Wander fights a massive case of the giggles while trying to impress a race of beings with unusual faces.
Tropes appearing in The Party Poopers
- Actually Pretty Funny: The Hi-Nees know that their faces look ridiculous, and they may as well find the joy in it. Sylvia thanks them at the end for giving her a big laugh in turn.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Invoked by the Hi-Nees with their guests being instructed not to laugh and having as much Toilet Humor as possible. In addition to having butts for faces, they have doorbells that sound like toilets flushing, flags shaped like toilet paper rolls, Stealth Pun paintings and food, and one silly name after another. Wander breaks down into hysterics on hearing "pu-pu platter".
- Corpsing: Sylvia instructs Wander not to laugh in the presence of the Hi-Nees. At first he's struggling actively, to the point where she has to let him laugh on the balcony, but manages to sober up in time for the audience with the Hi-Nees. Then Sylvia corpses, causing him and the Hi-Nees to laugh as well.
- Curse Cut Short: Wander cuts off Sylvia before she says, "I was about to laugh my-"
- Deconstructed Trope: Of the Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere joke. The court of the Hi-Nees is so loaded with Double Entendre Toilet Humor that it must either be a ridiculously Contrived Coincidence, or done deliberately. Turns out it's the latter to test for honesty.
- Double Entendre: Oh brother, and how.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Sylvia invokes this to keep Wander from Corpsing. He reminds himself that Dominator destroying the galaxy is no laughing matter and manages to put on a sober face.
- Everyone Has Standards: At the end when Sylvia makes a butt joke where she's implied to say "ass", Wander quickly silences her and says that it's too crude.
- The Faceless: The faces of the Hi-Nees are never shown. Probably for the best, as it's heavily implied their faces look like buttocks.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Nearly everything associated with the Hi-Nee's castle is shaped like butts, poop, and feces.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": Wander gets a serious case of this throughout the episode, as it proves challenging to resist the urge to laugh hysterically at every butt-related pun that comes up.
- Hurricane of Puns: For starters, Wander and Sylvia are trying to impress the "Hi-Nee" Council.
- Joke of the Butt: The episode features as many butt-related jokes as possible.
- Not So Above It All: After all that talk to Wander about staying serious, Sylvia is the one who laughs first in front of the Council.
- Secret Test of Character: It turns out the entire thing is a test of honesty. The Hi-Nee Council were sick of people sucking up to them and had been deliberately piling on the butt jokes, knowing that anyone who doesn't laugh is either lying to them or not paying attention, and were waiting for an honest person to admit the whole thing is ridiculous and burst out laughing.
- Self-Deprecation: The animatic consists of Sylvia bemoaning that she and Wander wasted their time with juvenile humor instead of something more productive.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After all that trouble, the Hi-Nees' words of wisdom were exactly what Wander told Sylvia at the start. Still, Sylvia admits it's been a while since she was able to laugh.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Sylvia dons a ballgown quite well; Wander does the same with a fancy suit and ruff collar.
- Stealth Pun: The pictures on the hallway.
- Toilet Humor: The entire episode is crammed with as many butt and poop jokes as the WOY crew could get away with.
- Unfortunate Name:
- One of the Hi-Nees goes by Princess Butt-for-a-Face. It’s revealed at the end though these names were fake and instead more jokes as part of the test, as pointed out by one of the servants of the Hi-Nees.
"Gluteus": Can you imagine someone named Gluteus?! My real name is Todd! - Uranus Is Showing: One of the pictures in the hallway is of the astrological symbol of Uranus.
- Visual Pun: Everything associated with the Hi-Nee is shaped like butts and poop. As Sylvia and Wander walk down a hallway the pictures on the walls are all visual puns of euphemisms, such as a picture of a bomb being dropped or a cow sitting in a pie.
When Wander and Sylvia accidentally buy Time Orbbles, Sylvia must keep Wander focused or risk being lost in time forever.
Tropes appearing in The Waste of Time
- An Aesop: It's important to listen to your partner so you can get things done quicker.
- Back to the Early Installment: Wander and Sylvia accidentally buy Time Orbbles, giving them the ability of Time Travel. They briefly end up in the time of "The Picnic", the show's first aired episode (although continuity-wise the third); Sylvia, fortunately, stops Wander from greeting himself.
- Brick Joke: We finally see the goofy face Wander was making in "The Picnic" when he said he "usually makes this face".
- Butterfly of Doom: Sylvia warns Wander of this trope happening due to their time travel. Wander is more fascinated by the mention of butterflies.
- Call-Back:
- Clips and stills from nearly all the episodes of the series can be seen during Wander and Sylvia's time travels.
- Call-Forward:
- Major Threat from "The Good Bad Guy" is seen meeting Wander back when he was a villain, and Wander was indeed called "Tumbleweed" in the past.
- During the flashback to the time Sylvia met Wander, she faces off against Killbot 85, presumably the predecessor of Killbot 86 from "The Bounty". She even repeats a variation of Wander's Character Catchphrase: "It never hurts to help . . . yourself."
- Wander sees Lord Hater in a spider web, which happens in a future episode of the show, "The Search for Captain Tim".
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Wander says this when he and Sylvia get trapped at the station 50 years before they arrived there in the present. Sylvia says she doesn't blame him, though they seek to correct their mistake after taking The Slow Path.
- Defeat Means Friendship: Inverted; after capturing Wander as a bounty, Sylvia and he became friends eventually. She even named him "Wander"!
- Failed a Spot Check: Wander should've checked the labels on the Orbble pumps. If it weren't for Old!Wander putting an out of order sign on the time orbble pump, then the episode wouldn't have happened.
- Final First Hug: Old!Wander and Old!Sylvia hug each other as they cease to exist.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Among all of the stills of the previous episodes, two of them are completely new. One is of a monkey in a spacesuit which pretty much resembles Hater, and another is some kind of pirate ship with orbble sails and Wander's star insignia. Word of God is that they served a major purpose for the then-cancelled season 3 and they wanted to sneak them in. The monkey is likely related to The Stinger of "End of the Galaxy", which shows a crashed space shuttle while some monkey screeching is heard.
- Gainax Ending: Wander and Sylvia reach the orbble station but at fifty years before they were released, prompting Wander to inspire the Wright brothers to invent it; they age into old people over fifty years and prevent their present day counterparts from obtaining the time orbble juice, and fade out of existence.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Old!Sylvia and Old!Wander Ret-Gone themselves so that their past selves will never buy the Time Orbble juice.
- It's All My Fault: Wander for realizing his meddling with the time orbbles result in them being forced to wait out fifty years before they can time travel again.Wander: Sylvia, this is all my fault! I was so caught up in living in the past that I ruined our future!
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Sylvia tells Wander that "We can't keep wasting our time watching past episodes...of our lives."
- Meaningful Name: It's revealed Wander got his name from Sylvia calling him a "wandering weirdo" upon their first encounter.
- Mind Screw: Trying to describe time travel invokes this.
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: Sylvia has to stop Wander from meeting their former selves in fear of what that might cause to their future.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Wander and Sylvia reach the orbble station, but at fifty years too early, and worst yet, there's no time orbble juice left.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Wander's fascination with the time orbbles and traveling through time results in them running out of it by the time they return to the station fifty years early.
- Oh, Crap!:
- By Wander and Sylvia when they realized they came to the right place...at the wrong time. And they get an even bigger one when they realize the time orbble juice to get back to their own time won't be completed for fifty years.
- An earlier one done by Wander and Sylvia when they're down to their last time orbble.
- Old Shame: Sylvia's life as a bounty hunter is this for her.
- The Quiet One: Wilmur Wright doesn't really say much other than "Yep!" and "Nope!", while Orbble does most of the talking. This is much like the Two Man Gentleman Band's members where Andy Bean (Orbble) does a lot of the lead singing while Fuller Condon (Wilmur) just sings backup and plays bass.
- Really 700 Years Old: Wander, given he hasn't aged in between stopping Major Threat and stopping Lord Hater, millenia apart. He somehow does age into an elderly along with Sylvia in the ending scene.
- Ret-Gone: Old!Sylvia and Old!Wander fade away after they change history and prevent their past selves from accidentally taking the Time Orbbles.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: After arriving at the orbble station fifty years early, Wander and Sylvia stop their past selves from accidentally purchasing the time orbbles.
- Shout-Out:
- Wander tells Sylvia that his encounter with Major Threat happened "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."
- Wilmur and Orbble Wright are an obvious parody of Wilbur and Orville Wright who made the first airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903.
- When Wander says "Gotta get back...Back to the past!", he's clearly referencing the theme song for Samurai Jack.
- Similar Squad: Wander and Sylvia travel back to what looks like the events of "The Picnic"... but actually involves a showdown between Major Threat and his rival Admiral Admirable, who much like Emperor Awesome is based on a sea creature (a narwhal) and has body part-themed minions (his "Foot Soldiers").
- The Slow Path: Wander and Sylvia end up running the Orbble station while the Wright Brothers invent Time Orbbles. More than fifty years later, their present day selves arrive...
- Stable Time Loop: Sylvia and Wander end up giving the Wright Brothers the idea of inventing Time Orbbles. They also prevent their present day selves from getting the time orbbles when Old!Wander puts an out of order sign on the time orbble spout, allowing Present!Wander to realize the switch-up and pick the regular orbble spout instead.
- Temporal Paradox: Sylvia worries that they might cause one, and has to stop Wander from doing anything that could alter their future (although that's what they end up doing anyway).
- Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Its what frustrates Sylvia the most about time travel.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: Discussed. Wander and Sylvia manage to Ret-Gone their old selves by stopping them from getting the Time-Orbble juice.
- Tragic Time Traveler: Wander and Sylvia recharge their orbble bottle with some juice, only for them to recharge it with time orbble juice instead, causing them to travel back in time by complete accident. The end of the episode sees them trap themselves 50 years in the past when their juice runs out, but they simply wait those years until their new counterparts show up and help them take the correct orbble juice, breaking the cycle and cause this version of Wander and Sylvia to cease to exist.
- When It All Began: We see Wander and Sylvia's first meeting, when she was a bounty hunter and he was her bounty.
- You Are Worth Hell: For Wander and Sylvia, the time they spend together is not wasted, even if they're trapped trying to Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
