Nicked by a Name
Brain starts to give nicknames to all his friends but soon grows frustrated with doing so.
Tropes:
- Continuity Nod:
- In Brain's dream there are ads for Woogles (“Arthur Rides the Bandwagon”), the Grain Reaper (“Ungifted”), and Might-A-Max energy drinks (“The Secret Origin of Supernova”) hanging on the wall.
- When Brain turns into a brain, he looks like his brain did in “It’s a No-Brainer”.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Brain gives Arthur the nickname, “Average Arthur.” Soon that’s what he’s being called by everyone in the class, even his best friend.
- Forced Creativity: With everyone asking him to give them a nickname, Brain starts to feel burnt out. He ends up not being able to think of a creative one for Arthur and ends up giving him one that’s rather hurtful instead.
- Furry Reminder: Arthur and Buster are referred to as an aardvark and a rabbit in this episode.
- Happy Dance: Ever the gracious winner, Francine does one after scoring a winning goal - and in a practice game no less.
- Jerkass Ball: Brain gives Arthur a mean nickname after being asked several times instead of just telling him that he can’t think of a good one for him and soon, he’s got all the other kids turning on each other and giving out insulting nicknames.
- Malicious Misnaming: Brain calls Binky "Stinky Binky" in order to stop him from making fun of Arthur's nickname "Average Arthur". Soon, this gets all the other kids to give each other mean nicknames, like "Antenna Ears" for Buster and "Bossy Boots" for Francine.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Said almost word for word by Brain when he inadvertently gets everyone to start giving each other insulting nicknames.
- The Nicknamer: Brain earns a reputation as this after giving Francine a nickname during a soccer game.
- Nightmare Sequence: Brain has one in which all his friends turn into literal versions of their mean nicknames. He himself then turns into an actual brain.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Brain was just giving his friend a casual, fun nickname on a whim and soon, every kid in the class wanted him to give them one.
- Shout-Out: Tom Tapir in Brain’s Imagine Spot is a reference to Don Draper from Mad Men.
- Visual Pun: There are a few of these in the episode’s Cold Open, including Arthur tripping over the word “clumsy” while saying words can hurt and the word “annoying” slithering out of his shirt like a bug when he says that mean words can get under your skin.
The Play's the Thing
The kids abandon the playground in favor of Muffy's new smartphone, leaving the Tough Customers with no one to pick on.
Tropes:
- Comically Small Bribe: Binky tries to bribe Muffy with a paper bag filled with a dollar, a couple coins, and an apple with a bite taken out of it.Muffy: Crosswires can’t be bribed…at least not for that little.
- Exploding Calendar: This method is used to show how long it takes Muffy to build her new amusement park playground.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Poor Rattles. He tries to make t-shirts for the Tough Customers, but he ends up spelling “customers” as “costumers.”
- He tries again later with a new shirt in which the word “right” in “The customers always right” is spelled like “rigt.”
- New Technology Is Evil: This episode very much reads as a lesson about access to technology at a young age and how cell phones are keeping kids from playing outside like they used to.
- Phoneaholic Teenager: Grade school students but still, all of the kids end up like this when Muffy gets a smartphone.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode’s title references the line in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “the play’s the thing.”
- Shout-Out: Buster aging the Frosted Cakey Cake and it staying the same is a reference to the myth that Twinkies last forever.
- Smell Phone: Muffy’s cell phone is so advanced that it can apparently detect and identify smells.
- Young Entrepreneur: When Binky mentions the school playground could be thought of as an amusement park, Muffy immediately sees an opportunity for a business venture and ropes Binky into helping her with it.Muffy: We’ll call it Muffy Crosswire Land, or maybe Muffy Crosswire World. No! Muffy Crosswire Universe!
