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Recap / Recess S 2 E 17 Economics Of Recess

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After being sick for a few days, TJ returns to find that the playground is now utilizing monster stickers as a form of currency. He tries to get in on the action, only to become focused on acquiring wealth over his friends.


Tropes for this episode include:

  • Adults Are Useless: Even more so than usual in this episode, as none of the teachers step in when the Safety Rangers charge kids a toll to *enter the building* and even get a drink of water. Having to fork over stickers to participate in activities at recess is one thing, but Miss Finster or Principal Prickly should have stepped in the minute that kids started to demand payment for basic school needs.
  • Call-Back: The window in Kelso's has an advertisement for Ajimbo.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The lick-and-stick alien stamps ("They come all the way from Japan!") that Mr. Kelso offers when he's sold out of stickers are what the gang uses to flood the playground and ruin TJ's fortune.
  • Comically Missing the Point: After being told that he possesses four out of every five stickers, TJ declares that he must obtain the rest. Gretchen tries to make him see reason by pointing out that everyone either works for him or stands around and does nothing, to which he decides to start charging people for doing nothing.
  • Every Man Has His Price: TJ pays the Ashleys four stickers to get them to stop saying "scandalous."
  • Here We Go Again!: TJ leaves to earn back his fortune at the end since with no stickers, he can't play with his friends. This time, however, he signed an agreement that he can only own about ten percent of the currency used on the playground.
  • Jerkass Realization: After he loses his sticker fortune, TJ mopes on the seesaw, the one place that a person won't get charged for using it. When his friends come and ask if he needs a lift, TJ says that he doesn't deserve a lift, having forgotten that he was earning stickers so that he could play with them. They forgive him, but Gretchen makes him sign an agreement that he can only own ten percent of the stickers or stamps on the playground.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: TJ was sick for a few days and thus wasn't aware there's now a currency on the playground.
  • Motive Decay: Initially, TJ just wanted to earn enough stickers so he could participate in the same activities as his friends. However, he becomes so focused on hustling and earning as many as he can he forgets why he wanted them in the first place.
  • No Sympathy: Most of the kids don't have any for TJ when he's confused about having to pay stickers for items as simple as getting a drink of water. His friends are the exception, covering TJ's initial "payments". As turnabout goes, TJ behaves the same way towards them when he gets his fortune.
  • Orphaned Punchline: In one scene, Menlo tells a joke that ends with "And so I tell Miss Lemon, you don't file it under MC; you file it under MAC!"
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Randall becomes TJ's financial advisor, and later runs off with TJ's candy stash when he sees how crazy his boss has become.
  • Whammy Bid: Randall takes control of all the playground balls and auctions them off every day. During one such auction, TJ bids 300 stickers for all the balls.


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