Original Air Date: July 30, 2004
While going to a school excursion, Billy and Mandy's schoolbus breaks down in the middle of a desert. They, later, eventually learn that mutant chickens created in an underground lab during the Cold War lurk around.
"Which Came First?" contains examples of…
- Affectionate Parody: Of Aliens, with the chickens being parodies of Xenomorphs, the professor quoting Hudson’s famous "game over" breakdown, the acidic egg yolk, and the threat poised if the chickens escape the lab - and the ending with the egg being hatched after being smuggled through Billy.
- Apathetic Teacher: Ms. Butterbean happily lets the kids slave away in the hot sun while she relaxes in the shade with a drink.
- Contrived Coincidence: Lampshaded by Mandy when she suggests a writer’s convenience will explain the chickens, and the scientist arrives on cue.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The scientist decides to give his life to slow down the chickens from attacking the trio.
- I Am a Humanitarian: After the bus breaks down, Pud’n starts to panic at this, saying that they’re going to have to eat one another to survive. Sperg actually licks his lips at this, and glances over at Billy and Irwin. Then after the mutant chickens are fried by the erupting volcano, the kids are overjoyed at the food literally raining down on them, which leads to this.Pud’n: Giant chickens from the sky! Now we won’t have to eat each other to survive!
(Wide shot to reveal that Pud’n has no arms or legs, because Sperg currently has them all stuffed in his mouth)
Sperg: Tough luck for you, kid! - It Has Only Just Begun: Billy lays an egg that was formed by his digesting one of the eggs in the nest, and that’s the note the episode ends on.
- Shipper on Deck: After Billy is taken by the giant mutant chickens, Grim wants to bail, but Mandy insists that they go save him. Grim playfully teases her at this.Grim: That’s it. We’re outta here!
Mandy: Unfortunately, we can’t leave him.
Grim: Awwwww. I knew you two were sweethearts. (makes kissy noises) - Xenomorph Xerox: The chickens function as Xenomorph parodies.
Original Air Date: July 30, 2004
Billy's first cousin from the Center of the Earth, Nergal Jr. goes to school for the first time, but he is worried that people may not like him. Soon enough, Junior becomes bullied by Sperg, with Miss Butterbean's allowance. Billy suggests Junior to use his shapeshifting abilities to take on the form of Miss Butterbean, so Junior can help him pass a math test. Junior likes the idea, but he morphs into Miss Butterbean to get revenge on Sperg instead. Sperg is then seen living in the center of the Earth as Junior's pet.
"Substitute Teacher" contains examples of…
- Apathetic Teacher: Butterbean keeps it up from the previous episode, allowing Sperg to bully other children in exchange for apples. When Junior pretends to suck up to her later by claiming he enjoyed the test, she tells him to find someone who cares.
- Cassandra Truth: Subverted. Another kid doesn’t believe Pud'n when he tells him about the bones he saw in the bathroom, but while he really did see them, they weren’t the bones of a murder victim like he thinks.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Mandy won’t stand for cheating on a test, taking pride in her academic hard work. She’s also actually surprised at the brutality of Junior’s attack on Sperg.
- Eye Scream: When Mandy catches Irwin cheating on her, she gives him a small telescope to presumably see better. But when he puts it up to his eye, she punches him, jamming it into his eye socket and partially blinding him.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Ironic given what happened to him in the previous episode, Pud'n believes that whoever is in the bathroom stall next to him is this, believing they struggled very hard to defecate some bones from a person they ate and digested. It was Billy trying to shove a skeleton down the toilet.
- Ironic Echo: When Sperg first starts bullying him, Junior asks Miss Butterbean if Sperg can do that. Unfortunately, Sperg bribes Miss Butterbean with an apple, which leads her to reply that he can, because he’s bigger than Junior. When Junior shapeshifts into Miss Butterbean later, he repeats it back when he decides to give Sperg a taste of his own medicine by giving him a wedgie.Sperg: (fearfully as “Miss Butterbean” advances on him) But, Miss Butterbean… you can’t do that! You’re a teacher!
Junior: I can do whatever I please! I’m bigger than you! (Shapeshifts into a tentacled monstrosity and attacks him) - Laser-Guided Karma: It bites hard in this episode.
- For all his antics trying to cheat on the test and callously dismissing his cousin, Billy still fails after Junior grades his test.
- For trying to cheat, Irwin gets a telescope shoved into his eye socket.
- For bullying other kids and for turning a blind eye to it respectively, Sperg and Butterbean get a painful comeuppance from Junior. Sperg is maimed and forced to become Junior’s dog, while Butterbean is also painfully restrained and left on the ceiling gagged and bound.
- Overly Long Gag: Pud'n crashes into a janitor and they go flying out of the window, and the camera keeps zooming out further to show that the school is now located on top of a colossal mountain in a desolate desert.
- Running Gag: The C-plot sees Pud'n keep finding increasingly horrifying things at school that nobody believes him about.
- Scream Discretion Shot: As Junior begins to dominate Sperg, the scene cuts away from the two to the shocked expressions of the trio (yes, Mandy included), while Sperg is head screaming in the background.
- Slasher Smile: Junior gives one to Sperg while in the form of Miss Butterbean, as seen on the episode’s title card.
