At Sweet Delights, Youngmee attempts to talk to Buttercream, but Buttercream does not respond back. Confused, Youngmee directly asks Blythe how she's able to talk to pets, but Blythe admits she never figured it out. Figuring if whatever happened to Blythe can happen to her too, Youngmee continues trying to talk to Youngmee, and Buttercream emits her usual nonsense words. When Blythe suggests that Youngmee's interpretation is not even close, Youngmee asks for Blythe to translate. Blythe, however, suggests that Buttercream is not the best individual to try it on, as Blythe realizes Buttercream usually spouts gibberish that even Blythe cannot understand.
At the Littlest Pet Shop. Mrs. Twombly receives Cheep-Cheep, a monkey with an electronic helmet. Asking if he hurts his head a lot, the owner, Professor Shuperman, reassures Mrs. Twombly that the helmet is the culmination of seven years of research, a computer translator of animal sounds to English that he hopes will earn him the Toppleton Award at the local university. Demonstrating the helmet, Shuperman asks Cheep Cheep a question but gets word salad back. When Mrs. Twombly asks him what "big hop Michigan" means, the professor laments that the helmet can only produce random words and concludes that this must be how animals speak. As his device won't win the award with such a serious flaw, he's decided to leave Cheep-Cheep at Littlest Pet Shop, where his cousin Minka spends her days, to spare Cheep-Cheep the embarrassment. Mrs. Twombly agrees to leave Cheep-Cheep at the shop for the day, and Shuperman leaves for the meeting.
At the day camp, Minka asks Cheep-Cheep what the helmet is for. Cheep-Cheep explains that it's meant to translate what he says into human speech, but shows what's wrong with it by turning it on and letting it butcher a sample phrase, which causes the nearby pets to burst out laughing. Having grown weary of other animals laughing, he points out Shuperman really does think he's saying these things and that there's irony in how the machine has to function properly for Cheep-Cheep to tell his owner it's not working. Cheep-Cheep laments how his life would be so much better if he could communicate effectively with his owner, which gets the other pets thinking about how their lives would benefit too. When the helmet throws out another garbled message at the end of his speech, however, Cheep-Cheep gives up, takes off the helmet, and sulks inside the car tire.
The helmet lands next to Pepper, who, sensing the comedy value of the helmet, puts it on and gets a nonsense sentence of her own. The other pets get a kick out of it but start fighting over the helmet, which bounces out the day camp and lands in front of the shop's front door. Russell scurries over to pick it up when Youngmee walks through the door. She stops in front of Russell and looks down to see Russell put the helmet on and speak into it, which emits the phrase "Happy Diphthong." Hearing it as Russell speaking to her, Youngmee calls Blythe over from the other room to tell her that she can now understand Russell. Russell then demonstrates the helmet to Blythe, and Blythe immediately figures the helmet is not translating accurately. Blythe turns the helmet off and asks Russell where it came from, so Russell gudes Blythe back to the day camp and points to Cheep-Cheep. Blythe puts the helmet back on Cheep-Cheep, and Cheep-Cheep rants to Blythe about how Professor Shuperman thinks he only speaks nonsense. When Youngmee asks what Cheep-Cheep said and Blythe repeats the last sentence of his explanation, Cheep-Cheep realizes that Blythe can understand him. However, Cheep-Cheep interprets it as the helmet working and that it was merely on the wrong setting. The other pets attempt to explain what happened, but Cheep-Cheep is too excited to hear them and opens a window, leaving the building attempting to get to Downtown City College getting directions from passersby.
Blythe and Youngmee soon return to the day camp to see that Cheep-Cheep is gone. Russell and Zoe tell Blythe about Cheep-Cheep leaving on his own, convinced that the helmet is working. Blythe understands that Cheep-Cheep confused Blythe's ability to talk to animals with the helmet's functions, so Blythe, Youngmee, Minka, and Russell head out to look for Cheep-Cheep. Minka and Russell cannot agree on which way Cheep-Cheep had gone, so they decide to split up, with Blythe taking Russell and Youngmee taking Minka, though Youngmee becomes nervous about her not being able to hear what Minka says.
Cheep-Cheep attempts to converse with a woman at a bus stop, but all she can hear are monkey screeches, and she ignores him. Blythe and Russell catch up to Cheep-Cheep at the bus stop, but before they can reach him, a bus comes by and picks the both of them up. On the bus, Cheep-Cheep tries to persuade the driver to let him ride without paying fare, but he gets booted out somewhere down the road. Undaunted, Cheep-Cheep finds a tall building across the street and decides to use it to find Downtown City College himself. This time, Minka and Youngmee reach Cheep-Cheep, but the monkeys start climbing up the side of the skyscraper with Youngmee helpless on ground level. Minka almost catches up to Cheep-Cheep, but he falls down the side of the building and lands on Youngmee's head. Cheep-Cheep leaps around looking for ideas as Youngmee scrambles about trying to find where he went, but both are turning around exactly so that they're facing away from each other. Minka tries to tell Youngmee that Cheep-Cheep is right behind her, but Youngmee can only hear it as monkey screeching, and Cheep-Cheep gets away, making Youngmee even more nervous.
As the five of them run about Downtown City, Cheep-Cheep finds a construction workers and attempts to ask him directions, but he demands Cheep-Cheep get off from him. A few seconds later, Blythe reaches the construction site and asks the worker if he's seen a monkey with a helmet, allowing Blythe to gain on Cheep-Cheep momentarily. Cheep-Cheep then goes to a park and asks a pair of hikers for directions, but they just watch confused, with Cheep-Cheep growing more frustrated but now within Youngmee's line of sight. The three groups then reach a monkey sanctuary at about the same time, where Cheep-Cheep accidentally scares a bicyclist and takes his bike, riding it into Downtown City College across an active pedestrian crossing zone.
Youngmee catches up to Cheep-Cheep at Downtown City College's main entrance, but the pedestrian crossing time runs out, and Youngmee loses him as traffic zooms by. Minka gestures to Youngmee to hold her up, and Minka spots, above the traffic, Cheep-Cheep entering the main doors. The light turns red for traffic again, and Youngmee can safely cross. As Youngmee reaches the front doors, she meets up with Blythe and Russell and excitedly tells Blythe that she's been communicating with Minka. Blythe requests to hold that excitement for later as they continue pursuing Cheep-Cheep within the college's halls.
Cheep-Cheep finds a sign indicating the Toppleton Award ceremony and barges in to meet Professor Shuperman and starts screeching in front of him, trying to tell him the helmet works. Blythe and Youngmee then enter the auditorium and see Cheep-Cheep desperately trying to explain himself, Youngmee realizing that it's not much different from her experiences with Minka. Minka, overhearing what Youngmee said, gets inspired and leaps down. One of the judges asks Shuperman to activate the helmet, which he reluctantly does—it creates a nonsensical phrase as usual, which causes the judges and audience to break into laughter, which only shames Shuperman further.
Minka makes her way down onto the stage and tells Cheep-Cheep that only Blythe could understand what he was saying and that the skill is unique to her but that he and Shuperman likely have a way of nonverbal communication. Cheep-Cheep gives it a shot, telling Shuperman he loves him and asking for a peanut butter treat, which Shuperman understands perfectly without understanding any of Cheep-Cheep's words. Still not convinced humans and animals can ever understand each other, Blythe heads onstage, compliments the professor on his findings, and explains to the judges and audience that he, like all other pet owners, had learned to exchange ideas without words and that humans have felt an impasse because of their overreliance on words. The judge on the left gives Blythe's speech some thought and asks Shuperman how he knew Cheep-Cheep wanted the peanut butter treat, but Shuperman admits he can't find an explanation for it. This gets the judges huddled together and the audience murmuring. They utimately decide to give the Toppleton Award to Shuperman for demonstrating that there are ways for humans and animals to convey themselves to each other.
Back at Sweet Delights, Youngmee gives another go with trying to speak with Buttercream, with Blythe watching. Still not able to understand Buttercream's words, Buttercream opens her mouth and points to it, so Youngmee pulls out a carrot and gives it to Buttercream, who scarfs it down and gives Youngmee a hug, delighting Youngmee and Blythe, with Youngmee realizing that there are other ways to understand animals without words.
This episode contains examples of (YMMV entries go here):
- Blatant Lies: Cheep-Cheep makes a paper-thin lie to try to avoid paying bus fare. Not that it matters.
- Book Ends: This episode begins and ends with Youngmee trying to speak with Buttercream on a Sweet Delights countertop.
- Captain Obvious: Minka explains how the Cave of the Lost Golden Monkey got its name.
- Casanova Wannabe: Pepper's owner is depicted in this episode as always trying to find women to date but screwing up in awkward ways. This may be the origin for Pepper's fascination with comedy.
- Cassandra Truth: Professor Shuperman's translator helmet causes this effect from Cheep-Cheep's perspective, who's repeatedly tried to make verbal contact with Shuperman but is always interpreted as gibberish.
- Cheep-Cheep becomes the recipient in Act 2, when the other pets try to tell Cheep-Cheep that Blythe is understanding him for reasons other than the helmet, which Cheep-Cheep does not pay attention to.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Professor Shuperman thinks that the helmet is translating animal speech accurately, just that the animals are just spouting nonsense.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: On the overhead map in Act 3, Cheep-Cheep is depicted as red, Blythe as yellow, and Youngmee as green, as well as the dashed lines indicating their paths.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Shuperman hears the nonsense words coming out of the helmet and thinks Cheep-Cheep really is saying those things rather than faulty translations from the helmet.
- When Cheep-Cheep asks the other pets how to get to Downtown City College, Minka suggests to study hard rather than any directions. Youngmee later interprets the phrase the same way.
- Continuity Nod: The Cold Open has Blythe reading the magazine she received in "Blythe's Big Idea."
- John and Clarissa, Zoe's owners seen in "Bad Hair Day," return during "If I Could Talk to the Humans." In addition, Penny's owner was previously seen in "Frenemies," although it wasn't clear then if he was the owner.
- The bus stop's bench has an advertisement for Treasure Hunters on it.
- Crowd Song: The last verse of "If I Could Talk to the Humans" has all seven of the regular pets singing in unison on an opera stage.
- Determinator: Professor Shuperman and his research, but also Cheep-Cheep, who spends much of his time convinced the helmet works as intended once he speaks to Blythe, and continues attempting to speak to humans despite repeated rejection.
- Determined Defeatist: Professor Shuperman is convinced his research has amounted to total failure, even after inadvertently demonstrating to the Toppleton judges that he could understand Cheep-Cheep at a rudimentary level. This has not stopped him from trying for seven years. It takes Blythe to point it out for him for him to realize he has made progress in his research.
- Empathic Environment: At the beginning of "If I Could Talk to the Humans," a sad Cheep-Cheep sings outside in the rain.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Cave of the Lost Golden Monkey.
- Excuse Me, Coming Through!: The light turns red for traffic, allowing a safe path, right before Youngmee loses Cheep-Cheep.
- Foreshadowing: Professor Shuperman says what one of the judges would later say almost verbatim to him at the Toppleton Awards.Shuperman: "Funny" isn't going to win the Toppleton Award.
- Funny Background Event: The overhead map shows Blythe and Youngmee stay strictly on public roads. Cheep-Cheep, on the other hand, took a shortcut by riding a bicycle through a long building.
- Goomba Springboard: Cheep-Cheep absorbs his fall using Youngmee's head.
- Hero Stole My Bike: Cheep-Cheep doesn't seem to care much about hijacking bicycles to get to where he needs to be.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Averted as of this episode. "If I Could Talk to the Humans" shows each of the Littlest Pet Shop regulars' owners, though who owns Minka, Sunil, and Vinnie are still unclear.
- Homemade Sweater from Hell: Russell's owner knits one for him. Apparently, it itches, but Russell is unable to tell his owner about it.
- Idiosyncratic Wipes: During "If I Could Talk to the Humans", water splashes onto Cheep-Cheep's face, Penny's book rises up and turns its pages, and Zoe zooms across the screen.
- Imagine Spot: Minka gets one as she tries to climb the building.
- Irony: Cheep-Cheep has realized that in order to tell the professor that his helmet is broken, it must be fully functioning first.
- "I Want" Song: "If I Could Talk to the Humans."
- Jump Scare: Happens to a bicyclist in Act 3 when he realizes there's a monkey on his back. Doesn't help that he leaps onto a tree with more monkeys.
- Large Ham: Both Youngmee and Minka in the fantasy in Act 2.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Russell and Minka decide upon splitting up outside to search for Cheep-Cheep. Russell travels with Blythe, and Minka travels with Youngmee.
- Literal Cliffhanger: Cheep-Cheep redirects the momentum of his fall by grabbing a pole jutting out the side of the skyscraper.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: Cheep-Cheep makes use of cartoon physics to avoid getting hurt when he lands.
- Now You Tell Me: Said word for word when Cheep-Cheep learns that Blythe is the only one who can understand pets.
- Obvious Rule Patch: Downtown City's buses specifically forbid monkeys from riding on them.
- "Open!" Says Me: Cheep-Cheep forcibly kicks the door open to Downtown City College's main auditorium.
- Properly Paranoid: Youngmee is justifiably worried when she has to search for Cheep-Cheep with only Minka, as Minka may want to tell her something without being able to understand. True to what Youngmee feared, her inability to speak with Minka causes Cheep-Cheep to get away more than once, nullifying Minka's advantage over Russell in locating Cheep-Cheep.
- Seen It All: Whereas other animals (except Minka) find the helmet's translations hilarious, Cheep-Cheep is frustrated, as he's heard the helmet misinterpret his words constantly.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode title is taken from an acclaimed album by The Beach Boys.
- Cheep-Cheep's angry rant at Shuperman is translated into a messed-up pair of lines from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at the Disney Theme Parks.
- Russell's owner resembles Carl Fredericksen. Bonus points for Carl traveling with someone named Russell in Up.
- Minka's fantasy is an homage to the Indiana Jones original trilogy, with a mishmash of traps taken nearly one-for-one.
- The overhead map of the chase in Act 3 has chiptune music similar to the Pac-Man main theme playing.
- Small Start, Big Finish: "If I Could Talk to the Humans" begins with Cheep-Cheep meekly singing by himself. By the end of the song, all of the main pets have joined in for an in-universe Show Stopper.
- Split Screen: Seen at the beginning of Act 3 to show that Youngmee and Minka, Blythe and Russell, and Cheep-Cheep are simultaneously running about the city in different locations.
- Super-Senses: Zoe claims, in "If I Could Talk to the Humans," that she can determine a human's job through smell.
- Take That!: When a woman at a bus stop ignores Cheep-Cheep.Cheep-Cheep: I tell you, those smartphones are ruining everything! Nobody talks to each other anymore.
- In "If I Could Talk to the Humans," the salesman Clarissa immediately turns down is holding a vacuum cleaner, making it a possible jab at unlicensed carpet cleaners working as scouts for burgling operations.
- Tastes Like Purple: Literally so, when Penny tries the helmet.
- Translation by Volume: In the cold open, Youngmee attempts to get through to Buttercream by screaming in her face. Buttercream just gets annoyed.
- Translation Train Wreck: Shuperman's machine has a lot of kinks to work out regarding accurate translations.
- Traveling Salesman: Zoe identifies one for Clarissa in "If I Could Talk to the Humans," allowing her to turn him away immediately.
