Recap / Corner Gas S 4 E 18 Happy Campers

A Plot: Oscar and Brent are off on their annual camping trip and, when Davis expresses his interest, Emma forces the guys to take him along. Davis gets a rude awakening when Brent and Oscar admit they never actually go camping, but just use the trip as an excuse to go do other things separately. When it dawns on them that Davis can't keep a secret, they realize they have to actually go through with the camping trip. Brent and Oscar's grumpiness takes a toll on Davis's enthusiasm, and by the end none of them are having fun.

B Plot: Hank wakes up and realizes that for the first time, he's having a "good hair day". This peps him up for the day, but he decides he doesn't want to lose it. He gets the not-so-bright idea to stop sleeping or showering, which takes things downhill fast.

C Plot: Lacey and Wanda get into an argument over the relative busyness of their perspective occupations, so they agree to switch jobs temporarily. Lacey proves pretty inept at being a "gas jockey", so Emma starts helping her. Wanda can't seem to hack it at the Ruby, either, so she recruits Karen to cook. In the end they switch back and no real lesson is learned.

Tropes Referenced:

• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  Emma: It's nice to see you two having a little father-son time.
  Brent: Nice as in heartwarming or nice as in gladiator bloodsport?
  Emma: A little of both. Heartwarming bloodsport.
• Brick Joke: When Lacey and Wanda return to their jobs, Fritzy asks if pie still comes with turtles, which was one of Lacey's stupid ideas in the Cutaway Gag.
• Camping Episode
• Cannot Keep a Secret: Davis. A series of Spinning Paper gags reveals that he once outed someone in Witness Protection and then they went missing.
• Captain Oblivious: When the gas bell rings, Lacey stands by blissfully unaware. Emma waits for her to answer it, but then gives up and gets it herself.
• Continuity Nod: One of the examples in the Cutaway Gag below is a flashback to Lacey phoning her mother to announce that she's decided to move to Dog River. She is shown wearing an outfit that she wore from time to time in Season 1 of the series.
• Cutaway Gag: When Emma asks Lacey to name something stupider than switching jobs with Wanda, there is a montage of things that Lacey considers to fit the bill.
• Dark Reprise: Played for Laughs with the two Hank montages; one for his good hair day when everything seems happy and bright, and one after he finally sleeps/washes his hair and everything is going wrong for him.
• Dig Your Own Grave: Considered by Oscar as an option to deal with Davis, but ultimately rejected.
• Hobos: Oscar denies that the guys he hangs out with at the library are these, despite strong evidence to the contrary.
  Brent: One guy's got a top hat with no top in it! That's not a hobo?
• Hypocritical Humor:
  Wanda: The key to good customer service is to listen to the customer, value their input.
  Random Customer: Do you have any decaf coffee?
  Wanda: Yeah. It's called tap water, Princess, and you can get it at home.
• Incredibly Lame Fun: Davis and camping, in comparison to Oscar and Brent.
  Oscar: [while Brent and Davis are carrying a canoe] Do we have to do this?
  Davis: The portage is half the fun of canoeing!
  Brent: Really? You mean the whole thing is only gonna be twice as fun as this?
• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  Wanda: I'm runnin' the place while Brent's gone, so busy busy busy!
  Lacey: "Busy busy busy"? Oh, come on.
  Wanda: What?
  Lacey: It is hardly busy enough over there for one "busy", let alone three "busys".
  Wanda: It's crazy busy! I would've said four or five busys, but I don't have that kind of time. Too busy!
  Lacey: You have been sitting here for the last fifteen minutes reading the menu, Miss Busy.
• Metaphorgotten:
  Hank: Today is the first day in the single journey that begins with a step... or however that goes.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Brent and Oscar eventually manage to ruin Davis's camping fun by basically acting like bickering children.
• Parrot Exposition:
  Oscar: We're not going camping, you jackass!
  Davis: Huh?
  Brent: He said we're not going camping. And then he called you a jackass.
• Self-Deprecation: In a quick Leaning on the Fourth Wall moment, during the second Shout-Out below:
  Wanda: They didn't have jobs on Gilligan's Island.
  Hank: They did in that episode where the professor made a bamboo movie camera and Ginger made a movie. An actor's a job. So's a bamboo movie camera maker.
  Wanda: Oh Hank, grow up. An actor's not a job.
• Shout-Out:
  • With a bit of Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure:
    Brent: Do you really think we'd go camping together, with each other? Who do you think we are, Opie and... Opie's dad, the sheriff... Matlock?
  • When Hank finds out wanda and Lacey have switched jobs, he compares it to something you might see on Gilligan's Island.
  • Brent's usual "camping" time consists of him playing Dungeons & Dragons.
  • One of Lacey's examples from the Cutaway Gag above involves her deciding to rent the Extended Edition of The Lord of the Rings.
• Stealth Insult:
  Lacey: Hank, your hair is all in your head. It's a psychological thing. It's one of your many psychological things.
• Swapped Roles: Lacey and Wanda's plot. Karen and Emma get into it as well, to the point that Karen mixes Emma up with Brent. And then THEY swap roles, requiring Lacey and Wanda to switch back to help them.
  Karen: [seeing Emma at the diner counter with a Corner Gas shirt] Hey, Emma.
  Emma: Hey, Karen.
  Karen: Chili cheese dog?
  Emma: Why would I want a chili cheese dog?
  Karen: I don't know. For some reason I thought you would.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: The DRPD, as acknowledged by Karen almost verbatim
  Wanda: I thought you were "busy busy busy" because Davis isn't here.
  Karen: I don't know if you've noticed, Wanda, but Davis and I don't really do anything.
  Wanda: I picked up on that, yeah.
• Two Lines, No Waiting: There is a very convoluted conversation near the end of the episode, where the Wanda/Lacey/Karen/Emma plot is drowning out Hank's epiphany over his hair.
• Verbal Backspace:
  • At the outset of the camping trip:
  Oscar: We go every year. We love it, me and the boy.
  Brent: Yeah, we love to camp, me and the dad.
  Lacey: That doesn't have the ring of truth to it.
  Brent: Okay, Mom makes us.
  Lacey: There's the ring.
  • And again shortly thereafter when Davis wants to come with them and Emma likes the idea:
  Brent: We'd be happy to have ya.
  Davis: Really?
  Brent: No, Mom's makin' us.
• Waking Non Sequitur: Lacey startles a very sleepy Hank twice, prompting him to blurt "Muffins!" and "Willie Nelson!".