After Martha, the Boxwood siblings, Helen, and T.D. explain the vocabulary to Mrs. Demson as the "Circus of Words", Helen appears at the Boxwood house. She's trying to sell cookies for a school fundraiser, but keeps messing up her words due to fear. Ronald butts in and tells her and Alice that in order to be good cookie salesmen (or salesgirls), they need to be annoying so that adults buy the cookies just to get rid of them. The girls start planning to sell the cookies, but then Helen's dogs eat Helen's cookies.
The dogs feel guilty when Helen explains that she planned to sell the cookies, so they want to make it up to Helen. Then, when Martha sees an illustration on the cookie box, she decides to start a circus with Skits, Rinty, Cisco, Butterscotch, Streak, Mandarin, and Pops.
At the park, Martha asks her dog friends if they know any tricks. Pops can play dead, the puppy brothers make a dog pyramid (but not for very long), Rinty can play on the swing (but he falls off), Skits can skateboard, and since Cisco is woolly, she decides to have him pretend to be a lion and appoints herself the ringmaster. Francois approaches and reveals that he can do something called the Dance of a Thousand Fleas, which Martha decides to make the grand finale. However, he demands some items before he shows them.
Later, the dogs practice their acts, and they improve, but Skits crashes into the others, causing Francois to laugh at them. Then, Helen shows up with the items Francois requested — a box of blocks, a rope ladder, four bags of ice, a bowl of spicy ketchup, Nelson, two other cats, and a wading pool full of something Martha doesn't want to specify. Then, she gets fleas from another dog and asks Francois to perform his dance. However, he gulps, and when T.D. shows up, Francois deliberately spills the ketchup. T.D. reveals that he ate the cookies that he was meant to sell, so he needs money too. Martha offers to add him to her circus as the "lion" tamer, and he agrees. Martha, noticing the spilled ketchup, decides to have Francois do the dance next time.
As T.D. and Helen hand out flyers for the circus, accompanied by Martha and Skits, the Boxwood siblings approach and ask what they're doing. The Boxwood siblings show up, with Alice selling cookies and Ronald trying to help her but being more annoying than anything. Helen explains about the circus, and Ronald decides that he and Alice could sell cookies at the circus instead of door-to-door.
On the night of the circus, many people have comenote . First, Skits skateboards, then Pops walks on his front legs and does a comedic fall, then Rinty does tricks on the swing, then Cisco sticks his head into T.D.'s mouth, and finally, it's time for Francois's dance.
However, he's a no-show, and then admits that he made it up. Martha decides to do it instead, and T.D. comes up with a structure for the dance — Martha, covered in fleas and balancing the ketchup on her head, must cross the rope ladder above the blocks, walk past the cats on the swings, walk across the ice, and jump over the pool, which, as it turns out, is full of soapy water. She does it, but Martha thinks the circus failed due to her falling into the water instead of jumping over the pool. However, T.D. reveals that they made more than $200 because the audience found it funny that she fell in. Unfortunately, however, Ronald is nauseous from having eaten all the cookies they intended to sell.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal:
- While being a ringmaster, Martha wears a hat and a bowtie.
- Skits wears a cape while skateboarding.
- While being a clown, Pops wears a bowtie and a clown's nose.
- Ate It All:
- Downplayed when Martha and Skits, two dogs, eat all the cookies that were meant to be sold to several people.
- Played straight when T.D. eats all the cookies he was intending to sell, then Ronald eats all the cookies that he and Alice were supposed to be selling.
- Balloon Belly: Ronald gains a potbelly from eating the cookies.
- Batman Gambit: Discussed when Ronald suggests being annoying just so that people will buy cookies to get rid of you.
- Circus Episode: The episode focuses on Martha and several of her dog friends, plus T.D., trying to start a circus to raise money for Helen's school.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Seeing the illustration on the cookie box of a circus is what makes Martha want to start a circus.
- Facepalm: Helen puts her palm to her face when she doesn't know how to raise the money with the cookies eaten.
- Faking the Dead: One of Pops's tricks is to play dead.
- Faux Horrific: Because Martha Hates Baths so much, she considers soapy water to be a terrible thing to land in and doesn't even want to mention it.
- Food Coma: Martha lies down after eating the cookies.
- The Gadfly: Discussed when Ronald says that to sell cookies, one must invoke this trope and be annoying on purpose.
- Innocently Insensitive: Ronald tries to help Alice sell cookies, but she's annoyed by it.
- Irony:
- The perky T.D. of all characters introduces the word "grumpy" at the beginning.
- Ronald says to never eat your products, only to eat all of the cookies he intended to sell himself.
- Ladies and Germs: Martha addresses the audience as "ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, bloodhounds and Pomeranians".
- Loud Gulp: Francois gulps the second time he's asked to dance.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Lorraine dogs feel very guilty when Helen reveals that she planned to sell the cookies they ate.
- Noodle Implements: Subverted. Francois makes up the Dance of a Thousand Fleas, and pretends that it involves a bunch of random things, but then T.D. actually constructs the dance and comes up with uses for the things.
- Non-Ironic Clown:
- While doing the "circus of words", Helen, Alice, and T.D. appear as friendly clowns.
- During the charity dog circus, Pops wears clown makeup and acts like a lovable doof.
- Running Gag:
- Ronald keeps speaking in abbreviations.
- For gross-out humour, characters keep feeling nauseous after eating too many cookies.
- Slapstick:
- When Helen, Alice, and T.D. do a human pyramid at the beginning, they fall.
- Pops deliberately bumps into a post and rolls over as a clown.
- Unconventional Food Usage: Martha balances a bowl of spicy ketchup on her head as part of the Dance of a Thousand Fleas.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Martha and Skits eat the cookies, not knowing that Helen planned to sell them.
