Tool In A China Shop
Manny receives a call from Mr. Kumar, the owner of a local china shop, about some shelves that are in danger of falling and shattering his fragile china. Unfortunately, the repair seems like it mostly requires Pat, who is also in danger of falling and shattering the fragile china, unless he can somehow learn to overcome his clumsiness and hammer carefully and precisely.
“Tool In A China Shop” provides examples of:
- Aesop Amnesia: Played for Laughs, as Pat learning not to be clumsy doesn’t even last until the end of the episode.Squeeze: And Pat’s not clumsy anymore!Pat (hopping up on the edge of the toolbox): Yeah, that’s right.
//Pat immediately slips and falls off the toolbox.// - Artistic License – Chess: When Manny and the tools happen across Abuleito playing chess, his board is in a position that, while technically not impossible, is rather improbable. Oh, and he’s also somehow playing the entire game himself, without an opponent.
- Asian Store-Owner: Mr. Kumar is (presumably) Indian and owns a china store.
- Cactus Cushion: Pat falls on a cactus after a desk lamp he bumped into swings around and knocks him off of the worktable. Fortunately for Pat, the spines are unable to stick in him becausePat: I’m a hammer.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The episode ends on the tools laughing while having fun playing checkers.
- Faint in Shock: Mr. Kumar does this when, after a very stressful wall-plug insertion is successfully completed, Manny announces that they still have seven more wall anchors left to do.
- Literal-Minded: When learning to play checkers at the end of the episode, Pat interprets Turner’s instruction to jump over a piece as meaning he should jump on the board. Turner is not amused.
- Instantly Proven Wrong:Squeeze: And Pat’s not clumsy anymore!Pat (hopping up on the edge of the toolbox): Yeah, that’s right.
//Pat immediately slips and falls off the toolbox.// - Pun-Based Title: On the concept of a “bull in a china shop”- Pat has to learn not to act like one when the tools visit a literal, actual china shop.
- Shout-Out: Possibly unintentional, but a scene of Abuelito sitting by a chessboard with a game apparently in progress but no opponent in sight may bring to mind Geri's Game.
Welcome To Sheet Rock Hills
Manny would love to have a flashy new pair of work gloves he saw in Kelly’s catalog, but unfortunately they’re just too expensive to buy. Squeeze has the idea to collect loose coins in hopes of reaching the amount required, and when Manny and the tools are called to fix a malfunctioning stoplight she takes her search with her- and, after chasing a coin, ends up stuck in the sewers!
Tropes in “Welcome To Sheet Rock Hills” include:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Subverted. While the sewers of Sheet Rock Hills seem titanic from Squeeze’s perspective, that’s only because she’s a tiny pair of pliers- the sewer pipes are actually fairly realistically sized.
- Big Honking Traffic Jam: Most of Sheet Rock Hills ends up being stuck in one due to a broken traffic light, although this somehow doesn’t prevent Manny from driving his truck to the source of the problem.
- Chain of People: The tools form one to fish Squeeze out of the sewers. Not having hands, they have to employ various… creative methods (and some Invisible Anatomy) to hold on to each other, but the chain approach does end up working.
- Ethereal Choir: One can be heard whenever the hardware catalog’s picture of the amazing-but-prohibitively-expensive work gloves Manny is enamored with is shown. And then heard again at the end of the episode, when we finally get to see the actual work gloves.
- Failed a Spot Check: Somehow, the rest of Manny’s tools failed to notice Squeeze jumping through a sewer grate (It Makes Sense in Context) no more than two feet from where they were.
- Fictional Document: Kelly’s hardware catalog, which contains an entry for some amazing work gloves that Manny would love but which are too expensive for him to buy. Squeeze gets it into her head that she can collect loose coins from around the town to help Manny buy it, and then Hilarity Ensues.
- Mundane Made Awesome: A pair of high-quality, expensive work gloves are practically treated like the Holy Grail, with an Ethereal Choir sounding and divine rays of light shining whenever their picture in the hardware catalog is shown.
- Not Now, We're Too Busy Crying Over You: This happens when Squeeze gets stuck in the sewers, and Manny’s other tools believe she’s gone for good.Felipe: Oh, she was such a nice pair of pliers…
Dusty: And she had such a pretty voice…
Squeeze (muffled): I’m down here!
Dusty: It sounded just like that… - Running Gag: The picture of the work gloves Manny really wants being accompanied by an Ethereal Choir and celestial rays of light whenever it appears. This gag also ends up applying to the real work gloves, when Mayor Rosa gives a pair of them to Manny.
- Snap Back: At the end of the episode, Manny is given a pair of the expensive new work gloves he’d been longing to have for most of the episode by Mayor Rosa. He says that he’ll love them and can’t wait to use them… and then in the next episode he’s still wearing his normal gloves, without explanation.
- Too Dumb to Live: Squeeze, in search of spare coins to help Manny buy new work gloves (It Makes Sense in Context), decides for some inexplicable reason that it’s a good idea to jump through a sewer grate to reach a coin that had fallen into the sewers, and promptly gets herself stuck down there.
