One of the most famous and beloved episodes of the series, purely on how strange and off-the-wall the story becomes, even in the context of the show.
In this Bizarro Episode, Ed appears in Eddy's bedroom late at night asking random questions about everything he sees, bothering Eddy all night long. In the morning they go to Double-D's house to find him disassembling an antique radio in order to understand how it works. Eddy then gets an idea: if they knew how everything worked, they'd be famous and get rich.
After taking apart a washing machine and Rolf's chicken coop (with Double-D taking notes all the while), things start to get weirder and weirder as the three begin taking apart spacetime itself.
Until they accidentally destroy the entire universe.
It proceeds to get even stranger from that point on.
This episode has many examples, Ed-boy!
- All Cloth Unravels: Eddy spots a thread on Jimmy's sleeve and pulls on it, unraveling his clothes. He then notices that the thread is attached to Jimmy's wrist, and when he pulls on it, he yanks out Jimmy's outline, leaving the rest of him to ooze down the sewer.Jimmy: Fate has dealt a cruel hand. Darn it!
- All Just a Dream: The ending implies that the Eds disassembling spacetime was just their imagination. None of the other kids seem to remember the universe getting destroyed, as they just look at the Eds like they're crazy.
- Even better, given how said "disassembling" started at Rolf's farm, with Ed grabbing a tree only for it to become flat, the implication is that they had actually tuned out in the middle of Rolf's story about "the Ugly Boy and the Tree of Heads".
- All Men Are Perverts: The scene where Ed reveals the Kanker sisters bathing demonstrates this much about Eddy.Eddy: (Giggling) Did ya see anything?
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Sarah borrows Kevin's "Dorks!" also doubling as Finishing Each Other's Sentences.Kevin: (sees the Eds scrambling to collect Edd's notes on the reality warp) What are you doing?
The Eds: Uhhh.... nothing?
Kevin: Right. Except for being—
Sarah: Dorks?!
Kevin: (happily) Yeah. - By the Lights of Their Eyes: After a random scene transition, the Eds are stuck in a black void with only their eyes and mouths visible. The void is then revealed to be inside Kevin's right eyeball.
- Broken Record: "Hello, light. Hello, light. Hello, light. Hello, light. Hello, light..."
- Comically Missing the Point: Eddy points out garages are for cars when he sees Ed's stuffed garage, Ed thanks him.
- Deconstruction: On the way cartoons (or at least the show's own cartoon reality) work; the Eds' tampering with reality ends with them destroying the universe by mistake.
- Extreme Omnivore:
- At the beginning of the episode, Ed actually eats Eddy's lava lamp. Please note that this was before the Eds started dismantling reality.
- Eddy takes this up to eleven by taking a bite out of the Sun like a cookie, turning day to night in a flash.
- Floating Platforms: At the strangest point in the episode, the world has been reduced to loads of floating houses, platforms, and other random things.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The exact moment the episode shifts from the Eds earnestly trying to figure out the world to the Eds breaking reality? Ed ripping a flat tree out of the ground.
- Harmless Liquefaction: Jimmy after Eddy removes his outline. With no outline, the paint the animators use to color Jimmy turns into a puddle. Later Sarah comes back with Jimmy in a large pitcher.Jimmy: Don't spill me!
- Hypocritical Humor: Eddy is very annoyed of Ed showing up unannounced in his room in his bed in the beginning of the episode, yet a few scenes later, he does the exact same thing to Double D by sneaking up behind him in HIS room unannounced, something even Double D himself said he hated.
- Inertia Is a Cruel Mistress: When Sarah shows up to berate the Eds for turning Jimmy to goo, Eddy proceeds to grab her and kicks up a Wheel o' Feet... and then hops out of the animation effect, plants Sarah into it, and lets her speed away.Eddy: (grabs Sarah's head; sympathetically) What a shame! (lifts Sarah up) Gotta go? So soon? (winds up his legs)
Sarah: (as Eddy leaves the running effect) Eddy, you block head! (Eddy transplants Sarah into the running effect; zoom) WAAAAAAAAH! - Know When to Fold 'Em: Eddy eventually gets fed up with Ed asking him stupid questions and tries to direct his attention to more "practical" ones... only to give up after Ed's following question:Eddy: If you're going to strain your peanut brain, think of something more important. Like... how to get your face on a dollar bill!
Ed: Eddy, why is someone in the kitchen with Dinah?
Eddy: ...uh... ... ... (leaves the kitchen) Double D up yet? - Malaproper: After having his hand go behind the sun, Eddy shrugs and says "Well, if you' can't beat 'em, eat 'em!" before taking a bite out of it like a giant potato chip, turning it into a crescent moon.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Given how reality reconstitutes itself after Edd's notes are destroyed and only the Eds seem to remember the escapade, it's unclear if it was all some shared dream or if they were the only ones to keep their memories due to being the ones actively messing with things.
- Medium Awareness: As the Eds deconstruct more of the reality around them, they begin to touch on the shortcuts animation uses to force perspective and give the impression of things such as speeding feet or character outlines.
- Mind Screw: Where to even start?
- Things start to go wrong when Ed makes a tree as thin as cardboard while still maintaining its weight. The Eds are now deconstructing the building blocks and shortcuts of traditional animation, eventually moving on to dismantling space-time.
- Reality completely falls apart the moment Edd notices a hovering cow in the sky. What's left of the universe now resembles a surrealist painting.
- Things soon get much worse. Jonny's head and Plank switch places and the two decide to go camping with a bunch of household objects, Nazz has the body of a purple alligator, and Rolf gets three heads.
- Multiple Head Case: Rolf in the remains of the universe.Rolf's First head: "Many doors, yes?"
Second Head: "Too much for-"
Third Head: "-Couch Potato Ed-boys like yourselves!" - No Fourth Wall: While the show is already pretty self-referential, this episode sees it literally getting torn down!
- Not Actually The All-Important Question: Inverted:Edd: I feel we're getting closer to answering that all-important question!
Eddy: "Is Eddy rich yet?"
Ed: "Can Ed go to the bathroom?" - Oh, No... Not Again!: Rolf gets upset when he finds Wilfred in Gertrude's cage again.
- Overly Long Gag: Ed opening and shutting Eddy's fridge door. It goes on all night, and poor Eddy is forced to watch the whole thing.
- Perspective Magic: Played with as Eddy literally walks into the background and finds the monochrome houses to be very small and his hand goes behind the sun.
- Portable Hole:
- Ed cuts a hole in the background which reveals the Kankers taking a bath together. The piece of the background Ed cut off drops to the ground to become a hole itself that Ed can pick up like a newspaper.
- Subverted at the end of the episode. When the Eds are running from Sarah, Eddy and Double-D fall down a manhole. Ed, still thinking the physics are wacky, tries to pick up the manhole, only to pull out the sewer pipe Eddy and Double-D are stuck in and is forced to run while carrying it.Ed: Big hole.
- Selective Gravity: After the Eds destroy the universe, gravity either doesn't work or works however it wants to work. Eddy, at one point, pokes out from the top of the screen upside-down above Edd, only for the screen to rotate and reveal that they're both suddenly floating and fall down.
- "Shaggy Frog" Story: Rolf's story about the Ugly Boy and the Tree of Heads. It makes as much sense as what comes afterwards.
- Someone's Touching My Butt: When the Eds find themselves in the dark (actually Kevin's iris), Ed asks if the others can guess what he's doing.Eddy: Get off my foot, Ed!
- Suddenly Shouting: When Eddy finds Ed in his bed with him.Eddy: Ed...? GET OUTTA MY ROOM!!
- Surreal Humor: Full. Stop.Edd, pointing to Rolf's cow floating in the sky: "Don't look now, but there's a cow hovering just overhead."
Cow: (crows like a rooster) - The Thing That Would Not Leave: Ed is this to Eddy when the episode begins because Ed wants Eddy to answer all his questions (not taking into consideration the fact that it's the middle of the night).
- This Is Reality:
- After everything snaps back to normal, Ed still assumes things haven't. As such, after wondering how Jimmy got his outline back, he tries tearing off Sarah's mouth. Guess what happens next.
- The note the episode ends on: As the Eds run away from Sarah, Eddy and Double D fall down an open manhole. Ed tries lifting the hole, only to instead pull out the entire sewer pipe, which he's forced to run with as Sarah catches up.Ed: Big hole...
- Toon Physics: This episode is chock-full of it, more so than by the show's standards. It's later deconstructed, as the Eds destroy the universe just by messing with this.
- Trash of the Titans: Ed's garage is filled to the top with unused household appliances, furniture, and other junk.Eddy: Garages are for cars, Ed.
Ed: Why, thank you. - Unusually Uninteresting SightEddy: A three-headed Rolf. Yawn.
- Wheel o' Feet: Eddy gets rid of Sarah at one point by producing one of these before jumping out of it, then sticking her in it and forcing her to run away.
- Wingding Eyes:
- After Ed eats Eddy's lava lamp, the glowing goo is still visible through his eyes.
- Eddy gets spiral eyes after Ed keeps him up all night.
- Wipe That Smile Off Your Face:Eddy: "Shut your mouth, Sarah! Or better yet, get rid of it!"
