The movie company was gonna make the movie with gruesome blood and gore and Horror the movie The Mask, but that will be uncomfortable for everyone. So they make it into a comedy instead. In 1996 Dark Horse comics had finally make the adventure of the Mask based on not just the movie, but a cartoon too.
I remember my husband and me laughing hysterically at this bit. As children, we watched the old 1930's Popeye cartoons (with the usual punch-ups between Popeye and Bluto) included in children's TV shows. So we got the joke. Franklin was indeed an odd but hilarious "preppie" character in "The Critic". Interesting to note: Franklin and Eleanor - the same names as President FDR and First Lady, Eleanor. But Franklin looked like George Bush.