A genuinely enjoyable episode. Not because of the story's complexity or the good characterizations or anything—mostly because the gags are so thick on the floor
and so genuine. The "cupcake in the eye" bits are a perfect microcosm. It's a joke that has grown with the show, and rather than become more and more meta or needing to be subverted (like the "Jedi mind trick" thing), it's just sort of faded from the script and become a little visual nod handled completely outside the dialogue. Pinkie is just saying "I promise" something, with a completely serious poker face, and in the middle of it and without skipping a beat she smushes a cupcake into her eye. We all know what it means, they don't draw any attention to it, but the humor all comes from the timing and from the juxtaposition of her seriousness with the silliness of the act. It's just about perfect in its execution; and then, near the end, she echoes it again as she forfeits to Cheese, briefly putting a hoof over her eye in what amounts to a silent, involuntary acknowledgment of what she'd promised and what she'd staked on it. Things like that, and Rainbow Dash posing against the banner, and the tape on the hoof, and dozens more little things—those are what really make this episode shine for me. I was laughing a lot throughout. "3:10 to goof-off

"
Looking back, it's funny to think how we all sort of knew instinctively that Weird Al would somehow, someday get involved with the show; it's just too joyful and fun for him
not to. In a way there's a certain inevitability to the way it happened here; there's no other kind of character he could have appeared as, and no other character he could have been a foil to but Pinkie. Yet it still feels earnest and fresh, and what makes it work is that they didn't try to do something "we wouldn't expect" like making him a genuine villain or something. They stuck to the overall this-is-a-nice-world-to-be-in atmosphere of the show and made him someone you would hate to hate. Which is fortunate, because he's the source of a great many of those gags that cluster so thickly in this episode.
What I don't get, though, is his motivation; and I'm not sure the writers really thought it through very carefully, probably because they were just too stoked at getting Weird Al on board. If Cheese's whole goal was to impress Pinkie—if he had always admired her from afar—why would he not have just told her that? Why would he not have greeted her as a fan and an acolyte the moment he walked into town driven by his "cheesy sense" twinge and told her his story? Why would he have set himself up from the outset as someone who wanted to challenge Pinkie—not quite in a Flim and Flam way, but certainly not ever reacting to the ever-mounting stakes by going "Whoa whoa whoa, hold on here, I'm not trying to start a war or anything, I'm a great admirer of yours, can't we work together"? Overall the story the episode is telling is kinda convoluted and contrived, and I can't say it really impresses me with its intricate wit or its maturity.
But it does have an awful lot of heart nonetheless. And Pinkie gets some of her best characterization she's had in a very long time; when she says "And I ...
don't", Libman really, really sells it well.
Also great to see another full-fledged musical episode. I don't think it's quite the equal of MMC; the songs aren't as earwormy or evocative, and are a bit more narrative-showtunesy and get bogged down by a fair amount of clumsy lyrics and uninspired meter. But none of the songs are
bad, and I do like "Make a Wish" quite a lot—there's something about the way it shifts the tone of the episode from polkas-and-birthday-songs to bass-heavy dance that really emphasizes how the atmosphere has changed once the two party ponies have joined forces. It's kinda like how "Love Is In Bloom" sounds like a credits theme after all the scenery-chewing showtunes in ACW, or how in the very first episode, after all the fairy-tale sincerity and introductory scenes you can hear the bass of the all-night party thumping through the wall; and something about a techno-ish pop dance number feels almost relaxing after all that form-focused fantasy stagewankery.
Incidentally, I hadn't even realized how many of our newest smilies come from this episode
