I've said it once and I'll say it again. Zuma is the worst. But you didn't believe me last time,
so fine. I'm back to prove it once and for all. I went and watched
every single episode of Paw Patrol, every spin off and every movie to quantitatively
determine who is the least goodest of the good boys. Today we proved once and
for all which Paw Patrol member is definitively the worst pup.
Hello Internet! Welcome to Film Theory. The show where no theory is too big, no lore is
too small. So exactly one year ago, I released the theory all about Nickelodeon's hit series,
Paw Patrol. Specifically, I talked about how Ryder, the leader of the Paw Patrol,
was taking advantage of poor orphan puppies in order to create a squad of expendable
service animals, ones that he could then send into life threatening situations.
As we see in the show, Ryder pays the pups and treats and cuddles while keeping all the
merch sales, government contracts and stolen treasure for himself,
thereby powering the expansion of his canine corporation and lining his own pockets. Now,
I got to be honest, I was half expecting a theory that dark about a children's IP,
so beloved and wholesome to draw some hate. But no, much to my surprise Ryder exploiting
defenseless puppies was not the thing that triggered people in that episode.
In fact, most viewers were like, Oh yeah, I suspected something was up with that kid.
Apparently, you all were just waiting for some validation so, glad I could give voice to what
we were all suspecting this entire time. No. What really ruffled feathers down in the comment
section was a passing joke that I made about one of the pups, the water rescue pup, Zuma.
I had the nerve to call him, dramatic pause: Useless.
What I thought was a pretty innocuous and obviously correct series of statements really
got some of you. Zuma stans down in the comments fired up. Zuma does amazing things. I shan't stand
for all this Zuma slander, he's the best pup. not MatPat bullying Zuma for the entire video.
Yes MatPat bullying Zuma for the entire video. In fact, Zuma should feel lucky. He got more
screen time in my single video than he's gotten across the entirety of that series. But hey,
you know what? I'm an open minded guy. A lot of you disagreed with my assessment
and I heard you. So I did what any sane person would do in this sort of scenario.
Watch every episode of a program aimed at preschoolers while taking meticulous notes
and a giant spreadsheet about the ratio at which pups are utilized and the manner in which they're
called to action, all in an effort to validate my feelings about an animated surfer dog. Yeah,
I'm feeling fine and perfectly in control. Don’t know why you're asking. Is there some
universe out there where I'm being a little too harsh on Zuma that I'm bullying him?
Probably not. But maybe, so let's just let the numbers decide. And if
the data doesn't bear that out, then I will gladly swallow my pride and admit
that I'm wrong. So today I want to set out to prove once and for all who is the most
useless pup in the Paw Patrol if we wanted to rank them. How do the core six line up?
And perhaps most importantly of all, what punishment awaits you when you're the worst one
on a team controlled by a cutthroat capitalist? Grab your pup-packs and prepare for duty loyal
theorists, Theory Patrol, we're on a roll. So let's meet our contestants. Paw Patrol is all
about a team of six search and rescue puppies. Each of the Pups has specialized gear in vehicles
designed by their leader Ryder, all individually themed around typical emergency services.
There's Chase the police dog, Skye the aviation pup, Marshall the firefighter,
Rubble the construction pup, Rocky for garbage disposal and recycling, and of course, Zuma for
water rescue. Each adventure has the team saving their hometown of Adventure Bay, rescuing anyone
who might be in danger and stopping the evil mayor humdinger from sabotaging the city. Now
it's important to note that in your typical episode, not every pup is going to be used.
Usually Ryder will call out two pups to start the mission. And then midway through
when things either go south or the situation escalates, another pup is added into the mix.
This system means that some pups are ultimately going to be used more than others. And so yeah,
I wasn't joking in the intro here. To collect the data for this video,
I went back and watched all 406 episodes of Paw Patrol, and when you consider a typical episode
is usually two rescues, you're looking at a hefty dataset, and I wasn't done.
I also included the three feature length specials and the movie to track every single time a pup
is expressly called to divert disaster. I noted the number of call outs. What they
were needed for and how successful they were in their rescue before tallying it all up into
this beautiful Google Docs spreadsheet. So before we get to the pups themselves,
there's one interesting thing that I have to call out from the data.
Across the 800+ adventures, there are 15 dream rescues where the pups are performing some mission
in their sleep, usually doing something extra cool like body swapping, saving golden coconuts
or rescuing flying saucers. Each and every pup gets one of these episodes. Well, each and every
pup except for Zuma. Yep. Every single pup helps in at least one dream rescue, but never Zuma.
So to everyone who keeps insisting to me that Zuma's helpful. Yeah right! In his dreams. Oh,
wait, I guess not there either. But now it's time to talk about
our winner. Who is the best pup? Is it someone he didn't expect? A
complete underdog working their way to the top. Well, after looking at the numbers,
we find that the number one goodest boy of all the good boys is, drum roll please.
It's Chase. In a surprising twist, that surprised nobody.
I mean, like, yeah. Of course it's Chase. Across the 400 episodes, three features and
the theatrical film, Chase is called out to save the day an astounding 372 times,
meaning that his skills are put to good use across roughly 91% of the Paw Patrol canon.
And when you look at the equipment at Chase's disposal, it becomes clear why this is the case.
A lot of it is just basic safety and rescue fare. Chase uses the net to catch people from falling, a
ball launcher to deflect obstacles and a megaphone to call out to the people that they're trying to
rescue. And you absolutely can't forget Chase's standard Pupemobile armed and ready with his
handy dandy winch. I made fun of this thing in the previous episode, but after running the numbers,
the winches overuse is even more absurd. It is used across 42 separate episodes, meaning that
Chase's glorified rope with a hook at the end is key to solving 1/10 of the patrol's missions.
Season one and two were especially winch heavy with the tool being used in a grand total of
18 different rescues. More recent seasons have moved away from it, likely because,
one, there's only so much interesting stuff that a rope and hook can do. But two, because Chase is
actually proved himself to be the most versatile of any of the other pups, this is why he got
himself a second set of gear, the spy gear, which helps Chase search for clues using night vision,
heat sensing goggles, zip lines, suction cup shoes, and even a remote controlled drone.
Seriously, it is ridiculous how tricked out Chase gets in this show. So it's safe to
say that Chase deserves a spot at the top of the podium. But Chase isn't the only pup who
covers a wide array of valuable skills for day to day emergencies. Coming in second, we have,
Zuma?! No, I'm just kidding. You couldn't possibly believe that Zuma's this high, right?
He's got to be in last place. No. The real number two is Skye the aviation pup. Again,
this shouldn't really be that big of a surprise if you watch the show. Her specialty is flight,
meaning that her plane and binocular goggles are incredibly useful for scouting above a potential
disaster while covering a lot of ground quickly. She also has herself a harness
that she uses to airlift people stuck in high or difficult to reach locations. Across the roughly
410 Paw Patrol adventure, Skye’s called upon a whopping 333 times to help out.
A remarkable 81% of the time. In fact Ryder, and the creators of the show,
have clearly noticed how valuable she is as an asset. Across the big truck pups, Dino Rescue,
Mission Paw and Mighty Pups themed spinoff episodes. She's called out the most to help
out over every other hero. And in the latest season of the main show, she's reached the
point where she's now used more than even Chase. Ryder, ever the capitalist, definitely recognizes
the hashtag Girlboss when he sees one. And Spin Master, makers of the show, certainly know how to
expand their viewing demographic after having captured every preschool aged boy who could
possibly watch this thing. In short, Skye and Chase's dominance makes a lot of sense. Searching
and rescuing are big parts of search and rescue, the backbone of the Paw Patrol's business models.
So, of course, Chase and Skye are going to be the most useful for Ryder. Fun fact by the way,
it's canon in the show that Chase absolutely has a crush on Skye,
one that she either chooses to flat out ignore or is just completely oblivious to.
But from here on out, things start to get less obvious. Binge watch a few of these
episodes and it's immediately clear that Ryder plays favorites to Chase and Skye. Beyond that,
though, we start dipping into the wild card. Believe it or not, Rocky,
the garbage collector pup is actually the third most. Talk about getting yourself a
glow up. In season one Rocky tied for the least used pup alongside Marshall and of course Zuma.
But season over season Rocky has made himself a huge surge, clawing his way
out of the literal trash heap to carve a unique position for himself on the team. Now,
obviously, as the garbage truck pup, he's here to clean up after any messes
from disasters. But more recently, he's positioned himself as the crafty one,
the one who can build or repair any gadget that the team needs using his claw arm and screwdriver,
ranging anywhere from a big slingshot to butterfly wings to a giant banana.
And honestly, that ability to build is the differentiator that's positioned him as my son
Ollie's favorite pup, Rocky literally started from the bottom. Now he's here. And when the
pups get transformed into superheroes through the power of a magic meteor. Don't ask. Rocky
gets the coolest moveset, transforming into the Green Lantern using giant glowing Fix-It tools.
All of this adds up to Rocky getting called upon for 291 rescues a huge 71% of the time,
cementing him as a solid bronze medalist in our usefulness awards.
Now, I don't know about you guys, but I've started to see a pattern emerge here. It’s becoming fairly
clear that the more general a pup’s skill set is, the more value that they have within the
Paw Patrol. Chase is a great all rounder, Skye's aviation abilities are useful in
almost any scenario, Rocky's ability to fix things will be needed basically every mission.
So what about with the back half of our group here? Well, you see, their usages are much lower
than our first three contestants, mostly because each one is so specialized. Digging, putting out
fires, doing water rescues, they're only going to be so useful when put up against stuff like flying
and fixing. That's why coming in fourth, we have ourselves a Rubble who gets to use his specialties
of moving boulders, lifting things with his crane, and digging holes 260 times across the series.
It's roughly 63%. And then right behind him, we have ourselves Marshall the fire pup,
who’s called on to help put out fires with his firefighter gear and use his ladder to reach
people in need of rescue 248 times throughout the series, roughly 60%. Which means that if
you've been following along, you know that there's only one pup left. One final member
of the Paw Patrol that is objectively used the least out of all the others.
And it's not even close. Placing dead last in seven out of nine seasons. Ladies and gentlemen,
the worst pup, according to the numbers, with just 210 call outs and a 51% use rate, it's Zuma.
Do you feel that loyal theorists? Do you smell that delicious scent wafting through the air?
That is validation, my friends. And all I had to do to get it was to watch every single episode,
thereby spending 150 waking hours of my existence here on planet Earth to do it.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. Except.
Yeah, this one comes with a bit of a twist. You see, data can certainly paint you a good
picture. Just doesn't necessarily mean that it's an accurate picture,
because there is a lot of nuance behind those numbers, my friends. See, despite Zuma being
called upon in just half the show's missions, I have to give credit where credit's due.
While he might be used the least, he’s certainly not the least useful. When you look one layer
deeper into the data. Zuma isn't the worst pup. There's one who's arguably much worse,
one who barely succeeds, one who endangers everyone around them. The bad dog I'm
talking about? Believe it or not, it's everyone's favorite klutzy Dalmatian,
Marshall. Now, you might be thinking that this doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Firefighting is an incredibly important profession so how could Marshall be the worst? Well,
for starters, yeah, Marshall does specialize in putting out fires,
which is a very useful skill. Except there are only 11 fires throughout the entirety
of the series, meaning that only 2.6% of rescues are fire related. And honestly,
that's even me being generous. Two of those fires are actually inside of Marshall's dreams.
More often than not, Marshall's water cannons are being used to paint Easter eggs, spray,
tomato juice or clean up messes. Even crazier is the fact that Marshall has himself an entire
second set of equipment, an emergency medical technicians kit to help check for broken bones
and injuries, and yet this too is only used 17 times throughout the series.
But worst of all, the thing that cements Marshall into the worst pup position,
his fire truck’s ladder. It is far and away the most used tool in his arsenal,
called out for 76 rescues 20% of the time. The thing that Ryder finds most
useful about Marshall is setting up a ladder so people can climb down from high places.
But then Marshall can't use the ladder correctly. It often misfires,
or he uses it in a way that results in people getting knocked down in some way,
thereby making the rescue situation exponentially worse. In fact, it's gotten
to the point where Ryder doesn't actually trust Marshall to do his job correctly.
He's even started implementing backup plans for when Marshall eventually fails.
And Ryder is taking action against this worst pup. In the latest season Marshall is called
out only 20 times to help the fewest of any of the pups and the lowest amount of times in his
career. In short, Marshall is being called out to help less and less as the series goes on. And
that's because he's a liability, a walking lawsuit. So where then does all this leave
Zuma? You know, I called out Chase Skye and Rocky because their skill sets are so broad.
Well the one thing that Zuma's historically had going for him is a specialty. He's the
water pup. That is his domain. No one else is really equipped for water rescues. You don't
see Chase or any of the other pups generating bubble shields so they can breathe underwater.
You don't see Skye diving underwater to lift platforms. Or at least you didn't until recently.
Ryder is starting to box Zuma out, too. As the push for new ideas, and new merchandising
opportunities, becomes a greater priority for the show. The pups have seen more specialized
event based programming. Most tend to stay in their own unique lane, just given the
pups brand new power sets that they didn't have before. The super powered Mighty Pups, the Power
Rangers-esque Dino Rescue, the medieval themed Rescue Knights of the Race car inspired Moto Pups.
Speaker 1 But then there's the Sea Patrol,
where for 15 adventures, all the pumps are basically just turned into Zuma. Finally,
the Paw Patrol are being presented with water based missions only for the work
to be outsourced to the rest of the team. And to add insult to injury, that's not the only
series of special episodes to do it. There's also the additional six episodes of Aqua Pups,
and all of this is overlooking the times that they turned into mer-pups.
You know, mermaid puppies that appear only during a full moon. Come and try to stick
with me on this, guys. In short, whereas everyone else is generally allowed to keep
their skill sets and add to them by these various spin off adventures. Zuma is bit by
bit losing the only thing that he had going for him. And you know, that makes me sad.
After watching these episodes, I found a new appreciation for Zuma. He clearly
wants to help. He's even excited to help in situations where he can't.
That right there, that is huge. Passion for a job and wanting to help, especially when
you're talking about a business like this where there's literally life and death being put in
the balance. It is irreplaceable. Zuma is doing everything that's asked of him and
he's doing it well. He's completely competent and capable of doing whatever Ryder tasks him to do.
Speaker 1 It's just a very
specialized skill set. And yet here's Ryder boxing him out. He's focusing on the generalist pups,
puppies who can do it all, his top three all stars. I suspect it's to cut costs,
to streamline, to make things more efficient. That way, one day soon, they can all be replaced by
the one creation that Ryder introduced at the very beginning of the series.
A replacement that was ready to go until it went haywire and destroyed the town.
A robot that's been helping with missions ever since. Always observing,
always learning from the pups. In short, not even the Paw Patrol's jobs are going to be
safe from the A.I. invasion. It's just that Marshall and Zuma are first on the chopping
block. But hey! That's just a theory. A FILM THEORY! Aaaaaaand I'm sorry, Zuma. I was wrong.