The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker

The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker is an episode of Nickelodeon's animated series, The Fairly Oddparents, created by Butch Hartman. It originally aired in June 2003.

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler It's March 15th, and Mr. Crocker is especially mean on this day. When Timmy tries to reason with his cruelty, Mr. Crocker can only keep his acid tongue and talk down Timmy. He then follows Mr. Crocker home, and hears that March 15th is a tough day for Crocker. So, Timmy decides to go back in time, see where Crocker went wrong, and maybe fix it so it comes out right. First, he sees Mr. Crocker start his job as a teacher on March 15, 1992, and Mr. and Mrs. Turner, Mom with a baby in tow, move into their present home. Then, he sees Mr. Crocker get a painful dose of humiliation on March 15, 1982, when his fairy proposal is laughed at massively at the same time as Timmy's parents meet. And then, Timmy goes to March 14, 1972, a day before what would be Crocker's worst day. He sees Crocker as a normal, sane little boy, in addition to a town hero, and he has Cosmo and Wanda as fairy godparents. Timmy realizes that March 15 was the day his fairies were exposed to the world, and he tries to stop that from happening. In the end, he causes the very thing that he was trying to prevent, and was then barred from travelling back to March, 1972 ever again.

Trivia

• This episode ran for a full thirty minutes.
• In addition, it was meant to serve as a prologue for Abra-Catastrophe!
• The storyline also gives a great deal of character to Mr. Crocker, showing his past follies and explaining why he is insane and obsessed with fairies. This is an example of a serious plot, not normally written into a children's animated series such as this.
• A backstory is also included on the form of several jokes, explaining Mr. and Mrs. Turner's past. Mom apparently dated Sheldon Dinkleberg, Dad's overly nice arch nemesis.
• Near the end of the episode, Jorgen Von Strangle tells Timmy that he can travel to every other part of 1972 except for March, as long as he doesn't interfere with the election of President McGovern. In reality, George McGovern lost the 1972 U.S. presidential election to Richard Nixon. This implies that Timmy somehow caused McGovern to lose the election.
• Near the middle of the episode, Timmy twitches and blurts out "Fairy Godparents!" in the same way Crocker usually does. He then tells Cosmo that if he ever does that again, to hit him with an oar. Later in the episode, he does it again, and Cosmo slaps him. Timmy then says "thanks for not using the oar". This is a possible reference to a banned episode of The Ren & Stimpy Show, "Man's Best Friend".
• When the trio travels to the '80s, you can see the band DEVO walk into the building.
• The day March 15th was probably used in reference to Julius Caesar. The phrase 'Beware the Ides of March' (March 15th) is associated with bad luck by Julius Caesar's assassination on this date.
• When the trio goes to the 80's before Timmy gets off in the 80's you can see a parody of the Back to the Future DeLorean apparently going back in time.
• The date that Timmy and his fairies go back in time to (March 14th) is commonly known as pi day, (3/14).
• It is unknown why Timmy didn't travel to either March, 1984 or March, 1992 (before travelling to March 1972, he explored both these months.) Although he couldn't travel to March 1972, he was never barred from the preceding months. He could have gone to either of those times, and warned his past self from going back any further in time.
• This episode involves causal loops in that Timmy goes back in time, messes up Crocker's childhood, hausing him to be miserabl, causing timmy to go back in time, etc.
• This is the final episode in which Frankie Muniz voices Chester McBadBat.
• When Timmy goes into the 90's, a bumper stricker marked "Clinton-Gore" is seen.

Quotes

• Timmy: Fairy Godparents! If I ever do that agian hit me. Not now!