Recap / Corner Gas S1 E11: Hook, Line and Sinker

"You call that pithy?"

A Plot: Brent and Lacey have the bright idea to put a changeable sign by the road to advertise Corner Gas and The Ruby. However, they get into an all-out battle over the sign messages, which each subsequent message getting more and more disparaging toward each other.

B Plot: Davis tricks Karen into going on a fishing trip with Hank, but she is surprised and aroused by Hank's "sexy fish talk". After returning, she spends her time trying to convince people that she didn't sleep with Hank.

C Plot: Brent, Emma, and eventually the whole town are in on a ploy to get Oscar to think he's losing his memory in his old age. Eventually Emma feels they've gone too far and puts a stop to it.

Tropes Referenced:

• Awesome, but Impractical: Wanda's ability to instantly re-arrange the letters in a sentence to form a new sentence, which Brent comments on:
  Brent: You know, I don't even know why you work here. With your ability to instantly rearrange letters, you could... Beat ...oh, yeah, there is no practical application for that knowledge.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Davis avoids going fishing with Hank because Hank's fish talk gives him "tingly feelings".
• Gag Echo: Early on, Wanda demonstrates her letter re-arranging ability by quickly throwing out "My thighs are hot for goat felons" as an anagram for Brent's current slogan. Later, when Brent and Lacey are working together to create wacky slogans, Brent suggests "My thighs are hot for goat felons". Lacey is flabbergasted.
• Hypocritical Humor: This quote:
  Brent: I pride my self on my speedy service.
  [car at the gas pumps honks horn]
  Brent: [angrily] Hold on!
• I Resemble That Remark!: As Brent tries to come up with a new insulting slogan for the sign, Lacey tells him they should stop this childish fight. Brent replies, "It's not childish. Hey, is 'poopface' hyphenated?"
• Instant Turn-Off: Hank starts off having a similar reaction to Karen as she has had to him when she starts talking about her gun, but then she starts stammering and using Buffy Speak and Hank switches to this trope.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: invokedBrent and Lacey find out that their increasingly childish jabs at each other on the sign are actually drumming up business. This backfires when they start doing it intentionally and try too hard.
• Purple Prose: How Hank talks when he's fishing
• Safety in Indifference: Hank and Karen mutually decide to forget their fishing trip, as it could ruin a "perfectly good non-friendship" that was "not special at all".
• Scatterbrained Senior: Everyone attempts to convince Oscar that he is one. When Brent comes clean about the prank, Oscar has forgotten the whole thing.
• Shout-Out:
  • Brent has an Imagine Spot of being on Canadian Idol.
    Brent: [singing] It would never rain in Dog River... if I could squeegee... the skyyyy...
  • Karen calls Hank the fish whisperer.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Karen's constant insistence that she "didn't sleep with Hank".
• Who's Watching the Store?: While Brent is at The Ruby working on slogans with Lacey, Wanda goes downtown to talk to Karen, leaving the gas station unattended. She assumes that any customers who come in will just leave money on the counter.