I Loathe a Parade

"I Loathe a Parade" was the sixth episode of the fourth season of the Daria TV series (episode number 406). It first aired on MTV on April 7, 2000. This episode was written by Dan Vebber.

Summary
Daria attempts to purchase toilet paper for Jake, but unexpectedly runs into the Lawndale High homecoming parade...and Tom Sloane, who is waiting for Jane. The couple had a date to "chronicle the anarchic death spiral of western civilization" (read: make fun of people). Through a series of surreal misadventures, Tom and Daria make a connection which will later come to change their lives.

Trivia
This episode is notable for featuring cameo appearances from many characters who were only featured for a single episode in earlier seasons, and even a few members of the Daria production staff. For example, Daria finds Tad Gupty all alone and lost, so she and Tom spend most of the episode trying to find his family. Later on, Ted DeWitt-Clinton has a one-line cameo appearance, taking a photo of Tom and Daria and presuming that they (already) were a couple.

The episode, befitting the parade setting, is surreal in tone. For example, Daria should have seen Quinn getting ready for the parade, but doesn't; the Morgendorffers should have noticed Jake caught in the bathroom, but didn't.

Also, Season Four spans the second half of Daria's junior year. As homecoming parades are associated with football season and take place in the fall, the setting doesn't seem to make sense. However, given that Kevin wears his football uniform at all times and that the Lions are playing a football game four weeks after the Super Bowl in "Fizz Ed," some speculate that Lawndale also has a spring football season, making the parade of the the title a Spring Homecoming Parade.

"I Loathe a Parade" and Fanfic
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On “I Loathe a Parade” the Episode

 * “I Loathe a Parade” summary at Outpost Daria
 * “I Loathe a Parade” transcript at Outpost Daria

Alternate-Universe Versions of “I Loathe a Parade”
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Alternate Canon Versions of “I Loathe a Parade”

 * "Consequences of a Parade," by Yui Daoren