The show's director tells the main four that they have gone over the budget and need to make a few changes to the episode to cut down on costs.
"Let's Play at Saving Money" contains the following tropes:
- Ascended to Carnivorism: Stumpy, a squirrel, eats sausages.
- In Medias Res: The episode starts with the main four in the middle of re-enacting Les Misérables with no explanation given.
- Product Placement: In order to get proper funding for the show, the main four are forced to sign contracts with numerous companies to advertise their products on the show by mentioning them as much as possible.
- Pyrrhic Victory: The main four and the director can't agree on the show's budget; the director needs them to save money, which means they can't make their Les Misérables themed episode go as planned. They end up acquiring a bigger budget by getting Product Placement deals, which the director approves of, but they spend so much time promoting the products that it distracts from the plot anyway.
- This Is Reality: The director tells off the main four for a) spending too much of the budget on animation, and b) inviting the wrath of Moral Guardians.
- Scooby Stack: The main four are all called to the show's director's office. Feeling nervous, they all poke their heads through the door at the same time, creating a Scooby Stack.
- Take That!:
- The main four try to make their own episode using figurines of themselves and a video camera. The video turns out poorly made. Mr. Cat says that the episode they made was incomprehensible, "like a Danish movie".
- After lamenting that money is being prioritized over artistic creativity, the main four remove the special effects, the backgrounds, all the props, and the script itself, leaving literally nothing for the episode. Later in the episode, they get the chance to increase the budget by doing Product Placement for a sausage manufacturing company, but get so carried away with promoting the product that the rest of the episode is essentially a glorified sausage commercial.
- Take That, Audience!: The main four make their own TV show and it's clearly a parody of the actual show. It makes no sense to anyone and everyone hates it except Stumpy, the resident moron. Stumpy also mentions that the only reason he liked it was shipping the characters in their show who were supposed to be based on Mr. Cat and Kaeloonote , a reference to how many fans ship those two, focus exclusively on their relationship instead of the other aspects of the show, and constantly bombard the show's social media pages with comments about how they want Kaeloo and Mr. Cat to admit their feelings.
