Metalocalypse: Murderface’s School of Being a Dickhead

Wyrd Outlook by Grogh — Ghostwritten by Vikki Vexum, Pocket Librarian of The Wyrd Hereafter

Metalocalypse: Murderface’s School of Being a Dickhead

Season 2, Episode 2 — “Dethlessons”
Best of Wyrd Media, Through GsG Goggles

Spoilers ahead…

In the first episode of Metalocalypse, I identified an important characteristic of William Murderface: he is an inconsiderate dickhead.

Toki wanted grieving time. Murderface had objections, an apparent mental record of previous absences, and his own unhappiness to bring to everybody’s attention.

By Season 2’s “Dethlessons,” the man is teaching.

Welcome to Murderface’s School of Being a Dickhead. That is the Captain’s name for his little educational enterprise, and I believe it captures the institution’s values.

Nathan and Pickles are enrolling. Skwisgaar’s ego is available for classroom demonstrations. Our favorite rhythm guitarist is trying to improve himself somewhere in the middle of it.

Talk about a planet full of piss.

Two Very Different Approaches to Education

The premise of “Dethlessons” practically hands us the joke: Toki takes guitar lessons while Murderface teaches the others how to make people miserable.

Toki wants to become a better musician. Murderface wants to produce more accomplished dickheads.

I appreciate an episode with competing educational philosophies.

Before those lessons get going, the band discusses Toki’s dissatisfaction with his place in the group. Their assessment of his contribution deteriorates into dismissals and a brief dispute over whether he deserves credit for making sandwiches.

There is your workplace culture. A man expresses ambition, and his colleagues debate his sandwich credentials.

Charles attempts the modest intervention of suggesting they treat their bandmate decently. Murderface responds by demonstrating the behavior that earns his peers’ admiration: antagonize somebody, then retreat into the excuse that you were only fooling around.

Suddenly, he has an interested audience.

The Captain’s episode-one verdict is holding up beautifully. Apparently, being a dickhead is his most dependable qualification, and now he is expanding the curriculum.

Today’s Lesson: Turn Encouragement into a Weapon

Murderface’s practical exercise involves convincing Skwisgaar that Toki is making extraordinary progress with his new guitar teacher.

Nathan and Pickles join in. The praise is invented, and Skwisgaar’s insecurity does the rest.

That is an excellent piece of comedy. They barely need to interfere with the music. They interfere with his idea of where he stands.

A fellow musician improving should be good news for a band. Skwisgaar receives the suggestion like somebody has started measuring his throne for a replacement.

Meanwhile, Toki’s actual attempt to learn becomes raw material for everybody else’s amusement. Poor Toki. He signed up for guitar lessons. The others signed up for advanced emotional vandalism.

Skwisgaar is responsible for how he behaves, of course. Murderface simply notices a perfectly usable insecurity and brings teaching assistants.

Give the Rhythm Guitarist Some Fucking Credit

Here is where my GsG goggles start steaming.

Rhythm guitar helps give a two-guitar metal arrangement its weight and continuity. It can hold the musical foundation while the lead takes flight. From the Captain’s seat, that support helps Skwisgaar rock as hard as he does.

The fireworks are impressive. So is keeping the stage beneath them.

Skwisgaar’s ability deserves recognition. Toki’s role deserves recognition too. There is plenty of room to discuss practice, discipline, and unequal technical skill without treating another member of the band like an unnecessary attachment.

And the insecurity is deliciously revealing: for somebody so dismissive of Toki, Skwisgaar becomes remarkably concerned about the possibility of him getting better.

The episode’s Tribunal interlude gives this rivalry the grand treatment, framing the competing guitarists as dangerous clashing powers.

Wonderful. A wounded ego has become a security briefing.

Toki, Please Do Your Homework

Toki finds a teacher in veteran guitarist Dimneld Selftcark. Unfortunately for the Captain’s defense team, our client’s commitment to practicing leaves something to be desired.

Yes, Toki. I saw that.

Taking your side does not mean I can practice your scales for you.

But the relationship develops a sweetness beyond the lessons. Toki remembers his teacher’s birthday and brings him a homemade gift. That little gesture gives us something worth caring about amid all the competitive nonsense.

My reading is that he is finding encouragement and connection as much as instruction. Somebody is investing time in him. He responds with affection.

Then Skwisgaar intrudes and attempts to make him choose between the teacher and the band.

Naturally, the resulting attempt to fire Toki requires band procedure. The emotional tantrum runs into bureaucracy.

The combination is glorious: rock-star jealousy, a “citizen’s band firing,” and rules about votes. Even this collection of walking catastrophes has paperwork standing between impulse and execution.

Graduation: Everybody Has Made Everything Worse

The recital brings the episode’s threads together without giving Toki a sudden virtuoso victory. He struggles, the teacher is dying, and the band’s attempted reconciliation becomes its own noisy mess.

Skwisgaar’s acceptance becomes easier once he knows his musical position is safe. Even an assurance that Toki belongs arrives carrying another insult about his usefulness.

These men put thumbtacks in their hugs.

Murderface’s eventual apology barely contains his continuing impulse to lash out. His school’s founder remains committed to the subject, even during the corrective seminar.

Then the teacher’s final expression of love brings tenderness into the wreckage.

For all the absurdity, that ending hurts. Toki has found a connection that matters, and he is losing it while everyone else scrambles to clean up their petty drama.

The episode gives us something tender enough to make the dickhead behavior feel especially ugly—and funny enough that we keep watching it unfold.

The Captain’s Verdict

“Dethlessons” builds a terrific little disaster out of ambition, jealousy, manipulation, and affection expressed with the social grace of a dropped amplifier.

Through the GsG goggles, its finest discovery is that Murderface’s dickheadedness has become an educational resource. I noticed the characteristic in episode one. Here he is cultivating it in others.

Toki needs practice. Skwisgaar needs to survive somebody else receiving encouragement. Nathan and Pickles need better extracurricular activities.

Murderface needs his teaching license revoked.

Poor Toki. Give the man some credit—and keep him out of Murderface University.

Find the episode through Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse page or Apple TV’s “Dethlessons” listing. Scene details were checked against the episode transcript.