"The Boober is back!"
Boober, after failing at being look-out for Gobo while he fetches his postcard, visits the Trash Heap with Red for advice on how to be a more confident Fraggle. The Trash Heap tells Boober that he can draw conviction from his hat. Declaring he's a new Fraggle, Boober insults the Blustering Bellowpane Monster, who blows his hat off. (Unseen by Boober, it lands on a Doozer named Flex.) In despair, Boober mopes. His friends call a meeting, but everyone gets hungry and goes to lunch. Mokey makes a new hat out of leaves and twigs to replace Boober's old one. It doesn't help.Desperate, Boober goes to the Gorgs' garden to seek the advice of the Trash Heap. Seeing Junior on the way, Boober hides. Flex, with the hat still on top of him, appears, followed by Gobo, who had seen the hat moving. Boober warns Gobo of Junior, distracting him when he tries to thump them. After they run back home, Gobo gives Boober's hat back and reminds him of how brave he was without it.
This episode contains examples of:
- Assurance Backfire: Mokey's attempt to console Boober after he fails at being look-out for Gobo doesn't exactly make him feel better.Red: What's wrong with him?
Boober: I'm a worthless coward, that's what's wrong!
Mokey: Ohhh, Boober! Now, Boober, it takes a very brave Fraggle to admit he's a worthless coward.
Gobo: That's right.
Mokey: Right.
Wembley: Yeah.
Boober: What? - Bizarrchitecture: Soon after Boober's hat lands on Flex, one of the other Doozers is looking at two sets of towers and noticing that one set is crooked.
- Can't See a Damn Thing: Flex has this problem after Boober's hat lands on top of him. He stays this way until reaching the Gorgs' garden, when Gobo takes the hat.
- Characterization Marches On: Mokey makes music by banging Doozers on their heads with Doc's stave shaver. Two episodes later, she becomes a Soapbox Sadie who campaigns for Doozer rights.
- Delicious Distraction: Everyone forgets about looking for Boober's hat on getting hungry.
- Denied Food as Punishment: Doc, missing his stave shaver when it falls off the table, tells Sprocket to find it or he'll get no Mongrel Munchies for a week.
- The Drag-Along: Boober's not happy about having to be Gobo's look-out.
- Dramatic Irony: The audience knows where Boober's hat is, but the Fraggles don't.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The Doozers in this episode are depicted mostly as mindless drones who serve only to build and don't seem to have individual personalities, all talking in unison, and one of them has a hat fall on him, completely covering him, and doesn't try to get it off. Comparisons to the Borg are apt. Later episodes would feature Doozer characters with their own personalities, such as Cotterpin and the Architect.
- Easy Come, Easy Go: A humorous example. Uncle Matt, while taking a moment to rest in a café, is given a coin by a sympathetic passerby. He's so overcome with the "wax-shiny" treasure that he shows it to the man behind the counter, who takes his treasure but gives him another (a donut). Matt then shows this new treasure to a dog, who takes it and runs off.Uncle Matt: If there's one thing I've learned in this bizarre world, it's that treasures come and treasures go.
- Everything Is an Instrument: After Gobo takes Doc's stave shaver, Mokey uses it to play an instrumental version of "Lost and Found" on the Doozers' helmets—while the Doozers are wearing them.Gobo: Not bad. I knew these Doozers were good for something.
- Face Your Fears: After losing his hat, Boober becomes desperate enough to brave the Gorgs' garden alone so he can visit the Trash Heap again.
- Failed a Spot Check:
- On the way back from the Trash Heap, Red and Boober are singing "Without a Hat" while passing Junior. He doesn't notice them, though, until Boober yells at him, "And don't say I didn't warn you!"
- The other Doozers, looking for Flex, don't notice him marching by, even when he's calling for help from underneath Boober's hat.Flex: Hello? Yoo-hoo? Uh, this is Flex! Can anyone hear me? Uh, where is everyone? I was marching along, and suddenly all light vanished. Then I entered a thick cloud of... uh... [sniffs] ...hair tonic. Oh, help! Yoo-hoo? Where is everybody? Yoo-hoo...?
- Fearless Fool: After seeing the Trash Heap, Boober becomes one, insulting the Blustering Bellowpane Monster, to everyone's horror.Boober: Hey, you!
Blustering Bellowpane Monster: Huh?
Gobo: Oh, no!
Red: Oh, no!
[Boober walks straight up to the Blustering Bellowpane Monster.]
Boober: Ha! Is that your nose, or did you swallow a trumpet?
[A blast of steam shoots out of the Blustering Bellowpane Monster's trumpet-shaped nose, blowing Boober's hat onto Flex.] - Food Songs Are Funny: "Pantry Chant." The lyrics get increasingly silly as the Fraggles continue to rhyme, until the song is more about the food that can be found in the pantry, rather than about looking for Boober's hat.
- Give Me a Sign: Flex says this from under Boober's hat.Flex: Oh, I'm getting nowhere. Oh, please, won't someone give me a sign?
[A Beat.]
Oh, wait, I see writing. Yes! It's faint, but it says... "6 and 3/8."
[Another beat.]
"6 and 3/8"? That's a sign? - Gone Horribly Right: The Trash Heap tells Boober he'll be brave if he always wears his hat. Boober takes this advice to heart and becomes a Fearless Fool who insults the Blustering Bellowpane Monster.
- Look Behind You: Boober says this to Junior to distract him from trying to thump Gobo.
- Mellow Fellow: Gobo advises Boober to be more like this.
- Missed Him by That Much:
- Seconds after the Fraggles go off to find Boober's hat, Flex walks by with it covering him.
- The other Doozers, looking for Flex, all just so happen to be looking the other way when he passes by. In fairness, a Fraggle-sized hat was covering him and was muffling his speech.
- Averted with Gobo, who, after reading his postcard from Uncle Matt to Boober, sees the hat moving by and follows it.
- Mondegreen Gag: This happens when one of the older Fraggles is presiding over a meeting that Gobo has called about Boober's hat.Old Fraggle: I call this meeting to order. We are gathered here today to talk about finding young Boober's cat.
Boober: It's not "cat"! It's "hat"! Young Boober's hat!
Old Fraggle: Whatever. - Mundane Made Awesome: The Trash Heap tells Boober that so long as he wears his hat, he won't be afraid of anything ever again.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Gobo tells Boober to whistle if Sprocket sees him. When this happens and Boober tries to whistle but is too scared to make a sound, Gobo tells him he almost didn't get back from Outer Space alive.Boober: Wait a minute! Do you mean that, because of me, you almost got c-c-c...
Gobo: ...clobbered by that beast! You bet! - Nasal Weapon: The Blustering Bellowpane Monster uses his trumpet-shaped nose to blow Boober's hat off.
- Oh, Crap!: Boober, when he realizes his hat is gone.
- Opinion Flip Flop: Wembley does this when Red advises to Boober to visit the Trash Heap.Red: Listen, you ought to go see the Trash Heap.
Wembley: Sure!
Red: She'll make you brave!
Wembley: Brave!
Red: She'll make you bold!
Wembley: Bold!
Red: You'll never be scared!
Boober: But I'm scared of the Trash Heap!
Wembley: Me, too! - Out-of-Character Moment: For Mokey, who is seen banging Doozers on the head with a stick to make music. (Ouch!) And later, in the same season, she acts as a Soapbox Sadie campaigning for Doozer rights!
- Silly Song: "Inny Minny Cow Cow," a nonsense chant performed by Gobo and some random Fraggles.
- Skewed Priorities: Gobo calls a meeting about finding Boober's hat, but when someone suggests looking in the pantry, most of the Fraggles run off to get lunch.Boober: But I'm telling you, my hat is not in the pantry!
Red: But lunch is. I'm starving! - Title Drop: Boober, Red, Philo, Gunge, and the Trash Heap do this in the song "Without a Hat."
- Verbal Backspace: The Trash Heap does this when Boober asks her how to brave.Boober: Well, please, ma'am... uh... well... can you make me brave and daring and bold?
The Trash Heap: Hmm, brave, daring, and bold. That's easy.
Philo and Gunge: [in unison] Easy?
Philo: You gotta be nuts!
The Trash Heap: Oh. Yes. You're right. Now, that's a tough one.
