Recap / Dinosaurs S 02 E 17 A New Leaf

After an argument with Earl, Robbie runs away from home. Robbie and Spike come across a special plant that makes them happy. Robbie decides to go back home, taking the plant to Earl, who also becomes happy with it. Earl brings the happy plant to work, where he gets fired, but is also happy to be fired. When Fran learns that Earl was fired, she takes Earl to work to convince Mr. Richfield to rehire him, to find that Richfield and Earl's co-workers have been affected by the plant. Richfield, now a hippy, is not only willing to rehire Earl, but also decides to make him his assistant. Unfortunately, Richfield gets fired. With Fran and Baby being the only ones in the Sinclair household who haven't used the plant, Fran decides to take Baby with her and leave until the family decides to stop using the plant. In the morning, the family is all grumpy, and decides to go to the swamp to get more of the plant so they can be happy again. They find Spike, who never left, and after seeing how the effects of the plant made him turn out, they decide not to use it anymore, and Fran burns the plant.

Afterwards, filming ends, and as they wrap production of this episode, Robbie gives the audience a lesson on the dangers of drugs, which leads to sitcoms doing unfunny anti-drug episodes.

Includes examples of

• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: Spoofed, as Robbie's lecture is not so much on the dangers of drugs, but that the dangers lead to sitcoms doing anti-drug episodes that are usually not funny.
  "Say no to drugs. Help put an end to preachy sitcom endings like this one."
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Robbie's fourth wall lecture at the end of the episode invokes this trope as he lists three negative consequences that real life drug usage can lead to.
  "Drugs ruin lives, divide families, and lead to preachy, heavy-handed sitcom episodes like this one."
• Bait-and-Switch: At the end the Sinclairs consider burning the plant so it wouldn't affect anyone ever again. Then Earl makes a speech about how instead they should be "stronger than the plant" and simply not eat it anymore. Cut to them burning the plant anyway.
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: When Baby hits a high Robbie, Earl, and Charlene, the three say "Again!"
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Robbie addressing the audience at the end.
• The Danza: In-Universe example. At the end, when the show wraps up, Robbie - the in-universe actor playing Robbie - says "I'm Robert Sinclair, but you probably know me better as Robbie from the mega-hit Dinosaurs". Of course, he would actually be playing himself (or a character with the same name).
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In addition to mimicking real life symptoms of drug usage (such as paranoia), the way that Robbie, Charlene, and Earl become grumpy and aggressive after not using the Happy Plant mimics real life drug withdrawal.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Lampshaded by Earl while he's high on the plant:
  Earl: (looking at his hands) Say, why is our numerical system based on ten when we only have eight fingers?
• George Jetson Job Security: Earl gets fired, and Mr. Richfield later gets fired himself. It is never shown how either get their job back before the next time they are shown at work.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: A paranoid Robbie suddenly thinks that they are being filmed by hidden cameras, and that their lives are being broadcast. As he points to where he imagines the cameras to be, the show keeps cutting to shots of Robbie pointing at the camera, and at one point the camera tracks Robbie's finger as he wags it around.
• Overly Long Gag: "This is the greatest moment of my life! No, wait... This is! No, wait... This is!"
• Shout-Out:
  • Baby does a parody of the famous "This is your brain on drugs" PSA.
  Baby Sinclair: [holds up frying pan] This is your brain. This is your brain on the plant. [hits Earl on head with pan] Any questions?
  • While high on the plant, Richfield sings "Purple Haze".
• Spoof Aesop: Drugs lead to sitcoms doing preachy, un-funny anti-drug episodes.
  • Hard Truth Aesop: The episode does actually contain a subtle, multifaceted message about drugs, particularly marijuana — the plant itself isn't the problem, but everyone forever chasing that high or acting like it's the only way they can feel happy, which leads to them making all kinds of short-sighted, bad life decisions because they've become apathetic to everything but feeling good. Chris Jacobs and writer Rob Ulin have since confirmed that it was completely intentional.
• Stoners Are Funny: The episode's main source of humor.
• Very Special Episode: Invoked and parodied by this episode, which focuses on drug usage and "preachy" anti-drug episodes.