"Farfegtubing!"
Now loading recap for Operation C.A.K.E.D.F.O.U.R.:
- Children's
Annual
Kompetition
Exposes
Devilishly
Fiendish
Operation
Up
River
The race is on when the Delightful Children From Down The Lane offer their birthday cake as the prize for Tube-A-Thon, the annual summer river-tubing race. Numbuh 2 hopes that this will be the year he wins in his father's tube, Ol' Betsy, but Father has his own plans cooking...
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- Badass Adorable: The sweet little girl whose inner tube turns out to have built-in rotating blades.
- Batman Gambit: Numbuh 1 destroys the Delightful Children's battleship, which takes them out of the competition. Turns out, this was all part of Father's plan, to have all of the other contestants fall into his trap.
- Big Dam Plot: Father destroys a dam to divert the water and washes all the competitors into the skatepark, which acts as a giant bowl to catch everybody.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Numbuh 2 when Father mocks all his father's Farfigtoobin talk.
- Bittersweet Ending:
- The DCFDTL's birthday cake is eaten by the town's children and Father's plans have been thwarted. But Numbuh 2 lost the water tubing race again. However, he learns from his mom that while his dad did fib about the water tube ever winning a race, it was actually a KND device his father built for "saving the town's children". And Hoagie holds his head high, having a new appreciation for his father's "ordinary" water tube.
- And in the post-credits scene, when Numbuh 3 admits that she feels bad for Numbuh 2 (knowing how much he wanted to win the race), Numbuh 5 assures her that Numbuh 2 will be fine, pointing out that while he may not have gotten 1st-place, he at least didn't place dead last as Numbuh 4 did (the scene then cuts to Numbuh 4, showing that he's still stuck on the island).
- Continuity Nod: Numbuh 4 has learned to swim from the previous episode, "P.O.O.L", but he still doesn't like to, instead leaving himself stranded on a tiny island in the middle of the river rather than being forced to swim to the bank.
- A Day in the Limelight: In a sense - this is the series' only full half-hour episode to be centered on Numbuh 2, not to mention the only one where he gets to fight Father (who's otherwise pretty solidified as Numbuh 1's archenemy) directly. The writers even imply a bit of personal history between Father and Numbuh 2's own Disappeared Dad.
- Evil, Inc.: Father's company is literally called Evil Adult Industries, Inc., and he went to the trouble of funding a skatepark for the purpose of baking children alive in a giant cake. The company's sign for the skatepark even has "HA! HA! HA!" written on the bottom of it.
- Evil Laugh: Numbuh 4 laughs maniacally as he mows everybody else down in his gigantic inner tube. Father also laughs after he blasts Numbuh 2 with a fireball, only to stop pretty quickly when it ricochets right back at him.
- Fair-Weather Friend: Nick, the reporter, seems to go out of his way to annoy people, especially Numbuh 2 who he calls "the Lord of the Losers." When it looks like Numbuh 2 is going to win the race, he changes his tune pretty quickly. When Numbuh 2 goes back to save the other children, he goes straight back to his prior attitude.
- "Far Side" Island: The island Numbuh 4 ends up trapped on after another racer destroys his innertube.
- Good Old Ways: What Farfegtubing comes down to, for the ordinarily tech-obsessed Numbuh 2.
- Heroic Second Wind: Hoagie's water tube goes from being 'mortally' deflated to re-inflating into a super-protective shield just to save Numbuh 2 and the town's children.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In trying to roast both Hoagie and Ol' Betsy, Father gets hit with a ricochet of his own blast. Worse, he gets slammed into his makeshift bowl, which causes it to crack open and free the captured children.
- Honor Before Reason: The primary reason, along with a smattering of Good Old Ways, why Numbuh 2 insists on using his dad's old tube every year instead of building his own high-tech version.
- Innocently Insensitive: Numbuh 2's mother excitedly tells him that finally a Gilligan has won the inner tube race. She's referring to Tommy, not Hoagie, who comes second-to-last and comes in at sixth-hundredth-and-thirty-fifth place.
- Insistent Terminology: "It's called Farfigtoobin."
- Kent Brockman News: Nick, the pre-teen reporter, is the one to tell us all about Numbuh 2's losing streak and the outcome of the race, all in a judgemental monotone.
- Kick the Dog: Father has no qualms about telling Hoagie that every year, the latter's dad lost on his plain old water tube, not to mention calling Hoagie's dad a liar.
- Learned from the News: Numbuh 2 finds out about Father's plan from Nick the news reporter.
- Pun: As the kids get swept into the skatepark containing the cake ingredients, Father shouts, "Batter up, kids."
- On that note: wonder where the hell "Farfegtubing" (this very page can't even decide how to spell it!) came from? The series Wiki theorizes it's supposed to be a reference to Fahrvergnügen ("driving pleasure"), Volkswagen's sales slogan during The '90s.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Father openly mocks Hoagie for looking up to a perennial loser.Father: There is no such thing as Farfigtoobin! Your father lied to you! Your father was a loser! Just like you! Just like that lousy innertube!
- Rebuilt Pedestal: In record time, too. At the very end, Numbuh 2 is disappointed to learn from his mother that his father did lie about winning the race every year. Her mentioning the old man kept insisting that Ol' Betsy would someday save the town's children, though, lifts Hoagie's spirits in a big way and restores his belief that his father was a winner, after all.
- Ship Tease: Numbuh 4 gets jealous when The Kid flirts with Numbuh 3.
- Spell My Name with a "The": It's The Tommy, as Tommy has to correct everyone. Also, the unnamed boy who appeared in "Operation D.O.G.F.I.G.H.T." is only ever called The Kid.
- Suddenly Shouting: Numbuh 3 starts to give a speech on the importance of sportsmanship and the spirit of racing only to scream that the true meaning of Tube-A-Thon is for her to leave the rest of the losers in the dust.
- The Big Race: One involving inner tubes.
- The Tag: Sector V enjoys eating the cake batter from the Delightful Children's cake while Numbuh 3 laments Numbuh 2 not winning. Numbuh 5 assures her he'll be fine, as he at least didn't come in last. Numbuh 4 is then shown still trapped on the small island begging for rescue.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Father when he sees the cake bowl he disguised as a skate park and filled with all the kids he's standing in front of is about to crack open.Father: Well, that can't be good.
- Time-Passage Beard: Despite being stranded for only a few minutes, Numbuh 4 sports one of these by the time Numbuh 3 passes the island, which causes her not to recognize him when he calls for her to save him.Numbuh 3: I can't shave you right now, Mister Old Man! I'm racing!
- Tranquil Fury: Numbuh 2 in response to Father insulting his old man.
- Wacky Racing: Inner tube racing is a little strange, no?
- Wham Shot: Ol' Betsy suddenly re-inflating and shielding Hoagie from Father's blast.
- What You Are in the Dark: Numbuh 2 could've gone ahead and won the water-tubing race for once this year. ...But that would've meant condemning the town children to be baked alive in the giant cake Father was going to cook them in. Knowing this, he turns around to save the day, and with no hesitation whatsoever!
