Babysitter Blues / Valhallen's Room / Dream Machine
Production code:
111Air date
- November 27, 1996 (USA/Canada)
Babysitter Blues Synopsis:
Dexter develops a one-sided crush on his babysitter Lisa.Valhallen's Room Synopsis:
Valhallen loses his magic axe and his powers with it. It's up to Major Glory and Krunk to find the axe in Valhallens's room.Dream Machine Synopsis:
Dexter creates a machine to help him deal with a reoccurring nightmare that Dee Dee is smarter than him.Babysitter Blues contains examples of:
- Call-Back: Dexter's aging machine from "Old Man Dexter" is used again, to make him old enough to date Lisa.
- Evil Laugh: Dexter lets one out as he hatches a plan to separate Lisa and her boyfriend.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Dexter convinces Lisa's boyfriend that she broke up with him because "[she] loves Dexter". At the end of the segment, the boyfriend shows up to beat up Dexter... who aged himself up to a teenager, so he doesn't even have the defense of Wouldn't Hurt a Child.
- Precocious Crush: Dexter has a crush on Lisa, his teenage babysitter.
- Running Gag: Dexter distract Dee Dee by pointing and asking "What is that?". Dee Dee is shown looking for "that" throughout the rest of the episode.
Valhallen's Room contains examples of:
- Bigger on the Inside: Valhallen's room. Krunk even Lampshades how it's bigger than his.Major Glory: That's why he pays extra.
- Extreme Omni-Goat: As it turns out, Valhallen's axe has been eaten by his goat.
- Stereotypical Nerd: Without his guitar, Valhallen gradually transforms into a stereotypical nerd, complete with Nerdy Nasalness, Nerd Glasses, and Geek Physique making him utterly useless in a fight and is in opposition to his typical cool, rock star, ladies man persona.
Dream Machine contains examples of:
- Brick Joke: Elements from Dexter's initial nightmare re-appear in his machine-induced "good dream":
- In his nightmare, Dexter did not know how much 2 + 2 make. In the dream, the last piece of knowledge he learns (pumped in his head by a supercomputer, no less) is "2 + 2 = 4".
- On a more serious note, Dee Dee easily answered "What is the purpose of meaning?" in the original nightmare. Dexter realizing he doesn't know the answer to that is where his good dream turns into another nightmare.
- Deranged Animation: Some of the imagery in what Dexter considers his good dream, such as him drinking Einstein's brain with a straw, or his head turning into a mouth that eats equations.
- Eat Brain for Memories: Implied in a blink-and-you-will-miss-it scene in Dexter's dream where he drinks Einstein's brain.
- The Meaning of Life: Spoofed. The tough question that Dee Dee easily answers in Dexter's nightmare is "What is the purpose of meaning?"
- My Brain Is Big: In Dexter's "good dream", he gets this as his intelligence is enhanced.
- Nightmare Sequence: The episode begins with Dexter's recurring nightmare that Dee Dee's smarter than him, and ends with a very disturbing sequence when his Dream Machine malfunctions.
- "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: When Dexter's "good dream" turns into another nightmare, not only does he lose his enlarged-with-knowledge brain, but his clothes fly off, leaving him naked in front of a laughing crowd.
- Omniglot: Among other things, Dexter understands "the root of all languages" in his dream.
- The Omniscient: Dexter's dream culminates with him absorbing all knowledge except for the purpose of meaning.
- The mysterious "Grandfather of all Knowledge" is also implied to be this.
- Wham Shot and Wham Line: Dee Dee is the Grandfather of all Knowledge. This reveal is where Dexter realizes he's in another nightmare.
