Glitch brings us another compelling episode of The Amazing Digital Circus, this time titled “Fast Food Masquerade”. In this episode we take a deep dive into Gangle’s character as we see her take charge as Shift Manger at Spudsy’s. Grab your fries and cheeseburger, I’ll break down everything you need to know about episode 4!
SPOILER WARNING!!
- Gangle’s New Comedy Mask
- Adventure at Spudsy’s
- Pomni Meets Gummigoo Again
- Ragatha and the “Stupid Sauce”
- Jax watches Employee Training Video
- Gangle’s Downward Spiral
- Zooble’s Friendship with Gangle
If you haven’t had a chance to watch The Amazing Digital Circus episode 4, “Fast Food Masquerade”, I highly recommend watching it! Click here to watch it! It’s a compelling and emotional episode that’s very relatable to watch.
Zooble Gifts Gangle A New Mask
The episode starts with Ragatha teaching Gangle how to throw a softball. This is foreshadowing for later on in the episode, just like the previous cold opens we’ve seen. Upon throwing the ball towards Jax who hits it with his bat, the ball flies straight at Gangle, breaking her comedy mask.
This is a running gag within The Amazing Digital series. Each episode features a moment in each episode where Gangle’s comedy mask gets broken and she’s left having to wear her tragic mask the rest of the episode. Because of this, we never get to see Gangle wear her comedy mask for an entire episode, until now.
Zooble gifts Gangle a new plastic comedy mask from her box of random body parts. With the mask being plastic, it won’t break as easily as her previous fragile comedy masks, that are likely made out of glass or ceramic.
The new plastic comedy mask is styled with two big eyes, one black and one white, below the left eye is a pink swirl and below the right eye is a yellow star, along with a big grin. Putting on the mask, Gangle reveals she feels normal in a good way.
This infers that Gangle hasn’t felt normal previously, likely because her former comedy masks all felt temporary due to them always breaking causing her to wear her tragic mask. Now wearing a plastic comedy mask, it gives her a durable happy feeling.
Gangle is associating her “normal” with being happy, or rather, being forced to present herself as being happy all the time.
Adventure at Spudsy’s Restaurant
Caine appears into Zooble’s room and proclaims the day’s adventure, “The Curse of the Violent Psychopath Butcher” but it’s met with disapproval from the circus members.
Exasperated that no one likes his adventures, Caine complains they should just suggest what they want to do – to which Zooble swiftly says they all do, he just never checks the suggestion box, a box where members of the digital circus can suggest adventures to go on. The camera pans to the overflowing suggestion box.
Caine admits he forgot about the existence of the suggestion box. This can hint that Caine’s AI program is starting to become patchy causing him to forget things.
Tearing the suggestion box off the wall causing a water leak, Caine quickly orders Bubble to plug it up – Bubble using their tongue as a solution.
Caine continues by reading off suggestions:
- How about an adventure where Zooble gets turned into a pinata, and we all take turns beating them up? (Written by Jax)
- Let’s just have an adventure where Jax can’t talk through the entire thing. (Assumed to be written by Zooble)
Gangle proposes that Caine picks a suggestion that’s “more normal”. Caine flips out as a result of him not knowing what’s normal to all of them. This makes sense since Caine is an AI program and because he doesn’t read any of their suggestions, he hasn’t learned what types of adventures they would prefer to go on.
He pulls a suggestion and reads it:
“Let’s have one where we all work at a fast food place.”
Wondering if that’s normal, Gangle reassurances him that it’s pretty normal. It’s hinted that Gangle was the one to write the suggestion as seen with how giddy she is when Caine reads it aloud. Gangle is showing a newfound confidence by speaking out loud in front of the group and asserting her opinion. This has to be linked to the new comedy mask she’s donning.
Satisfied, Caine announces that today’s adventure will be:
“AN HONEST HARD DAYS WORK AT SPUDSY’S RESTAURANT CHAIN”
Caine promptly assigns Gangle as the Shift Manager due to her displaying leadership skills by taking initiative when choosing an adventure.
Enthusiastic about his ideas for the day’s adventure, Caine laughs, pulling the tongue from Bubble’s mouth back into his own mouth. This suggests that Caine and Bubble share the same tongue. While this is played off as a joke, I have a feeling this could be hinting at something deeper between Caine and Bubble’s relationship to one another and how they could be physically linked.
Gangle is confident in her role as the shift manger, stating that she used to be one prior to being in the digital circus. This gives us background info on Gangle’s life implying that she worked as a shift manager at a fast food restaurant and has experience in this position.
Portaling into Spudsy’s, Gangle is wearing a typical manger outfit: a blue buttoned shirt and blue tie with a name tag and black pants with a belt. The rest of the crew (Zooble falls into the restaurant from the ceiling) are wearing black uniforms with name tags each displaying their name (except Jax’s nametag says “I don’t care” which perfectly illustrates Jax’s feelings towards the adventure).
Gangle shows of her previous Shift Manger experience by getting straight to work by turning on all the machines in a practiced manner.
Gangle replies to a disgruntled Jax in a overly cheerful way:
It’s called a manic episode, and you’re gettin’ three more seasons!
-Gangle, Ep 4: Fast Food Masquerade
When I first heard Gangle say this line, it stuck out to me. Despite the line being targeted at Jax, it felt more like the line was referring to Gangle.
According to health.com, “The terms “mania” and “manic episode” describe a state of mind characterized by high energy, excitement, and euphoria over a sustained period of time, typically followed by feelings of depression.”
Gangle displays these characteristics while being the shift manager at Spudsy’s. As soon as they arrive she’s filled with an abundance of energy as she turns on all the machines and gets ready to start the work day. She’s also extremely giddy and more animated in the way she moves and talks which is very unlike the usual way she acts.
Jax even comments, “This is really weird.”, referring to Gangle’s sudden change in behavior. Jax is aware of Gangle’s oddly positive mood and suspects that something isn’t right. This relates to the audience because we also suspect that Gangle is acting strangely. We witness Gangle’s feelings of depression towards the end of the episode.
Ragatha and the Stupid Sauce
An NPC, nonplayable character, orders a Stupid Burger, a burger when eaten makes you stupid, but when Ragatha goes to squirt the “stupid sauce“, a sauce that makes whoever ingests it stupid, onto the burger, she accidentally gets some in her eyes.
The music becomes distorted and the screen warps around Ragatha fading to blackness. Gangle appears. When she turns around her comedy mask is changed into a horrific creepypasta face with two white rings for eyes and a sinister humanlike toothy grin. This face is similar to last episode’s appearance of the creepy ghost face.
What this is trying to imply is unclear. Is this just a creepy hallucination for Ragatha brought on by the “stupid sauce”, is this how Ragatha truly views Gangle, or could this mean something deeper for the show’s lore? Is Gangle or circus members somehow linked to these creepy face? My gut is telling me this is hinting at something larger because the creepypasta-like face is the similar to the one we saw in the previous episode and I feel like that can’t be a coincidence.
Pomni Meets Gummigoo Again
During this episode, Pomni is the cashier up front taking orders. She’s shocked to the core when Gummigoo, a gummy alligator she previously opened up and grew quickly close to during episode 2 but his memories were wiped clean by Caine, walks up to the counter and places an order. Pomni is nervously giddy towards him because she immediately recognizes him but Gummigoo acts perfectly normal and displaces no recognition of Pomni.
Pomni awkwardly crawls up to him and says hi again, but she’s met with swift dejection when Gummigoo fails to remember her.
When Gangle grows fed up with Pomni for weirding out and talking to Gummigoo, Pomni comments,
But it’s Gummigoo. Can’t the job wait a bit? It’s not like this is real.
-Pomni, Ep 4
Pomni isn’t wrong. She’s correct that their adventure isn’t real, it’s just a made up scenario by Caine that doesn’t actually matter.
Gangle snaps at Pomni and says:
Next you’re gonna say my authority isn’t real.
-Gangle, Ep 4
After she says this her mask makes a loud “tink” noise, indicating that the real Gangle is breaking under the pressure but because her comedy mask is plastic, it doesn’t break as easily like before. This is causing Gangle to go overboard and past her limits.
She’s taking this entire adventure all too seriously, believing that she has real authority over Pomni, Jax, and Zooble just because Caine made her the Shift Manager. What this line is also telling us, the audience, is that Gangle is exhibiting signs of a control freak but her comedy mask is forcing her to return to an overly fake positive mood that’s conflicting her inner emotions.
As Gummigoo is walking out, Pomni stops him and starts speaking when she’s interrupted by the loud Gloink Queen, a mother, talking to her Gloinks, her children who we learn all have names such as Blumby, Skethers, and Leotthew. This implies that Pomni thinks back to the events that transpired in Ep 2, when Gummigoo realized that nothing was real not even his mom because he’s an NPC. This causes Pomni to wish Gummigoo a pleasant day and thanks him for eating at Spudsy’s – knowing that there’s nothing she can do. To Gummigoo this is all real, but Pomni knows its not, that he’s just an NPC that isn’t real.
Jax Watches the Employee Training Video
Gangle asks Jax to clean the biohazard looking bathrooms but Jax refuses and tells the persistent Gangle that he likes her better when she’s sad. This causes Gangle’s mask to “tink” yet again, further making it clear that Gangle isn’t okay and that she’s hurting on the inside even though her plastic comedy mask makes her appear happy.
A manic Gangle informs Jax that he needs more training. Out from darkness shoots two large, white gloved hands that squeeze Jax and forcefully yanks him into a dark room. In front of him is an old tv monitor displaying a retro Employee Training Video with Gangle has the host. Here’s her dialogue:
Hi! Welcome to Spudsy’s. In this video, you’re gonna learn the ins and outs of what makes YOU a good crew member, AND a valuable asset to the Spudsy’s Corporation. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t want a career in fast food. I want to be a comic artist and eventually launch my own manga-inspired webcomic!” And it’s cool to have dreams, but you also need to remember that they’re completely unrealistic, and you need to stop trying. But before we get into all that, first things first! Are you smiling? Why not? It’s time for your employee reevaluation.
-Gangle, Employee Training Video, Ep 4
While during the video, Jax is confused and after admitting he isn’t smiling. By the end of it, he’s forcefully grabbed by numerous white gloved hands and shoved up against the tv screen. The screen switches from the training video to a series of flashing white and black screens with a comedy and tragic masks alternating with a loud techno, hypnotic noise emanating. Jax is scared as he stares into the screen.
Ragatha Being Honest
Back in Spudsy’s, Ragatha is tripping off of the “stupid sauce” as she reaches for the horseradish sauce. Zooble is stern with Ragatha and tells her she needs to start assembling the burgers. Ragatha, unable to hold back her thoughts due to the effects of the “stupid sauce” tells Zooble off, calling her a grouch. Ragatha makes another attempt to grab the horseradish sauce when it causes her to reveal that she misses her horses. This reveals a background information on Ragatha’s real life self. When Gangle tries helping, Ragatha speaks her mind about Gangle.
Why are you even the boss, anyway? I feel like I’m way more responsible than you a-[sigh]
-Ragatha, Ep 4
No offense, but you’re kind of annoying when you have your happy mask.
Gangle will remember Ragatha speaking honestly about her, causing Gangle’s opinion of Ragatha to change negatively as a result. This also causes a huge “tink” or crack to sound from her mask again. Ragatha’s rude comments are hurting Gangle underneath the mask and it’s now taken a physical effect on her.
Gangle’s Downward Spiral
Gangle can no longer hide her feelings behind her plastic comedy mask – she’s visibly upset. When Jax comes up to her complaining about the broken clock she says:
Is it broken? Or are we the broken ones? How long has this shift really gone on for? Six hours? Eight? Twenty four? A week? A year? Does time even move in here? Will we ever go home? Will we ever achieve our dreams?
– Gangle, Ep 4
Gangle is spiraling during her monologue. She’s only saved by her watch beeping, cutting her off.
Jax, exhausted by the day’s events, slumps down on the counter by Pomni and genuinely asks how’s she doing.
Pomni about to answer truthfully about her day, but cuts herself off due to being caught off guard by Jax acting strangely genuine for once.
Later in the night, Gangle steps out of the building and removes her comedy mask revealing her tragic mask underneath. Throwing the plastic comedy mask onto the ground, she screams into her hands.
Unaware, Pomni stares at her while clutching a trash bag. She asks Gangle if she’s okay to which Gangle replies that her “comedy mask is usually broken by now.” This is true, as I pointed out earlier, it’s a running gag in the series that Gangle’s comedy mask always somehow gets broken. However, because she’s wearing a plastic comedy mask, it’s unable to break as easily.
Pomni notices how distraught Gangle is, despite literally putting on a happy face the entire day. She asks if the mask isn’t making her happy – but Gangle stays silent. This indicates that just because Gangle is wearing her comedy mask, that doesn’t mean she always feels happy. Her masks don’t determine how she feels.
This is very symbolic and I love the deep meaning here because it’s so relatable. In real life, people may appear happy but that’s not always the case. There have been times when I’ve had to “put on a happy mask” even though on the inside I was upset. Sometimes in life that’s just how it goes.
The repeated act of putting on a happy face despite being sad is a sign of depression. I believe Gangle suffers from depression and her “masks” are her coping mechanism.
Although it’s brief, I love this scene with Gangle and Pomni because of how vulnerable it is. Finally, we get to see how Gangle truly feels when she’s not pretending to be okay. The way she closes in on herself but clutching her knees to her chest as she frowns, clearly reveals the mental state she’s in. In truth, Gangle isn’t okay and Pomni realizes this. That’s why Pomni asks if Gangle has anybody to talk to in regards to her issues – this referring to Gangle’s depression.
Pomni suggests that she could talk to Ragatha, but Gangle shoots this down saying:
Heh. Oh, Ragatha. I love her, but…after a while, it gets kind of hard to tell how genuine she’s actually being.
-Gangle to Pomni, Ep 4
Gangle still cares for Ragatha, but after her rude, honest comments earlier, Gangle’s opinion of her has changed.
After Pomni and Gangle’s brief talk, Gangle puts the plastic comedy mask back on, picks herself up, and falls back into the fake positive attitude from before – obviously avoiding wanting to talk about her feelings any longer.
Jax clocks out for the night and heads to his car that has the license plate: JAX 001. It’s theorized that the Jax we know is actually a clone, as hinted by his license plate saying JAX 001 which could be a reference to how in Blender, an open-source 3D computer graphics program used to make animated films, motion graphics, etc., when duplicating object effect it adds the 001 to the original name of the object file. With all this in mind, could Jax be a copy of an already existing version of the original Jax – the real Jax? It’s a fair enough theory, after all, people have already questioned Jax’s character. Whether he’s an actual human or some rogue NPC blending in with everyone else in the circus. With all these theories spinning around Jax, it begs the question: Who really is Jax?
Gangle stands still watching Zooble and Ragatha clean up, once they leave she’s alone in the darkness with only herself. We get a close up of Gangle’s face showing her once cheerful facade is now replaced with a honest frown and tired eyes. Unpleasant music plays as Gangle stares into the empty, dark kitchen of Spudsy’s. This is an excellent parallel to how Gangle is feeling – she feels empty and alone.
The camera zooms in even closer to Gangle’s face, blurring in and out. It’s plain as day that Gangle is hopeless and depressed. It feels as though she’s on the brink of Abstracting. She’s yanked out of her dark thoughts by Pomni’s voice, who brings her out of her dark state and back into the brightened reality of the kitchen with Pomni standing in front of her.
Gangle Throws Away the Plastic Comedy Mask
Pomni offers to close for Gangle so she can go home early and leave Spudsy’s saying, “You don’t have to be stuck here alone.” This is such a beautiful line. While Pomni’s referring to Gangle not being stuck alone at the restaurant I believe there’s more depth to this line. What I took away from this line is that Pomni is telling Gangle that she doesn’t have to be alone in her depression. That Spudsy’s makes her depressed because it’s a reflection of her failed dreams; her failed aspiration of becoming a comic artist and launching her own manga-inspired webcomic. She even commented earlier to Jax, “Will we ever achieve our dreams?” which is referring to her dreams of being an artist. Spudsy’s sucks the joy out of Gangle, it’s a direct parallel to her depressive state.
At first Gangle seemed to like the idea of being in charge and feeling like she’s accomplishing something, but in actuality, it’s taking away from her – her hopes and dreams and crushing them.
Pomni tells Gangle that she can handle closing – that Gangle can rely on her for her help. Gangle is hesitant at first, asking if it would be okay, Again, to me this has deeper meaning behind it. Gangle is asking if it’s okay to have Pomni’s help. That she doesn’t have to be alone anymore. She can leave Spudsy’s, the place where her depression stems from.
Outside of Spudsy’s, Gangle has gained a sense of freedom – hope. The shot of her looking up into the night sky is beautiful. It gives Gangle and the audience a sense of peace and tranquility.
Gangle takes off her plastic comedy mask and winds back her arm – a call back to the cold open of the episode of when Ragatha was teaching her how to throw (don’t you love foreshadowing!) and chucks the mask far into the night.
When the camera moves back to her face, Gangle’s frown turns into a small smile. Again, this shows us that Gangle is capable of feeling more than what her mask displays – she can be happy despite wearing a tragic mask. Launching herself from the sidewalk, hopeful music plays as Gangle (in slow-motion) darts out into the night.
The next series of shots are very symbolic of the entire episode: Gangle (now wearing her tragic mask) is finally, honestly happy as she sprints out into the night, free from Spudsy’s – that place that made her feel depressed. The other shot is of her plastic comedy mask – ironically now wearing a sad frown, hitting the ground.
Gangle looks up at the sky beaming with happiness – it’s the first time she’s felt genuinely happy the entire episode. Her tears are now happy tears. In her state of euphoria, Gangle stumbles off the sidewalk and onto the road where an on-coming semi truck is approaching her. With no time to react, the truck’s lights flood Gangle’s vision as the truck seemingly barrels into her – but in the next shot Gangle is thrown into a chair of an office. Cain floats above the desk in front of her and kicks off the performance review.
It’s theorized that this actually happened to Gangle in the real world. That after being crushed and defeated by failing her dreams of becoming a comic artist and stuck working at a fast food restaurant, one night she accidentally gets run over by a vehicle. Perhaps her mind was put into the digital circus has a way of being able to live out a life due to her being seriously injured, even paralyzed from the car accident.
Zooble’s Friendship to Gangle
Back in the digital circus, while everyone else is gathered together talking and hanging out, Gangle is sitting alone drawing on her sketch pad, far away from everyone else. As she’s drawing, Zooble comes up to her and asks why she’s sitting alone. A saddened Gangle admits that she’s messed everything up, the plastic comedy mask didn’t work, and now she believes that no one wants to talk to her anymore.
Zooble says she still likes talk to her, and that it’s okay the new mask was a bust, they’ll find something that works eventually. Crying, Gangle feels like she doesn’t deserve a friend like Zooble, to which Zooble dismisses and tells her that she’s got one. Zooble offers Gangle to come join the rest of them together, and to bring her art with her because she enjoys seeing what Gangle draws. This cheers up Gangle enough to make her smile and wipe away her tears. The episode ends with Gangle and Zooble walking together and joining the rest of the circus members.
This ending scene is a great way to close the episode because of the deep meaning that’s being conveyed: Having a great friend who supports you is sometimes all you need. Positive support and genuine people to lean on for help makes a world of difference versus being alone. Asking for help is never easy, but receiving it when you’re suffering is a ray of hope in a dark world.
After episode 4 aired, Glitch released an image on their X page showing a drawing Gangle made of her, Pomni, and Zooble all talking together. This drawing shows the appreciation and respect Gangle has to her friends Pomni and Zooble – the two characters who reached out and supported her during the episode. Gangle even drew Zooble with a normal body, which is a nice sentiment given how Zooble has made it clear that they don’t feel comfortable in their crazy amalgamation of random, colorful body parts Cain provides them with.
This episode was a testament to those who suffer from depression and other mental health issues. If you need help don’t be afraid to reach out to a loved one or seek professional help. No one should ever have to be alone and suffering.
Closing Thoughts…
This episode gave us an up-close, personal view on Gangle’s character. We learned that she suffers from depression and that her masks are a coping mechanism she uses to help deal with the inner turmoil she suffers from. I’m relieved to know that she’s not alone in the digital circus, that she has supportive friends such as Zooble and Pomni who are willing to reach out and be there for her. I’m curious to see Gangle’s arc takes her in future episodes. As a fellow creative person, I’m rooting for Gangle!
Thanks as always for reading my blog,
Jessica Mohan
WORKS CITED
https://tadc.fandom.com/wiki/Fast_Food_Masquerade#Plot
https://www.health.com/condition/mental-health-conditions/mania
The Emerald Butterfly 
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