Original air date: 4/6/2001 (produced in 2000)
Episode number: 2a
Timmy, Chester, and AJ are acting out scenes from Crash Nebula, a show they like, and so Timmy wishes that they could have a toy alien to play with. However, Cosmo and Wanda end up bringing over Mark Chang, a real alien from the planet of Yugopotamia, who falls in love with Vicky. Timmy must find Mark’s parents on Yugopotamia so they can convince Vicky to let him go home.
This episode contains examples of:
- And You Thought It Was a Game: Chester and AJ remain oblivious that Mark is a real alien, and treat the whole encounter as a game.
- Art Shift: The Crash Nebula show is animated in a more detailed, limited style.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: The Yugopotamians debut by fearing flowers, chocolate, and teddy bears.
- Big Damn Heroes: Crash Nebula does this on his Show Within a Show.
- Book Ends: The show starts with Chester, AJ, and Timmy watching Crash Nebula while eating cereal. It ends with three Yugopotamian kids watching The Fairly OddParents! while eating cereal.
- Brain Food: Mark threatens to suck out the kids's brains with a bendy straw.
- Circling Birdies: Vicky sees stars after Mark hugs her too tight.
- Companion Cube: Phillip the Nickel.
- Directionless Driver: King Grippulon has to blow up several planets because he won't ask for directions.
- The Dreaded: Parodied when Timmy becomes this to the Yugopotamians for overcoming their three perils: skipping across a flower field, hugging a teddy bear, and eating chocolate. Timmy finds this ridiculous, but he plays to it to get what he wants.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Cosmo and Wanda "borrowed" Mark Chang after Timmy wished for an alien for his friends to play with, claiming that they can't create an alien out of nothing. In later episodes, creating entire eco-systems out of nothing is almost not worth mentioning, since it happens so often.
- Find Out Next Time: Spoofed at the end of the episode, where Yugopotamian children are watching the show. A narrator asks if Timmy's secret will ever be exposed or if Cosmo will ever be reunited with Phillip before saying viewers can find out by continuing to watch the show.
- Gender-Blender Name: Cosmo's girl nickel is named Philip.
- Good News, Bad News: The now famous introduction of Philip the Nickel.
- Timmy: So what's the good news?
Cosmo: The alien we got you is actually a prince from the dreaded war-planet Yugopotamia!
Wanda: And his parents are on their way to destroy the Earth and rescue their son!
Timmy: Then what's the bad news?
Wanda: Oh wait... that was the bad news.
Timmy: Then what's the good news!?
Cosmo: I found a nickel!
- Later, it happens again. Cosmo's interpretation is that the "good" news is he named the nickel Phillip. The bad news is it's a girl nickel.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Less violent than most examples, but Mark falls for Vicky because of the terror she instills in Timmy, Chester, and AJ.
- Oh, Crap!: Mark's parents every time Timmy easily overcomes a so-called peril.
- Parental Marriage Veto: Mark's parents are what breaks him and Vicky up in the end. Granted, they were okay with the marriage, but Timmy insisted.
- Pet the Dog: Vicky ends up falling for Mark by the end, not that this is remembered in later episodes.
- Power of Love: Timmy runs into the true love rule when he can't send Mark home due to him having fallen in love with Vicky.
- Say My Name:Vicky: Hey, I found a nickel.
Cosmo: PHILLIP! - Shout-Out: In this episode, Cosmo finds a nickel and names it Phillip, even though he identifies her as a girl. This is a reference to a scene in the Rugrats (1991) episode, "Together at Last", where Lil, who had lost her hairbow and was mistaken for Phil, finds a nickel in the couch.
- Test of Pain: Played for Laughs. To determine if Timmy really is the "great Earth warrior" he claims to be, the Yugopotamians put him through tests to see what kind of agonizing ordeals he can endure. Since these are the Yugopotamians, though, said tests are skipping through a field of flowers, hugging a teddy bear, and eating a candy bar.
