The Jimmy Jab Games is the third episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's second season.
The precinct is stuck waiting around for motorcade duty while the Serbian president is delayed in Washington DC. To amuse themselves, while the senior officers are away, the detectives launch the seventh Jimmy Jab Games: a series of petty contests to see who gets to use the best chair in the precinct.
Meanwhile, Terry and Holt go to One Police Plaza to request funding and equipment from Deputy Chief Wuntch to combat a new form of Ecstasy, called Giggle Pig, that is becoming popular in the Nine Nine.
Tropes present in this episode:
- As You Know: Jake begins the Jimmy Jab Games by recapping how it started to a room full of people who obviously already knew. Parodied when Rosa has to keep correcting his story.
- Blatant Lies: Jake insists that he has no feelings for Amy. Charles seems to buy it while Rosa knows that is not true.
- The Chessmaster: Holt and Wuntch try to politically out maneuver each other. Holt intentionally inserts grammatical mistakes into a funding request knowing that Wuntch would use them as an excuse to reject the request, thus giving Holt an excuse to look good in front of her superior. Wuntch is fully aware of what Holt is trying to do and goads him into asking for an expensive task force at a time when the NYPD is going through budget cuts.Wuntch: I'm surprised you didn't see what was going on in there! I got you all riled up, you oversold Giggle Pig, and now you're running an expensive task force at a time of budget cuts! You better make some big arrests and real quick or you'll be the poster boy for departmental waste.
- Evil Is Petty: Invoked and exploited. Wuntch is willing to throw out the Giggle Pig task force proposal because of a minor punctuation error. Holt was expecting this, knowing Wuntch would reject any proposal coming from him on general principal, and points out that her rejecting it over something so small gives him justification to go over her head.
- How's Your British Accent?: Stephanie Beatriz uses her real voice when Rosa is undercover as a blonde ingenue.
- Inherently Funny Words: Giggle Pig.
- Loophole Abuse: How Boyle complies to Hitchcock's second demand — get him into a conversation in which Jake uses his name, and no one insults him. The "conversation" goes as follows:Boyle: Hey, Jake. (points to Hitchcock) Who's this with me?
Jake: ...Hitchcock?
(Insanely awkward pause.)
Boyle: Well, we should go now.
(They do so.) - Moving the Goalposts: Hitchcock takes part in this when Boyle wants a tape from him. First he wants Boyle to make him look cool, which of course fails. Then he wants to take part in a conversation with Jake without anyone insulting him, which Boyle successfully accomplishes but then he wants Boyle to call him handsome in public. Again Boyle accomplishes this, but Hitchcock's not done. Eventually Boyle just gets fed up and fights Hitchcock for it after Hitchcock reveals it's on him.
- Running Gag: Gina's countdowns, using actors named Mark. (At least for the first three times.)On your Mark... Get set... Wahlberg!On your Mark... Get set... Ruffalo!On your Mark... Get Seth... Rogen!
- Serious Business: The Jimmy Jab Games, which have evolved from a bored Peralta throwing bits of bagel into Scully's open mouth while he's sleeping to a complex tournament with multiple rounds, a scoring and elimination system, and an opening ceremony.
- Ship Tease: Despite the former being in a relationship and the latter trying to get the number of someone else and claiming to be completely over the former, a lot of the playful banter between Santiago and Peralta takes on a very flirtatious edge. Peralta later realizes this and acknowledges he's not as over Santiago as he thought.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The petty feud between Holt and Wuntch continues, with Wuntch refusing a funding request because Holt used a semicolon where a full colon was needed. They later insult each other using historical geopolitical references about the buildup to World War II.Holt: You're like the League of Nations in '36: just hoping that the Abyssinian Crisis resolves itself.
Wuntch: That's the lesson you draw from the fall of Addis Ababa? Raymond! You sound so naïve!
Holt: And you sound just like Victor Emmanuel III.
Terry: I have no idea who's winning.
Holt: I am! - Unfazed Everyman: Hank, the uniformed officer who is not fooled by Rosa's blonde ingénue disguise, has apparently grown accustomed to the detectives' shenanigans.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Terry delivers one to Holt because the captain is so consumed with his rivalry against Wuntch that he is neglecting to think about how he could be helping the community.Terry: You think she's consumed with pettiness? You're no better!
