Helen, Alice, T.D., and the dogs are eating at the corner store, when Truman excitedly runs up and says that there is a contest that involves performing a two-minute opera you made up onstage. He suggests making his opera an educational piece about the multiplication tables, focusing on a scientist and his invention: a machine that doubles everything. He wants to play the scientist and have him copy himself, but he can't think of anyone to play his doubles.
Alice then gets the idea for her opera: acting out a game of hockey. However, Helen thinks this is too close to a real game of hockey to qualify as an opera. T.D. then gets an idea for his opera: four crime-fighting opera singers helping a policewoman and her dog catch a bank robber, only to fall into a trap with the walls closing in. Alice, however, thinks this will be too hard, especially within only two minutes.
On the sidewalk, Alice, T.D., and Truman start arguing over whose idea was better. Helen decides that they should vote, however, they end up on a tie, since Helen couldn't decide and the rest voted for themselves. T.D. decides to have Martha break the tie, but she can't decide either. Helen then comes up with her own idea: an opera about how Martha learned to speak.
Everyone agrees with this, so they prepare the props and costumes and go to the contest. They perform the opera and it concerns Martha eating the soup, finding she can speak, not shutting up, being told to be quiet, being sad, then stopping the burglar when the Lorraines are at the movies. Then, they win a prize: tickets to another opera.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: In T.D.'s imaginary opera, the dog wears a police hat.
- Alliterative Title: Truman thinks of making an opera called Times Tables.
- Animate Inanimate Object: One of the opera singers T.D. makes up is a statue.
- Buffy Speak: After Truman defines an opera, Alice says, "Oh! One of those singy things!".
- Continuity Nod: The opera references what happened in the first episode.
- Damsel in Distress: In T.D.'s opera idea, Brunehilda, along with three men, falls into a trap with the walls closing in.
- Distressed Dude: In T.D.'s imaginary opera, three guys, along with a woman (Brunehilda), fall into a trap with the walls closing in.
- Edutainment Show:
- Conversed when Truman wants to make his opera an educational opera about the times tables, starring a scientist and his machine that doubles everything.
- Four kids make their opera an educational piece about numbers.
- Evil Laugh: In T.D.'s imaginary opera, the bank robber chuckles evilly.
- Fantasy Sequence: The kids are shown imagining how their operas will go.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The opera Martha and her friends create has the same name as the show.
- Magic Music: In T.D.'s opera idea, one guy has a flute that's magic and can hypnotise people.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: In T.D.'s opera idea, Brunehilda can sing so loudly and high that she disintegrates the bank robber's motorcycle.
- Money Bag: The bank robber T.D. draws holds two bags with dollar signs on.
- Musical World Hypotheses:
- The "times two machine" song is in Truman's imagination, although he wants to write it for real.
- The songs sung in Martha Speaks: the Opera are written in-universe, and are an adaptation of a time which did not actually involve singing.
- No Name Given: T.D. doesn't name his flutist, statue, and crying clown.
- Ode to Food: One of the songs in the opera the kids put on is sung by Martha about the soup she's eating.
- Patter Song: When Martha sings the scene where she won't stop talking, she sings quickly.
- Professor Guinea Pig: In Truman's idea for the Times Tables opera, the scientist invents a "times two machine" that doubles everything, and tests it on himself, making copies of himself.
- Prone to Tears: T.D.'s opera idea features a clown who cries a lot.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: In T.D.'s imaginary opera, there are four crime-fighters who are said to be the only people qualified to save the day: a man who plays a magic flute, a sentient statue, a crying clown, and Brunehilda, all of whom are opera singers.
- Shout-Out: Martha sings about the soup to the tune of the theme from Carmen.
- Speak in Unison:
- In Truman's imaginary Times Tables play, the scientist and his clones sing in unison.
- In T.D's imaginary opera, the policewoman and her dog sing, then later say, "Good work, quartet!" in unison.
- When the kids are telling Martha what a bass voice sounds like, they sing, "Bass!" in unison.
- In the actual opera, the line "She ate the soup" is sung by the Lorraine parents in unison, then the line "From our neighbour" is sung by them and Helen in unison, then all of them and Martha sing the last few lines in unison.
- Visual Pun: T.D. wears a cat mask when dressed as a "cat" burglar.
