Tylor accidentally breaks Vendy, MIFT's beloved vending machine. What's worse, due to budget cuts, Fritz may have to let one of his MIFTers go.
Tropes:
- Acting Unnatural: As a depressed Fritz is about to come by, Duncan tells the others to act natural. They do so by having Cutter start whistling, Val humming, and Duncan softly singing.
- Affectionate Nickname: Cutter calls Tylor Muscles after he destroys Vendy 2.
- Benevolent Boss: Mike plays this role with the upgrades to improve morale and, by extension, productivity.
- Bland-Name Product: Quite a few besides the Drooler Cooler and Hot Snots.
- One of the items Vendy 2 dispenses is Pop Farts (as in Pop Tarts), and Jolly Wretchers (Jolly Ranchers) as well as Snarlburst (Starburst) can be seen among the other snack options.
- Eyeball's Goop (as seen on the in-universe artwork) is a stand in for Campbell's Soup.
- Vendy 2 having various Drooler Cooler flavors and sugar-free/taste-free/energy options, sleek design, and touch screen interface basically make it the Monster world's vending machine version of the Coca-Cola Freestyle soda fountains. Similarly, the Bile Blast flavor is named similarly to Mountain Dew's Baja Blast flavor.
- Broke Episode: Monsters, Inc. isn't doing so hot financially, and is nearly bankrupt and low on morale. So what does Mike decide to do? Spend money like crazy on upgrades! Surprisingly, it works. That’s how investments work.
- The Bus Came Back: Mr. Crummyham, the supervisor who assigned Tylor to MIFT, reappears in this episode.
- Came Back Wrong: A mechanical/technical example occurs when Vendy 2 becomes a destructive machine after Duncan removes the vital parts.
- Character Development: At the beginning of the series, Tylor merely tolerated his MIFT co-workers while he worked his way up to being a Jokester. When his job is threatened by the budget cuts, Tylor is not only concerned about losing his dreams, but also not being able to see his new friends again. Tylor even objects after Fritz announces that he is retiring, claiming that Fritz is the kindest monster he's ever met and doesn't deserve to be let go.
- Companion Cube: Fritz reveals that the MIFT vending machine, nicknamed Vendy, was installed the same day he began working at Monsters, Inc. years ago. When Vendy breaks down, Fritz fears it may be a sign that he's also past his prime and should retire from his job.
- Company Cross References: The popcorn icon seen on Vendy 2 resembles the Pixar Popcorn logo.
- Cut the Juice: Subverted. Duncan tries to shut off Vendy 2 by unplugging it, but then it activates its backup battery power and tries to eat Duncan.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The sugar-free options on the drinks Vendy 2 dispenses are presented with either diet, lite, or zero.
- Disability Superpower: Tylor's inability to fix things and penchant for breaking things allows him to destroy Vendy 2 and rescue Duncan.
- Edible Ammunition: When Vendy 2 goes wild, it starts spitting out Drooler Cooler cans and various snacks.
- A Father to His Men: When he learns that the company needs budget cuts and one member of MIFT has to be let go, Fritz decides to retire so that his younger co-workers can stay on. Luckily, the conflict is resolved without the need for anyone to be fired.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: There are so many different flavors and snacks on Vendy 2's display screen that are impossible to read at normal speed.
- Heroic Sacrifice: A non-death variant, but ultimately Subverted. Fritz decides, rather than fire one of his employees, that he'll retire himself so everyone else can keep their jobs. Then he gets a call that the budget cuts have been cancelled.
- Hidden Depths:
- George is surprisingly well-versed in art.
- Fritz is deeply worried that he's getting too old to continue with his job, and almost retires at the end of the episode.
- I Heard That: Mike gets the idea from Tylor and Val to upgrade M.I. so nobody has to lose their jobs, but he secretly hopes that "Stinky" (aka Roze) gets cut. Roze chimes in with this trope word for word.
- In the Style of: The Monsters, Inc. theme in the credits is performed on a bagpipe, most likely by the bagpipe monster Haggis who provided the "funeral" music early on.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Val insists that Tylor refer to Vendy as "she" instead of "it" since the rest of the team consider Vendy a valued member of the MIFT team.
- Monster Clown: Invoked, as Mike has the monsters literally dress up as clowns to teach them about humor. They all literally embody this trope to a tee, seeing as they are monsters, but one in particular looks so horrifying that even Mike is taken aback.
- No Body Left Behind: Vendy 2 explodes into nothingness after Tylor trashes it. Not even the doohickeys Duncan took out are anywhere to be seen. All that's left is a silhouette where the machine once stood.
- Non-Ironic Clown: The laugh class is all about how to be one of these as a monster.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: We never see exactly how Tylor took down Vendy 2. He walks towards the camera, the other MIFTers close it behind him, exterior shot of blinding light out of the windows, and then everything is still. Apparently, whatever Tylor did to intentionally break Vendy 2 vaporised the machine, leaving only a soot-stained outline where it used to be.
- Percussive Maintenance: The ritual to purchase something from Vendy involves three small bumps and then a big bump after waiting a beat.
- Percussive Shutdown: Tylor destroying Vendy 2 to stop its reign of destruction qualifies as this trope.
- Unintentionally done by Tylor and Duncan rapidly pressing on Vendy 2's touch screen, causing it to overload and shut down.
- Shout-Out:
- Mike looking at a painting that reminds him of himself spoofs the museum scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
- Duncan writes a letter to his mother about how he valiantly fought Vendy 2, done in the style of a Ken Burns documentary, particularly The Civil War.
- Slasher Smile: Both Roz and the literal Monster Clown have a terrifying grin when they try to smile.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Mike used Sulley's emergency stash to give money to the employees. It works, and both morale and productivity—which means profits—are up tremendously. Sulley is impressed with Mike's scheme actually working—and then demands Mike pay him back all the money he took the next day.
- Take That!: Mike's money spending plan actually working despite Sulley's concerns seems to be a not-so subtle jab at the business tendency to cut budget and fire employees when profits and morale are low rather than using the money in reserve to improve the working environment that would lead to more productivity.
- Toilet Humor: Discussed. Mike mentions the only other thing that kids find funny besides clowns is poop.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Tylor and Duncan get into an argument over who can claim Hot Snots as the favorite snack.
- Vengeful Vending Machine: Vendy 2 starts attacking MIFT after Duncan removes some important doohickeys trying to repair it.
