Recap / The Fairly Odd Parents S 1 E 7 Father Time

Original air date: 4/20/2001 (produced in 2000)

Episode number: 4a

When Timmy wishes for heat vision and uses it to do his chores faster, he accidentally melts his dad's trophy. Not understanding what the big deal is, Timmy goes back in time and prevents his dad from winning the trophy in the first place, but he ends up sending his dad to a military school and changing the future into a dictatorship.

Received a novelization as the picture book Blast From the Past.

And here's where I'd put the tropes — IF I HAD ANY!:

• Artistic License – History:
  • Bill Gates was fourteen to fifteen years old in 1970, but the boy implied to be him looks like he's around Timmy's age (10).
  • On that note, Bill Gates did not invent the Internet.
• Bad Future: Timmy messing with the timeline ended up causing this.
• Bad Liar: When his dad demands to know where he got heat vision, Timmy says he got it from the internet. His dad still falls for it.
• Beneath the Mask: The one thing that can break Mr. Turner's outward smile is being reminded that he didn't win the trophy in that race when he was a kid. Of course, he set up an empty display area to note just that, so he's just asking for this.
  Mr. Turner: And this is where I'd put a trophy... IF I HAD ONE! Sorry, lost the happy, but the happy's back!
• Butterfly of Doom: Timmy's Dad not winning the race alters things so that he ends up ruling the Earth.
• Chekhov's Gun: Timmy wish for Heat Vision ends up coming in handy at the race at the end.
• Close-Enough Timeline: At the end, Cosmo's comment to Bill Gates meant that the internet is called the Timmy and Timmy is named Internet.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Timmy's Dad gets a 12-year mandatory enrollment in dictator school simply for coming in last place in the race he was supposed to win.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Timmy uses a wish to win a contest, which is later shown to be against Da Rules. The heat vision wish was made well before he entered the race, but "Smarty Pants" would later demonstrate that any active wish would be nullified the second Timmy entered a competition.
• Eye Beams: Timmy wishes for heat vision. He never unwishes it, which becomes a plot point much later.
• Fisher King: After Dad graduated from Dictator School in the Bad Future, Dimmsdale has turned into a bleak prison-like town with everyone forced to smile... or else.
• Freudian Excuse: In the Bad Future, losing the race and the love of his life caused Mr. Turner to go into denial. As dictator, he demands everyone else do the same.
• Happiness Is Mandatory: Mr. Turner's dystopian world requires that everyone be happy... or else!
• Insane Troll Logic: How to get out of trouble for destroying Dad's prized trophy? That's right: travel back in time and change history so that he never won it in the first place.
• Rhetorical Request Blunder: Upon seeing his trophy was melted, Mr. Turner angrily wishes he had heat vision. Cosmo nearly grants the wish, but is stopped by Wanda.
  Wanda: No, no. Ours is the one in the silly pink hat.
• See No Evil, Hear No Evil: When Timmy's parents introduce themselves to him (unaware that he's their son), a conspicuously out-of-place truck blares by, totally obscuring their identities to the audience.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: Timmy's Dad states his and Mrs. Turner's real names, but each time a truck goes by and we don't learn it.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Wanda does this three times and is overshadowed by Cosmo each time. First, she suggests that Timmy wish all his chores done. Cosmo suggests that he melt it all with Heat Vision. Then, after this wish destroys Mr. Turner's prize trophy, she suggests Timmy apologize. Cosmo suggests Time Travel, and this wins. Then, as they go back in time to stop Mr. Turner from winning the trophy, Wanda points out he could just have gone back a few minutes and stopped himself from destroying the trophy in the first place.
• Stepford Smiler: What Mr. Turner becomes and what he forces everyone else to be in the Bad Future... or else!
• Sticky Situation: When Timmy forgets that he's a slow runner, he uses his heat vision on the other races to melt their shoes and stick their feet to the ground.
• Suddenly Shouting: "And this is where I'd put a trophy... IF I HAD ONE!"
• Time Travel: Timmy does it for the first time.
• The Unreveal: Timmy's parents remain unnamed, only called Mom and Dad, even in the 70s.
• The Unsmile: Everyone in the Bad Future sports unconvincing, strained smiles. They simply have to smile at all times... or else!

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