Will they Zap It, or Scrap It?
Odd Squad Gadget Testers
In case we wanna test the gadgets we make
Odd Squad Gadget Testers
Not testing them is probably a mistake
— The first opening lines of the theme song
Odd Squad Gadget Testers is a short-form Spin-Off series based on Odd Squad. It was one of two that were released on April Fool's Day as part of the Odd Squad Movie Marathon for PBS Kids Family Night (and also as a presumed prank, though if that was the intent or not is unknown).
This series is hosted by Omar and Orla, self-proclaimed "Odd Squad Gadget Testers" who test various gadgets sent to them by the Gadget Laboratory at the Big Office and see whether they should be "zapped" or "scrapped". The gadgets can range from being Awesome, but Impractical to being handy when fending off villains, but there's always a math-based gadget that is tested.
The four shorts released can be viewed on the PBS Kids Video App as well as its online video player
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For the other short-form series released on the same day as this one, see Odd Squad Book of Games.
Go grab these tropes and we'll see how things go:
- Aesop Amnesia: Invoked for the sake of forcing the aesop in "The Multiply-by-Two-inator". Orla doesn't know what the multiplication symbol is and believes it's an X, despite having learned about multiplication numerous times before in Odd Squad.
- Aside Glance: In "The Add-by-Three-inator", Orla gives one of these along with a head-shake when Omar hurls the Fix-a-Chair-inator with enough strength to tear a pretty sizeable hole in the Mobile Unit van. While he looks for a Fix-a-Hole-in-the-Van-inator gadget, she gives another one towards the audience that's coupled with a rather hilarious deadpan expression.
- Awesome, but Impractical: All of the gadgets that are eventually scrapped look sturdy and decent, but what they do proves to either be detrimental to the user or completely worthless. One stellar example is the Make-Another-Gadget-inator Gadget, which can only be used to create a copy of the same gadget.
- An example of a gadget that is put in the "zap it" category but falls under the trope is the Paperweight-inator, which can't be activated and is only to be used as a paperweight.
- Black Comedy Burst: Downplayed. Upon testing the Fast-Talker-inator gadget in "The Subtract-by-Six-inator" and determining whether to "zap it or scrap it", Orla remarks that "life already goes by too fast", which is rather innocuous but certainly not the first time she's had a Black Comedy moment in the franchise.
- Blunt "Yes": Omar has an inverted reaction to this trope upon seeing what the One-Legged-Chair-inator does.Omar: [while looking dead-straight at the camera] No.
- Butt-Monkey: Although Orla and Omar both test gadgets, Omar gets the short end of the stick when it comes to gadgets that need to be tested on living things, as he always serves as the test subject for them.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Typical fare for Orla, who refers to confetti as "tiny shiny paper".
- Comical Overreacting: Orla, master of the Law of Disproportionate Response and frequent offender of this trope to the point where it's a Compressed Vice.
- She calls a chair with only one leg "a living nightmare".
- To say nothing of her showing her Leeroy Jenkins personality trait and attempting to hurl a gadget offscreen (putting it in the "scrap it" category) in "The Multiply-by-Two-inator" on the sole basis that she can't understand what the symbol "x2" means. Luckily, Omar stops her before she can get too far.
- In "The Subtract-by-Six-inator", when she realizes that she should have emptied the recycling bin full of gadgets as Omar told her to do earlier, she believes that the episode is ruined because she failed to empty out the bin. Omar responds by offering an alternative — simply moving the gadgets to the right side of the table — but Orla begins to complain about how the table is now dirty and how the audience shouldn't have to "look at this filth".
- Confetti Drop: The Party-Hearty-inator gadget invokes this by sending down a rain of confetti when activated. Omar states that it's useful when agents are celebrating the defeat of a villain. The end of "The Multiply-by-Two-inator" has Orla firing the gadget to celebrate the completion of making their first episode of the Odd Squad Gadget Testers series.
- Contrived Coincidence: Almost all of the gadgets sent to the Mobile Unit have a label on them that state its name. The only ones that don't are the mathematical-based ones, which in turns leads into the mathematical Aesop of each episode.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: The purpose of the Pizza-Maker-inator is to make anything into pizza. Omar, being a Big Eater with a large appetite, decides to use a pen of all objects as the test subject. When the gadget is used on it, it turns into a cheese pizza that comes in a pizza box. Orla and Omar take a slice each to try, and Orla remarks that "you can barely taste the pen!" Which in turn causes the gadget to be put in the "zap it" category.
- Cut and Paste Environments: Like Odd Squad Book of Games, the background from the credits of Season 2 of OddTube is used as the background of the credits for this series. However, it's not so glaring of an issue considering Orla is one of the co-hosts.
- Department of Redundancy Department: One gadget that Orla and Omar test is named the "Make-Another-Gadget-inator Gadget".
- Didn't Think This Through: Orla neglected to empty a recycling bin full of gadgets that Omar told her to throw out earlier, which creates issues when the partner pair can't throw away the Make-Another-Gadget-inator Gadget due to it being too full.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Omar, who is known for possessing a high amount of speed and stamina rather than possessing physical strength, manages to throw a relatively small gadget hard enough to create a hole in the Mobile Unit van. Orla, who is the most physically strong of the Mobile Unit as a group, chides him and tells him to leave all the tossing of "scrap it" gadgets to her.
- Expository Theme Tune: The series has a rather funky (but lengthy) techno theme tune sung by Orla and Omar, who explain the premise of the show and why it's so important to test gadgets to begin with.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Occurs at the end of "The Multiply-by-Two-inator".Omar: Hey Orla, with these eight coins, we could...Orla: Both get juice boxes from the Odd Squad vending machine?Omar: Exactly! I love how you finish my...[pause as Orla stares at him with a blank expression]Omar: [defeated] Sentences. I love how you finish my sentences.
- Gadgeteer Genius: One opening line of the theme song, "in case we want to test the gadgets we make", implies that Omar and Orla might have some Scientist blood in them if they build and test their own gadgets. Since the Mobile Unit department has the combined duties of the Investigation and Science departments in addition to their own individual duties (such as helping out other agents worldwide), however, this is justified.
- Hall of Mirrors: Omar compares the Make-Another-Gadget-inator Gadget to "a funhouse of mirrors, without the fun".
- Heads or Tails?: The Flip-a-Coin-inator, when activated, fires out a coin that flips in the air and lands on either heads or tails. It's scrapped because Omar and Orla have the physical capability to do that themselves instead of using magical means.
- High-Five Left Hanging: Omar tries to give Orla a high-five in the beginning of "The Divide-by-Two-inator" when explaining how the show works. Orla is quick to shoot him down.Omar: And then we high-five!Orla: No we do not.Omar: No we do not.
- How Did You Know? I Didn't: One line in the theme song takes the form of this.Don't ask us how we know, we just know
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Inverted. Orla takes out the Invisible-inator and Omar states that he's willing to place a bet on the gadget's function being to turn the target invisible. He then tells Orla to test it out, but by that point the Ancient Agent has already activated the gadget for use on Omar himself.
- Life of the Party: This is the purpose of the Party-Hearty-inator. Activating it will cause confetti and streamers to rain down on the user and the surrounding area.
- Lighter and Softer: When compared to the original series, Odd Squad Gadget Testers doesn't have much action and doesn't have any antagonists.
- Literal Metaphor: Orla takes the phrase "see you later, alligator" to mean saying goodbye to an actual alligator.
- Minimalist Cast: Orla and Omar are the only characters to appear in every single episode.
- Motor Mouth: Invoked with the Fast-Talker-inator, which allows its target to speak very quickly almost to the point of being unintelligible. Orla tries it on Omar, and he speaks so quickly that not even closed-captions pick it up.
- Multiple Demographic Appeal: Shares this trope with Odd Squad Book of Games. While that series is intended for younger viewers, emphasized by having the two youngest characters of the Mobile Unit as hosts, this series is generally meant for older viewers, emphasized by having the two oldest characters of the Mobile Unit as hosts instead (although both have math lessons aimed towards both older and younger viewers). In addition, whereas the target demographic is meant to try and emulate some of the games from the titular Book of Games, gadgets aren't as easily replicated in real life, so the only benefit older viewers get is learning about the four basic arithmetic operations (including multiplication and division, which older kids usually start learning about).
- Mundane Utility: Upon pulling out the Add-by-Three-inator, Omar and Orla wonder what the gadget can be useful for. It does have a lot of practical uses (such as cloning an agent to give them the upper hand against a villain), but they decide to use it to...add three legs to a chair that was conjured up using the One-Legged-Chair-inator. This use alone puts the gadget solely in the "zap it" category.
- No Fourth Wall: Like its sister series, the fourth wall is pretty much nonexistent given that Orla and Omar speak directly to the audience and are aware that they're making a series (although given the main show's Medium Awareness, the latter isn't too surprising).
- Professor Guinea Pig: In "The Multiply-by-Two-inator", Omar refers to him and Orla as "Odd Squad guinea pigs", only for Orla to tell him not to confuse it with the actual Odd Squad guinea pig that is a pet, named Ontario.
- Recycled Soundtrack: "Is There a Doctor in the House?" plays at the end of "The Subtract-by-Six-inator", with Omar beatboxing as the song plays.
- Rule of Three: In "The Subtract-by-Six-inator", Omar tests the Make-Another-Gadget-inator Gadget three times. Double-subverted in that he ends up making three copies of the same gadget instead of just one.
- Simple, yet Awesome: The Flip-a-Coin-inator is a simple gadget used for deciding Heads or Tails? matches. Put to use effectively, however, it can serve as easy money to an agent and make them go from Rags to Riches, especially considering that Odd Squad as an organization doesn't appear to give their employees pay of any kind. Despite this, Omar and Orla still deem the gadget fit to scrap because they could just flip a coin themselves.
- The same can go for the Multiply-by-Two-inator. In "The Multiply-by-Two-inator", Omar and Orla decide to use the gadgets on the quarters they conjured up using the aforementioned Flip-a-Coin-inator, bringing the total of quarters to four, and then use it again to bring the total to eight. When the two gadgets are used together, it can also be a source of easy income for the user, but despite Orla and Omar deciding to "zap" the Multiply-by-Two-inator (i.e., keep it), the Flip-a-Coin-inator remains in the "scrap it" category, and they decide to use the eight quarters they have to get juice boxes from a vending machine.
- Skewed Priorities: The Fix-a-Chair-inator is put in the "scrap it" pile on the sole basis that Orla and Omar don't need the gadget. This is because they used the Add-by-Three-inator to fix a chair earlier.
- Spell My Name with a "The": All four episodes lack a "the" in the official title that precedes the gadget name.
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Spiritual Successor: Can be considered one to Odd Squad Gadget Guide, a series of interstitials hosted by Oona that airs in rotation in between Odd Squad episodes and features Oona discussing the history and use of various gadgets. - Team Pet: If the episode "The Multiply-by-Two-inator" is any indication, the Mobile Unit has one in the form of Ontario, a guinea pig who is also employed with Odd Squad as an agent.
- Truncated Theme Tune: The credits of each episode have the instrumental of the final notes of the theme song play, instead of the entire song.
- Both "The Subtract-by-Six-inator" and the "Multiply-by-Two-inator" play the trope straight, as they have the theme song cut down, leaving only the first few and last few verses.
- Both the episodes "The Divide-by-Two-inator" and "The Add-by-Three-inator", on the other hand, avert the trope, as they feature the entire 32-second theme song.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Heavily averted. The entire point of Orla and Omar being Gadget Testers is to test gadgets that come from the Big Office's Gadget Lab and see if they are viable to use or not, but they're not shy about saying how risky the ordeal is in the theme song.Odd Squad(It's okay)Gadget(To be concerned)Testers(Just a little)Odd Squad Gadget Testers
- Unwanted Assistance: At the end of "The Subtract-by-Six-inator", Omar offers to help Orla empty out the recycling bin full of gadgets. The only issue is that his "help" isn't necessarily helpful, but Orla doesn't seem to mind very much.Omar: Now what?Orla: Now we must right our wrongs and empty the bin of recycling.Omar: Can I help?Orla: By "help" do you mean singing and dancing beside me?Omar: You know me well.
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Voice-Only Cameo: The voice that comes out of the See-You-Later-Alligator gadget is that of Hattie Kragten, who is the voice of the Van Computer in the main Odd Squad series. The Van Computer itself does not make an appearance in this series proper. - Worldbuilding: The Big Office has a lab where new gadgets are made. Once they're created, they are sent to the Mobile Unit for testing, although it's unknown what the process of testing was before the department was formed.
