Sarah trusts Ed with her allowance money to purchase some fudge for her and Jimmy, but instead, he ends up buying jawbreakers due to Eddy's interference. When the rightly enraged Sarah is about to reduce Ed to dog meat, Edd manages to escape her wrath by offering to pay her back with interest. The Eds are then forced to find a way to make money, but the first two scams devised by Eddy fail to meet the promised quota, with the other Eds getting badly injured and Eddy attempting to horde what little money they do manage to scrounge up for himself. Fed up, Ed and Edd double-team their diminutive leader and subject him to a scam of their own, which rakes in more than enough money to pay Sarah back at Eddy's well-deserved expense.
"Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?" provides examples of:
- Brick Joke: Ed wears a coconut bra for Eddy's luau scam in the beginning. Much later, when Jonny hits Ed like a pinata for Eddy's scam to repay Sarah, he takes the bra, which he mistakes for earmuffs.
- Bullying a Dragon: Eddy does this to Sarah by wrongfully making Ed spend her own money on jawbreakers and then trying to keep all the money the Eds owe Sarah all to himself.
- Didn't Think This Through: Eddy badgers Ed into spending Sarah's money on jawbreakers, never at any point considering that Ed doing so would land them all in hot water. When Ed realizes this and rightly panics, Eddy just assumes that not saying anything will eventually lead to Sarah forgetting about the fudge and letting them get away with it.
- The Dog Bites Back: Ed and Edd ultimately double-team Eddy and force him to be the subject of a painful scam to get Sarah's money back after he tried to make money off of their suffering and keep it for himself.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Most episodes in this show are either bitter or just downright sadistic. This could have been another Bittersweet Ending, had it not been for the fact Eddy deserved his beat-down at the end. And hey, everyone got Jawbreakers in the end, with the Eds seemingly getting spare money for more.
- Easily Forgiven: Averted then played straight. Sarah is initially (and understandably) enraged when Ed spends her allowance on jawbreakers. After Edd convinces her not to beat her brother to a merciless pulp by offering to pay her back with interest, she impatiently demands her money at every interval. After Edd sets up a scam in which Eddy is repeatedly slammed against the tree branch, she quickly calms down and patiently waits for the promised money.
- Face Palm: Edd does this with two of his hands when Ed ends up caving into Eddy's demands of spending Sarah's money on jawbreakers.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: Ed is forced to choose between buying fudge for Sarah and Jimmy, or jawbreakers for himself and his friends. He chooses the jawbreakers, only realizing the repercussions when it's too late.
- Good Angel, Bad Angel: Ed is put in this kind of situation when he has to choose between buying fudge for Sarah and buying jawbreakers for himself and his friends, with Edd being his good angel and Eddy being his bad angel. Sadly, the bad angel wins.
- Hated by All: Double D and Ed exploit Eddy being this at the end of the episode. They get back at Eddy by tying him to the tree and setting up a makeshift seesaw underneath him, allowing all the kids to use the board to send Eddy hurtling up into the tree painfully for only one penny per shot. Since all the kids hate Eddy and enjoy subjecting him to pain for such a cheap fee, it guarantees they keep getting in line for more shots at him.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: After using both of them to get wedgie'd and used as piñata to pay back Sarah (Which he wasn't planning to and was trying to keep them for himself), Ed and Double D get back at Eddy by using him in his own wedgie scam and have a makeshift seesaw to let the other kids to painfully send him to the tree branch for only one penny.
- I Want My Mommy!: At the end of episode, when Rolf is about to send Eddy flying into the tree branch, the latter screams for his mother.
- Idiot Ball:
- Eddy doesn't want to pay back the money Sarah gave to Ed, despite the fact the girl is planning to hurt all of them if they don't.
- While trying to talk Ed into doing the right thing, Edd repeatedly harps on the moral and ethical reasons Ed should buy fudge for Sarah with her money and forgets all about reminding him of the pragmatic truth that Sarah will destroy them if he doesn't, which had already been shown to instantly get through Ed's thick skull.
- Jerkass: Eddy goads Ed into spending Sarah's money on jawbreakers.
- Jerkass Has a Point: This is one episode where Sarah's anger towards the Eds is perfectly understandable.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Eddy gets his just desserts at the end, not just for causing his friends' predicament in the first place, but for using Ed and Edd as scapegoats.
- Man Bites Man: After Kevin pays Eddy to let him give wedgies to Double D and Ed, Sarah grabs his arms and counts the quarters, noting he is still short the promised amount. Eddy refuses to give her the money, saying it is his, and she responds by biting his arms, forcing him to drop them and snatch them while demanding her money back.
- Manipulative Bastard: Eddy gauds Ed into shirking his promise to buy fudge for Sarah and buy jawbreakers instead.
- Mickey Mousing: Edd briefly provides musical accompaniment for Eddy's actions with his slide guitar, much to Eddy's annoyance.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Edd refuses to take the jawbreaker bought with Sarah's money, so when Eddy has Ed force it down his throat, Edd is racked with guilt, regardless of how his "participation" in the crime is involuntary.
- Ed panics when he is reminded of the fudge that Sarah and Jimmy are expecting but that he never bought.
- Never My Fault: After convincing Ed to spend Sarah's allowance on jawbreakers, Eddy refuses to take responsibility for his actions after Sarah finds out, even glaring hatefully at his friends for showing remorse and wanting to pay her back. He then attempts to selfishly hoard the money they do manage to make for himself while Ed and Edd get beat up in the process, showing an almost sadistic glee in making them suffer while he tries to get off scot-free for getting them into trouble in the first place. Fortunately, Edd is having none of this and ensures Eddy gets his just desserts for his horrible behavior throughout the episode.
- Out-of-Character Moment: This entire episode is one for Eddy if you think about it. While (at this point in the series, at least) he's usually greedy and self-serving, his greed worked more in the sense that he would work with Double D and Ed in a bossy Team Dad way and would never intentionally humiliate them and then make money off it, nor would he be so gleefully sadistic about it. Also, Eddy usually knows how vicious Sarah is and would've tried to pay her back as soon as possible to get her off his and his friends' backs rather than selfishly keep the money for himself. Simply put, this episode is all of Eddy's negative qualities taken even further beyond, so this time there's a good reason for him to get his ass whooped at the end.
- Paying in Coins: Edd and Ed's scam to have the kids hit Eddy has them charge a penny per shot, rather than the usual 25 cents, to prolong Eddy's agony. Rolf comes with a massive bag of pennies, giving him hundreds of turns, to Eddy's dismay.
- Pet the Dog: Though rightfully furious at her brother and his friends for spending her allowance on jawbreakers, Sarah decides to accept Edd's proposal of her allowing them a chance to reimburse her with interest, if only for the prospect of getting more fudge for herself and Jimmy than she would have gotten with her initial allowance. By the time Edd has conceived a surefire way of slowly but surely getting Sarah her promised money that also involves bringing pain and humiliation upon Eddy, Sarah (who's relishing in Eddy's misfortune and probably having come to realize Eddy's culpability in Ed failing her in the first place) cheerfully lets Edd and Ed know she's in no hurry to get her promised payment and makes clear she's let the two off the hook.
- Plumber's Crack: Ed and Edd's were out after Kevin gave both of them a hanging wedgie at the tree branch.
- Shake Someone, Objects Fall: For his second scam to repay Sarah, Eddy hangs Edd and Ed from a tree as piñatas and encourages Jonny to hit them and keep anything that falls out. Jonny hits Edd and only gets a shoe, but when he hits Ed, he is buried in an avalanche of filth and random stuff that Ed is hiding in his coat.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Eddy’s reaction to when he sees the amount of pennies that Rolf is paying to send him flying into the tree branch, despite it being probably enough to cover Sarah’s allowance with interest, and when Rolf begins.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Though they’re using someone else’s money for it, for once, the Eds are allowed to get some jawbreakers and this time, enjoy them to their fullest.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: When Double D has enough of Eddy subjecting him and Ed to painful scams, he whispers something into Ed's ear that we the viewers can't hear before Ed starts laughing and the two of them grab Eddy. The next scene cuts to Eddy tied to the tree and the kids paying a penny per shot at him.
- Wedgie: This is used as a scam invented by Eddy (who misspelled and styled it as weGeeS), providing it as a service to let anyone who pays give wedgies to Ed and Double D. Kevin takes him up on this offer, and ties Ed and Edd's underwear to the tree branch, leaving them hanging, until Ed's were ripped off, causing both of them to crash back to the ground. At the end of the episode Double D and Ed repurpose the service, tying Eddy to a tree by his underwear themselves and providing a makeshift seesaw to allow anyone who pays a shot at hitting him up into the tree painfully.
- Who Writes This Crap?!: When Edd laments his part in stealing Sarah's money in flowery language, Eddy says "Who writes this guy's stuff?"
