The irony of being wrapped up in "No Campaigning..." tape is not lost.
Production Code: 221
Jake goes up against his new rival, a foreign exchange student and wizard-in-training Nigel Thrall, for the position of Student Body President. Both use their magical abilities to one-up each other, with Jake ultimately using a magical mind-reading helmet that allows him to hear the thoughts of his constituents.
Tropes:
- Amusing Injuries: Jake's previous skateboarding challenger has only just been declared as being in stable condition after a week in the hospital. A lesson to never use a do-rag as a helmet.
- Attack of the Political Ad: Jake and Nigel's campaigns quickly become less about pumping themselves up and more about tearing each other down.
- Battle Rapping: Jake challenges Nigel to a rapping contest only to find Nigel verbally pounds him in it.
- Chekhov's Gun: When Jake first uses the mind-reading helmet to read the minds of the voters, he's almost overwhelmed by the noise of their thoughts. Later, Jake figures out that the only way to beat the ogre warrior wearing said helmet is to create a false fire drill, bringing out an entire school body of loud thoughts to overwhelm the ogre warrior.
- Dark Horse Victory: At the end of the episode, it's neither Jake nor Nigel who becomes Student Body President. It's Trixie and Spud.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Jake and Nigel come to a respectful understanding once they work together to defeat Maximinus.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: Played with. It's not so much reading minds that's terrible as it is reading them all at the same time.
- Not So Above It All: Lao Shi may be older than Jake, but that doesn't mean he's above competing immaturely with his competitor.
- Piss-Take Rap: Both Jake and Nigel's rap disses are pretty awful, though the other students still declare Nigel to be the winner.
- Poke in the Third Eye: The ogre gladiator Maximinus has a helmet that allows him to hear his opponent's thoughts and thus counter his fighting moves; Jake bests him by having Nigel pull the school alarm bell and overwhelming Maximinus with a blast of tween angst.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: This episode introduces Chick Boomgarden, a rival shop-owner for Lao-Shi.
- The Stinger: A Chick Boomgarden-backed PSA that attempts to smear Lao-Shi's reputation as a shop-owner.
- Telepathy: The magical helmet grants this.
