So a Fraggle and a Doozer walk into a bar...
It's almost time for Cotterpin Doozer to take the helmet and start building constructions—but she doesn't want to. She wants to be a Fraggle and spend her days dancing and playing. Cotterpin runs away to try and learn to be a Fraggle. She meets Red, who agrees to try and help her become a Fraggle. Despite her best efforts, though, Cotterpin realizes she can never be anything but a Doozer. She sadly returns home, where she learns that there have been occasional Doozers who also refused to take the helmet. Cotterpin, who loves drawing, happily takes the position of the Architect's apprentice.This episode contains examples of:
- An Aesop:
- Stay true to yourself, and you may be surprised at how things work out.
- Pay attention to other people's ideas and talents; they may be onto something.
- Against the Grain: Unlike the other Doozers, who think building and construction is the greatest thing ever, Cotterpin hates building; she doesn't even like playing "work crew" with her friends. She much prefers drawing bridges and watching the Fraggles dance and play games, but all of the other Doozers expect her to take the helmet and become a builder, telling her that's what Doozers do and that becoming a builder is the greatest thing there is. Cotterpin reluctantly studies for the ceremony of taking the helmet—but in the middle of the ceremony, she decides she can't go through with it, running away to try and learn to be a Fraggle.
- All Work vs. All Play: The Doozers are all work, and the Fraggles are all play.
- Appeal to Flattery: How Cotterpin gets Red to be friends with her.Cotterpin: [to a half-asleep Red] Uh, hello, Red Fraggle, ma'am. Uh, my name is Cotterpin Doozer, and I simply must talk to you.
Red: [groggily] Doozers don't talk to Fraggles. [Brushes Cotterpin away.]
Cotterpin: [coming back] Uh, if you please, ma'am... uh, I have come to live with Fraggles.
Red: [groggily] Doozers don't live with Fraggles. [Brushes Cotterpin away.]
Cotterpin: [coming back] I think you are the most terrific Fraggle in the whole world!
Red: [bolting awake] Really?
Cotterpin: Really! - The Apprentice: After refusing to join the work force, and after a failed attempt at becoming a Fraggle, Cotterpin eventually finds her place in Doozer society as the Architect's apprentice.
- Ascended Extra: Cotterpin, previously introduced as a baby in "The Great Radish Famine," returns and becomes an important supporting character, beginning with this episode.
- Be Yourself: Deconstructed when all of the other Doozers, including the Architect, tell Cotterpin that being a builder is the best thing in the world and refuse to listen to her ideas that there are finer things. Reconstructed when Cotterpin, refusing to take the helmet—even after a failed attempt to become a Fraggle—finally finds her place in Doozer society doing what she loves: drawing.
- Bittersweet Ending: Cotterpin faces the fact that she'll never be a Fraggle, but rather than take the helmet and become a builder, she becomes the Architect's apprentice and gets to draw as her job.
- Bonding Over Dislikes: What cements Red and Cotterpin's friendship: the fact that they both hate when they have to admit that they're wrong.Red: Listen, let's face facts. You are six inches tall. You really can't be a Fraggle.
Cotterpin: But... but I really, really can't be a Doozer!
Red: Well, why not?
Cotterpin: Because I told 'em I wouldn't put on a helmet and build. I told 'em I was gonna live with the Fraggles.
Red: You did?
Cotterpin: Yeah, and if I go back now... well, I'll have to admit I was wrong.
Red: Ohhh! Oh, you don't want to do that! I hate doing that. Ever.
Cotterpin: Yeah! Me, too.
Red: Well, let's see what we can do for you. - Call-and-Response Song: "Yes, We Can", performed by the Architect and the other Doozers at the ceremony of taking the helmet. The Architect asks questions about what Doozers do and don't do, and the other Doozers answer.
- Can't Use Stairs: Downplayed. Cotterpin can use Doozer-size stairs; it's Fraggle-size ones that give her trouble. When she first meets Red, in Gobo and Wembley's room, she offers to race her to the Whistling Tunnel. Red lifts Cotterpin down from the ledge she's been sitting on but doesn't think to put her at the top of the stairs leading into the room.Red: Okay, ready! Set! Go! Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! [Runs out of the room.]
Cotterpin: [from the bottom of the stairs] Oh, rats! - Commander Contrarian: Cotterpin... and, in his youth, the Architect.
- Continuity Nod: Cotterpin's "I Want" Song, "The Way I've Got to Go," uses the same tune as "Kick a Stone," from the episode "Don't Cry Over Spilt Milk."
- Cool Big Sis: Red takes on this role for Cotterpin.
- Cool Bike: Cotterpin has a motorized three-wheeler, painted with bright colors. It even has a bouquet on the back.
- Cool Old Guy: The Architect, an elderly Doozer who offers Cotterpin an alternative to taking the helmet: taking the drawing board.
- Cultural Rebel: Doozers don't associate with Fraggles, and every Doozer is expected to take the helmet. Cotterpin rebels against both of these norms, running away from Doozer society to try to learn to be a Fraggle.
- Determinator: Double subverted. Cotterpin, refusing to take the helmet, runs away to learn to be a Fraggle. When that doesn't work, she sadly returns home. She is still determined not to be a builder, though, so the Architect invites her to become his apprentice.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Red suggests to Cotterpin that they take a swim. Cotterpin's explaining to Red that Doozers can't swim is what makes Cotterpin realize that, no matter how hard she tries to be a Fraggle, she can never be anything but a Doozer.Red: But swimming is the best thing there is in the world!
Cotterpin: No! No, it isn't! To a Doozer, it's the awfullest, terriblest, most disgusting thing in the whole world! A Doozer'd rather die...!
[Her voice trails off as she realizes what she's saying.]
Cotterpin: Red... I'm really a Doozer.
[Red sadly nods.]
Cotterpin: I'll never be a Fraggle, will I?
[Red sadly shakes her head.] - Food Pills: The Doozers' diet. Cotterpin, while begging Red to let her stay, adds that she doesn't eat much, "only a few food pellets now and again."
- Foreshadowing: Early on, Cotterpin is drawing bridges instead of studying for the ceremony of taking the helmet. At the end of the episode, she gets to be the Architect's apprentice.
- Growing Up Sucks: Taking the helmet is a rite of passage in Doozer culture. Cotterpin thinks it's a pain.
- High-Tech Hexagons: Lampshaded by Cotterpin after she accepts the Architect's offer to become his apprentice.Cotterpin: Um... uh... would I have to do everything you said?
Architect: Well, of course.
Cotterpin: Oh. Well, I don't know, then...
Architect: Well, then again, if I hadn't been contrary, do you think Doozer constructions would look as they do today? Oh, the last architect liked circles! Took me years to get some nice squares.
Cotterpin: Oh. Well, uh... personally, I like hexagons.
Architect: [chuckling] Ohh, there'll be no hexagons around here, young lady.
Cotterpin: Mmm, we'll see... - I Just Want to Be You: Red is Cotterpin's favorite Fraggle. Cotterpin wants to be just like her.
- Interspecies Friendship: Red is a Fraggle, and Cotterpin is a Doozer.
- "I Want" Song: Cotterpin's song, "The Way I've Got to Go," is about wanting to follow a path different from the one that's expected of her.
- Lower-Deck Episode: The episode revolves around the Doozers.
- Mentor Archetype: The Architect to Cotterpin. He's exasperated with the younger Doozer's antics but gently accepts her back and offers her an alternative to taking the helmet, mentioning other Doozers who were just like her... including himself.
- Novelization: "The Legend of the Doozer Who Didn't" was expanded into a rhyming children's storybook of that title.
- Odd Friendship: Red and Cotterpin become friends despite the fact that most Fraggles, as a rule, barely even speak to Doozers, and vice versa.
- An Odd Place to Sleep: Cotterpin finds Red asleep in the middle of Gobo and Wembley's room.
- Parents Are Wrong: Not only do Cotterpin's parents want her to take the helmet, but when they see her drawings of bridges, they just tell her that bridges don't look like that. By the end of the episode, Cotterpin has become the Architect's apprentice.
- Playing Sick: Cotterpin, who's drawing bridges instead of studying for the ceremony, does this when she hears Wingnut, her mother, calling to her.Wingnut: Cotterpin! What are you doing out here?
Cotterpin: Uh-oh. It's Mother!
Wingnut: [driving over] I hope you've been studying your instruction manual.
[Cotterpin is lying on her back, moaning.]
Cotterpin: Ohhhh!
Wingnut: Cotterpin! What's wrong?
Cotterpin: I've overstudied. My brain is being squished right down into my toes!
Wingnut: [skeptical] Have you really been studying your instruction manual?
Cotterpin: I've got the smartest toes in Doozerdom! - Plot Parallel: Sprocket decides he wants to be a horse instead of a dog. Doc helps out by putting a saddle on him and taping horseshoes to his paws.
- Rite of Passage: The ceremony of taking the helmet, complete with a Call-and-Response Song: "Yes, We Can."
- The Runaway: Cotterpin runs away from home to try and learn to be a Fraggle. When that doesn't work out, she returns home.
- Scare 'Em Straight: The purpose of "The Legend of the Doozer Who Didn't" (as in, work) seems to be to warn the Doozer children against laziness. It states that Doozers who don't work grow fat, grow fur, and become Fraggles. It backfires with Cotterpin, who decides she wants to be a Fraggle.Cotterpin: Aww, I wish that dumb old kids' story were true!
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Cotterpin, leaving in the middle of the ceremony of taking the helmet.Cotterpin: No, no, no, no! I won't take the helmet! [The assembled Doozers gasp.] I won't build! I'm going to be a Fraggle! [Stalks off.]
- Silly Song: While out with Gobo, Red finds some Rumble Bugs and memorizes one of their hums, which she and Gobo and Wembley decide to write words to. It ends up being a Tongue Twister of a song, with words like: "The sum of a hum in a rumble bug's tum is a bumpety rum tum tum..." Later, after meeting Cotterpin, Red sings "Rumble Bug Hum" to her while the Rumble Bugs hum along.Cotterpin: Wow, that was great!
Red: Well, anyone who likes the hums of Rumble Bugs has gotta make a great Fraggle! - Staircase Tumble: Cotterpin sees Red asleep in Gobo and Wembley's room. When she goes in to talk to her, she falls down the stairs leading into the room.Cotterpin: [getting up] Ow! Oh, maybe she'll, uh, even build some smaller steps for me.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Cotterpin's attempts to become a Fraggle make her realize her physical needs and limitations, which she can't just swap out for those of a Fraggle.
- Similarly, Sprocket decides he likes being a dog when he realizes horses eat hay instead of dog food.
- Third Time's The Charm: On meeting Red, Cotterpin makes three attempts to talk to her before she actually listens.
- Video Arcade: Uncle Matt visits one and starts Button Mashing while trying to play one of the games.
- Wrong Line of Work: This nearly happens to Cotterpin, who does not like building. She leaves in the middle of the ceremony of taking the helmet, though, and later gets to be the Architect's apprentice, a job much more suited to her talent of drawing.
