"The Fairy Flu" is the fifth short to air as part of Oh Yeah! Cartoons, premiering on May 1st, 1999.
Timmy gets invited to a party hosted by Vicky's little sister, Tootie, who has a crush on him. Just before the party, Cosmo gets the "fairy flu", an illness that makes fairies lose control of their magic, causing his sneezes to wreck havoc. Trouble soon ensues when Wanda gets it too...
The Fairy Flu provides tropes of:
- Batman Can Breathe in Space: When Cosmo poofs the house into space, Timmy and his parents have no problem breathing.
- Bewitched Amphibians: Cosmo briefly turns Vicky into a frog.
- Circling Birdies: Timmy sees stars after Cosmo sneezes a carousel on him.
- Dreaded Kids' Party Entertainer Job: The clown at Tootie's birthday party evidently regrets his career choice.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: Most characters look the same throughout the series and only Art Evolution explains their minor differences. Tootie is an exception. In her appearance here she wore a blue dress with pink leggings instead of a schoolgirl uniform, her glasses were pink instead of purple, and her pigtails were stylized differently. She also didn't have braces on her teeth.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- This short has no title card, something that would be reserved for the specials in the show proper.
- This episode invokes Batman Can Breathe in Space, when the show proper would avert it.
- Vicky and Tootie's relationship is different in this short; Vicky actually stands up for Tootie, and she even brings Tootie to Timmy's house while Timmy is recovering from his allergy attack.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: The butterfly being graphically killed by a truck on-screen at the start.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: Tootie tries to invoke this at the end. Unfortunately, she tries to feed Timmy the food that made him sick in the first place.
- Forced Transformation: Cosmo accidentally turns several people into things, ultimately turning Vicky into a dragon.
- Freudian Slip: One of Cosmo's sneezes turns Timmy's head into a toilet. As Wanda changes him back, she accidentally calls him "Toitey".
- Hidden in Plain Sight: Cosmo and Wanda disguise themselves as posters of... themselves.
- Ill-Timed Sneeze: Cosmo's sneezes are what set off the involuntary transformations.
- Plot-Induced Illness: Cosmo and Wanda get the fairy flu in this short. This illness is never mentioned again until Season 10, in "One Flu over the Crocker Nest"
- Power Incontinence: The Fairy Flu causes a fairy to lose control of their magic.
- Sad Clown: The clown at Tootie's party clearly regrets his life choices."No, Mom, I don't need college. I'm going to follow my dream and become a clown."
- Scaled Up: Vicky gets turned into a dragon at the end.
- Scary Teeth: One of the many accidental spells gives Tootie bear trap teeth.
- Sick Episode: It's called the 'Fairy Flu' for a reason.
- Smooch of Victory: Tootie gives Timmy one at the end.
- Spin the Bottle: Tootie drags Timmy into playing this game. Naturally, Tootie spins Timmy. It's made worse when his fairies accidentally give her bear trap teeth.
