaric Bully: Chet.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Stanley puts on half of the mask and The Mask comes out, The Mask takes on this role such as wanting to take Stanley out on all the things he has miss or not have a chance to do. He even helps Stanley get the other half of the mask from Chet and fights the other half and gives Stanley praise using a wet-willie to put it inside Chet's ear to give The Mask a chance to fight back. He also saves Stanley along with himself from being cut in half by a sawing machine.
  • In addition, he seemed really eager to get back at Chet for bullying Stanley and tries to give him a wedgie to even the score.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: After The Mask frees himself and Stanley, the latter asks the former why he didn't do it sooner. The Mask points to the audience and says that its to keep up suspense, much to Stanley's confusion.
• Bullying a Dragon: Chet chose to go make fun of WALTER of all people. It ends about as well as you'd expect.
• Bully Brutality: Chet Bozak, Stanley's high school bully, bullied him relentlessly and ended up getting expelled after nailing a bunch of wood to Stanley's head and passing him off as a doorstop for shop class. What REALLY drives this into Brutality territory however, was when Chet returns as an adult and gets his hands on one half of the Mask, allowing him to transform half his body into his own Mask persona, who is even worse than him, and actually tries to kill Stanley and The Mask with a circular saw. Even Chet thinks this is going too far and ends up in a physical struggle with his own alter ego.
• Casanova Wannabe: When The Mask criticizes Stanley's lack of style, his other half doesn't hesitate to point out that for all the supposed style The Mask has, his "track record with women" is no different than his.
• Cloudcuckoolander:The Mask, as usual, is this due to the fact that he is more interested in taking Stanley out to goof around than finding the other half of the mask before it falls in the wrong hands. Though after finding out that Chet has the other half of the mask, he decide to go back on track because of Chet's Jerkass nature along with the fact of what happened in a previous episode as well.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Stanley becomes this for The Mask having to remind him to stay on track along with getting exasperated by his wackiness and his antics though he does get amused by some of the things he does so showing that he does think The Mask can be funny at times.
• Double-Edged Answer: When Charlie asks Stanley if he's coming to the Coco Bongo tonight. The Mask says yes but Stanley says no then both of them give the same answer which get Charlie to ask Stanley to make up his mind.
  Mask: Yes!
  Stanley: No!
  (They go on giving Charlie the same answer which gets him annoyed and confused that he put a stop to it)
  Charlie: WELL, MAKE UP YOUR MIND!
  Stanley: I'd say I'm definitely not sure (The Mask holds up another sign, which Stanley pushes back down)
  Charlie: Ugh! And you wonder why you don't get promoted.
• Even Evil Has Standards: While Chet is a bully who is looking for an excuse to mess with his old target, he is horrified when his masked half actually tries to kill Stanley, which even he deems is going too far.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Not The Mask but Stanley has one during their fight with Chet. He gives Chet a wet-willie, which grosses the latter out and gives them an opening. The Mask even congratulates him for it.
• Evil Red Head: Chet.
• Fat Bastard: Chet has a noticeable gut and is a Jerkass.
• Freudian Excuse: Its revealed that Chet's bullying stems from some deep psychological issues that he needs to see a therapist for.
  • It's also hinted by Charlie that Chet might also be taking some medications, likely to curb his urges.
• For the Evulz: Possibly one of the reasons Chet is a bully.
• Fusion Dance: When the mask is broken in half, Stanley decides to look for the other half. He suddenly thinks that there’s no way the mask could work if it’s broken, so he puts the half on and it transforms half of his body into that of The Mask, who just like Stanley, is surprised to see him.
  Mask: SSSSSmokin—Hey! What are you doing here?!
  Stanley: Oh, boy…
• Genre Savvy: The Mask due to the fact that he has memories from Stanley of his encounter with an evil mask persona decide to help him do it because he knows how dangerous the evil mask personas are.
• Heel Realization: After being forced to almost kill Stanley by his mask half, Chet realizes what a horrible person he is, ridding him of his urge to bully.
• The Jekyll Is a Jerk: We meet Chet Bozak, Stanley's high school bully, who tormented him relentlessly and ended up getting expelled after nailing a bunch of wood to Stanley's head and passing him off as a doorstop for shop class. When Chet returns as an adult, he gets his hands on one half of the Mask, allowing him to transform half his body into his own Mask persona - who is even worse than him, and actually tries to kill Stanley with a circular saw. Even Chet thinks this is going too far and ends up in a physical struggle with his own alter ego.
• Jerkass: Chet is a big bully, even as an adult.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Chet ends up fired for his actions at the end of the episode.
  • The flashback shows that he got expelled for bullying Stanley when they were in school (by gluing wood to his skull), so that counts.
  • A minor one but Charlie (who hired Chet and ignored Stanley's obvious discomfort around him) ends up with his clothes sliced off by Chet and left naked outside the Coco Bongo.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: The Mask has this reaction once he and Stanley discover where the other half of the mask is.
  Stanley: Chet has the other half of the mask!
  Mask: Oooh… we dance later. We get even for all those dunkings and Melvins now!
• Mythology Gag: Chet's half mask self is a better example of how Bighead from the comics acted than Stanley's mask persona does in the cartoon.
• Never My Fault: Subverted. While Chet acknowledges that he “had it coming” in regards to him getting expelled from Edge City High School, he still partly blames Stanley for it, despite the fact that he got expelled for bullying Stanley in the first place.
• Not So Above It All: While Stanley insists on finding the other half of the mask before it falls into the wrong hands, he doesn't disagree and even seems eager when The Mask says that they can use this opportunity to get back at Chet for all the bullying he did to him.
  • Case in point, during the fight with Masked Chet, when the Mask suggests "evening the score for all those Melvins", Stanley let's out an enthusiastic "yeah" and does just that.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The Mask, after finding out along with Stanley that Chet has the other half of the mask, decide not go to the Coco Bongo this time and confront them instead. This shows that when there is another mask persona that is on the loose and, if it is evil, then The Mask will decide not to do any of his usual hobbies and deal with them straightway, showing that he has a sense of duty and obligation when there's other mask personas involved, so he will deal with them so that no one has to.
• Rebus Bubble: Stanley has one when he is thinking of what would happen if Chet found and wore The Mask. He was mostly right. Luckily, the mask had been split in half at the time and Chet was only wearing it on one half of his body, allowing his normal self to stop his Mask persona when he went too far.
• Reformed Bully: Averted. While Chet claims to be this, he clearly still had a lot of issues.
  • Played straight in the end, after he removes his half of the mask, he sincerely apologizes to Stanley and promises to clean up his act.
• Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: Chet severely bullies Stanley in high school and still has issues.
• Skewed Priorities: The Mask is far more interested in taking Stanley to goof around and teach him how to dance than in finding the othet half of the mask.
  • It's subverted later on when he learns that Chet has the other half of the mask and, knowing what a threat Chet could be with it(along with wanting payback for what he did to Stanley), The Mask chooses to go after him instead.
• The Sociopath: Chet's bullying was actually a deep psychological issue that he has a therapist to help him keep under control. When he wears part of the mask, half of him is turned into an outright evil murderous maniac.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Chet's last stunt of gluing wood to Stanley's head, is what got him expelled when they were in high school.
  • To clarify, Chet glued wood to Stanley's scalp and presented him to their woodshop teacher as his project. Of course a teacher will not accept such an act and it, in addition to all the other bullying he did to Stanley, resulted in Chet's expulsion.
  • Also, assaulting your employer will NOT be tolerated, and it's no surprise that Charlie fires Chet in the end.
• Symbiotic Possession: Unlike Stanley and The Mask, whose personalities remain very distinct and separate while still being able to work together, Chet and his mask half are in complete sync with each other, to the point that even their mouth moves as one while they speak, just alternating voices depending on who's in "control". It isn't until his mask half tries to kill Stanley that Chet starts to fight against it.
• Talking with Signs: The Mask does this while Stanley is talking to Charlie which shows though he keeps himself under control, he cannot resist the urge to make fun of Charlie while not saying anything.
• Tempting Fate: After his run in with Walter, Stanley does this after he sees that the mask has been broken in two, and the other half is nowhere to be found.
  Stanley: I gotta find the other half before Walter! (gets up to run out of the alleyway, then stops) Oh, come on, what am I worried about? It can't possibly work if it's broken! …Can it? (puts the half he has of the mask on)
• Straight Man and Wise Guy: After Stanley puts on the other half, he becomes the Straight Man who is more worried and wants to focus on finding the other half of the mask. Meanwhile, The Mask is the Wise Guy with him, wanting to focus on taking Stanley with him so that they can have fun and do all his usual things such as seeing movies, going water skiing and going to the Coco Bongo to dance there. He was also planning to teach Stanley how to dance as well.
• Swirlie: One of Chet's bullying tactics, though he calls it "flushing". Stanley actually worries he will try and do that to him again.
  • Before Walter yanks off Chet's half of the mask, his alter ego laments that he hasn't "flushed" Stanley yet.
• Too Dumb to Live: Chet in Spades. See Bullying a Dragon.
• Villainous Rescue: Stanley is saved from a buzzsaw once Walter appears to remove Chet's half-mask.
• Wedgie:
  • This was another of Chet's bullying tactics towards Stanley in high school, except he called them "Melvins".
  • The Mask, as usual, tries to give Chet along with his mask persona a wedgie. However, Chet is protected by a big green guard dog, which he calls his anti wedgie security system. Thankfully The Mask, due to knowing how their powers work, pulls out a remote, then presses it which takes out the dog inside it, which he calls his "anti-anti wedgie security system''. Afterwards, The Mask being The Mask, asks Chet and his mask persona if they recommend for a baby powder for that.
  • After getting the other half of the mask back, The Mask wants to tell Stanley just how much he cares about him, that he loves him very much, also wanted to teach Stanley how to dance and also one last thing that The Mask always wanted to do to Stanley, which is giving him a wedgie which The Mask does it by pulling a half wedgie over Stanley that gets him to pull The Mask’s face off him.