Original air date: 8/18/2000 (produced in 1999)
Production code: PPG-302
Town and Out: When the girls and the Professor move to the town of Citiesville, the girls quickly grow to dislike their new home, but don't have the heart to tell the Professor, who downright loves it.
Child Fearing: When the Professor runs late for an event, Mojo Jojo ends up babysitting the girls.
Town and Out provides examples of:
- Apathetic Citizens: Taken to an extreme with everyone in Citiesville, who think nothing of abusing the Powerpuff Girls when they are forced to move to town.
- Art Shift: Citiesville is drawn in a significantly more realistic art style than Townsville.
- Armor-Piercing Question: "At what point did it seem like a good idea to blow up the Citiesville bridge?" Unfortunately, this is a rhetorical armor-piercing question, as the mayor does not give the girls a chance to answer.
- The Big Rotten Apple: Citiesville isn't just filled with abusive citizens, but also has factories spewing smoke and pollution, something that Townsville never has.
- Book Ends: The episode starts with the girls and Professor moving to Citiesville, and ends with them moving back to Townsville.
- Blatant Lies: The girls and the Professor lie to each other about how they "enjoy" their new lives in Citiesville just so the other is not offended. But when the girls have had enough and come out with the truth, so does the Professor.
- Cannot Spit It Out: The girls cannot bring themselves to tell the Professor that they don't like Citiesville because of how happy he is and how much he enjoys living there. When they finally tell him in the end, he reveals he hates it, too.
- Crapsack World: Citiesville embodies all of the worst aspects of the city life, and is inhabited almost entirely by people who happen to be cruel and apathetic.
- Deconstruction: The episode serves to show just what it would be like for the girls to have their usual antics in a realistic setting. Whether or not it works largely depends on who you ask.
- Destructive Savior: The girls, per usual, but unlike Townsville, the mayor of Citiesville is not willing to overlook this and promptly bans the girls from doing any super heroics.
- Fat and Skinny: The two robbers that rob the bank in Citiesville.
- Hate Sink: All the citizens of Citiesville are reviled among fans for being total douchebags for no good reason.
- Hero Insurance: Averted; all the collateral damage the girls could get away with in Townsville, land them in trouble with the mayor here in Citiesville.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The girls destroying the bridge comes back to bite them when they are forced to walk home by the police. Their house is on the other side of the water, and with no more bridge they have to swim to the other side.
- Idiot Ball:
- One would have to criticize the Professor for taking up a job that granted such highly inadequate commodities for the trouble that come with moving to Citiesville, when he is clearly self-employed and managing a stable suburban home life in Townsville.
- The Powerpuff Girls themselves make a dumb move when they decide to destroy a bridge to stop a couple of bank robbers. Throughout the series, before and after this episode, the girls tend to cause property damage by fighting monsters and arresting criminals. But the property damage by the monsters is justified because the monsters themselves are causing a huge amount of damage to the area, and the girls need to stop them. To stop regular criminals, the girls mainly break a roof and doors. This is the first time that the girls destroy something like a bridge to stop bank robbers. It's telling that the girls never do something like destroy a building to stop bank robbers before or after this episode.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While the mayor and police of Citiesville are very cruel and incompetent, their anger about the destruction of the Citiesville bridge is justifiable. The bridge of Citiesville costs a whopping $3,000,000, compared to a measly $400 the robbers stole, on top of it being a historical landmark that is on the town's freaking flag.
- Karma Houdini: Absolutely no one in Citiesville who treated the girls cruelly receive any comeuppance for it.
- Kick the Dog: The entire episode is this for the Powerpuff Girls, and the big reason for this episode's infamous reputation.
- Kids Are Cruel: The girls are relentlessly mocked and tormented by their new classmates.
- Monumental Damage: The bridge the girls destroy to stop two crooks was, according to the Mayor, a historic landmark.
- New Job Episode: Downplayed since the focus is on the girls rather than the professor, but the professor getting a new job in Citiesville is the reason he and the girls move there in the first place.
- New Kid Stigma: When the Powerpuff Girls take the bus to their new school in Cityville. A girl on the bus ahead of them notes that they're the new kids, and notes she likes their outfits... and reveals she lied when Blossom asks "Really?". They're laughed at as they make their way to their desks, and everyone shoots spitballs at them.
- Nightmare Face: The police officer who sees the aftermath of the girls' attack on the bridge is clearly not happy about what he sees, so much so that the girls flat out flee when they see his face.
- No Antagonist: There's no monster of the week or a recurring villain, just the girls adjusting to living in Citiesville.
- Only One Finds It Fun: Surprisingly subverted with the Professor. He appears to be the only one who likes living in Citiesville and makes the best out of it despite living inside a crummy and crappy apartment (the toilet is even visible) and bland lifestyle, but after the girls confess that they hate the town and wish to go back to Townsville, the Professor reveals he hates Citiesville, too.
- Point-and-Laugh Show: The girls fall victim to this on the school bus on their first day of school.
- Police Are Useless: Played with; even though we see the police chasing the robbers, it is clear to anyone that Citiesville has not fared well under their watch.
- Rage Breaking Point: The girls get bullied by their classmates, forbidden from fighting crime by their teacher, and dealt with being outcasts. Them being yelled at by the mayor about their destruction of the Citiesville bridge and being forced to walk all the way home is the straw that breaks the camel’s back for them.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: The girls and the Professor all agree that the town is a horrible place and by the end of the episode they return to Townsville.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: The Narrator is completely absent from the episode until the last scene, to make the girls' view of Citiesville more unsettling and foreboding.
- Status Quo Is God: The entire family returns to Townsville after they become fed up with Citysville.
- Stern Teacher: The girls’ teacher at their new school.
- Tempting Fate: After being ordered by the police to stop flying and walk home, Bubbles states that it probably could have been worse. She promptly gets some bird droppings on her head.
- Time to Move: The professor moves himself and the girls from Townsville to Citiesville at the start of the episode, but after they all grow to hate their new home, they move back.
- Wham Line: An important revelation from the mayor of Citiesville not only negates the girls' shining moment in the episode, but also leads into the catalyst that brings about their leaving Citiesville back to Townsville:"Do you realize that the crooks that you caught stole approximately $400? Do you realize that you did over THREE MILLION DOLLARS IN PROPERTY DAMAGE TO THAT BRIDGE?!? IT'S NOT REPLACEABLE!!"
- What the Hell, Hero?: The mayor of Citiesville chews the girls out for destroying a bridge that costs millions of dollars just to stop some robbers that stole hundreds.
- World of Jerkass: Everyone in Citiesville are portrayed as apathetic, mean-spirited jerks. There isn't a single person in Citiesville that is nice or remotely sympathetic towards the girls and the Professor. They are forced to live in a poorly-maintained apartment, they get laughed at by the kids at their new school, stared down by a nasty teacher. To add to it, the "Town of Citiesville" is a complete reverse of the "City of Townsville".
Child Fearing provides examples of:
- Age-Stereotypical Food: The episode has Mojo Jojo babysit the titular heroes, at one point having to prepare their dinner. Mojo Jojo prepares a fine Hibachi meal for them, that they immediately spit out. It could simply be that the food really wasn't any good, but the way it's framed seemed to imply that since the main characters are 5 years old, they simply don't appreciate that style of cuisine yet.
- Artistic License – History: The girls read Mojo the riot act over his bedtime story of Napoléon Bonaparte after he gives them a short and highly inaccurate story about him.Mojo: I will tell you my favorite story, about the greatest conqueror who ever lived: Napoleon! (rapidly) He was a mighty man, feared by all who looked up to him. Using his genius and his loyal army, he conquered all of Europe, then all of Russia, and finally the whole world, the end.
All Three Girls: BORING!
Blossom: (jumps out of bed, carrying her pillow) Your story's all wrong! Napoleon's 1807 seizure of Portugal and the subsequent rebellion by the Spaniards cost France over three-hundred-thousand casualties, untold sums of money, and contributed to the eventual weakening of the Napoleonic empire! (hits Mojo with her pillow)
Bubbles: (jumps out of bed, carrying her pillow) And your analysis on the invasion of Russia is also incorrect! Napoleon's invasion of 1812 resulted in massive casualties of his troops, due to starvation and inclement conditions, and ended in a disastrous retreat from Moscow with his army defeated! (knocks Mojo to the floor with her pillow)
Buttercup: (jumps to the floor with her pillow) Yeah, dummy! And when he returned to France, the allied nations of Europe united against him, which led to his eventual defeat at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, whereafter he was exiled to the island of St. Helena, where he died a miserable death from stomach cancer on May 5, 1821, stupid! (hits Mojo with her pillow; Blossom and Bubbles join in) - Babysitter from Hell: Mojo Jojo is the girls’ baby sitter this episode. And he uses his new position to try and make the girls help him take over Townville. The tables soon turn on him, though.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: It should come as no surprise that Mojo ends up becoming one of these. It gets so bad he eventually even calls the police and allows himself to be arrested.
- The Cameo: The Mayor is playing a video game that is clearly The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Most of the show's crew were playing it at the time (to the point that story meetings would often consist of everyone exchanging tips with one another on how to beat which level).
- Childish Pillow Fight: After giving a short and false story about Napoleon, Mojo finds himself on the receiving end of one of these, again.
- Epic Fail: From what little we saw of the Mayor playing his video game, he got stuck repeatedly running into walls, stumbed into a death trap, and killed his fairy twice.
- Hidden Depths: While Blossom being knowledgeable about Napoleon was a given, Bubbles and Buttercup being as knowledgeable was a surprise.
- Late for School: Or rather, late for the meeting of the minds, but otherwise Professor Utonium perfectly fits this trope in this episode. Including classic elements like making mistakes while rushing through his bathroom routine (he puts deodorant in his hair, and sprays hairspray under his arm pits).
- Parlor Games: The girls challenge Mojo to a game of Blind Hide and Seek (basically Blind Man’s Bluff under a different name).
- Prefer Jail to the Protagonist: Mojo Jojo is released from prison to babysit Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup while the Professor is at a meeting. At first, he wants them to help him take over Townsville, but taking care of them is too much for him to handle, and he calls the police so they can take him back to jail.
- Shout-Out:
- The Mayor is playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on a Nintendo 64, right down to the mini boss music and Navi's portrayal.
- Blarney is basically a Loch Ness Monster version of Barney.
- Suddenly Shouting: Happens repeatedly during Blarney the Singing Sea Serpent. For example...If I were a bunny, I'd...HOP! HOP! HOP!...HOP! HOP! HOP!...HOP! HOP! HOP!...HOP! HOP! HOP!
- Supreme Chef: Played with. Mojo claims he is this, and when we see him in action preparing Sushi for the girls it certainly looks like he will live up to this claim. But when the girls taste the food, they dislike it (admittedly, they probably just don't like sushi).
- Take That!: The entire scene of the Mayor playing Ocarina of Time was this both within the game and context behind the scenes.
- Albeit he wasn't trying to, the Mayor managed to kill Navi twice.
- The scene with the Mayor neglecting his duties was taking potshots towards the show's crew. During production on the show, everyone was so occupied playing Ocarina of Time that the studio was shut down for a month. It was likely added by Genndy Tartakovsky due to him being mad at the time.
