Original Title: Nyorotono's Cheerleading!
Original Airdate: May 23, 2002
US Airdate: May 24, 2003
When Ash, Misty, and Brock pause for a quaint picnic by a lake, Politoed wanders off and is mistaken by another trainer for her own Politoed, the rhythm leader in her Pokémon cheerleading squad that had gone AWOL. When Ash and friends clear up the misunderstanding, the trainer still begs for them to loan her their Politoed for use in an upcoming cheerleading competition. Meanwhile, her own Politoed returns and, none too pleased to find another Pokémon in its place, immediately runs away again. Not wanting to break up a happy Pokémon cheer team, Misty allows the trainer to borrow her Pokémon for the competition, but promises in the meantime to track down the missing Politoed and convince it to return to active duty.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tammy is revealed to be this. It subtly comes out when she vaguely refuses to put Bean back in the cheerleading squad and comes out full force when her pokemon all have an accident and all she can do is yell at them for screwing up. Even when they start crying her priority is how foolish it made her look.
- Color Failure: Happens to Team Rocket when the twerps question the benefits they suppossedly receive.
- Hidden Depths: Politoed is quite the skilled cheerleader.
- Jerkass Realization: Misty lashing into her and Politoed cheering up her pokemon causes Tammy to remember when she was much more cheerful.
- Overly-Long Tongue: Bean uses this to stop Meowth dead in his tracks.
- Spot the Imposter: The subjects in question are Misty's Politoed and Bean, a Politoed belonging to Tammy. Oddly, this isn't the main course of conflict as both trainers figure out pretty quicky they have the wrong Politoed.
