Episode - Season 3, Episode 5 (Production Code: 3-30)
First Aired - July 29, 2008
A commercial plays for "Rusty Venture's Day Camp for Boy Adventurers." Outside the Venture compound, Rusty is sitting at an autograph table as Brock voices his concerns that Rusty is charging exorbitant prices for the kids to attend, and then charging them even more for autographs and snacks. They are approached by the Murderous Moppets, disguised as children. Rusty complains about how ugly they are while Brock sees right through their disguise.
Billy Quizboy, Action Johnny, The Order of the Triad, and the Pirate Captain are all running booths where they make presentations to the kids. Several kids torment Billy while Action Johnny, now clean from drugs, still proves to be highly unstable. Hank and Dean are approached by one of the campers, a teenager named Dermott Fictel. Dean flees but Hank is drawn to Dermott, who tells Hank wildly exaggerated stories about his supposed black ops-father.
Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, wanting to show off her new costume design to her husband, catches him talking to the Moppets through his laptop computer and accuses him of arching Dr. Venture.
Dermott taunts Brock while Brock is giving a judo demonstration to the campers. Dermott claims that his hands are registered as lethal weapons and that he could easily beat Brock in a fight. This enrages Brock, but before Brock can attack, Rusty pulls his "people mover" between them to pick up the kids for a tour of the compound.
Hank and Dermott make fun of Rusty during the ride until Rusty threatens Hank (who is pretending not to know as he feels it would startle his fans to know that he, their idol, has had sex.) The people mover arrives at "E-Den," a bio-dome for training astronauts. The children are attacked by a gorilla who lives within, and one of them is killed in addition to Billy getting his mechanical hand torn off.
Brock gets advice on dealing with the obnoxious Dermott from Dr. Orpheus. Brock ignores Orpheus' lesson and concludes that, while he cannot attack a kid, he could get another kid to do it. He finds Dean and attempts to train him, but Dean proves utterly pathetic in a fight. Unable to find Hank, Brock tries to recruit the Moppets, but they only want to kill the boy. Brock looks into the Moppet's spy camera and threatens The Monarch to call them back. He also tells him that Dr. Venture really misses him.
The campers gather around the main stage for show in which Action Johnny is to be joined by a special guest. Dr. Z, a retired supervillain who once arched Johnny, shows up as the "special guest." Johnny has a breakdown and must be carried away by Brock. In the seats, Dermott makes fun of Brock to Hank, Dean, and Triana. He then starts insulting/hitting on Triana which angers Dean. Dean flies into a rage and attacks Dermott. Rusty goes to break up the fight but is stopped by Brock, who is enjoying it.
Suddenly, Sgt. Hatred arrives to arch Venture. His henchmen light the compound shrubbery on fire. Brock attacks and brutally kills one of the henchmen. Venture meets with Hatred, and it turns out that Hatred read the time on his arching schedule wrong. Hatred sees Dr. Z, his childhood hero, and decides to stay. Hatred has his henchmen take photos with the surveillance equipment of he and Dr. Z.
Eventually, the parents arrive to pick up their kids. Dr. Venture managed to clone the child that died in the E-Den and fools the parents into believing that he is the original. Hank says goodbye to his Dermott, asking him to come hang out sometime. Dermott gets into the car where his mother asks if Dermott met "him." Dermott replies "yeah, he was ok. Are you sure he's my real father?" (Implying it to be Brock.)
The Stinger shows Dr. Mrs. The Monarch congratulating the Moppets for succeeding in their mission by going along with what The Monarch wanted, even though they failed him, apparently intentionally.
Tropes:
- Celibate Hero: Lampshaded by Rusty when he warns Hank and Dean not to tell the campers that he has children as the kids' heads would explode upon discovering he has had sex.
- Death of a Child: An unfortunate kid left behind in E-Den gets killed.
- Fake Crossover: The various stories told by the Pirate Captain are pulled directly from episodes of Scooby-Doo, particularly the part about getting to meet "the guy who did the voice fer Inspector Gadget." This is one of many references in the series that implies that it shares a universe with Scooby Doo.
- Large Ham: Dr. Z. And the kids love him for it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: "This isn't all about you, Hank. These kids wanna see Rusty Venture. Maybe when there's a cartoon called The Venture Brothers it'll be different."
- Monster of the Week: Discussed by the Pirate Captain at his booth. He touts the benefits of being a "small-time diversionary menace," playing off his original role as a parody of a Scooby-Doo villain, as opposed to a "career" supervillain like those in the Guild.
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Dr. Mrs. The Monarch's new costume has an open neckline that exposes her cleavage and navel.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The Murderous Moppets dressed as children. It does seem to fool Rusty, but it's obvious to Brock and the viewer.
- Shout-Out:
- When a camper asks Rusty "what happened to you" in regard to him growing up, Rusty replies "I left Neverland and married Wendy."
- The Pirate Captain's exhibit is about being a "small-time diversionary menace" rather than a career supervillain. This is a reference to his original role as a parody of Scooby-Doo villains. He also mentions several of his adventures, which are straight out of Scooby-Doo stories:
- The "Ghost Miner 49er" he mentions is another villain from Scooby-Doo.
- He claims that his career has allowed him to meet Cher and "the guy who did the voice for Inspector Gadget," both of whom guest starred on The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
- The Pirate Captain poses at one point like the pirate mascot for Captain Morgan rum.
- Rusty claims to have talked with gorillas before. He then addresses the gorilla as "Koko" and mentions their love of kittens. Koko was a real-life gorilla who was taught sign language (Rusty's attempt at communication sounds like her halting "speech") and did indeed love kittens.
- When Billy expresses horror at seeing a child get disemboweled, Rusty lectures him, "Well, you always wanted to be an adventurer! Not like answering trivia, is it, boy?" A reference to the line Han Solo gave to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: A New Hope.
- Title Drop: Dr. Venture says both "the buddy system" and "the Venture Brothers" at different points.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Brock is less than thrilled with Rusty passing off a clone as the actual kid who died to the parents. Rusty simply comments how he saw signs of cancer in the original's DNA, while the clone already has that problem fixed.
- Wimp Fight: Subverted by Dean when he fights Dermott, after the latter insults Triana. Dean is crying, flailing, there's snot coming out of his nose, he's shrieking... and he wins. Dermott would later claim, very unconvincingly, that he was sick.
