Jokey Smurf often annoys his fellow Smurfs with his joke boxes, and by Season 6, these exploding gift packages were no longer seen as funny.
But would even the Smurf Village's practical joker go so far as to become destructive to gain a yuk or two?
That's the conclusion Gargamel is counting on the other Smurfs arriving at when he creates a spell over ... "Gargamel's Dummy" ... and when they realize what's really happened, will it be too late?
It's time for the Smurf Talent Show, and various Smurfs are making their final rehearsals for the big upcoming show. Grandpa is showing off some of his magic tricks to the Smurflings, while Clumsy is, well, clumsily trying to perfect his juggling act. Brainy is "The Amazing Brainy," able to read everyone's minds, and attempts to demonstrate by predicting Jokey will tell the same, cliched jokes as in years' past.
But Jokey insists that this year is different, and he asks various Smurfs for some items such as wood and cloth ... his act is a surprise, after all.
As Papa Smurf reads the list of performers, with the main act being Brainy's Carnac-like act (Brainy even wears a turban and cape), Brainy is looking forward to being the hit of the show and scoffs at indifference when Jokey isn't on the list of performers. Just then, everyone hears a voice sounding like Gargamel commanding Brainy to be quiet. As Brainy cowers in fear, Jokey appears, with a ventriloquist dummy of Gargamel in hand. The other Smurfs realize that it was Jokey doing a vocal impression of their sworn enemy and they are in no danger. When Brainy suggests there is someone hiding inside the dummy, Grandpa explains to the others that he is "throwing his voice," a talent Jokey has, to which Brainy scoffs, insisting that the dummy will bring nothing but trouble.
For once, the talkative village know-it-all is right ... but in a way no one expects.
Meanwhile, the real Gargamel and Azrael are walking through the forest with a new library book, "1,001 Ways to Destroy Your Enemies" when he overhears Jokey rehearsing his act and helping Sassette with her frog act. Sassette's frog runs off, and Jokey helps find it ... giving Gargamel — after the evil wizard and Azrael just miss pouncing on a Smurf meal — the opening he needs to cause trouble. Angered that the Smurfs would mock him, Gargamel casts a spell on the dummy to make it come to life. Gargamel chuckles evily, knowing soon there will be homeless Smurfs fleeing to the forest, and he'll be there to get them.
Back at the village, Jokey begins looking for one of his joke books to find some perfect ideas for his act, when the Gargamel dummy awakens and escapes to the others' houses. Before Jokey knows what's going on, the Garagmel dummy causes actual damage to other Smurfs' projects, such as cutting up Tailor's costumes, before becoming more destructive by painting graffiti in Painter's home, before cutting the tight rope that Snappy is practicing on (for his tightrope walking act) and causing him to land on Greedy. Each of the Smurfs were distracted to allow Gargamel to cause the damage unseen.
The other Smurfs complain to Papa Smurf, certain that Jokey was behind this all. Meanwhile, Jokey is looking for his dummy when he finds it destroying Handy's destroying his one-man-band contraption. The other Smurfs hear the commotion at Handy's, only to find the dummy playing possum and Jokey holding the bag. Despite Jokey pleading his innocence, an angry Papa Smurf tells him he is banned from the Talent Show.
An irate Jokey later realizes that the real Gargamel was behind this and, after locking the dummy in his cellar, goes to his hovel to find the spellbook that may have made the dummy come to life. Disguised as the dummy, Jokey sneaks in while Gargamel and Azrael are out, waiting for the Smurfs to flee what will be a burning village, and is able to locate the spell and tear the page from the book. Just then, Garagmel returns home and, realizing that the disguised dummy is Jokey, chases him away; however, Jokey gets away after sidestep his pursuers, giving his adversaries an unexpected mud bath.
Back at the village, as the talent show is in progress and Grandpa is unsuccessful in convincing Papa Smurf to at least let Jokey watch the show, the Gargamel dummy has escaped from Jokey's cellar and is busy setting up joke boxes around the village, along with a master detonator, and is ready to set off a chain reaction explosion to destroy everything. By chance, Clumsy is in the village getting his items for his act when he realizes that the Gargamel dummy is alive and that Jokey wasn't only trying to bluff his way out of trouble, he's completely innocent. Papa Smurf and the others hear Clumsy confronting the dummy and realize, too, that they hastily jumped to conclusions. But the Gargamel dummy tells them that he's getting away with his actions and prepares to set off the explosion ...
... when Jokey charges in and immediately tackles the Gargamel dummy. Before the Gargamel dummy can get away, Jokey is able to use the spell to reverse the real Gargamel's spell, rendering it harmlessly lifeless.
In the windup, Brainy is on stage doing his "Amazing Brainy" act when Jokey steals the show ... this time, using his dummy as a marionette. Brainy runs off in fear, thinking the dummy is still alive. Jokey — the others presumably having apologized to him for jumping to conclusions — wonders aloud, using Gargamel's voice, "Was it something I said?"
Tropes used in this episode:
- An Aesop: Likely, the intended one is given when the other Smurfs realize they've jumped to conclusions and, without a fair trial, automatically assumed Jokey was behind the trail of destruction.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Despite his sometimes mischievous side, Jokey is a nice guy, and it shows as he acts like big brother by taking interest in watching Sassette and her frog in final rehearsals and offering advice. But when he's been done wrong and falsely accused of criminal acts, and has to defend himself and his honor, watch out ... as Gargamel (or rather, the live dummy of Gargamel) finds out.
- Dude, Not Funny!:
- The Smurfs' — including Jokey's — reactions to the live Gargamel dummy causing vandalism and destruction in the Smurf Village.
- Gargamel's reaction to Jokey's ventriloquism act, when he sees him practicing in the forest.
- Extremely Over Due Library Book: Gargamel sheepishly admitting that his last spell books were only a couple of decades overdue.
- Fleeting Passionate Hobbies: Various Smurfs as they rehearse for the talent show. While Jokey's ventriloquist act takes center stage, other acts with one-time hobbies include Handy's One-Man Band act, Grandpa and his magic show and Sassette getting a frog to do tricks.
- Moral Event Horizon: What the other Smurfs — mistakenly — conclude when they see the destruction and think it's Jokey causing the damage.
- Perverse Puppet: The Gargamel dummy, having come to life after Gargamel's evil spell.
- Shout-Out:
- Carnac: "The Amazing Brainy" lampoons Johnny Carson's act from The Tonight Show.
- Paul Winchell: Who himself was a ventriloquist, and likely provided assistance in writing this episode.
- Talent Show: The backdrop for the show's main plot.
- Ventriloquism: Jokey's act.
- Was Too Hard on Him: Grandpa tells Papa Smurf (and the other Smurfs agree) that he thinks perhaps he was being unfair to Jokey by banishing him from the talent show.
