Recap / Corner Gas S 2 E 15 Rock On

"It is so totally awesome to play again. Totally awesome!"

A Plot: Brent, Hank and Wanda decide to bring back their old rock band Thunderface. They decide that they should probably have a drummer and set out looking for one, finally going with surprisingly-good Karen.

B Plot: Oscar believes that a country singer stole the idea for a song from him a long time ago, and he tries to prove it to the cops. When Davis realizes he could use the case for a free concert, he agrees to help.

C Plot: Lacey is chosen to write the blurb for the new town plaque, so she goes on a mission finding out the history behind the name Dog River. She is shut down at every turn by Emma, who ultimately reveals a dark secret about Lacey's family.

Tropes Referenced:

• Always Someone Better: When Davis auditions, he plays decent drums and Brent admits he's the best they've heard. Then Karen jumps on the drums and blows Davis out of the water.
  • One guy auditioning for Thunderface—played by Colin James—is a much better guitar player than Brent, who is obviously extremely jealous and hurriedly pushes the guy out the door, saying that they're just looking for drummers. When the guy mentions he also plays drums, Brent pushes him out even faster.
• Brick Joke:
  • About halfway through the episode, Emma remarks "You don't often hear the words 'fun' and 'library' together." Near the end, the two overly-well-behaved kids from earlier in the episode decide to leave the Thunderface concert and "go somewhere fun like the library!"
  • Wanda mentions that Thunderface blew the principal's eyebrows off back when they were in high school. He later shows up in the episode, and still doesn't have any eyebrows.
• The Cameo:
  • The Tragically Hip cameos as the band of "local kids" Brent is letting practice in his garage.
  • Saskatchewan-born blues star Colin James plays the guitarist who auditions for Thunderface and later steals gas from the gas station.
• Description Cut: When Lacey confronts Emma about ripping pages out of the Dog River history book, Emma tries to blame it on teenagers... rather unsuccessfully.
  Emma: Kids these days are nothing but trouble.
  [A teenage boy and girl approach them]
  Boy: [to Emma] Excuse me, ma'am. Sorry to bother you, but I think this wallet fell out of your coat pocket. [hands her the wallet]
  Girl: If you're missing anything else, we could help you look.
  Emma: [angrily] Go get a job, you punk rockers!
  [The two kids run away]
  Emma: [extremely unconvincingly] They looked high, didn't they?! I think they were high!
• Garage Band: Literally.
• Geeky Turn-On: Hank finds the idea of a female drummer to be pretty hot.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Davis doesn't take it well when Karen is picked as Thunderface's drummer over him, eventually acting upon the first flimsy excuse he can find to shut the band's show down.
  Oscar: Sounds like a muskrat caught in a thresher!
  Davis: Kinda. Really bad drumming, don't you think? The drums? Amateurish.
  Emma: I can't hear you, it's too loud! But at least the drumming's good!
• Hiccup Hijinks: At the beginning of the Cold Open, Lacey punches Brent in the arm, claiming it will help him remember the name of a song that was stuck in his head, then realizes she was mistaken and says it was actually a cure for the hiccups. After Hank shows up at the end of the cold open, he hiccups.
  Brent: [eagerly] Oh, I know a cure for those... [raises his fist as opening credits start]
• Hidden Depths: When Oscar complains about Thunderface, one would assume he is just a typical Grumpy Old Man complaining about loud rock music, but he ends up displaying a surprising amount of musical knowledge (at least for him).
  Davis: Not a fan of rock and roll, eh?
  Oscar: It's just too derivative of the heavy glam rock of the 80s!
  Emma: Totally.
  Oscar: [towards the stage] PLAY SOME BTO OR SOMETHIN'!
• Hopeless Auditionees: Parodied. When Thunderface holds auditions for a drummer, most of the auditionees are actually decent. The problem is that none of them are drummers, since Hank forgot to specify that in the ad.
• Insistent Terminology: Emma points out that the bars she makes aren't Nanaimo bars, because they aren't made in Nanaimo. They are more accurately "Nanaimo-style Saskatchewan bars".
• Left the Background Music On:
  Davis: The first Europeans to settle the area called it Dogza Rivia, after their village in the Old Country, some Northern European language.
  Lacey: Danish?
  Davis: Uh, no thanks. I had breakfast at home.
  Sound of a slide whistle is heard, indicating a groaner of a joke.
  Lacey: Timmy, don't play your slide whistle in here.
  A kid is shown with a slide whistle in his mouth, hanging his head sadly.
• Money Song: "Capital Cash", which also has elements of Rock-Star Song and Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!. Brent Butt wrote the song before Corner Gas when he was in a band named Fast Exit
• Product Placement: For The Tragically Hip’s cameo, the props department had to specifically find an Ayotte drum kit for Johnny Fay to play; he had a sponsorship deal with the company at the time and wasn’t permitted to play a different brand of drums in public.
• Running Gag:
  • Thunderface is repeatedly compared to various small animals caught in various heavy machinery.
  • The name of the band is also consistently confused, with examples like Wonderface, Rumblepuss, etc.
• Sarcasm-Blind: When Paul tells Lacey the original Cree name of Dog River.
  Lacey: [sarcastic] Let me guess, it means "River of the Dog".
  Paul: [happily] Yeah! You speak Cree?
• Scatterbrained Senior: Lacey goes to visit Mr. Baker, a long time Dog River resident, to get info on its history. He starts off by complimenting her hat, despite the fact that she's not wearing one. Then when Lacey asks her question, he remarks that a girl from "the Rudy cafe" had already stopped by to ask the same thing, referring to Lacey's current visit as if it already happened ("That was me. I'm here now."). Although, given the presence of Nanaimo-style Saskatchewan bars in his home, it's possible he's faking it under Emma's orders.
• Silly Love Songs: Brent expresses his distaste for a love song playing on the radio.
  Brent: [turns off radio] Yeesh! You think he said "girl" enough times? "Girl, be my girl. Baby, be my girl. I need you girl. You throw like a girl". Not too sugary.
• So Bad, It's Good: invokedThunderface for Paul.
  Lacey: I thought you said they were good!
  Paul: No, I said I loved them. They're hysterical!
• Strange Minds Think Alike: In the Cold Open, Brent asks Lacey to help him identify a song by poorly making guitar sounds with his mouth. Lacey wonders how anyone could figure it out just from that, but both Wanda and Hank immediately recognize it.
• Town with a Dark Secret: Though a mild one, Emma hides from Lacey that the town name of Dog River comes from the fact that Lacey's great-great-uncle, Eli Burrows, drowned dogs in a river.
• Waxing Lyrical: When Brent gives the boot to the band of "local kids" practicing in his garage, played by The Tragically Hip, the lead singer complains that they were in the middle of working on lyrics. Brent responds "Don't tell me what the poets are doing!", which is a line from The Hip's song "Poets".