Pooh is eating a large breakfast of honey, but then finds that he's no longer hungry despite wanting to eat more. In fact, his appetite has gone so much that he physically can't bring himself to put his paw in his mouth. Rabbit, Tigger, Piglet, and Gopher arrive with more honey, wanting to have breakfast with him, but he tells them he's lost his appetite, shocking everyone.
They decide to go to Owl to find out why Pooh lost his appetite and Owl wonders if Pooh is actually an imposter. Since Pooh, due to his low intelligence, becomes unsure when asked if he's really him, Tigger decides Pooh really is missing and dresses in stereotypical detective garb, calling himself a "private ear".
He interrogates Pooh and tries to ask him if he's really Pooh, but Pooh isn't paying attention. Rabbit points out that he looks like Pooh, but Gopher wonders if he's in disguise. Tigger then whips out a pot of honey, rationalising that whoever takes it has to be the real Pooh. Rabbit and Piglet decline the honey due to having already had breakfast and just brushed his teeth respectively, but when he goes to test the real Pooh, the honey spills without Tigger noticing, causing Tigger to think Pooh turned down the honey and thus must be an impostor.
Upon noticing that the honey spilled on Owl, and that he's enjoying it when he eats it off himself, Tigger and Owl fear that Owl has become Pooh. When Pooh asks where the "real" Owl is, everyone denies being Owl, but when Gopher points out that all his relatives are gophers, he fears that he is indeed Owl because Owl also talks about his family. Pooh and Rabbit wonder where the "real" Gopher is, and Piglet decides he must be Gopher since they're the same size. Now, everyone wants to know where the "real" Piglet is, and decide he must be Rabbit, since he's the only one left. Rabbit becomes fearful, and then accidentally says, "Oh d-d-dear!", causing him and everyone to conclude that he is in fact Piglet.
Pooh asks how he can return things back to the status quo, and Tigger decides that everyone will go back to normal if Pooh finds his appetite. Then, Piglet puts on a miner's helmet and tries to talk like Gopher, Gopher rambles about his family and tries to fly, Owl goes off to eat, and Pooh and Tigger go off to search for the appetite.
They fall into a tunnel dug by Piglet, who brings them out, and then hear Owl eating. Tigger thinks the noise is Pooh's appetite and they both go into Pooh's house, where Owl is. Rabbit is also there, and is pretending to be scared because he still thinks he's Piglet. Meanwhile, outside, Gopher is still trying unsuccessfully to fly.
Gopher leads the others to a hollow tree, where he thinks Pooh's appetite is, since it's where Pooh would normally be. Pooh peers into the tree, and Tigger accidentally nudges him down and he lands in some honey. Piglet burrows in, draining the honey out, and the two get washed along by the honey, which spurts them out like a geyser. At this point, Pooh gets his appetite back and begins eating the honey. Piglet realises that Pooh's appetite has returned, and they both decide that everyone must be themselves again. Then, the honey stops flowing and they fall.
Back at Pooh's house, everyone celebrates the return to the status quo... except Gopher, who doesn't realise he doesn't have to be Owl anymore and is still trying to fly.
This episode contains examples of the following tropes.
- Actor Allusion: When everyone swaps roles Owl takes on the role of Pooh. Besides having always voiced Owl, Hal Smith had previously voiced Pooh in the cartoon short A Day for Eeyore and in Welcome to Pooh Corner.
- Borrowed Catchphrase:
- Owl says, "Oh, bother!" when he thinks he's turned into Pooh, then later borrows Pooh's term "smackerel".
- Rabbit says, "Oh, d-d-dear!" when he's worried about his garden, which makes everyone mistake him for Piglet.
- Comically Missing the Point: Owl thinks Pooh has gotten larger, not realising that he's looking at him through a magnifying glass.
- Covered in Gunge: Owl ends up drenched in the honey that Tigger spilled.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Discussed — everyone thinks that Pooh is in Owl's body, Owl is in Gopher's body, Gopher is in Piglet's body, and Piglet is in Rabbit's body, but they're not really.
- Insane Troll Logic:
- When the characters realise Pooh's appetite is lost, they decide to have Owl help "find" it, since he's always "lost" in thought.
- They then think that Owl must actually be Pooh just because he also likes honey.
- Gopher worries that he's turned into Owl just because he mentioned his family, which Owl does.
- Piglet thinks he's become Gopher just because they're the same size.
- Everyone thinks Rabbit is Piglet because of a Borrowed Catchphrase.
- Tigger thinks that in order for everyone to turn back into who they are, Pooh has to get his appetite back, since him losing his appetite was the first weird thing to happen.
- I Taste Delicious: Owl enjoys eating the spilled honey off himself.
- Last-Second Joke Problem: Everything's back to normal... except Gopher doesn't realise it, and is still trying to play Owl.
- Literal-Minded: Pooh thinks a "balanced" breakfast is one that's literally balancing, and when asked to "spill the beans", he replies that he has none.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Zigzagged. Everyone thinks that it's a serious situation when Pooh isn't hungry for once, but it's actually no big deal; he just managed to eat enough to fill himself up.
- Pun-Based Title: The title puns on the word "shampoo".
- Seeking the Intangible: Pooh acts as though his lost appetite is a physical thing. For instance, he searches for it in the tree.
- Slapstick:
- Characters often crash into piles of honey pots.
- Gopher keeps falling when trying to fly.
- The honey launches Pooh and Piglet into the air, and then when it stops flowing, they fall from the sky.
- Stock Costume Traits: When being a "private ear", Tigger wears a deerstalker hat and a trench coat.
- Swapped Roles: Through Insane Troll Logic, Tigger determines that since a Pooh who can't eat honey can't really be Pooh, then Owl is Pooh, Gopher is Owl, Piglet is Gopher and Rabbit is Piglet. They spend the rest of the episode acting like each other until the real Pooh gets his appetite back.
- Trademark Favourite Food: Exploited when Tigger thinks that whoever eats the honey must be Pooh, so he tries to use it to find him.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Piglet reveals that he's afraid of heights when talking about why he can't be Owl.
