Original air date: September 11th, 1992
Melody and Patch are watching PTV where Dazzle is announcing that the winner of the contest where the prize is a date with Chain Link, the lead singer of the Cleveland Bays, will receive a phone call from him. Patch takes note of Melody's excitement. Bon Bon then arrives, excitedly informing them that the Cooking with Cupcake TV show want her to send in a video of her baking something. Patch agrees to record her.
The next day, Melody receives a phone call from a caller claiming to be Chain Link who wishes to go on a date with her, prompting her to squeal in delight. She is told to meet him at the top of the clock tower at six o'clock. Unbeknownst to Melody, she's actually talking to Patch.
Later, Patch is recording Bon Bon cooking, but Bon Bon doesn't adapt well to the pressure of having such a short timeframe (the camera Patch is using only has so much tape) and ends up burning her lemon meringue pie.
At the clock tower, Melody exhausts herself climbing the clock tower, and finds Starlight there, waiting for Chain Link. While they're confused about it, Sweetheart appears, also here for a date with Chain Link. Patch shows up, speaking in the fake voice she used on the phone, and laughs hysterically at having tricked all three of them.
The next day in class, Bright Eyes shows off her term project, but it's the video of Bon Bon doing a bad job at cooking, getting a laugh out of the class. In the midst of her laughter, Patch reveals she sabotaged Bright Eyes.
The remaining girls gather at Starlight's ice cream shop and decide to get Patch back. Bright Eyes has an idea as to how to deliver payback. They rig a bucket of water to fall onto Patch when she sticks her head through a fence. Patch strolls by and recognizes the obvious trap, so instead puts a stick in the hole. The girls come out to see her, and Patch mocks their thinking she'd fall for such an obvious trick.
Later, Patch sees a flying saucer in the sky and excitedly pursues it, reaching what seems to be the same flying saucer stationary on the ground. Two martians exit the flying saucer and greet Patch. They say they've been observing her and that she's the smartest pony in Ponyland, and that they need her help. She agrees to come to their planet, only for the martians to reveal they don't need Patch... only her brain. She backs away and falls out of the spaceship and into a large container of water. The girls come out, with Starlight and Melody removing their martian disguises.
Patch's friends reveal that they never expected Patch to fall for the water bucket trick in the first place, and only did it to throw her off-guard. Furthermore, the UFO is a non-functioning replica built out of cardboard and Christmas lights, and the one Patch saw flying in the sky was a remote-controlled toy they borrowed from Teddy. Patch admits it was a good joke, and immediately sets about thinking of ways to improve the prank in preparation for pulling it on someone else, apparently not having learned her lesson at all, while her friends look on, dumbfounded.
"The Impractical Joker" provides examples of:
- Absurdly Long Stairway: Patch makes Melody, Starlight, and Sweetheart climb one in the clock tower as a prank, as they're all under the impression they're getting a date with Chain Link.
- Aliens Are Bastards: While disguised as martians, Starlight and Melody initially appear friendly, but then tell Patch they mean to take her brain.
- Aliens Speaking English: The "martians" Patch meets speak English, albeit with different syntax.
- Ambiguous Situation: Bon Bon announces that the Cooking With Cupcake show wants her to send them a video of her baking something. There are two possibilities: the show really did call her, and Patch saw the opportunity to prank Bon Bon (as well as Bright Eyes), or Patch posed as someone from the show and called Bon Bon herself, not unlike how she impersonates Chain Link on the phone to Melody, Starlight, and Sweetehart.
- An Aesop:
- Pranks shouldn't go too far. If you're the only one laughing, then that means you need to knock it off.
- Don't get too full of yourself that you underestimate what others are capable of.
- Antagonist Title: Patch is the "impractical joker" that the title refers to.
- Appeal to Flattery: In their martian disguises, Starlight and Melody call Patch the smartest pony in Ponyland to butter her up and get her to come aboard their "spaceship".
- Asshole Victim: Teddy is one of the ponies Patch pranks (by inflating a ball that pops in his face when he kicks it).
- Bad "Bad Acting": Bon Bon stammers excessively while being recorded for her Cooking with Cupcake video.
- Beware the Nice Ones: After Starlight threatens to "bust" Patch for pranking her, Melody, and Sweetheart, the latter joins the other two in glaring at Patch.
- Big "YES!": Melody after she supposedly wins the date with Chain Link.
- Brain Theft: What Melody and Starlight disguised as martians pretend to want to do to Patch as a part of their prank.
- Bucket Booby-Trap: The girls set one up for Patch, which she triggers not by putting her head through the fence, but a stick, thus avoiding getting drenched.
- Call-Back: Patch once again pranks Sweetheart by having her open something that shoots out spring snakes.
- Celeb Crush: Melody has one on Chain Link, lead singer of the Cleveland Bays, and desires to win the chance to go on a date with him.
- Chekhov's Gun: There's a brief scene early in the episode where as the students are leaving class, Miss Hackney tells them that their term projects are due on Monday. This comes into play later when Bright Eyes shows off her own project only to find it's been sabotaged by Patch.
- Clock Tower: There's one at High Street that Patch pretending to be Chain Link tells Melody, Starlight, and Sweetheart to go to the top of at 6PM.
- Comically Missing the Point: After being pranked in retaliation for her own string of pranks, Patch ends the episode by rattling off a list of ways it could be improved.
- Compressed Hair: Starlight's and Melody's manes (and ears) fit inside their martian helmets just fine.
- The Con: Starlight, Sweetheart, Melody, Bright Eyes, Clover, and Bon Bon all work together to prank Patch after she's done it to them one too many times, with Starlight and Melody posing as martians, them building an entire fake spaceship out of "cardboard and Christmas lights", and Teddy even helps offscreen by lending his toys spaceship to fly above Patch to add an extra layer of believability.
- Cosmic Motifs: Starlight and Melody's martian outfits are done up with a star-shaped object.
- Death Glare: Starlight, Melody, and Sweetheart after Patch tricks them into running up several flights of stairs for a non-existent date.
- Depth Deception: Patch sees a flying spaceship in the sky, which turns out to be a toy that the other girls borrowed from Teddy in order to prank her.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: When Patch is approaching the Bucket Booby-Trap, she’s whistling the tune of the "Practical Jokes" song that takes up the following scene.
- Dramatic Wind: Some wind blows while the girls prepare the Bucket Booby-Trap for Patch as she approaches.
- Dude, Not Funny!: No one finds Patch's pranks funny except for herself, prompting everyone to exact payback on her when she gets too obnoxious with it.
- Epic Fail: Bon Bon just can't seem to keep her head on straight while trying to make a lemon meringue pie, and just about everything that could conceivably go wrong does.
- Enemy Mine: Teddy helps the girls with their revenge on Patch by lending them his toy spaceship.
- Fake Food: Patch tricks Bon Bon with a pickle made out of rubber.
- Fiction Isn't Fair: You'd think Patch would get into some kind of trouble for sabotaging Bright Eyes' term project, but apparently not.
- Filching Food for Fun: Patch swipes Bon Bon's and Clover's burgers and Cokes at one point.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: Take note of the martians' tail colors. They match Starlight's and Melody's (though they somehow managed to change their fur colors).
- Foreshadowing:
- It makes sense that Patch would confirm that Melody strongly desires to win a date with Chain Link, considering Patch later takes advantage of it for a prank.
- Patch's response to seeing the fake flying saucer her friends are using to prank her is to excitedly shout she "knew they existed". Come "Up, Up and Away", a real UFO appears and she is likewise excited about it. She even meets the UFO, who may or may not actually be aliens.
- Gas Mask, Longcoat: Starlight and Melody choose these for their martian disguises, needing to obscure their faces from Patch.
- Groupie Brigade: Discussed when Patch, pretending to be Chain Link, justifies "his" and Melody's meeting spot (the top of a clock tower) by saying "he" doesn't want attention from fans in public.
- Having a Heart: The martians tell Patch they have great need for her brain. She agrees to come with them, but it turns out they really want only her brain, not her.
- Heartbreak and Ice Cream: Starlight invokes this when she gives Bright Eyes some ice cream, hoping to cheer her up after Patch sabotaged her term project.
- Here We Go Again!: Once Patch has learned that the ordeal with the martians and their spaceship was a prank pulled by her friends to get her to put a stop to her serial pranking, Patch gets to thinking of how to refine the prank so she can pull it, while her friends stare on.
- High-Tech Hexagons: The fake spaceship Patch's friends built as part of their prank on her is filled with hexagons on the walls.
- Hypocrite: After pulling pranks on the other girls non-stop, Patch initially gets mad at them for their prank and says it wasn't funny.
- "I Am Great!" Song: "Practical Jokes", which Patch sings about her various pranks (which she pulls on various ponies during the song) after seeing through her friends' amateurish attempt to prank her (or so she thinks).
- Idiot Ball: Although Bon Bon is usually competent at baking, here, she keeps messing up the recipe, and yells, "I can't see!" when her hat falls in front of her. It's possible she was reacting to the pressure of being filmed for everybody to see.
- I Know Your True Name: While disguised as martians, Starlight and Melody address Patch by name even though she hasn't told them what it is. They explain it away as having observed her all this time, and this is how they know she's the smartest pony in Ponyland.
- Implied Death Threat: It turns out the martians need Patch's brain. Not Patch herself, just her brain.
- Ironic Echo: After pranking her in retaliation, Starlight asks Patch, "Can't you take a joke?". Patch had earlier tried this line on her, Melody, and Sweetheart.
- It's the Best Whatever, Ever!: Patch's rebuttal to Melody's complaint about her prank:Patch: No, it's the best!
- Jerkass Ball: It's not clear why exactly Patch has decided to go on a non-stop pranking spree, when she doesn't do it nearly as much in any other episode.
- Kansas City Shuffle: The girls pull a Bucket Booby-Trap prank on Patch, which she sees right through... but as it turns out, they expected her to, instead intending to throw her off-guard in preparation for their UFO prank.
- Karma Houdini: Patch somehow gets away with sabotaging Bright Eyes' term project and Bon Bon's video assignment right in front of the teacher and not even trying to hide with it.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: After her barrage of constant pranks, Patch is successfully pranked in return by her friends (and Teddy indirectly).
- Kick the Dog: Patch ruining Bright Eyes' science project and humiliating Bon Bon in front of their classmates in one go crosses the line, hurting both's feelings badly, and she refuses to see what the big deal is.
- Limited Animation: The scene of Melody climbing up the spiral staircase is the same sequence looped twice.
- Lost Food Grievance: Bon Bon and Clover don't take the theft of their burgers and Cokes (by Patch) well.
- Luminescent Blush: Teddy gets this when a ball he kicked after Patch sent it his way bursts and he gets the pieces all over his face.
- Martians: Patch guesses that Starlight and Melody in disguise are this, and they answer in the affirmative.
- "Meet the Celebrity" Contest: Melody, Starlight, and Sweetheart all enter a contest where they can win a date with the singer Chain Link, which Patch utilises as the basis for a prank by tricking all three of them into thinking they won.
- Mistaken for Aliens: Starlight and Melody invoke this as part of their prank on Patch, dressing up as martians to get her to come into their "spaceship".
- Musical World Hypotheses: "Practical Jokes" (or at least the singing aspect) seems to follow The All In Their Heads Hypothesis, considering she sings out loud and no one she's playing pranks on realizes she's there.
- Not Bad: Patch admits that the prank the girls pulled on her was actually a good one.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Patch's friends set up an obvious Bucket Booby-Trap that she of course doesn't fall for, but it does reinforce her confidence in her ability as a prankster and get her to discredit the idea that her friends could prank her in return. This is all in preparation for a much more elaborate prank later.
- Oh, Crap!: Patch is laughing over having tricked Starlight, Sweetheart, and Melody into climbing several flights of stairs because they each thought Chain Link would be waiting there for a date, but when Starlight threatens her with violence in retaliation, Patch immediately stops laughing and looks afraid before nervously trying to talk them down.
- Overly Pre-Prepared Gag: For her prank on Bright Eyes, Patch swiped the video Bright Eyes made as her term project, edited it to have the footage she recorded of Bon Bon trying to cook, and gave the edited version back to Bright Eyes, all with Bright Eyes never realising until it's too late.
- Plot Hole: If the spaceship is made from "cardboard and Christmas lights", why does it make a metal sound when Starlight hits it?
- Prank Date: Patch impersonates Chain Link on the phone to Melody, claiming that Melody has won a date with him, and pulls the same prank on Starlight and Sweetheart, just to get them all to climb many flights of stairs to where the date is supposedly taking place.
- Prank Gone Too Far: Patch sabotaging Bright Eyes' term project is what prompts the girls to declare that she must be stopped.
- Pranking Montage: Patch's song "Practical Jokes" is this, showing her setting out a snake in a box for Sweetheart, kicking a ball at Teddy which explodes in his face, feeding Bon Bon a rubber pickle, sneaking up on Melody, and swiping Bon Bon's and Clover's burgers and Cokes.
- Product Placement: Bon Bon and Clover refer to their drinks as "Cokes".
- Prank Punishment: For playing pranks on them nonstop, Patch's friends pull one on her, and she buys it.
- Radio Contest: Well, it's on PTV on television, not the radio, but the episode opens with Dazzle announcing that the winner of said contest gets a date with Chain Link, the lead singer of the Cleveland Bays. Seeing how eager Melody is to win, Patch tricks her, as well as Starlight and Sweetheart, into climbing several flights of stairs to get to the (nonexistent) date.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After all the effort the girls went to in order to teach Patch a lesson, she misses the point entirely and instead sees the potential the practical joke has for improvements.
- Shout-Out: Starlight and Melody speak like Yoda when they don martian disguises to trick Patch.
- Show-and-Tell Antics: Bright Eyes' term project presentation goes south when it turns out Patch taped over the video she had prepared, so it instead shows Bon Bon messing up in the kitchen.
- Speak in Unison: Starlight and Melody say, "Who's that?" when Sweetheart is approaching them in the clock tower, and then, when they see it's her, "Sweetheart?"
- Stay with the Aliens: Patch agrees to come with the "martians" to their home to help her with whatever problems they're facing. That is, until they say they just want her brain and nothing more, prompting her to hastily leave and fall into a pool of water, at which point Starlight and Melody remove their disguises.
- Strange-Syntax Speaker: Starlight and Melody swap around the first and second halves of their sentences while disguised as martians.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Although it turns out they weren't expecting her to fall for it in the first place, the girls attempt to prank Patch... by trying to get her to stick her head through a hole so she'll get covered in water. Remember that Patch is a seasoned prankster who's been going on a ruthless spree of performing every prank in the book. She even lampshades this:Not even close! Did you guys really think I'd fall for that old trick? I'm a pro at this game!
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: The girls decide Patch needs this after one prank too many.
- Tempting Fate: After Patch sees through her friends' attempt to prank her in retaliation, she declares, "Nobody can sucker me!" as she strolls away. Little does she know that this prank was actually part of a Kansas City Shuffle to get her to let her guard down for a prank they pull on her later that she actually does fall for.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: It's somewhat painful to watch Patch take Clover's and Bon Bon's burgers only to waste them by putting them on the floor.
- This Cannot Be!: When Melody reaches the top of the clock tower to find Starlight, who explains that she's waiting for Chain Link, Melody declares, "That's impossible!" since she's the one who has a date with him.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Bright Eyes declares that she knows how to give Patch a taste of her own medicine. They then play a prank on Patch. She doesn't fall for it, but that wasn't the plan; they later play a much more elaborate prank on her, and it has her fooled.
- Verbal Backpedaling: Patch calls herself one of the smartest ponies in Ponyland, but when it becomes apparent the martians want to remove her brain, she says she isn't that smart and that they should see her report card.
- Villain Song: "Practical Jokes" is a very mild example, where Patch sings about how she loves going around playing pranks on everyone and causing mischief.
- Wham Shot: Melody is on the phone to who she and the audience think is Chain Link. At the end of the call, it cuts to Patch on the other end of the line putting on a voice.
- Worst. Whatever. Ever!: When Patch appears in the clock tower and reveals her prank, Melody's response is to yell, "This is the worst practical joke you've ever pulled!" Patch, in her fit of laughter, retorts that it's the best.
