In "Charlie", Howard is bent on a career as a writer in order to impress Mrs. Gideon. He spends all night working on a story to impress the publisher Hamilton Cork, who is famous for choosing whether to publish a book based on one sentence. However, Vince has also taken up "writing", self-publishing a cartoon zine about the surreal adventures of a man made out of chewing gum named Charlie. Hamilton Cork arrives at the Zooniverse, and declares that he will publish Vince's Charlie book instead of Howard's novel.
Meanwhile, Bob Fossil has an idea of how to get pandas to breed that involves Vince dressing up in a panda costume and wooing the female.
At a distinguished writers' party, it's revealed that Hamilton Cork and Dixon Bainbridge have conspired to steal credit for the Charlie book and put Bainbridge's name on it instead of Vince. Once Vince hears about this, Charlie shows up to kick Cork and Bainbridge's butts.
The Mighty Boosh episode "Charlie" contains these tropes:
- Can't Take Criticism: Howard goes into almost an Unstoppable Rage whenever anyone, even people he loves like Vince or Mrs. Gideon, offer even the slightest bit of criticism with his writing.
- Cute Kitten: Naboo diagnoses Howard with anger management issues and gives him a picture of a kitten to calm him down. It works like a charm, and soothing music plays whenever Howard looks at it.
- Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Exaggerated. When Howard fancies himself a writer, he practices using pipes. At the writers' party, waiters hand out pipes on a tray, and Bainbridge arrives wheeling out an enormous, man-sized pipe, highlighting just how gentlemanly he is.
- Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: In this episode, Howard's convinced he's a novelist. Like most of his supposed talents, this never comes up again in subsequent episodes.
- Gilligan Cut: Howard declares that it's inhumane to make a person dress up as a panda and romance one. Cue cut to Vince in a panda costume about to enter the panda enclosure.
- Interspecies Romance: Vince and the female panda go on a series of romantic dates. At the end of the episode, the other panda falls in love with Mrs. Gideon, after her two black eyes make her resemble a panda.
- Plagiarism in Fiction: Bainbridge and Cork plot to steal credit from Vince for his Charlie book.
- Newspaper-Thin Disguise: Howard spies on Ms. Gideon by pretending to read a book with holes cut out of O's in the title. After getting interrupted, he follows it up by spying on her with a spyglass hidden in a sandwich.
- Operation: Jealousy: Bob Fossil's plan to get the pandas to mate involves making the male panda jealous by having Vince go on dates with the female panda. It doesn't really work, as the female panda falls in love with Vince instead, and lays out why the male panda is wrong for her.
- Refugee from TV Land: Charlie is a seemingly fictional cartoon character who goes on impossible adventures involving traveling the world and being completely reconstituted in shape, but he shows up at the Zooniverse in the flesh to defend Vince's honor.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Vince is supposed to fake a relationship with the female panda to make the male jealous and get them together, but she falls in love with him instead, and there are hints that Vince is into her as well.
- Would Hit a Girl: Howard punches Mrs. Gideon, his love interest, in the face, knocking her out, when she suggests a minor criticism of his sentence.
