Original air date: 11/8/2002
Episode number: 21a
After they keep him from watching a dangerous special on TV about the Dimmsdale Sewer Gator, Timmy wishes his parents were more permissive, which goes south when they let the house and their hygiene go to pot. Even worse, however, Cosmo and Wanda refuse to grant him any more wishes.
This episode provides examples of:
- An Aesop: Rules are there for a reason.
- Big Damn Heroes: Right before Timmy gets eaten by the sewer gator, his parents leap in to save him.Mom: Timmy! You're safe! (retches) And you reek.Dad: And after I finish beating up this gator, you are in SO MUCH TROUBLE!
- Contrived Coincidence: Timmy falls from a lamppost and nearly hits the pavement...but instead lands on the "big, squishy belly" of a shirtless sumo wrestler who just so happens to be waiting for a bus nearby.
- Exact Words: Not only does the wish give Timmy parents who would care less, it also gives him godparents who care less.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Inverted. When his parents go after him after he runs away, Timmy realizes that their love is undoing the wish.Timmy: Oh! Now they care?... HEY! Now they care!
- The Freelance Shame Squad: Everyone in the recess yard laughs at Timmy because his parents installed a child block and made him miss the violent documentary on the Sewer Gator. This was The Last Straw that made Timmy wish for his parents to be careless.
- Has Two Thumbs and...: Chet Ubetcha introduces the Dimmsdale Sewer Gator in this way.Chet Ubetcha: What has eight hundred teeth and eats anything that moves? Well it lives in our sewers and we've got footage of it!
- Incredibly Lame Fun: The child blocks Dad put up show extremely boring kiddie shows more suitable for babies than a ten-year-old boy.Host: It's okay to feel sad sometimes.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The host of the kiddie show Mr. Turner put in the parental block is a parody of Mister Rogers.
- The Pig-Pen: Timmy ends up becoming one when the wish goes too far; same for his parents.
- The Power of Love: Timmy's parents are fine letting their house fall to ruin under the wish, but once Timmy deliberately endangers himself trying to save Cosmo and Wanda from the sewer gator, their love for him cancels out the magic and lets them care again.
- Running Gag:
- "(items) are for squares!"
- "Yay, (noun)!"
- Slow Transformation: When Mr. and Mrs. Turner begin to care for Timmy again thanks to their love for him, their appearances, which had gone to ruin because they lost all interest in hygiene, gradually become neater and cleaner again as the spell wears off.
- That Poor Cat: After reprogramming the TV, Timmy's dad drops a wrench on the floor, and somehow that hit an offscreen cat.
- You Are Grounded!: After Timmy gets his parents to care for him again, he ends up grounded for 6 weeks.
Dad: Tropes are for squares! Like pants!
