208: School Scam (prod 207)

Original airdate: February 13, 2007

Story by Magnus Scheving

Written by Magnus Scheving, Mani Svavarrson, Noah Zachary

Directed by Magnus Scheving, Jonathan Judge

Executive producers - Magnus Scheving, Ragnheidur Melsted, Raymond P. Le Gue, Brown Johnson, Kay Wilson Stallings

Starring Magnus Scheving, Stefan Karl Steffanson, Julianna Rose Mauriello

Puppeteers - Gudmondor Thor Karason, Jodi Eichelberger, David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, Sarah Burgess, Ronald Binion, Emily Decola, Mary Robinette Kowal

I hate learning 123s for quick calculation..

I’ve seen the opening sequence so many times I don’t even need to watch it to type this up - Sportacus makes the first three letters of the alphabet clouds using his skutla, and he says ‘Now that’s how to do the ABCs!’ Maybe it has something to do with the fact a short clip of it is seen in every single one of the last two seasons’ episodes.

Stephanie is finishing off some of her homework when Milford asks what she’s doing at the house, then she asks what he’s doing at the house, and he replies with 'I live here’ - which reminds me why I think Season 2 is the best season, the humour and music. Máni Svavarrson had some kind of role in both of those, one bigger then the other. So Mani, if you see this, you rock! Anyways, Stephanie reminds him he’s the principal of LazyTown School, and he should be ringing the bell and opening the door. So he starts ringing the bell.

Robbie is woken up by the bell and he mistakes it for his phone ringing, so he answers the phone. LOL, then he hears Milford’s voice, hangs up, and asks himself who is ringing it. He goes to check using the periscope and sees Milford, and looks away. He says school is a terrible way to start the day - for once he says something agreeable!

Ziggy is attempting to walk to school, but his backpack is too heavy, and he falls into a wheelbarrow. Meanwhile, Stingy is being a moron. Trixie is carrying all his books when she says it’s his turn to do so, and he asks what more she wants (Considering he’s giving her his property). Stingy and Trixie see Ziggy fly by and Sportacus’ crystal beeps. He flies to LazyTown using the sky bike and flips behind Stingy and Trixie, and asks Trixie for.. a pencil??

And Stingy for.. paper. Stingy rips off the CORNER of his page, expecting Sportacus to use that. Trixie yells at him and he gives Sportacus a bigger one. So Sportacus does some boring calculations.

LazyTown’s too cool to cover MATHS!!! Anyways, he says he’ll save him once he is 5 feet away from the wall, and once he is, he throws a yo-yo, wraps it around a tree, and Trixie tells Ziggy to grab hold of it. He does, and Sportacus gets him off. After thanking him, Ziggy nearly falls down again thanks to how heavy his bag is, and guess what his 'school supplies’ were?

Ziggy is fictional. Ziggy is fictional. Ziggy is fictional. Ziggy is fictional. *deep breaths in and out* Anyways, Sportacus grabs an apple, Ziggy bites it, and he’s energized now. He runs to school so he isn’t late and also because he’s excited as Sportacus said he might check up on him. Robbie is somehow annoyed by this and vows to stop the kids from learning anything so they don’t become like 'Sportanerd’. LOL. But Stephanie does a frontflip in this episode, so uhh..

He decides to become a teacher so the kids learn nothing. He gets into his Professor H. R. Rottennen (what a boring long name) costume. At school, the kids perform I Like Learning. Once they finish, Milford arrives in the school, as well as Rottennen who introduces himself as the new teacher. When Milford asks why they need a new teacher, he yells at Milford - 'NO TALKING IN MY CLASS!’ and he says 'Yes, teacher!’

I love this show. Rottennen pushes Milford out the room. So, the kids starts the lesson.. by sitting in a student’s chair. LOL! The kids have to tell him he’s supposed to sit up at the front. He laughs, and does so. Anyways, now it’s reading time which yet again, the kids have to tell him. And here comes one of the funniest sequences from this show: He tells them to open their books, turn them around, and go to sleep!

I think it’s this shot that just makes me laugh. Because all you can hear is his snoring for 2 seconds. Stingy coughs into a MEGAPHONE to wake him up. Then he wakes up, falls off his chair, stands up, and starts doing karate to.. the air?

I could take this scene, speed it up and caption it with sometihng funny like 'bro thinks he’s bruce lee’ or 'one minute without zaza’, upload it to YouTube and get a million subscribers or something because that’s how advanced humor is nowadays (even though I think my imaginary captions are funny but whatever). Anyways, when he realizes he looks like a weirdo, he says he’s just stretching.

That’s why this show rocks - it teaches you how to live healthy while appealing with amazing music & humor. It’s been eighteen years since this episode was written and the humor still makes people laugh to this day. Anyways, now it’s time for maths (LOL that was like 25 seconds), and they get out their maths books - Thus spawning the incredible quote once again 'Open your books, turn them around, and go to sleep!’ Then they tell him that they’re supposed to be adding and subtracting, and when he’s lost words to say..

The bell comes in handy and the lesson has already ended. I wanna go to LazyTown School! After a while they have their next lesson which is outside. And Robbie tells them to sit down, lean, and go to sleep. LOL. But the kids keep on whining. Luckily, Sportanerd comes to the rescue.

He asks what new things they’re learning and apparently they’ve learned to jump and flip and stuff, but the kids reveal they haven’t learned how to jump the horse, and it takes a while for him to figure out what horse they mean. He attempts to do the jump aaaannnddd..

Oof! Hey Rotten, how are the family jewels? Then he turns upside-down, and falls off the horse. Then he says 'That is how you jump the cow.’ I actually chuckled at that one. Maybe it was Stingy’s response 'a COW?????’ Stephanie asks Sportacus if he can teach the kids new moves. He does a QUADRUPLE backflip off the horse! Anyways, Rottenenn has somehow gone underground and is cutting a hole in the ground.

Once he comes back up, he tells the kids to go back inside and have a snack. When they all leave, he tells Sportacus that he didn’t quite catch the landing of when he jumped off the horse and would like if he could do it again so he can teach the kids how to do so. So he does it again, Rottenenn pulls a lever that came out of nowhere, and mixing some shots from Secret Agent Zero and new ones for this episode, he falls into his trap.

He then goes back to class, snickering until he sees the kids with their science gear and he yells. Gosh, I love this episode. Now it’s time for science. Rottenenn tells them to OPEN THEIR BOOKS, TURN THEM AROUND, LEAN FORWARD, AND GO TO SLEEP. I think this was the funniest because Stephanie has a huge smile on her face until she hears 'turn around’ and looks at Trixie like Trixie’s the camera and she’s the main character in the sitcom. LOL!!!

The kids are now annoyed a lot and they tell him that they want to do science, and he actually listens to them. He starts flicking through some pages, and finds a formula. He starts mixing a few liquids and coincidentally, that’s the exact same formula for..

AN EXPLOSIOOOONNNNNNN!! The liquid starts foaming, and all the kids run out. The only one still in there is Rottenenn. Robbie tries to open the door, but he breaks the handle, as well as Stephanie on the other side. The school explodes, Rottennen has to go to hospital, the end. Not really the end because the crystal beeps and Sportacus attempts to open the trap by getting the horse off it. Stephanie goes to find Sportacus, and she finds out he is trapped.

She tries to move the chair but she cannot since she isn’t strong enough. Sportacus asks if there is Sportscandy nearby & he tells her to do the jump/flip that he did to get the Sportscandy and push the chair. Sure enough, she does it! But in one of the shots she looks like she JUMPED to get the apple.

She takes one bite and pushes the chair. Conveniently, Sportacus jumps onto the chair. Meanwhile, Rottennen has ripped the curtain and tied it to a table and is going to jump out the window, but Sportacus is jumping through the hole on top of the door. When he gets in, he startles Rottennen, causing him to fall out but Sportacus stops the table with his leg.

He asks the kids for help to stop the chemical reaction. Trixie opens up the science book and Pixel figures out the right amounts and liquids to put in - a little bit of the orange, a lot of the red, a liquid par?? of the green one. And whoop-de-doo, the green one is at the end of the table.

It explodes and they don’t have school or a superhero anymore. The end. Well, not really, because here comes one of the coolest parts of the episode - Sportacus lets go of the table, flips across the teacher’s desk, AND GRABS HOLD OF THE TABLE!

In his office, Milford is wondering how the new teacher is going. XD. Anyways, attempting to put just ONE drop of the green liquid inside, the cloth nearly rips, but Sportacus does it! THEN the cloth actually rips, but luckily Sportacus grabs it.

Milford hears the twang of the curtain, asks himself what it was, and despite the fact Rottenenn is literally outside of his window, he ignores it, and thinks it’s nothing. Yes, the school nearly exploding & your 'new teacher’ almost falling to the ground is nothing. Sportacus lifts him up back into the classroom, and his glasses fall off. Sportacus puts the door handle back in place, and opens the door, asking if the kids are okay. Robbie takes his wig off, replying with a firm YES! And now, the disguise is revealed, which is kinda stupid, because how’d he forget the kids were there?

Robbie says he thinks he has some homework to do and leaves the room. The kids thank Sportacus and say they learned something new - Open your books, turn around, STAND UP AND DANCE! They perform Bing Bang. During the song, Milford nods his head, hinting that NOW he hears everything. Robbie attempts the experiment in his lair, saying that it will work this time and it fails.

He says 'Maybe not.’ and he didn’t open any books, turn them around, lean forward (he leaned backwards!) and went to sleep. He’ll feel that when he wakes up!

10/10 - This episode was so exciting and intense and it almost made me want to go to school.