"Litter Kills.... Literally" is widely considered the only sincerely dramatic episode of the entire show, despite being a Take That! against the Tonight, Someone Dies trope. This is because it focuses more on the characters grieving rather than Ponce himself, and watching someone you know and care about (assuming you care about the main characters) deal with the loss of someone close to them is a lot more relatable than being expected to mourn the loss of someone you never knew.
The Pusher foreshadows his own defeat in his Villain Song lyrics
I push raisins on kids/And kids think it's cool!/Cause they're told not to do it/By the parents and school...
Considering that said Villain Song was being sung to Joan right before she comes up with the plan that ultimately solves the raisin problem, it's likely she got the idea from listening to the lyrics...
Bit of a meta one. The original series made an impact on a lot of fans, and a lot of people were saddened when it was struck down (cancelled) before its time. The second season—with the same name and a similar-but-not-the-same look of the first one—has a lot to live up to, and already people are worrying that it can't be as good as the original despite bringing its own ideas and story to the table. Season 2 is no mere continuation, it's a clone.
The series in general: the way all the characters are either flanderized or direct opposites of their original genetic copies could be interpreted as just because they're based on someone great, doesn't mean that they have the ability to measure up to them. They're the ones in control of their destinies, they shape who they are. That's why Gandhi acts the way he does, he doesn't feel he can live up to his legacy.
Research has shown that the real Cleopatra was anywhere between simply above average to ugly in appearance but most likely not incredibly beautiful, but since Cleo is rich she may have got plastic surgery.
However, she does wear a lot of makeup, and apparently doesn't look great without it. (To the point that she made Joan swear not to reveal how she looks when she wakes up in the morning.)
Abe describes Joan as "Janeane Garofaloesque". He's completely right: like Janeane, Joan is smart, pretty (in an unconventional way), a feminist, and has a snarky, sarcastic sense of humor.
In "Plane Crazy: Gate Expectations," Abe is livid at Cleo for lying to him about wearing his jacket on TV. While it's obviously because she broke her promise, it would make sense that "Honest" Abe Lincoln would be that upset about lying.
"Litter Kills: Litterally" his all the harder when you realize all five of the main characters' cloneparents died tragic, untimely deaths: Abe, JFK and Gandhi were assassinated; Joan was burned at the stake; and Cleo committed suicide.
Some people believe that the reason Ponce littered so much was so that his foster father could keep his job.
How does Abe get everyone to stop shunning Gandhi over his ADD? By passionately kissing him in front of everyone, which leads to everyone's latent homophobia overpowering their hysteria over ADD. While it seems like a funny, non-sequitur of a plan at first blush, Abe's actions make a lot more sense when you consider the entire episodes is heavily based on 80s-era Very Special Episodes about the AIDs epidemic, which would often tackle common misconceptions such as worries you could contract the disease by kissing someone who's HIV positive. The main character denouncing the persecution their HIV-positive friend by kissing them is exactly the sort of ending you'd expect for an 80s-era Aids PSA.
Several of the clones have physical or neurobiological ticks their clone-parents didn't have: Joan has a retainer, Gandhi has ADD, Genghis Khan is stupid, and Jesus is Latino. While the most likely option is Rule of Funny, it's possible the DNA strands Scudworth got from the originals' remains were degraded, and like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, he needed to slot in substitute DNA to fill in the blanks.
When questioning his sexuality to his foster dads, JFK lists "conquering the moon" as one of the original JFK's feats. In "Raisin the Stakes", he—while on raisins—claims the moon is chasing him. It's possible in his (imagined) state of inebreation, he thought the moon was hunting him down to take revenge.
When Frida says "Practice makes progress," Confucius becomes uncharacteristically upset and declares her words dumb. The original Confucius was known for short sayings of wisdom—it's possible the clone Confucius hates sayings like these as it reminds him of a legacy he feels he can't live up to.
Topher Bus tells Abe that no one says "politically correct" anymore may seem like a reference to how people are so offended even by the word "politically correct". But then you realize that it makes sense since no one says "politically correct" anymore, including conservatives who complain about it, instead saying the word "woke".
Why would the secret board of shadowy directors clone Hitler?
Hey, the guy was an extremely charismatic leader, which seems to be something the board would want to harness...
With how the other clones turned out, he was likely a tireless worker for world peace and equality.
Indeed, the clone of Hitler has an arm band with a peace sign on it.
Why not? They cloned Genghis Khan, who was a brutal warlord, as well. Whatever DNA they can find.
They're a shadowy and malevolent conspiracy wanting to use the clones as soldiers. If they're already cloning so many famous people, why wouldn't they clone Hitler?
"Sleep of Faith": Sleep deprivation is played for laughs as an absurd G-Rated Drug, but it becomes this when you realize that it can actually be a very serious problem.
The series ends with every single character sans Scudworth and Mr. Buttlertron frozen. While this allows the two of them to get away scot free, they now have to live with the fact that they've left dozens of people trapped in suspended animation, and most likely keep up a very elaborate lie to ensure that they never get found out.
"Escape to Beer Mountain: A Rope of Sand": When Gandhi points finger guns at JFK, JFK recoils at the gesture out of fright, referencing how the real JFK died.
Imagine how the clones foster families must be feeling when their kids don't come home from prom because they're frozen.
Even worse, Joan's foster grandfather Toots was said to have died from a "clarinet incident" sometime within the 20 years she was frozen. It's a sad thought, he never got to see Joan again, and Joan would end up finding out about this sometime after the unfreezing.
In "Litter Kills: Literally", JFK says "Now Mario's dead! I'm killing everyone!" Why does he say he's "killing everyone"? Well, Ponce died right after having a fight with JFK... a fight that caused JFK to storm off angrily, meaning nobody was around to help Ponce when the series of accidents that killed him happened. It's not too hard to imagine that JFK, on some level, blames himself for Ponce's death. As if he wasn't already going through enough pain...
Ponce's last words to JFK's face were "I HATE you, JFK!"—JFK even states later in the episode that those were the last words Ponce ever said to him. But Ponce's actual last words to JFK were "Wait, Jackie Boy, I didn't mean it!"...meaning Ponce wanted to be JFK's friend right up to the end, and JFK never realized it.
Eleanor Roosevelt, the school's gym coach, is heavily implied to be both a lesbian and a pedophile. Considering that the person she was cloned from also founded the Girl Scouts of America, this has some very bad implications...
If Mr. B had succeeded in cloning Wesley, the kid would be subject to the same Clone Angst as the rest of the main cast—forced to constantly deal with the pressure to live up to the legacy of someone they never met.
The clone embryos are shown to be, on some level, aware of their surroundings and able to feel emotions. Poor test tube Wesley died in total fear and panic—either the tube shattered on impact and left him to die of exposure, or it somehow stayed intact and left him to drift in the ocean until lack of nutrients killed him. Neither one is appealing.
In "Grave Mistakes: The Virgin Homicides", Topher and Ivan the Terrible admit that they are not virgins. Given that both characters have been shown to have misogynistic views (with the only difference being that Topher at least tries to hide his problematic views on women by putting on the facade of being progressive), it's a fair question whether the women they managed to bone were consenting.
To make a clone of someone, you need their DNA. There's a clone of Jesus. Where did they find Jesus's DNA?
Fridge Brilliance: They didn't have Jesus' DNA. Note that whatever your beliefs on Jesus' racial background, it's highly unlikely that He was of Latino American descent as depicted in Clone High. Venturing into Wild Mass Guessing territory, the likeliest explanation is that he was cloned from the suspect DNA of the Shroud of Turin.
The likeliest explanation is that they probably just cloned some Latino guy named Jesús.
Another plausible theory is that he's actually Ambiguously Brown, with his accent simply deriving from having a Latin foster family.
Maybe they found a genuine nail, thorny crown, or bit of cross?
Shroud of Turin.
In the third episode, A.D.D.: The Last 'D' is for Disorder, it's revealed Joan of Arc wears a retainer. Wouldn't that mean the original Joan of Arc had a deformed upper jaw? What makes it worse is that she says 'If this causes an overbite, [Gandhi], you're so dead.'
Not to mention the real JFK suffered from various health problems, most notably chronic back pain.
The original Abe Lincoln suffered from crippling depression and painful bunions. This opens up a lot of questions about congenital health issues and mental illnesses that the clones might have inherited from their "parents".
