A “clusterf—k of passions.” An “emotional tour de force.” That is Valentine’s Day according to the ever pubescent middle schoolers of Big Mouth, the B.O. riddled, braces-wearing brainchild of Nick Kroll. With an all-star cast and an often painfully relatable portrayal of puberty, the Netflix animated series has garnered a large following since it first aired in 2017. In an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the second season—which was released on Oct. 5, 2018—Kroll and Co. rolled out My Furry Valentine just in time for Feb. 14.
The 46-minute extended episode handles the heart-eyed holiday with ample humor and originality. Jessi (Jessi Klein) and Matthew (Andrew Rannells) poke fun at oddly specific Hallmark cards while sifting through the card aisle at Walgreens, where they find a card designed just for incestuous conjoined twins and Lola (Kroll) parades around in a Cupid costume while“chomping” on pink perfume. References to the Greek classic Oedipus even emerge—one comes when the Ghost of Duke Ellington (Jordan Peele) advertises Oedipal Arrangements: “Your mother wants to sleep with you so give her some fruit.”
My Furry Valentine offers a healthy dose of Kroll and John Mulaney’s dynamic humor as well. The opening scene, during which Maury the Hormone Monster (Kroll) and Andrew (Mulaney) tell the story of how they first met à la daytime talk show interview, features a Mulaney style anecdote involving several asides about rom-coms. Racoons also make an appearance in the episode while working as table waiters—racoons were a prominent topic of discussion in Kroll and Mulaney’s brilliant Broadway show Oh, Hello.
Unlike other Kroll-Mulaney creations, however, the special relies heavily on gimmicky subplots so outlandish they border on cringe-worthy. Much of the episode focuses on Jay (Jason Mantzoukas) and his sentient pillows who he has copious amounts of sex with throughout the other two seasons—in one instance in Season Two, Jay gets a pillow pregnant—and in My Furry Valentine. Perhaps the weakest and most unnecessarily drawn-out subplot of the series, Jay’s screen time is graphic and visceral in the way that you certainly do not want a 13-year-old not-so-dry humping his pillows to be. Not to mention, Devin (June Diane Raphael) and DeVon (Jak Knight) get engaged, also at age 13.
