Airdate: September 7, 1996
One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock: When Slappy is driven to insanity from too many talk shows, Skippy is forced to send his aunt to a retirement home for cartoon characters.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock contains examples of:
- All There in the Manual: The other residents of the rest home are not referred to by their names, neither when spoken to nor spoken about, but their names are listed in the closing credits; these include Rena Rat (a parody of Minnie Mouse), Quacky Duck (a parody of Donald Duck), Doofy (a parody of Goofy), and Woodpeckerman (a parody of Woody Woodpecker).
- Based on a True Story: Inspired by Tom Ruegger's memories of visiting his aunt at a nursing home.
- Big Damn Hug: Slappy and Skippy hug each other when the two reunite after getting separated.
- Break the Cutie: Poor Skippy's emotional health is really put to the test in this episode. Fortunately, he gets better at the end.
- Children Do the Housework: Reluctant to take his aunt to a rest home, Skippy looks after Slappy at their house for 3 weeks, forced to take care of all the housework by himself. This leaves him exhausted to the point of falling Asleep in Class, which causes his teacher to worry about him.
- Cuckoo Clock Gag: Zig-zagged; while Slappy's titular cuckoo clock is for the most part relevant to the plot of the episode, there are a few gags associated with it, such as it going off the second time to signify that Slappy has lost her marbles from watching too many talk shows and the clock falling on one of the rest home's patients' heads, making the bird pop out of their mouth.
- Darker and Edgier: While there still are a lot of lighthearted gags to be found, this episode is a lot darker than previous episodes due to Slappy's Sanity Slippage and Skippy's emotional health being jeopardized.
- Expy: The nursing home has older versions of classic cartoon characters such as Tom and Jerry, Donald Duck, and Mighty Mouse.
- Groin Attack: When Skippy takes Slappy to the doctor to see what's wrong with her, the doctor tries to test her reflexes. However, Slappy tests them with her own mallet and gives the doctor a swift kick to the crotch.
- Hero Antagonist: Downplayed with the social worker that takes Skippy into foster care. She's just doing her job when saying he needs to be in a proper home with a guardian because a minor can't be living on his own. Heck, Skippy doesn't even try to run away, conceding she has a point; he just wants Slappy well enough to take care of him again.
- Make a Wish: After being taken to a foster home, Skippy wishes upon a star that his life would go back to the way it was before his aunt Slappy went insane. His wish is granted when Slappy, who's back to her usual self, shows up to take him back home.
- Minor Living Alone: Skippy tries a stint of this when he has to commit Slappy after she nearly sets the house on fire. His teacher is worried about him when she sees how exhausted he is and asks for child services to check on him. The social worker is waiting at the house, having already determined that Slappy isn't home, but wants to get Skippy's side of the story. She's apologetic about having to take him into services.
- No Antagonist: There isn't a villain in this episode: just drama born from Slappy losing her mind and Skippy going to pieces. The adults who try to stop Slappy from escaping the retirement home and take Skippy to a foster home are only doing their jobs and aren't at all malicious.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The doctor who examines Slappy when she loses her marbles is based off of George Clooney from ER.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: To One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Tom Ruegger based this episode upon his visits with his aunt at a retirement home, who had Alzheimer's.
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- Skippy's teacher, Ms. Munk; she's rightly worried when Skippy is Asleep in Class and looking like a wreck. After talking to him goes nowhere, she calls child services to check on him.
- The social worker is pretty reasonable. She's already figured out that Slappy is not in the house, but wants to hear Skippy's side of the story and make sure he's not hurt before taking him into foster care. What's more, when Slappy recovers, offscreen the social worker returns custody of Skippy on seeing that the older squirrel is well.
- Sanity Slippage: Slappy goes insane from watching too many trashy daytime talk shows.
- Shout-Out:
- The Cartoon Motion Picture Rest Home includes Captain Ersatz versions of Woody Woodpecker, Mighty Mouse and Michigan J. Frog.
- Freakazoid! appears on the cover of Slappy's TV Guide.
- When Skippy wishes upon a star for Slappy to take him home, Slappy says, "Hey, Pinocchio, I'm no Blue Fairy, but I think your wish has come true."
- Small Role, Big Impact:
- Skippy's teacher, Ms. Munk, only appears in one scene in the first act, but her concern for her student's well-being leads to her calling the CPS worker who checks in on Skippy.
- The CPS worker also only appears in one scene, more specifically at the end of the second act, but her dragging Skippy off to a foster home (leaving him unable to visit his aunt Slappy) plays a big part in the conflict of the rest of the episode.
- Social Services Does Not Exist: Sadly averted when a CPS worker drags Skippy off to a foster home after she finds out he's been living by himself.
- Speaks in Shout-Outs: After her breakdown, Slappy can only say lines from talk shows.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Skippy tries taking care of Slappy and doing all the chores in the house. This leads to him Asleep in Class, where he wakes up in a flurry. To a lesser extent, his teacher notices that a good student is exhausted and stressed while rambling about how things are at home. She calls foster care services to make sure nothing is wrong and that Skippy is safe.
- When a social worker comes, Skippy attempts to lie that Slappy of course is at home, she's just busy after calling for her. (Slappy is in a retirement home/mental hospital.) In a regular cartoon, this would work. But instead, the lady gives him a cynical look as if she's heard this story before from kids trying to protect their guardians, besides which she was there earlier and could clearly see no one was in the house. Then she says she's taking him into foster care, ignoring his protests, because it's dangerous for him to live alone.
- Very Special Episode: Partially a parody, but there are some genuine emotional moments.
- You Remind Me of X: Twice.Slappy: (to the George Clooney-esque doctor, totally out of touch with reality by this point) You remind me of a very young Dr. Pepper. Before the nose job.Slappy: (to an orderly) You remind me of a very young Peter Potamus.
NOTE: This episode is the first full-length Slappy Squirrel cartoon. As a result, the Slappy Squirrel theme song plays instead of the Animaniacs theme song and the end credits play over a shot of her front door instead of the water tower.
Ending Gag: (Slappy comes out of her front door): "It's over. Go away!"
