Line #19 Headscratchers/TwoBrokeGirls


1	* How could the show even continue its premise with a millionaire in the fray? There's no logical reason not to at least use Eric Andre's million dollar gift as seed money
2	** Deke was [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Brother Chucked]] by the start of the next season.
3	* Are there any waitresses working at the diner besides Max and Caroline? It seems as though they're the only ones. Does the diner close, for example, when they took time off to go to the grammies? And when they were away for spring break? Was the diner not open as often when the girls had their cupcake shop? Does the diner close when the girls are off or is there another set of two broke girls that we never see or hear about?
4	** We do see extras working in the background around Oleg from times to times, so there are definitely other employees, but I guess that is not important to story line, so they just remain that way.
5	*** They also appear to work late nights exclusively, so maybe we only see their shift.
6	*** Season 3 adds Luis to the diner, who covers the day shift.
7	* Why don't they sell the horse? I know Caroline loves Chestnut, but keeping a horse under those conditions is [[SomewhereAnEquestrianIsCrying just cruel to the animal.]] Not sure how old Chestnut is, but he seems healthy and has a very gentle disposition, halter broke and even comes with his own tack. That could fetch a good price and they could insist that Chestnut only be bought by someone who will and can take good care of him.
8	** [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Out-of-universe]], because then they would have one less hook to make their show different and, so the writers hope, more popular. In-universe, probably because Max and Caroline each have a soft spot for animals, Caroline's a spoiled former rich, naive idiot and has bonded with Chestnut over a period of several affection-starved years, and Max has no proper equestrian training (she treats the horse like a giant dog).
9	** Also, even though the horse belongs to Caroline, it could technically be considered stolen property. (Remember, the Channing family's assets had been seized, meaning the horse and everything else they owned were property of the federal government, so taking it was a criminal offense.) It's not exactly common for people in their neighborhood to own horses. If they sell it, they might raise questions about where it came from.
10	** The issue gets addressed in "and Reality Check". When winter arrives the horse can no longer live in the city and they need to find someone who is willing to house and feed it over the winter for free. One stable owner even points out that the horse is not in great condition due to the lack of exercise. Caroline is in denial but Max gets her to see reality even if it hurts.
11	* Why don't they invest the cupcake fund? At the end of each episode, we see the value of the cupcake fund fluctuate depending on how much they earned or spent during the episode, but it never seems to accrue any interest or dividends, or undergo capital gain or loss. They use the money from selling Caroline's rings to buy the Bluestar oven in purple in "And the Pop-Up Sale," which would count as a capital investment in their own business, but that's about it. Why wouldn't someone of Caroline's financial savvy invest their savings?
12	** She's never had to live day to day and it's obvious that she's quickly learning that just getting to tomorrow has a value in and of itself. The better question is how the number remains so static. Even when they buy things that are in the hundreds of dollars somehow their income is almost always exactly the same as their expenses. It's like asking why they apparently don't advertise at all. As a small business owner I can tell you that 250 copies at Kinko's is only 50 bucks when you realize you can cut an normal piece of paper into 4 (or more) pieces. They simply aren't maximizing their business but that's fine since Max has no experience and Caroline isn't use to being ground level she's used to observing top tier stuff.
13	*** How does that answer the question? What does the fact that she's never had to live day-to-day before have to do with her apparent decision not to invest their (admittedly meager) capital? Wouldn't her natural reflex be to invest it? Even in a simple savings account it would generate at least a little income, though someone as financially sophisticated as Caroline would know better than to put her money in a savings account.
14	*** They don't HAVE money to invest. Their money goes into surviving which is why they shop at the Salvation Army for clothing. No her natural reflex really isn't to invest, she's used to living on a much higher level and frankly she makes so little money that investing it (at least in season 1 and most of season 2 would be detrimental to their goal of owning a cupcake shop.
15	** What sort of significant investment could you make with less than a thousand dollars that would generate adequate returns for business capital within a short amount of time, with a low risk? And given that her name is mud in any serious place she could invest it? It would be a "natural impulse" to invest it, but when you have that little money and you're trying to launch a business you can either invest it in a CD at the local savings bank and wait several months to get a little bit of a return, or you can try to launch a business. Maybe Caroline learned that in her business-school classes.
16	*** Also, maybe she's smart enough to know that any investment she'd make might attract attention and get seized as possible proceeds of her father's scheme. The show hasn't shown her opening or using a bank account, after all. And consider that she told Max that, in the current situation, Max would have more chance of getting credit than she would (which is saying a lot, given what we learn about Max in that department).
17	* For that matter, why doesn't Caroline try to get a better job, say at a bank or even one of those Payday Loans places? Someone with her education (not to mention connections) surely has better job options.
18	** Probably has something to do with the current state of the Channing name. It's come up a couple of times before that people are hesitant to associate themselves with Caroline simply because of who her father is.
19	* Why do they wear high heels at their job? I know it's handwaved in universe, at least on Caroline's part, but come on!
20	** Caroline might not have other shoes, since they are broke. (Didn't she literaly have 'the clothes on her back', which included high heels?) Other than that, loads of women work with high heels on, even waitresses. It's not really that strange.
21	** Spoken like someone who's a) never worn high heels, or b) never worked on their feet all day.
22	** Could just be part of the uniform at the diner.
23	** Seconding how illogical heels are. In food service, there are requirements for suitable working shoes, and if you cannot pay for it out of pocket you might file it under work expenses and have the money taken out of your first paycheck. A high-class restaurant ''might'' get away with heels for hostesses, cashiers, or someone else who works front of house instead of in the kitchen. But even without requirements, it's common sense to wear sensible shoes when you are walking back and forth carrying large trays of food the entire day and there might be spills on the floor.
24	** Answer to the initial question: There is NO logical reason for Max and Caroline always wearing high heels when they're working at the diner. It is 100% unrealistic.
25	** Out-of-Universe, it's clearly meant to be Fan Service. Just like Max's huge cleavage or Caroline's dangerously short skirt while in uniform. In-Universe, for the same reason. They want to be as attractive as they can, because attractive people get more tips. Though as other people said, in reality, no waitress would wear High Hees in food service.
26	** I started watching more of the show and I think I figured out why it works. The diner's front is very small, about the size of the small film set. The girls always stay close to the counter, and don't need to go into the kitchen. (They usually go into the kitchen anyway to talk or avoid work.) I can see heels being part of the work uniform because the girls only have to walk around a small area, whenever they actually feel like doing work. Han probably thought that, if they're going to be lazy and not have to move much, they could at least be eye candy and attract some customers.
27	* Uh, why the hell was Caroline's possessions sold away in an auction? I get that the house was impounded during the investigation and her father being in jail, but most of those possessions come from before his Ponzi scheme. What, did America turn communist and decide "Hey, let's sell away everything they have to the people, fuck justice and logic"?. I mean, there's still his daughter Caroline and his bitch of a sister as his heirs, they can't just ignore them and sell away all his stuff for no other reason than they can!
28	** Don't expect the average TV writer to understand how asset-forfeiture laws work, or if they do, to [[ArtisticLicenseLaw not let that get in the way]].
29	** It's not asset forfeiture, where the government confiscates the proceeds of ill-gotten gains so one doesn't profit from crim. The exact same thing happened with the assets of Bernie Madoff: the government seized them to sell in an attempt to make whole the defrauded investors.
30	* Did Max and Caroline realize that they are in the middle of two classical upstart business teams (UnclePennybags investor + TheEngineer + TheFace marketeer)? One in the diner (Han is the UnclePennybags but know few things about running a diner; Max is TheEngineer as she keeps the business afloat, essentially holding the executive powers; and Caroline the ex-[[Socialite]] being TheFace) and another is the cupcake business (Deke and Caroline are both UnclePennybags, with his multi-millions and her financial skills; Max and Deke are both TheEngineer as they both actually bake; and both Caroline and Max as TheFace and try to contact people and sell their cupcakes)
31	** Han isn't that rich, and a few jokes imply that the restaurant is often slow. As for the girls, they aren't as skilled at running a business as you make it out - they manage to stay afloat (and they get the cupcake window/back room for free, according to Han), but they don't have that much experience and education. They've even gone to a motivational and educational course for entrepreneurs because they're still learning, and their ideas weren't popular.
32	* Why cupcakes? Since they know the same about how to make cupcakes as they know about nuclear plants i.e. nothing why not invest in something more profitable?
33	** Max explicitly knows how to make damn good cupcakes. She is even selling them at the start of the show. It's just that her business sense is nil at that point and her confidence equally non-existent. Also I'd imagine cupcakes to be rather profitable margin wise. A box of cake mix, a gallon of milk a dozen eggs (the latter two of which go into several batches of cupcakes) isn't exactly expensive. There is more to how profitable something is than just how much you can sell it for. Now a good question is why they seem so myopically hell bent on just cupcakes not even branching out as far as muffins which would probably go over quite well in the mornings.
34	*** Seemingly addressed in season five; the synopses state that they will expand to run a dessert bar.
35	* For being broke and attempting to seed a business, I have to ask... why in the world are Max and Caroline living in ''Williamsburg''? For those not familiar with the real estate market in New York, Williamsburg is one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Brooklyn: a studio usually runs no ''less'' than a thousand unless you are very, very lucky; it confuses me why the girls don't move to, say, Queens or even a cheaper part of Brooklyn.
36	** They have stable work there, it's probably better for their business to be in one of the better areas of town, and it's been shown that they can easily afford to keep their apartment because it's fairly inexpensive; let's be honest, they live in a total shithole that's falling apart, surrounded by druggies and other people of ill repute - even in a good area, that's not worth much.
37	** Commuting can carry a significant cost. It is already established that their apartment have rent control and Max have been living there for quite a while before the show started, so it isn't too high to start with. Their current residence is within walking distance from their job so commuting on foot is free. If they move further out the bus/subway tickets start to add up and the girls lose free time, negating the benefit of a lower rent.
38	** It's explicitly stated that it's an illegal sub-let and that Max has to be careful that the building manager doesn't find out the actual tenant isn't there. So there's a good chance it's an older person sub-letting a rent-controlled apartment, and therefore cheaper rent.

Context Headscratchers / TwoBrokeGirls