Uncle Manny
Manny’s sister Lola drops off her son Chico for Manny to watch while she goes to an (unspecified) appointment; at the same time, Sherman has a cash register with a stuck drawer and leaves it at the shop for Manny to fix. Manny soon finds himself discovering just how difficult it is to manage both a child and a repair…
“Uncle Manny” provides examples of the following tropes:
- Baby's First Words: At the end of the episode, Chico says his.Chico: Manny!
- Babysitting Episode: Manny has to babysit his nephew Chico while Lola (Manny’s sister and Chico’s mother) goes to some sort of appointment. Babysitting duty ends up being delegated to the tools while Manny works on Sherman’s cash register (which has a stuck drawer), but they soon find that it’s difficult to keep him away from his favorite uncle.
- Bottle Episode: Aside from a brief scene in Kelly’s hardware store, the entire episode takes place in Manny’s workshop.
- Continuity Nod: Kelly’s store still has hammer-shaped baby rattles.
- Funny Background Event: The tools can be seen playfully chasing Chico around while Manny talks with Lola, and later doing the same thing again while Manny is on the phone with Sherman.
- Music Box Intervals: These can be heard in the background music while Chico is sleeping.
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Lola saying Manny is her favorite brother is this, as he’s (at least until Rubén was Retconned into existence in Season 3) her only brother.
- Remember the New Guy?: Somehow, pretty much everyone in Sheet Rock Hills is familiar with Chico.
- Snap Back: The baby swing Manny and the tools build for Chico is absent in the very next episode, although (having no need for it without Chico around) they probably just took it down offscreen.
Kitty Sitting
The tools find themselves yearning to adopt a cute black-and-white kitten, but when the kitten ends up traveling with them to Señor Sanchez’s house (Sanchez had called Manny about a broken doorbell) they realize that someone else might need the kitten (who ends up being named Patches) more than they do…
Tropes in “Kitty Sitting” include:
- Brick Joke: Rusty is scared by the toy mouse Señor Sanchez got for Patches once about halfway through the episode. Then, at the end of the episode, when all repair work is done and Patches has officially become Señor Sanchez’s pet… cue Rusty running from the toy mouse again.
- Cuteness Proximity: Upon being shown the as-yet-unnamed kitten by Kelly, the tools immediately decide they want to adopt her, and subsequently spend a great deal of the episode “aww”ing over what a cute little thing she is.
- Deus ex 'Scuse Me: Julieta, after naming the kitten “Patches”, is immediately called away by Alex’s mom (here to drive her to a mini-golf playdate with her son), allowing Manny and the tools to see just how lonely Señor Sanchez is without Julieta there and how much joy Patches brings him.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: When the kitten falls asleep in the toolbox, the tools want to avoid awakening her… and so decide to bring her along to the repair. Humorously, Manny puts a tiny pair of earmuffs on the kitten right before “Hop Up, Jump In” (which is a rather loud song) begins.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: At one point, Rusty is scared by a toy mouse Señor Sanchez got for Patches.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: One of these happens after Rusty is scared by Patches’ toy mouse for the second time that day.
- Faint in Shock: Rusty does this after Turner startles him by popping up behind a pane of glass (which Rusty thought was a mirror) in Kelly’s hardware store.
- Iris Out: One happens to end the episode, focusing on Patches in Señor Sanchez’s arms.
- Knew It All Along: Rusty claims so when Manny points out that the “mouse” he’d just been scared by was a wind-up cat toy.
- Meaningful Name: The kitten ends up being named “Patches”, due to having patches of white and black fur.
- Missing Reflection: When the tools are looking at various mirrors in Kelly’s hardware store, Rusty ends up thinking his reflection is missing and freaking out, not realizing he’d been looking at a regular pane of glass that had been mixed in with the mirrors.
- Status Quo Is God: Rather than being adopted by Manny and the tools and therefore becoming a permanent part of the main cast, the kitten ends up being given to Señor Sanchez where it can be kept safely out of the way for most episodes.
- Title Drop:Kelly: Oh, you mean you’re… kitty-sitting?
