"Jeepers. Sitting in that dunk tank sure made me hungry."
A Plot: Fitzy cancels the annual "Dog River Days" due to lack of interest. Lacey, Davis, and Hank work together to save it, deciding to set up a dunk tank to raise funds. Davis is disappointed that people are far less willing to dunk him than they are with Hank.
B Plot: Wanda is tired of cleaning up Corner Gas, so Brent fakes an injury caused by slipping on unstacked cans. In his attempts to convince Wanda it's real pain, Brent actually sprains his ankle, and is disappointed that he can't join the activities Lacey's set up.
C Plot: A stray cat has made a mess of Emma's garden, and Oscar's tasked with catching it. However, when the cat's in his hands, Oscar instantly befriends it. He convinces Karen to adopt it, but she must then deal with a rumor that she's becoming a crazy cat lady.
Tropes Referenced:
- Adult Child: Wanda becomes ecstatic when she learns that Lacey's also set up a bouncy castle near the dunk tank.
- Book Ends: The episode begins and ends with extended riffs on Archie comics.
- Brick Joke:
- The episode begins with Hank comparing the people in his life to characters from Archie Comics. The end of the episode is an Imagine Spot of Brent as Archie and several other Corner Gas characters as different personas.
- When Hank's in the dunk tank, Wanda comes by and pays for a bucket of balls to dunk him. Later, when Wanda's in the dunk tank to make up for breaking the bouncy castle, Brent pays for a bucket of balls to dunk her.
- The Cameo: Craig Northey and his band the Odds guest star as themselves in Brent’s Archie-themed dream, playing a bubblegum pop version of the show’s ending theme “My Happy Place” (which Northey wrote and performed).
- Commonality Connection: Oscar's original intent is to kill the cat, but when he captures it he realizes it's a cranky old tomcat that reminds him of himself.
- Control Freak: Lacey frets when Hank and Davis take over the "Save Dog River Days" committee and out-vote her.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Karen ends up looking like one when she takes Mittens the cat into her house. Mittens gets out and Karen has to chase her, wearing a robe and with tinfoil in her hair (which she was using to change her hair style).
- Creative Closing Credits: The above-mentioned Imagine Spot in the Brick Joke includes a version of the Corner Gas ending theme re-arranged to sound like “Sugar, Sugar” by The Archies, which continues playing in the credits.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Craig Northey and the Odds appear as themselves in Brent’s dream, possibly indicating that in-universe Brent is an Odds fan and the show’s end theme “My Happy Place” is just a song of theirs he likes.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Oscar and Karen sneaking around protecting the cat is treated like Oscar hiding an affair from Emma.
- Face Plant: Lacey attempts to go after Wanda inside the bouncy castle, but she can't keep her balance and flops around everywhere. Eventually she just falls out completely, landing on her face.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Hank uses this to his advantage, arguing that he belongs in the dunk tank because everyone wants to dunk him. Davis then deliberately makes himself one by being a more hard-ass cop than usual, so the townspeople will want to dunk him instead.Hank: You gotta understand, I've built up too much ill will in this town. I was born to annoy.
- Fundraiser Carnival: The dunk tank becomes a full-blown carnival, being used to generate funds for Dog River Days, which is essentially a carnival itself. This get a nice Lampshade Hanging in Brent's Imagine Spot.Brent as "Brenchie": But Bettonica, we just had Dog River Days.
Lacey as "Bettonica": Oh, Brenchie. That wasn't Dog River Days. That was just a parking lot fair. - Geeky Turn-On: Hank seems to think combining Betty and Veronica into "Bettonica" would be hot.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X":Emma: Look at what those stray cats do! They run around in the dirt and poop everywhere!
Oscar: Heh heh heh.
Emma: Why are you laughing?
Oscar: You said "poop." - Mama's Boy: After Brent hurts his leg for real, Emma starts doting on him, including mashing his pain pills in with his food.
- No Longer with Us: The woman at the animal shelter says that cats who stay there too long without getting adopted go to "a better place". Naturally, she's referring to A Better Place Cat Farm.
- Onion Tears: Oscar starts tearing up when they bring the stray cat he's been caring for to a cat farm. After a moment, he says "Is there an onion farm around here?" and stomps off.
- Pun-Based Title: Two times over!
- Seamless Spontaneous Lie: Oscar doesn't want Emma to know he's taken a liking to the cat, so when she asks him where he's going and why he has a scratch on his neck, he comes up with a surprisingly coherent lie about a shower.Oscar: That makes sense, right?
- Shout-Out:
- To Archie Comics, as mentioned above.
- And when talking about Archie, Davis mentions Potsie, and is immediately corrected that Potsie is from Happy Days.Hank: Yeah, that's a completely different comic book.
Lacey: Oh, Jughead.
- Take That!: In a Leaning on the Fourth Wall moment after Brent Leroy
(played by Brent Butt) fakes an injury:Wanda: Nice try, Brent, but you're not much of an actor. I mean, sure, you're an entertaining personality with a certain likability, but not an actor. - Waxing Lyrical: An exchange of dialogue between Oscar, Emma and Karen quotes the chorus of the 1893 song “The Cat Came Back” (best known in Canada for its 1988 adaptation into a cartoon short produced by the National Film Board of Canada.)Karen: The cat came back.
Emma: I thought he was a goner.
Oscar: No, the cat came back!
Karen: Eh, he just couldn’t stay away. - Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Brent feigns an injury to guilt Wanda into cleaning up the knocked over cans. She doesn't buy it, and later when he actually injures himself she assumes he's Crying Wolf.
