Recap / The Fairly Odd Parents S 5 E 4 Just Desserts

Original air date: 2/16/2005 (produced in 2003)

Episode number: 61b

Timmy wishes every food in the world was desserts and sweets, which at first gives everyone a sugar rush before making them overweight (a bit of real-world satire) and sending the earth hurling towards the sun. Cosmo and Wanda are too weak to unwish it, so Timmy needs to find some healthy food fast.

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Tropes:

• A Weighty Aesop: Timmy directly explains it at the end of the episode.
  Timmy: Lesson learned: dessert is great on occasion, but balanced diets are what keep us healthy and not hurtling in the sun.
• Artistic License – Physics:
  • Realistically, the Earth could only fall out of orbit if it collided with an object of equal or greater mass; not from a classroom of overweight kids crashing through the floor.
  • Even if the Earth did begin tumbling toward the Sun, it wouldn't reach the star in a matter of minutes, as happens here; scientists have proven that it would take roughly sixty days for the two bodies to collide, while virtually every living thing on Earth would be incinerated at about day 47.
• Big Eater: Another side effect of Timmy's dessert wish, as everyone starts to ravenously stuff their faces since all food's now dessert. Mr. Crocker even lets the kids pig out in class.
• Chekhov's Gun: While the absurdity of it is originally the breaking point that prompted Timmy to wish every meal was dessert, Mark's vegetable-based desserts are the pivotal loophole in the wish that provide Wanda with enough healthy energy to grant Timmy's wish to reset everything back to normal.
• Chekhov's Lecture: Played for Laughs with Mr. Crocker's speech about Earth potentially tumbling into the Sun, which naturally happens thirty seconds after he finishes.
  Mr. Crocker: So, a planet's orbit is relative to its size and distance from the Sun. Only a significant shift in weight in one area of the planet—oh, say the size of Dimmesdale—could unbalance it and send it wobbling into the Sun.
• Continuity Nod: Mark is still living on Earth and attending Dimmsdale Elementary disguised as a human kid after fleeing from his arranged marriage to Princess Mandie in "New Squid In Town".
• Diminishing Villain Threat: Francis tries to bully Mark, but has gotten so fat he gets winded just from trying to grab Mark.
• Empty Swimming Pool Dive: When Timmy is about to wish for everything to be back to normal, Mr. Bickles is about to dive into his pool, when the sun's heat causes the water to evaporate, and his weight causes the diving board to break and him to fall into the empty pool. When Timmy wishes that everything is back to normal, Mr. Bickles' pool is filled with water again and Mr. Bickles, thin and unharmed, is shown swimming in it.
• Fat and Proud: 28 days into Timmy's dessert wish, the now obese people of Dimmsdale have basically accepted the new heavyset status quo. In fact, Mark gets bullied because he's the only kid in school that's still skinny. By the end of the episode, Cosmo decides to remain this due to using his rolls to store stuff.
• Fat Slob: Cosmo and Wanda devolve into this, as the two are shown lazing about in Timmy's room covered in sweets as they greedily devour more.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Mr. Crocker begins teaching his class about Earth's orbit, saying that "a significant shift in weight in one area of the planet" would result in it falling into the Sun. About thirty seconds later, that's exactly what happens.
• Girls Love Chocolate: Wanda's love for chocolate is shown in full force to the point where she completely forgets the lesson she was trying to teach Timmy about healthy eating before he made the wish.
  Wanda: Did you say "chocolate"? Make the wish, MAKE THE WISH!
• Hammerspace: Cosmo is able to store dozens of random things in the folds of his fat, including: extra snacks, his wand, a puppy, two cowboys, a tire, an airplane, an elephant, and even Wanda. He finds it so convenient that he actually keeps his fat physique after everything else was wished back to normal, despite how difficult it is for him to find the things stored in him.
• Incredibly Lame Fun: In A.J.'s family, on Tuesday, they multiply fractions for dessert.
• Kevlard: When most of the cast gets fat thanks to Timmy's wish, it's easier to describe them as human wrecking balls. Mr. Turner has to use his big belly to bust open Timmy's bedroom door, and multiple characters tumble through walls and floors without any injuries.
• Lean and Mean: Inverted. After Mr. Crocker gets huge alongside everyone else, he takes a moment to let his class stuff their faces for no reason other than simple enjoyment.
• Not So Above It All: Wanda, who's usually the sane and rational one, is tempted by the idea of a world full of nothing but chocolate and demands that Timmy make his dessert wish. It's heavily lampshaded by Cosmo, who repeatedly points out that Wanda is usually the godparent to be logical in these situations.
• Oh, Crap!: All of the kids crashing through the school floor after eating too much dessert causes the Earth's orbit to fall out of balance and sends it straight for the sun, which immediately sends everyone into a panic.
  Sanjay: Aah! We are hurtling toward the sun for a molten date with death! Roll! Roll for your lives!
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: A running gag in the episode is that Cosmo tries in vain to take up the mantle of being the voice of reason on the consequences of the all-dessert wish while Wanda is recklessly encouraging it. He even lampshades it every time it happens.
  Cosmo: I'm not usually the skeptical one, and I don't even know what "skeptical" means, but when Wanda eats a lot of sugar, she tends to...
  Wanda: What Cosmo doesn't know is nobody gives a hoot about his opinion!
• Popping Buttons: While snacking on more dessert with the rest of the class, Trixie snaps her belt open.
• Rule of Three: Timmy gets three whole dessert rejects in the beginning. First he gets a literal "carrot cake" from his parents, second he gets a math book from A.J. and his parents (they multiply fractions for dessert on Tuesdays), and last he gets a sundae made with broccoli and Brussels sprouts from Mark, which are tooth decaying treats on Yugopatamia.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mark plans on ditching the Earth when it starts careening into the sun, and refuses to give Timmy his last can of spinach cobbler, which is the only vegetable-based food on the planet that can give Wanda the energy she needs to undo the wish.
  Timmy: So you're saying you won't help me save my doomed planet?!
  Mark: Uh, yeah?
• Shout-Out:
  • After Cosmo mentions that the sugar rush will eventually wear off and "something to do with weight" will happen next, we jump to a timecard that says: "28 Days Later...".
  • Wanda suddenly gaining strength when she eats Mark's can of spinach cobbler is a rather obvious nod to the trademark ability of Popeye the Sailor.
• Skewed Priorities: When the kids crashing through the school floor sends an earthquaking shockwave throughout Dimmsdale, the mayor seems more concerned about how well his pants fit.
  Mayor: Chompy! ...Do these pants make my butt look big?
• Space Whale Aesop: Everyone should eat a healthy balanced diet with only occasional junk food or else they'll become so obese that their collective weight will drag the Earth out of orbit and spiraling into the Sun.
• Stealth Pun: After Timmy's dessert wish is granted, Cosmo and Wanda disguise themselves as milk cartons on Timmy's lunch tray at school. After Wanda eats Timmy's ice cream sandwich, Cosmo takes note of the words "Low Fat" on her disguise and remarks "Not for long."
• Stuffed into a Locker: 28 days into Timmy's dessert wish, everyone becomes overweight except for Mark, who, like all Yugopotamians, only eats healthy food for dessert. The bullies decide to stuff Mark in the locker because he was the only thin one. However, a near-whole month of eating nothing but desserts made the bullies so unhealthy their would-be-victim didn't even need to walk any faster to escape.
• Sugar Causes Hyperactivity: Timmy's wish for all the food in the world to be dessert gives everyone a sugar rush since there's nothing healthy in their stomachs to absorb the sweets. Traffic moves at the speed of light, world records get set in all sports, and Chet Ubetcha writes five operas while grouting his bathroom. Chet also manages to do his news show in just five minutes and spends the remaining 55 minutes running a marathon. Meanwhile, an entire day of school is held in just three minutes. Soon, the sugar rush wears off, and 28 days later, everyone becomes morbidly obese.
• Temporary Bulk Change: Nearly everyone in the episode becomes extremely fat after 28 days of Timmy's dessert wish. The only exceptions are: Mark^note since he eats vegetable-flavored dessert, and two cowboys Cosmo has stored in his fat folds.
• Tempting Fate: After Timmy sees a larger Francis unable to bully anyone because he lacks energy, he remarks "This turned out to be a pretty good wish after all!" In two minutes, though, the Earth is flying directly toward the Sun as a result of everyone gaining so much weight.
• Weight Taller: Shorter characters like Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda are noticeably taller when fattened up from the dessert wish.
• Weight Woe: Timmy's initially fine with everybody being fat until the health problems that go along with obesity start becoming more apparent. Most of the kids in Dimmsdale Elementary can only walk for a few steps before getting winded (primarily rolling to move instead) while Cosmo and Wanda can't use their wings to fly. Timmy doesn't have the energy to climb the stairs of his own house, and Wanda can't even lift her arm to use her wand.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: The Earth begins falling out of orbit because of "a significant shift in weight in one area of the planet—oh, say the size of Dimmesdale." Later, though, we hear that "all the food in the world is dessert"—which means that far larger cities, and even entire countries, have been eating nothing but sweets for nearly a month. One of them should have knocked the planet out of whack far sooner than Dimmesdale does, but presumably Rule of Funny is in full force here.
• You Are Fat: Despite the overarching moral of the episode, this trope is subverted in that everyone generally accepts becoming fat after the dessert wish, though the kids are so fat and round they move almost exclusively by rolling. Timmy even acknowledges this.
  Timmy: Well, at least now we live in a world where no one makes fun of you for being fat anymore.
  • Also inverted as all the overweight kids at school make fun of Mark^note an alien disguised as a human kid who also only eats vegetable-flavored desserts for being thin.
    Francis: Hey, everybody, it's the fit kid! Let's stuff him in a locker because he'll fit.

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