The forty-first episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Robotnik invents a stupidity ray, which becomes an object of interest to Sonic, Wes Weasley and Sergeant Doberman. The three attempt to breach the defences of Robotnik's new Pinball fortress to steal the ray, which is difficult for them because none of them can stand the sight of each other.
This episode provides examples of:
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: A heroic example with Sergeant Doberman (Big), Wes Weasely (Thin), and Sonic (Short).
- Blind Obedience: The reason Doberman wants the ray, as he wants soldiers who will take orders without question. He eventually comes around to realize that soldiers who can think for themselves are the best kind.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: While Doberman rides on the zipline to the Pinball Fortress, he tries to keep Weasley off him. At one point, Weasley accidentally pulls down Doberman's pants, exposing his underwear. Doberman retaliates by pantsing Weasley
- Disability Immunity: When Scratch gets hit by the ray, it has no effect on him. When Scratch asks Robotnik if he's sure the ray really works, Robotnik tells him that it does, but it just can't make him any stupider than he already is.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Robotnik tells Scratch and Grounder to fire the stupidity ray when he says, "Shoot". When Doberman and Weasley target Robotnik, he says, "Oh, shoot!", and since the ray is aimed at him, Scratch and Grounder zap him.
- Mythology Gag: This episode is based on the Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball game, complete with the Pinball Fortress being a stand-in for the Veg-o-Fortress, and Boss Scorpion being used as a stand-in for Scorpius, the boss of Toxic Caves.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Initially, Weasely wanted the stupidity ray as it would make his customers dumb enough to buy anything, but eventually changes his mind as that would make his job too easy.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: Averted. Even though Sonic destroyed the first Stupidity Ray, Robotnik still remembered how it was built and set about building an even bigger version inside his fortress.
- Pinball Zone: The titular Pinball Fortress.
- Prepare to Die: This line during the fight with Boss Scorpion:Robotnik: Prepare to be exterminated!
- Scary Scorpions: Robotnik tries to attack Sonic, Doberman, and Weasley with Boss Scorpion, a giant robot scorpion who serves as a stand-in for Scorpius.
- Seesaw Catapult: When Sonic reaches a farm, he puts a horse on one end of a seesaw, then drops an anvil hanging over the other end to launch the horse into the air so the horse will land near Robotnik and kick him.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: When Robotnik gets zapped by the Stupidity Ray, he becomes stupid enough to pull the Self-Destruct lever.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: As a result of Robotnik being zapped by the Stupidity Ray, he ends up destroying both the Pinball Fortress and the Stupidity Ray. In the end, Doberman decides that the best soldiers are smart ones, and Weasley decides that a planet full of customers stupid enough to buy his products makes his job all too easy.
- Stock Sound Effects: When Sonic, Doberman, and Weasley hit the bumpers of the Pinball Fortress, the sound effects the bumpers make are from Super Mario Bros.. Ironic considering that Sega and Nintendo were bitter rivals at the time of this episode's broadcast.
- Storming the Castle: Sonic, Doberman, and Weasley infiltrate the Pinball Fortress to extract the Stupidity Ray.
- Stupidity-Inducing Attack: Robotnik invents a Stupidity Ray to make the citizens of Mobius too stupid to resist him. This ray becomes an object of interest for Sonic, Doberman, and Weasley. Sonic simply wants to save Mobius, Doberman wants to create an army of soldiers too dumb to question his orders, and Weasley wants customers gullible enough to buy his products. Robotnik gets zapped by the ray near the end of the episode and becomes stupid enough to destroy his own fortress.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Sonic, Doberman, and Weasley have to work together to infiltrate Robotnik's fortress and extract the Stupidity Ray, but Doberman and Weasley can't stand the sight of each other, which compromises the mission.
- Tempting Fate: The horse lands near Robotnik as he is about to fire at Sonic, saying, "This is going to be a real kick!". The horse kicks Robotnik just after this.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The front door to the Pinball Fortress is near-impenetrable with an unpickable lock... but it suffers from an embarrassing rust problem. Which Weasley demonstrates when he throws his flask of tea over it, wherupon it rusts and crumbles in seconds.
