Top 10 Kenan & Kel Episodes
Kenan & Kel to me was one of the shows which shaped my childhood and as I am a 90s kid, I guess this will the opinion of many of my counterparts.
It might be regarded as a children’s show but the comic elements in the series was absolutely top notch and showed no signs of draining out throughout its four seasons. Kenan Rockmore, played by Kenan Thompson and Kel by Kel Mitchell has given us something which can seen by people of all ages and for me it is one of those evergreen series which I can see anytime.
I downloaded the series somedays back was watching it this week so I thought of sharing my top 10 episodes of the revered Nicklodeon series. So here they are.
10. Get the Kel Outta Here (Season 2)
Kel as brilliant as he acted in the series, playing the character of a teenager who is absolutely dumb-headed finally seems to have tested the patience of Kenan’s father Roger Rockmore (Ken Foree). Starting from putting his rollerblades on the staircase leading to Roger falling off the stairs and then pouring a hot bowl of soup on him, Kel seems to make Roger’s life a complete disaster. The funny element is whenever Kel is close to apologising for his mistakes he seems to invent a new way in which he unintentionally ends up physically injuring Roger. One of the highlights of the episode is Kenan’s sister Kyra (Vanessa Baden) makes the head of Kel for her school project which makes this episode one of the funniest in the series.
9. Ditch Day Afternoon (Season 2)
In this episode Kenan and Kel are punished in their school-in Spanish class-and as a result they have to sing a Spanish song the next day. In order to avoid the embarrassment the duo decides to lie to their parents and bunk school. They decide to take out money from the bank and then head over to the arcade to play games. Kenan seems to have planned the day to perfection where he wrote a note to school saying that both of them were not well and hence couldn’t attend school. Trouble ensues when a robbery takes place in the bank when they went to take out money. A highlight in the show is Kenan writing Kel’s reason for not attending school was due to an “infected tongue.” This one is a must watch.
8. The Raffle (Season 3)
In this chapter, Kenan gives an idea to Chris Potter (Dan Frischman)-who is the owner of Rigby’s Grocery Store where Kenan works-that the latter should sell raffle tickets to bump up the sales at the store. The prize of the lottery would be a TV but Kel, being himself breaks the TV. Coincidentally Kenan’s parents also bought a new and much more expensive TV. Kenan being the meticulous planner (sarcasm of course!) changed the raffle prize with his parent’s TV and make Kel the winner of the raffle by fixing it. Kel loses the winning ticket and prize goes to another person. One of the highlights of the episode is Kenan’s parents freezing at the end scene after they see quite a different TV set at home. For this ending scene this episode is just brilliant.
7. Mental Kel Epathy (Season 1)
Kel, a boy without “regular mental abilities” suddenly seems to be psychic all of a sudden where he is able to predict the future. Kenan finds out that Kel is not a psychic when he gets to know about the logical explanations behind Kel being able to tell things before they are happening. Kenan then decides to make money by tricking everyone into thinking that his best friend is actually a psychic. However things don’t go according to plan when they both go to a television reality show where the truth was eventually found out. One of the best scenes in the episode was when Kel reveals that Chris had dreams about being chased by giant bunny rabbits. You don’t need to be a psychic to know this episode is damn hilarious.
6. The April Fools (Season 4)
As self-explanatory the title sounds, Kenan and Kel are playing pranks on almost everyone as it is April Fools. They changed Kenan’s mother Sheryl Rockmore’s (Teal Merchande) face wash with paint, glued Roger’s mouth shut with glue and gave Chris a fake lottery ticket which tricked him to believe that he won the grand prize of millions of dollars. However, Kel in a bid to trick Kenan results in the latter ending up in jail. This is followed by Chris, Kenan’s parents and Kenan’s co-worker at Rigby’s Sharla Morrison (Alexis Fields) all ending up in jail due to Kenan’s pranks. The highlight scene of this episode is when Kel brings a saw inside a cake to help Kenan break out from jail. For this scene alone, this episode will give you stomach aches due to laughter.
5. Pair-Rental Guidance (Season 2)
Kenan gets a call from his school principal asking him to bring his parents to school for a meeting. Kenan suddenly remembering his mischievous acts in school is sure that he is in for a tough time at this parent-teacher meet. He plans to hire a couple of actors who will play the role of his parents for the meeting. Things start to complicate as the actor who plays Kenan’s mother invites the principal for dinner at their home. One of the best scenes in the episode is when the actor playing the role of Sheryl comes to Kenan’s home in a Shakespearean dress having no idea about her own home. She is the MVP in this episode surely.
4. Bye-Bye Kenan Part I & II (Season 2)
This episode is in the top four because of the emotional quotient. Roger gets a new job as a mountain ranger in another city resulting in whole family moving to Montana from Chicago. This is first time we see Kenan and Kel’s friendship come up against a serious hurdle where they face separation. The episode consists of flashbacks to when they were younger which signals towards the duo’s unbreakable friendship regardless of the trouble they are in always. The best scene of the episode is when Kel goes to a shop to get a picture for Kenan but on coming back to give him, he finds the whole family already gone. The picture is a testament to their friendship and the show as a whole.
3. I.Q. Can Do Better (Season 3)
Kel’s father is a rocket scientist and mother is a brain surgeon. However, he is brilliant in his own way and in this episode he shows that when he scores a 96 in his school’s I.Q. test, much to everyone’s surprise. But when Kenan gets a 3 in the test he is convinced that there is something wrong with the marking and decides to meet the school principal. During the re-checking of the test papers Kenan finds out that the principal is in possession of an insulting drawing that he made in class. They both try to get the drawing back and as usual this calls for trouble. One of the best scenes in the episode is when Kel comes to Rigby’s wearing a tee with a quote saying “I’m a genius” and then gets his fingers stuck in two bottles of orange sodas which is a distinct measure of his I.Q.
2. Tainting Of The Screw (Season 1)
This is one of the landmark episodes of the series. Kenan while eating a tuna sandwich accidentally eats a screw which according to him was inside the tuna due to a mistake by the tuna company. He plans to sue the tuna company after he heard that people make a lot money by suing food companies. However when the case goes to trial, it was found out eventually that Kel was the one who put the screw in the tuna sandwich by mistake. This episode has the best climax scene of all time where Kel finally breaks down in court and admits that he was the culprit by saying “I dropped the screw in the tuna!”
1. Freezer Burned (Season 3)
I might receive some mixed reactions for this but to me this is the best and the most funniest episode of the series. Kenan and Kel are forced to go out for dinner with Chris as Kel being naive as he is, ruined the food at home. They go to a restaurant where Kel goes to the bathroom. While on the way to the bathroom he collides with the chef resulting in the arrow sign leading the way to the bathroom to fall off the wall. Kel then puts up the sign in the opposite direction leading him towards the freezer rather than bathroom. Kel enters the bathroom and then accidentally breaks the handle on the freezer’s door locking himself in. One of the best parts about this episode is that there isn’t one scene which can be said to be a highlight. The scenes which showed everyone landing up in the freezer after Kel and not one of them not being able to keep the door from closing behind them is something too nonsensical. But because it is this nonsensical, it is on a different level of funny.
Do you agree with the rankings? What are your favourite episodes? Rank them in comments below!
