Headscratchers / Recess

At the end of "The Hypnotist" Principal Prickly is talking to the gang about how they took advantage of him while he was hypnotized and says "Miss Finster has filled me in on your shenanigans and I've decided that the most fitting punishment for you miscreants is" before cutting himself off when he sees the beard he drew on his photo then lets them off with a warning. So what could this "most fitting punishment" he had initially planned have been?

Why does Randall make fun of Spinelli for wearing a dress in "First Name Ashley"?

Doesn't she normally wear one?

• It's not that she's wearing a dress, it's that she's wearing a very "girly" dress. Spinelli's usual outfit does have a dress as its base, but it's very plain. It's also overshadowed by the leather jacket, combat boots, and knit cap she always wears, which are much more tomboyish. The dress the Ashleys make her wear looks like something out of an Easter parade, which is why Randall laughs at her.
• Alternatively, her usual "dress" might really be an oversized t-shirt. She does wear leggings under it.

Why do Mrs. Finster and Principal Prickly have to be such Jerkasses?

Is it even possible to have that big of a stick up your asses that you don't think kids should have time to play?

• Prickly and Finster seem to follow the out-of-touch teacher archetype. They used to genuinely love teaching and wanted to help children, but over the years they've become cynical and forgotten why they ever wanted to go into teaching in the first place. Plus the show is very inconsistent with their levels of villainy. Sometimes Finster is just strict as a playground monitor and Prickly an ineffective principal, other times they want to ban recess and hate the idea of children having fun. It changes depending on the needs of the plot.
  • They both mellowed out considerably by the end of the show. In the first season, they were both sadists who existed just to torment the students. Over time, they became humanized. It may also have to do with Protagonist-Centered Morality. Since the entire show is framed from a kid's perspective, the writers may have chosen to make the stricter adults into outright jerks. Contrast that with a show like Hey Arnold! where every adult is given their fair day from the start.
• It's also worth noting that though Mrs. Finster and Principal Prickly are short-tempered and grouchy, they aren't cruel. In "The Biggest Trouble Ever," Mrs. Finster makes the kids do chores for breaking the new statue—understandable— and when she hears that they'll be transferred to separate schools, both she and Prickly think it's too extreme. Similarly, if a child is actually in danger, they fly into action and protect them. In "The Library Kid," when the title character is stuck on a flagpole and can't get down, Mrs. Finster is genuinely concerned for her, calls the Fire Department, and even screams in fear when she sees the girl trapped. So even though they can be nasty, they do care about the kids.
• Another important part is that the kids like it when Mrs. Finster and Principal Prickly are antagonists—it gives them an "enemy" to fight and lets them be rebellious and have fun. In "The Fuss over Finster," Mrs. Finster gets a hairline fracture and ends up on crutches. The Recess Gang has fun pulling off capers at first, but when they see that Muriel is genuinely struggling to keep up with even the slowest kids, they realize that without Finster as their foe, it's just not enjoyable to win. T.J. organizes the entire playground to behave super well and nice to each other to give Muriel a break (he calls her a "wounded lion"), and both sides promise that it will be "business as usual" when she's healed up. All told, the kids and the stricter staff seem to have a Friendly Enemies situation happening, where the antagonism and troublemaking are just part and parcel of their relationship.
• Also, keep in mind that we're primarily seeing them from the kids' perspective, and for them, anyone in a position of authority at the school is automatically "the enemy".

Why is Gretchen proclaimed to be so smart, even though seems to do and believe things that are really stupid?

Some examples would be not already seeing through the fact that sometimes it's okay to tell on people and the fact that she still seems to believe that numbers like a gazillion exist. My only guess is that she's 9, so it's slightly excusable, or she knew the truth all along and, to fit in more, she just followed Wizard's First Rule.

• Anyone who knows what it's like to be the most intelligent kid in school loves the fact that Gretchen is human enough not to know everything. Highly intelligent people get just as tired of the stereotypes as anyone else, and one of the more popular stereotypes is that highly intelligent children never have moments of fancy, fantasy, hyperbole, overexcitement, naivete, or any of the thousand moments of humanity that make Gretchen a character with whom both highly intelligent kids and adults who were highly intelligent kids can relate.
• She's "smart" probably as in a straight-A student with more knowledge about facts and a wider vocabulary than her peers. But since she's 9, she's still prone to making 9-year-old mistakes. And any kid could be nervous about whether it's okay to tattle or not.
• If you want a counter-example to "sometimes it's okay to tell on people", let me Google that for you...
• She's book smart. Not Street Smart. Two completely different things.
  • Only to people who aren't book smart and need something to hang onto.
  • I feel that episode shows they're not completely different things her book smarts translate to the street.
• Maybe she was using gazillion as a placeholder for a number large enough that she didn't know the proper term for it?
• Because she's also nine. Being book smart doesn't prevent you from being gullible.
• Also, in the episode with the c-note; Gretchen did not tell them that 100 divided by six is not that much.
• Although she's exceptionally smart for a fourth grader, she's not Young Sheldon smart. Remember, she's the top student in her elementary school, while Sheldon is top of the class in his high school and even the college courses he's auditing. She's still a normal kid for the most part, she even enjoys recess just as much as the other kids.

Why, in her right mind, did Ms. Finster agree to be the lunch and recess monitor?

She hates it, it's clearly taking years off her life, and she's a full-time teacher in addition. Since she's protected by tenure, I'm surprised that she hasn't told them to get someone else to do it.

• If you pay attention Finster actually seems to enjoy it, she just doesn't admit it. Actually many episodes contain little hints (and sometimes flat-out say) none of the teachers are as bad as they are made out to be. I think it's more of how they are seen through the kids' eyes at the time.
  • Finster doesn't hate it. If she hated it she wouldn't be doing it. They're teachers, they like teaching, helping to form kids, and making a difference but they are also in charge of maintaining order and have a job to do. They're strict and they've lost much of their optimism but they are not bad or unhappy people. Occasionally they act a little too selfish and occasionally need to be reminded of the other side's perspectives but in the end, they're doing what they want to be doing. Just check out the movie when they aren't the kid's mandatory rivals, they come rushing to the children's aid. They truly love what they do and they care deeply about the kids.

Is Spinelli Asian?

The only explanation I can think of for her strangely drawn face is that it's a stylistic way of showing that she's Asian. Yet Spinelli sounds like an Italian name.

• Both of Spinelli's parents are clearly not Asian, so unless she is adopted, neither is she.
  • Since Spinelli doesn't resemble her parents, perhaps she was adopted (and Asian).
• She's Italian according to The Other Wiki, and on the episode where Spinelli joins the Ashleys after Randall reveals her true first name, she also had a great-grandmother who lived in Alaska and ran the Iditarod. Judging by her eye shape, lip shape, and Ambiguously Brown skin tone (which reminds me of the one from that Eskimo hunter on the 1949 Looney Tunes cartoon "Frigid Hare"), she probably could be Inuit (Eskimo) along with being Italian.

Why do the kids NEVER seem to use their own judgment, instead following behind a "playground king" who is really just some sixth-grade boy, and using a made-up "code of honor?"

• The King has enough charisma and wisdom to be a reliable judge when the kids don't know what to do, in theory anyway.
• Because they're kids. Even though it's exaggerated for comedy's sake, in real life, kids literally do have a "follow the pack" mentality that they rarely question in fear of being the outsider.
  • Actually, Gus stood up for himself during his debut episode, tired of being the new kid. King Bob respected that, telling the former new kid that "you never asked".
  • Seconded. Much of the time the kids follow their own judgment.
• Same reason we have a democracy and follow the Constitution - it's been that way for years and things are decent enough this way that we don't need to change it.
• Not to mention that it's been said that some playground kings of the past have vastly improved recess for the kids. Some of the kings weren't just your average sixth graders.

The kindergarteners are savages, yet every kid in actual grade levels is shown to be capable of mostly proper grammar and doesn't wear war paint. What, upon reaching first grade, they're instantly civilized?

• Pretty much.
• Taking the Fifth Grade shows Hector and Tubby still adjusting to first grade.
• Kindergarteners can act like older kids. They choose not to. It's kind of their last chance to be savages before growing up.
• In the Recess universe, it seems like the whole business of "kindergartner=savage" is completely normal. In Taking the Fifth Grade, Gus's parents are driving him to school, and he's already dressed in "war paint" and ready to be wild and destructive. Presumably, the Griswolds must be OK with it.

Why did the kids get in trouble for breaking that statue in "The Biggest Trouble Ever", even though the builders were supposed to bolt it down? The episode depicts it as major news, yet not one journalist even bothers asking if the structure was safe.

• The Mayor was Jerkass and it was clear he was simply jealous that they succeeded where he failed.
  • Have you seen the media? They love scapegoating children and young people for everything.
  • And with the frenzy that surrounded the children destroying the statue and how hated they became, you think the builders will admit that it was their fault?
  • It is kind of weird that no one noticed that the statue wasn't bolted down in the first place, or that the kids could have gotten seriously hurt when it fell.

Why didn't Gretchen buy the "other dimension" explanation?

I realize the idea that Swinger Girl broke through a dimensional barrier is ridiculous but Gretchen (and the rest of the main cast except Mikey) seemed to act as if there is no such thing as an Alternate Dimension. It's especially jarring for Gretchen as she is privy to everything science-related and I thought stuff like this is actually taken seriously by the scientific community.

• You have to remember two things. Firstly, this was made in the late 90s, a time when parallel dimensions were still considered mostly science fiction. And secondly, parallel dimensions haven't been proven yet. Whilst scientists do believe they exist, at this moment in time, there is no proof of them. So Gretchen was acting perfectly logical in dismissing the idea.
  • Gretchen also didn't see what Swinger Girl did, and only has Spinelli's word to go on. So Gretchen is demonstrating perfectly scientific logic in questioning a second-hand statement and considering more reasonable explanations for an incident she didn't see.

What's wrong with the kids?

• They have no legitimate concept of kissing or aging and believe odd stuff. I know this is an exaggerated version of childhood innocence, but seriously? They just seem stupid and overly naive.
  • Most children become truly aware of the difference between reality and fiction at age seven. Since most of the characters are nine, it makes sense for them to still be a bit gullible and believe some odd stuff. As far as the concepts of aging and kissing go, maybe they're just late bloomers as far as maturity and awareness go.
  • They're only nine years old. At that age, few kids have a legitimate concept of kissing.
  • Not to mention that Recess takes place in the late '90s (the show's original air run being 1997-2001). Kids believed in those things back then before they started to wise up at earlier ages.
  • One part Nostalgia Goggles, one part cultural drift; every generation grows up faster than the one before it. When Recess was on TV, it was aimed at kids around the same age as or younger than the main cast, which meant 6-10-year-olds, with Parental Bonus gags. Kids that age today are exposed to much more adult media, and some of them have probably had MySpace/Facebook pages since they were born, so the internet (and the...uh, shall we say social interaction unrestricted by traditional etiquette that comes with it) is a very basic part of their lives. Kids today aren't any more mature, but they have access to a lot more information.
  • As for the kissing thing, it wasn't so much that they didn't know what kissing was, it was a more "cooties" thing in that they didn't know why people would like doing it.
• This Troper was watching the episode where Gus was introduced. Now the kids have the reason to refer to Gus as "the new kid" due to the rules of the playground but why was the bus driver and even Ms. Grotke calling Gus "the new kid"? The rules only apply to the kids because they don't know any better but why would the ones who know better like Grotke also join in hazing Gus?
  • Probably for three reasons. First, in the first season of the show, it was a bit more exaggerated. Second, Gus might've been imagining that. And three, Miss Grotke's character probably wasn't really set up yet.
  • As for the bus driver, it's possible she genuinely doesn't remember his name since he has only just started.
• If Recess co-exists in the same world as "Lilo and Stitch" the series, does that mean the realistic 3rd Street School students co-exist with fantasy elements like Aliens, Dragons, Naked Mole Rats, and a wish-granting Al Roker?
  • I...don't really know (and Naked Mole Rats aren't fantasy elements...but of course, they don't act like Rufus in real life).
  • If Recess takes place in the same world as Lilo and Stitch it takes place in a world where the earth is a mosquito preserve and Hawaii has a decent number of genetic experiments. Seeing Recess as taking place in a universe with all the crossovers in Lilo and Stitch has some awesome potential - the kids having a future in a world even cooler than they believe it is now - but is not necessary for it taking place in the Lilo and Stitch universe. You can just pretend the other crossovers didn't happen, happened differently, and/or the people in the crossovers are similar but entirely different people who live in a different universe than the series they are from. If Recess does not take place in the same universe as Lilo and Stitch either the crossover is only Lilo and Stitch canon but not Recess canon or the kids in the Lilo and Stitch crossover are just similar to T.J. and his group.
  • Aliens do exist in the Recess universe; at the end of the episode where TJ and Spinelli kiss, a spaceship drops off a kid Butch claims was abducted.
• Also related to the above. Recess seemed like a poor series to be crossed over with. Kim Possible and American Dragon have fantasy topics but Recess seemed fairly realistic. Plus Recess takes place in '97 and '98. Kim Possible and American Dragon are so not 90s, and Proud Family is more like New Millennium.
  • It isn't that far out, remember the movie revolves around a guy with a giant gravity gun he's using to move the friggin MOON, that sounds like a plot straight out of Kim Possible

Why was T.J. so intimidated by Slicer?

• Having watched the episode recently, T.J. being so quick to be intimidated by Slicer seems more than a little out of character for him(especially since at that point Slicer had no real authority over the school yet, so T.J. was under no obligation to obey him or listen to anything he said) you'd think him and the others would've tried to pull pranks on him to try and get him to leave or something.
  • This seems to be a case of The Worf Effect. T.J. does try to make jokes with Slicer, but the older man completely shuts him down and treats him like a lab rat, as opposed to Prickly, who will at least groan at T.J.'s quips and talk to him. By showing that even T.J. is scared, it helps to emphasize just how bad this new guy is.
  • There is a theory discussed above that the kids and teachers have a friendly enemies situation, where the teachers happily play the antagonists and the kids don't mean real harm - it's all just a game to them. Slicer however is not playing, and that genuinely intimidates TJ.

Mikey's singing voice

• Rule of Funny and Rule of Cool aside, why and how does an 11-year-old have the deep post-puberty baritone of Robert Goulet?
  • He's probably been taking vocal lessons for a long time (as seen in "Yes, Mikey, There Is A Santa Claus").

Spinelli's First Name

• How is it that none of the other kids, including her own friends, knew that Spinelli's first name was Ashley until Randall revealed it in "First Name Ashley"? Even back when Spinelli first started kindergarten, there wouldn't have been any reason for her to be on a last-name basis, at least until the Ashleys ruined it for her.
  • Maybe at one point she said to the teachers that she prefers to be called by her last name. Or maybe she was such a terror in kindergarten that she refused to answer to Ashley, and calling her by her last name became a habit that the rest of the staff got accustomed to. At my school, some kids had nicknames that stuck and even got called that by the teachers because they were so associated with them.
    • Doesn't Spinelli have several older brothers? If so, then maybe the school staff thought of her as yet another Spinelli sibling rather than paying attention to her first name (especially if her older brothers had a reputation).
  • Actually, Miss Finster seems to call all the children by their last names. Prickly too. So it looks like Miss Grotke is the odd teacher out, addressing the children by their first names. And she and Spinelli do get established to have a special bond in "Mama's Girl", so it's plausible that Spinelli said she prefers to go by her last name. As for the other kids, maybe they forgot it since the Ashleys' clique wasn't established in kindergarten (in "Outcast Ashley", the girls look like first or second-graders). The gang probably got so used to calling Spinelli by her last name, they didn't think about her first name too much.

Why is Chad's geeky nature such a surprise to everyone?

• The gang seems to be a pretty tight-knit group, yet they make it sound like it's been years since they've seen Chad; in all that time, they never went to Vince's house or ran into the LaSalle family somewhere in town?
  • Maybe they haven't. I have a friend whose family I've met with on a few occasions and I still haven't seen his little brother. The gang rarely seems to go to one person's house, preferring to meet up at school or in town, so they might not have seen him at all. I can't remember if they said that Chad had extracurricular activities in the episode, but maybe he was doing other classes or things like chess club which meant they didn't have opportunities to see him.
  • You're right—Chad does mention that he has extracurricular activities, including Chess Club, Computer Club, and tutoring (that's how he manages to scare off a bully at the end of the episode—by saying he'll stop helping him with his math work). Plus, within the episode, Gretchen remarks that the kids thought Chad was cool because he played with them when they were in kindergarten...and only now realizes that Chad would have been in fifth or sixth grade at that time, meaning he was already a geek for playing with little kids while his peers had age-appropriate friends.

Mikey's kindergarten derby failure?

• How is Mikey the only kindergartner to never finish the derby? We see in this very episode that Tubby and Gilbert are the only ones who finish. Everyone else gets held up along the way and isn't seen finishing the derby, and it's logical to assume the same happens every year.
  • I think the sticking point was that Mikey ran out of the race when he fell, whereas, with the others, Tubby and Gilbert just ended the race by crossing the finish line. So for them, they simply didn't win. Mikey however ran out of his derby and got the reputation as the kid who never finished.

Ashley A. getting kicked out of her club?

• In the episode "outcast Ashley" she gets kicked out for forgetting purple day, except as the leader shouldn't she be the one who says who's in and who's out even though she forgot purple day?
  • Ashley A. may be the leader Ashley, but you have to remember that all four of them are alpha bitches. They all love acting superior and dominate over other people, and no one is exempt from that. Not even another Ashley. Plus with without her around, that means one of the other three gets to be the Queen Bee.

Why does the Library Kid develop a sugar rush from recess despite never being outside?

• Library Kid says she’s never been outside for recess before, however, once she gets a small taste of what it’s like during outside recess, she automatically becomes highly energetic in a similar manner to a sugar rush despite not really experiencing it outside of a book.
  • That's probably the reason she experiences such a rush, because she is experiencing recess outdoors in-person for the first time.

What would happen if the school gets more than one new student at the same time?

• In Gus's debut, it's established that until such time as a new transfer student arrives (presumably well into the current school year, seeing as Gus's predecessor was still seen as the "New Kid" even after three years), he'd have to answer to "New Kid" in all circumstances. What would happen to a family with multiple elementary school-aged children that moved to the area? Would each child have to be called "New Kid" or just one of them?

Why is Hustler Kid opposed to selling counterfeit hall passes when in a previous episode he had no qualms selling fake social security cards?

• Needless to say a fake government ID will get a kid in WAAAAAAAAAAAAY more trouble then a mere fake hall pass would, so it really does not make sense for Hustler Kid to draw the line with Gus there. Would've made a lot more sense if Gus was say selling stolen property from school faculty members.
  • Answered below.

Why didn't they just close the school in Omega Kids?

• In that episode, T.J. and co end up having the school to themselves when every other kid falls sick from eating the cafeteria's tuna fish tacos the previous day. Why even bother to keep the school open for just six students? Wouldn't it have made more sense for the school to close until this little epidemic began to subside?
  • Probably to appease the school board. Food poisoning typically wouldn't last that long, and it would be impossible to determine how long to keep the school closed for, since everyone's recovery would be specific to them. It's different for a snow day, which affects people's ability to get to school. Probably after the first day, when they saw the gang were available, they opted to just keep it open for the rest to return eventually.

• Both Mikey and Randall have deeper voices as Kindergartners than they do as 4th Graders in older episodes. Obviously, it's because Recess: All Grown Down was made at the end of the series, after the voice actors' voices changed, but that still makes one wonder why they didn't have someone else fill in the role.
• If Gus looks cool without his glasses, why doesn't he get contacts instead? He'd be able to see and people would like him.
  • Most parents don't allow their children to wear contacts until they're around fourteen or fifteen.
• If everyone got sick from eating the tacos in "The Omega Kids" why didn't they just cancel school?
  • They would probably have to wait until the end of the day to see if any children who didn't get sick showed up. The gang showed up so school was back on.
  • Miss Grotke does kind of call things off on the first day, letting the kids just play in class. Then she has them catch up on schoolwork the other days.
• In some episodes the Ashley's are shown to be in Miss Grotke's class("Gus Fortune") while in other episodes they are in another class("The Great Can Drive").
  • Maybe they just are in that class for one subject. It happens sometimes in school.
  • Maybe the fourth grade is particularly big this year and they split the year into two, with Miss Furley's class as the other one. Then at whatever point, the Ashleys were switched to Miss Grotke's class.
• In "Hustler's Apprentice" Hustler Kid does not want Gus to sell counterfeit passes because they might get a kid in trouble, which would make sense, but in "First Name Ashley" Hustler Kid had no problem selling kids fake I.D.s and Social Security Cards, which could just as easily get kids in trouble, if anything fake I.D.s would get a kid in FAR more serious trouble then a fake hall pass, so when you remember that, Hustler Kid unintentionally comes off as a hypocrite.
  • Probably because the fake Ashley ID cards are obviously a joke. If the teacher catches a child with that, they're not going to bust them for fraud - they'll laugh it off as an innocent joke, especially if they find that every other kid is carrying one. It's possible he didn't mind doing it just for the sake of saving Spinelli from the Ashleys, or the cards didn't resemble real IDs and were just child friendly versions.
  • It's most likely that , all those "fake" IDs are indeed fake , as for "gag prop" grade fake.....the kind you can pick up at local halloween prop store , or as for today , cosplay shop.(Which no adult will take it seriously.) While the counterfeit passes are indeed against school policy , and will indeed get kids into troubles.
• The Christmas Episode takes place after "The Voice," complete with references and a flashback. Yet Mikey's singing performance in "The Voice" is at the Spring Fling assembly. A typical school semester runs from September to June – Christmas obviously never comes after spring. So if the whole series takes place while the main cast is in fourth grade, how can Mikey have sung at the Spring Fling before singing at the Christmas pageant?
  • For that matter, within "The Voice," the school is celebrating "van Buren's Birthday" at the beginning and the Spring Fling is two weeks later. But how does that make sense? Martin van Buren was born on December 5.

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