History Sandbox / Mightymewtron

** [[Recap/CloneHighS3E09CloneyIslandTwist "Cloney Island: Twist!"]]: [[RobotMaid Mrs. C]] is a robot assistant built by [[MadScientist Sandra Sandria]] while stranded on a deserted island. Resentful of her role, Mrs. C desired a way off the island, but Sandra stayed in hopes that that her lost love Scudworth would someday find her. Upon spotting Scudworth and Mr. Butlertron's boat, Mrs. C shoots it down to strand them on the island. Using her Film/MaryPoppins-like charm, Mrs. C seduces Mr. Butlertron, then "confesses" to him that Sandra is planning to rob Scudworth, setting her up as a scapegoat so Mrs. C can [[TheDogWasTheMastermind rob Scudworth herself]]. Once on the repaired boat, Mrs. C [[BitchInSheepsClothing reveals her true self as a rude Cockney robot]] who plans to use the stolen money to launch a weight loss app as a cover for a [[RobotWar robot uprising]], taking Sandra hostage as a human slave to solve CAPTCHA tests for her. Mrs. C invites Mr. Butlertron to come with her, claiming that she developed true feelings for him during her scheme, but when he rebukes her, she cusses him out and rides off, having pulled off what Scudworth describes as "the grift to end all grifts."

** [[Recap/CloneHighS3E09CloneyIslandTwist "Cloney Island: Twist!"]]: [[RobotMaid Mrs. C]] is a robot assistant built by [[MadScientist Sandra Sandria]] while stranded on a deserted island. Resentful of her role, Mrs. C desired a way off the island, but Sandra stayed in hopes that that her lost love Scudworth would someday find her. Upon spotting Scudworth and Mr. Butlertron's boat, Mrs. C shoots it down to strand them on the island. Using her Film/MaryPoppins-like charm, Mrs. C seduces Mr. Butlertron, then "confesses" to him that Sandra is planning to rob Scudworth, setting her up as a scapegoat so Mrs. C can [[TheDogWasTheMastermind rob Scudworth herself]]. Once on the repaired boat, Mrs. C reveals her true self as a rude Cockney robot who plans to use the stolen money to launch a weight loss app as a cover for a [[RobotWar robot uprising]], taking Sandra hostage as a human slave to solve CAPTCHA tests for her. Mrs. C invites Mr. Butlertron to come with her, claiming that she developed true feelings for him during her scheme, but when he rebukes her, she cusses him out and rides off, having pulled off what Scudworth describes as "the grift to end all grifts."

** [[Recap/CloneHighS3E09CloneyIslandTwist "Cloney Island: Twist!"]]: [[RobotMaid Mrs. C]] is a robot assistant built by [[MadScientist Sandra Sandria]] while stranded on a deserted island. The resentful Mrs. C desired a way off the island, but Sandra stayed in hopes that that her lost love Scudworth would someday find her. Upon spotting Scudworth and Mr. Butlertron's boat, Mrs. C shoots it down to strand them on the island, distracting Sandra and Scudworth as they rekindle their romance. Using her Film/MaryPoppins-like charm, Mrs. C seduces Mr. Butlertron while they repair the boat, then "confesses" to him that Sandra is planning to rob Scudworth and had threatened to unplug Mrs. C if she told, then uses Sandra's scapegoat position to [[TheDogWasTheMastermind rob Scudworth herself]]. Once on the repaired boat, Mrs. C reveals her true self as a rude Cockney robot who plans to use the stolen money to launch a weight loss app as a cover for a [[RobotWar robot uprising]], taking Sandra hostage as a human slave to solve CAPTCHA tests for her. Mrs. C invites Mr. Butlertron to come with her, claiming that she developed true feelings for him during her scheme, but when he rebukes her, she cusses him out and rides off, having pulled off what Scudworth describes as "the grift to end all grifts."

** [[Recap/CloneHighS3E09CloneyIslandTwist "Cloney Island: Twist!"]]: [[RobotMaid Mrs. C]] is a robot assistant built by Sandra Sandria while stranded on a deserted island. Mrs. C grew resentful of her role and desired a way off the island, but Sandra refused to leave, believing that her lost love Scudworth would someday find her. Upon finally spotting Scudworth's boat, Mrs. C shoots it down to strand Scudworth and Mr. Butlertron on the island with her and Sandra, distracting Sandra and Scudworth as they rekindle their romance. Using her Film/MaryPoppins-like charm, Mrs. C seduces Mr. Butlertron while they repair the boat, then "confesses" to him that Sandra is planning to rob Scudworth and had threatened to unplug Mrs. C if she told. Mrs. C uses Sandra's scapegoat position to [[TheDogWasTheMastermind rob Scudworth herself]], getting ahead of a series of {{Satchel Switcheroo}}s. Once on the repaired boat, Mrs. C reveals her true self as a rude Cockney robot who plans to use the money to launch a weight loss app as a cover for a [[RobotWar robot uprising]], taking Sandra hostage as a human slave to solve CAPTCHA tests for her. Mrs. C confesses to Mr. Butlertron that she developed true feelings for him during her scheme and invites him to come with her, but when he rebukes her, she cusses him out and rides off, having pulled off what Scudworth describes as "the grift to end all grifts."

[[MB: clone high writeup]]

[[folder:MB: clone high]]

!!What is the work?
''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' is a teen drama parody starring the clones of various historical figures attending the titular high school. They are overlooked by the MadScientist Principal Scudworth, who secretly plans to groom the clones for his personal dream of a historical theme park called Cloney Island, and Scudworth's robot butlet Mr. Butlertron, aka Mr. B. While the series has always been very tongue-in-cheek and tends to humiliate its characters and/or depict them as idiots, there have been some characters that demonstrated genuine cunning.

This entry will center around the episode "Cloney Island: Twist!" which puts Scudworth and Butlertron in a {{Robinsonade}} after Scudworth buys a dubious deed to an island for his theme park, only for Scudworth to reunite with an old college flame, a fellow MadScientist and theme park enthusiast named Sandra Sandria, and her ''own'' robot assistant... AKA, our subject for today.

!!Who is the character?
Mrs. C is a robot that Sandra built on the island for assistance and companionship -- essentially Mr. B's DistaffCounterpart similar to Sandra being Scudworth's. She is introduced as a sort of robot {{expy}} of Mary Poppins, from her wardrobe to her accent to her helpful attitude ("Just a spoonful of oil makes the lubrication sound!"). As Scudworth rekindles his love with Sandra, Mr. B and Mrs. C likewise fall in love while repairing the boat, engaging in copious amounts of robot sex.

A bit of background on Sandra: the reason she and Scudworth split is because they disagreed over which theme park to host on an island they planned to purchase. Scudworth believed Sandra robbed him of the money and left him to build her own park, but Sandra claims she had taken the money to surprise him by building ''his'' park there, only to get stranded on the wrong island for decades. Scudworth and Mr. B are both skeptical, but Scudworth believes Sandra after she shows him she's started building Cloney Island.

However, Mrs. C confesses to Mr. B that Sandra is still grifting Scudworth to steal his "money murse" (aka a bag full of cash he'd brought to buy the island) and a ride home, and had threatened to unplug Mrs. C if she spoke up about it. Scudworth does not seem to believe this, but once Sandra, Mr. B, and Mrs. C are leaving on the repaired boat and Sandra asks Scudworth to throw her the money so it won't get wet, Scudworth reveals he performed a SatchelSwitcheroo, replacing his murse with a weighted workout satchel to throw her off. Sandra then reveals she ''also'' switched the murses because she was worried carrying the murse was hurting Scudworth's back (and yes, the weighted satchel is somehow less heavy than the money -- this is lampshaded). But when Scudworth opens the murse, it's the workout murse -- becasue Mr. B switched them to protect his money! But all that is fine, because this means Scudworth's money is on the boat with Mr. B....

And then Mrs. C opens her compartment to reveal ''she'' has the money.

Yes, it turns out Mrs. C is not a kind Julie Andrews type, but a messy Cockney-accented con artist! With Sandra unwilling to leave the island all those years as she waited for Scudworth to find her, Mrs. C seized the opportunity when Scudworth's boat actually showed up by slinging a rock at the boat, causing it to crash. With Sandra and Scudworth distracted and Mr. B completely in love with Mrs. C, Mrs. C was able to steal the money right out of the murse. Her plan for the money? Pitch a startup in Silicon Valley. "Because no one can tell you're launching a robot uprising if you say it's an app for weight loss, innit?" She traps Sandra on the boat because she needs a human to solve CAPTCHA tests for her. She also confesses to Mr. B that she's truly in love with him, but he rejects her and swims back to the island to be with Scudworth. Mrs. C curses him out and drives away with Sandra.

!!Are they Magnificent?
While the episode parodies ridiculous plot twists and thus reveals most of Mrs. C's plan after the fact, we still see signs of her charisma when she charms Mr. B, and the reveal shows her motivations and actions in clear detail. She helps Mr. B when he struggles repairing their boat and seduces him effectively with her robot-and-Poppins-themed come-ons. She used Sandra's known motivations to make up an evil plan to throw Mr. B off her own trail as she took the money instead. I could see an argument that she perhaps endured too much while waiting for Scudworth to arrive, but I can justify this with Sandra being a lost cause at getting off the island unless Scudworth was there. Mrs. C also likens herself to a CompanionCube and thus has presumably limited resources to go through with her plans.

The one thing that's a little vague is Mrs. C's plan for the money. It's clever on the surface, but it ultimately just amounts to a TakeThat joke. We don't know how successful she'll be launching her app or how she'll convince anybody to go through with it. However, the fact she plans to use Sandra to get around the limitations she has as a robot shows she has some foresight in that department. The last we see of her, all her plans seem to have come together, and she's unfettered when Mr. B bails on her. All the characters in-universe are taken aback by her cunning, with Scudworth referring to her plan as "the grift to end all grifts."

!!Are they a Bastard? Not too much?
Most definitely. She has no compassion for Sandra due to how annoying and obsessive she is about Scudworth, and her plan for the money is to leave the island and start a robot uprising under the guise of a weight loss app.

However, she doesn't cross the line into being totally unlikeable. Mrs. C has a sympathetic, albeit comedic, motivation for her evil plans, as she had to put up with Sandra going on and on about Scudworth with no sense of escape and no regard for Mrs. C's own safety. As she puts it: "You know what people don't talk about in ''Film/CastAway''? The blasted mental health of Wilson." Despite this, she doesn't seem to be particularly mentally unstable given the amount of foresight she had to put this plan together. It's a bit unclear if she truly does love Mr. B or if her WeCanRuleTogether proposal was part of her grift, as she does shrug it off quickly when he cusses her out and abandons her, but she was nevertheless willing to spare him.

!!Verdict?
I think Mrs. C is on par with the other candidates of the series. She almost seems like a parody of a MagnificentBitch, given the nature of the show, but the execution is largely played straight.


[[/folder]]

While the episode parodies ridiculous plot twists and thus reveals most of Mrs. C's plan after the fact, we still see signs of her charisma when she charms Mr. B, and the reveal shows her motivations and actions in clear detail. She helps Mr. B when he struggles repairing their boat and seduces him effectively with her robot-and-Poppins-themed come-ons. She used Sandra's known motivations to make up an evil plan to throw Mr. B off her own trail as she took the money instead.

Mrs. C is a robot that Sandra built on the island for assistance and companionship. She is introduced as a sort of robot {{expy}} of Mary Poppins, from her wardrobe to her accent to her helpful attitude ("Just a spoonful of oil makes the lubrication sound!"). As Scudworth rekindles his love with Sandra, Mr. B and Mrs. C likewise fall in love while repairing the boat, engaging in copious amounts of robot sex.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Ribbing on the Guest Star]]

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** "Lost Verizon" has Bart get ahold of Creator/DenisLeary's cell phone, with Milhouse gushing about him going from movie star to basic cable actor.

LACONIC: Trans women are often depicted as more masculine than their cis female counterparts, and sometimes even the men.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheKill'': In "Fun with Jane and Jane," the Omega House cult prevents Luanne from going to the bathroom, but promises that Luanne will be able to "go number three" at the Omega Ranch.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mentos Bomb]]
LACONIC:


[[AC:Western Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SolarOpposites'': In "The Stockiverse Ray," [[spoiler:Cherie]] mixes Mentos and soda to blow up the Game Boy that provides heat to the Wall.

[[folder:Meaningful Sports Team Name]]
LACONIC: The name of the sports team represents something about the players' personalities.

The name of a sports team could have a variety of origins. Usually, it relates to a particular nickname, resource, or mascot for the hometown, or perhaps [[ProductPlacement it represents the name of a generous sponsor]], or maybe it just [[RuleOfCool sounds cool enough to scare the other teammates]].

However, in fiction, team names are often chosen to give a quick, on-the-nose impression of what the team is really like, even off the field. The Anaheim Angels are just named for their original home of Los Angeles, but if a team is called "the Angels" in fiction, it's likely because they're all exceptionally good people, or at least very religious.

Additionally, while most team names go for an imposing mascot, fictional team names may be more... honest about their players' abilities, or rather their [[AthleticallyChallenged lack thereof]]. AnimalMotifs can play into this, as a team named for a particular animal may evoke the same traits as that animal's [[AnimalStereotypes stereotype]] -- you wouldn't expect the Troperville Hamsters to be much of a threat on the football field. Some teams may be even ''more'' blunt, with names like "The Tropesburgh Failures." This naturally can lend itself to quite the LoserTeamMascot.

Subtrope of MeaningfulName. Contrast TheWildcats, a stock team name that usually doesn't signify much about the players' personalities.

[[AC:Literature]]
* ''Literature/DiaryOfAWimpyKid'': The climax of ''Big Shot'' has Greg's poorly-skilled basketball team, the Winter Dogs, fend off several other teams who did poorly in their season. These include the Brawlers (who got kicked out for fighting and play way too dirty), the Mathlete All-Stars (a group of nerds who use geometry to pass the ball around), and the Stage Whisperers (a group of theater kids who use their acting skills to fake injuries, earning the Winter Dogs several fouls).

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'':
** The Dimmsdale basketball team, the Dimmsdale Ball Hogs, is made up of extremely selfish players who refuse to pass the ball to one another or even give up their seat on the bench. When Timmy joins the team in the episode "Odd Ball," he teaches them to share.
** Timmy and Chester's terrible baseball team in "Foul Balled" is called the Dimmsdale Losers. The same episode has them fend off against the New York Bankees, a parody of the New York Yankees who are comically obsessed with money.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': A variant in the ''All-Stars'' season, which is "heroes versus villains" themed. The most wicked players in ''Total Drama'' history are placed on the [[VileVulture Villainous Vultures]], while the good-natured players form the less-threatening Heroic Hamsters. (Chris also considered the [[HuggyHuggyHippos Heroic Hippos]].)

[[/folder]]

* ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'': When first telling Ramona about his breakup with Envy Adams, Scott claims the breakup was mutual. The narrator affirms that she'd dumped ''him'', and it was "brutal."

There are many important aspects to consider when budgeting a project. High-quality sets, lighting, and sound equipment aren't cheap, and all the cast and crew need to be paid fairly and treated humanely to ensure good performances and good graces. But some directors insist that one element deserves far more attention than the rest, and will direct as much money as possible towards making ''that thing'' as good as it can be -- even if it means cutting corners for the rest of the work or going outside of your budget altogether. Alternatively, the cost may not be ''too'' outlandish by budgetary standards... except this element only shows up for an extremely brief amount of time (such as a scene shot on-location at a famous monument for less than a minute, or a CelebrityCameo from an expensive A-lister).

Compare and contrast NoBudget; a budget-breaking element may result in the rest of the work appearing as if they had no money to begin with. However, if a work was already designed around having NoBudget, they may toss their extra money towards something gratuitous just to flaunt they own wealth.

Some aspects that can require more money than the rest of the film:
* A scene employing a lot of unique visual effects, such as an alien world or a DisneyAcidSequence. This could be due to the amount of time and effort spent building an original set, or due to the use of expensive CGI technology (though the latter has become increasingly more common and accessible to filmmakers).
* Filming on-location in a significant location; renting out the space so no tourists interfere while filming will likely necessitate millions of dollars to compensate for the loss in revenue.
* Hiring an AllStarCast, or even just one actor with a much bigger paycheck than their colleagues.
* Legal fees, such as getting the rights to play a certain song or use any other sort of expensive intellectual property.

Please only list examples confirmed by WordOfGod, not audience speculation on where the budget must have gone.

!!Examples:

[[AC:Film -- Live Action]]
* ''Film/IAmLegend'' spent about $5 million alone on the bridge collapse scene, due to a combination of expensive CGI and the extensive costs and bureaucracy of shooting a destructive action scene on-location in New York City.
* ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' spent $2.5 million to construct and destroy a freeway set for a car chase scene.
* About a tenth of the multimillion-dollar budget for ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' went to destroying luxury cars in action scenes, particularly several Aston Martin models specifically produced for the film.
* ''Film/SupermanReturns'' spent $10 million on Superman's return to Krypton due to the high cost of animation at the time. Unfortunately, this became a DeletedScene due to clashing with the rest of the film's tone.
* ''Film/VanillaSky'' spent $1 million of its $68 million budget renting out all of Times Square to film a short-but-symbolic scene where David dreams about the bustling city being completely empty.


[[AC:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'': At the end of the song "Love Kernels," Rebecca breaks the fourth wall to say that the artsy music video, with its various scene changes and costumes to symbolize Rebecca's LoveMartyr status, ate up the show's production budget, so they now have to recast Darryl with a broom. WordOfGod confirmed this song actually ''did'' use most of the season's production budget.
-->'''Creator/RachelBloom''': But yes, that number was expensive — we went out to the desert for a day in preproduction to film those sweeping desert scenes, we built another set on stage with all that lavish, beautiful furniture. The costumes alone, I mean especially that cactus costume, it’s expensive.
* Creator/ConanOBrien invoked this during his last weeks hosting ''Series/TheTonightShow'' in an effort to spite Creator/{{NBC}} for their controversial behavior surrounding his hosting era, making a point to introduce one-shot characters who weren't really that funny, but ''would'' cost NBC boatloads of money to put on the air. The biggest example was the "Bugatti Veyron Mouse," a very expensive car decorated like a mouse, accompanied by the original recording of Music/TheRollingStones' "Satisfaction," which O'Brien claimed would cost NBC $1.5 million. (though [[https://abcnews.go.com/Business/conan-obrien-nbc-confirms-deal-speeds-nbc-show/story?id=9621682 it may not be that high,]] as the car was likely on loan or at least a less expensive model than presented).

[[AC:Music]]
* The video for Custom's "Hey Mister," shot on NoBudget with a handheld camera with the artist and his girlfriend going to the beach, was almost finished when the label gave the band more money. Most of the money was spent on a luxury car and a trip to Vegas, with the rest of the video still using that cheap handheld camera.

[[AC:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': InUniverse. In "That's Lobstertainment!", post-production on Harold Zoid's movie is reduced to less than a week because they blew the budget on pies for a background pie fight.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'': "A Room with a Moose" has a scene with some computer-generated walnuts. On the episode commentary, Creator/JhonenVasquez jokes that they weren't meant to be CGI and it blew the entire animation budget for the season.
-->'''Melissa Fahn''': Is that right? Was it really expensive?\\
'''Vasquez''': Well, we were gonna have the season end with a giant space battle, but they had blown the budget on the walnuts, so... it was upsetting.
* Out of the $290,000 budget for ''WesternAnimation/SitaSingsTheBlues,'' $5,000 were spent on music royalties.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Parodied in "The Fight Before Christmas," which includes scenes done in puppetry and features Music/KatyPerry as a SpecialGuest. Mr. Burns is only able to release one of his trademark hounds, which is just a cheap sock puppet, because they blew the budget on Perry.
----

LACONIC: A single aspect of production eats up most of the work's budget.

* A scene employing a lot of unique visual effects, such as a DisneyAcidSequence.