Ed has been ordered by his mother to play the violin, and he's horrible. Eddy tries his best to destroy the violin without Sarah or Jimmy knowing, while Edd tries to save the violin.
Tropes
- Abusive Mom: Ed's mother forces him to play a violin, but doesn't bother to get a teacher for him, nor does she seem to care that he has no capacity to play a complex instrument.
- All for Nothing: Edd's efforts to protect the violin from Eddy are rendered all for naught when he accidentally trips and falls on the violin, destroying it.
- Blame Game: When Sarah beats up Edd and Eddy for destroying the violin, they two play the blame game with Eddy blaming Edd for technically breaking the violin and Edd blaming Eddy for starting the whole conflict in the first place.
- Both Sides Have a Point: While Eddy is right to point out how the irritation and destruction that Ed's playing has caused needs to be stopped, Edd counters that doing so will cause a spying Jimmy tattle to Sarah, who'll punish them for it. However, it appears Edd is more focused on the "beauty" of the violin than the consequence of Sarah's wrath.
- Carpet of Virility: Eddy glues literal carpet scraps to his armpits to make himself look more manly. Absolutely no one falls for it.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Jonny is the only one who enjoys Ed's violin music.
- Dreadful Musician: Ed is so bad on the violin that his playing not only peels the bark of trees but also ruins the wheels on Kevin's bike. At the very least he is under no illusion that he is (or ever will be) a good player, unlike Edd.Eddy: It sounds like a trapped cat!
- Downer Ending: The violin gets smashed anyway, and Jimmy rats out the Eds to Sarah, who unfairly beats up Edd and Eddy, although it is somewhat deserved on them (since Edd ignored how bad Ed's playing was and Eddy was the one that wanted to destroy it despite the risks and his actual good intentions). Ed uses Eddy as a makeshift violin to avoid the same fate. Though it's implied Sarah may let it slide since it's at Eddy's expense.
- Epic Fail: Eddy's idea of gluing carpet to his armpits and pretending it's armpit hair is such that Ed isn't stupid enough to fall for it.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Eddy has this when Edd confessed that he sabotage the plan to destroy the violin and weakly justifies it as a contribution to the symbolic arts. Eddy's response is calling Ed a double-crosser and chasing him to smash the violin.
- Everyone Has Standards: It was so obvious Eddy glued carpet to his pits that even Ed wasn't stupid enough to believe it was armpit hair.
- Gambit Roulette: Edd's plan to destroy the violin in a way that didn't look like anybody's fault involved Ed never moving from a particular spot, Rolf and Jonny both moving in specific directions, and a Rube Goldberg Machine working perfectly. Justified, since Edd didn't actually want to destroy Ed's violin and was deliberately setting the attempt up to fail.
- Got Volunteered: Ed is totally aware that he's a terrible violinist and doesn't even enjoy playing it. He's only doing it because his mom forced him to and he fears stirring up Sarah's wrath.
- Holier Than Thou: Edd adopts this stance towards any (justified) hostility towards Ed's playing. The facts that Ed is a terrible player who will never improve and his playing is destroying everything around him do nothing to convince Edd that the violin needs to be disposed of, with him preferring to rattle about "cultural learning" despite no such thing taking place, on which Eddy calls him out.
- Hollywood Magnetism: To sabotage the destruction of Ed's violin, Edd feeds Rolf's pig Wilfred a magnet. As he walks by, the magnet attracts Ed's music stand, and Ed follows it out of harm's way.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Edd fully believes that Eddy will eventually come around to the idea that Ed will eventually become a talented violinist and that secretly sabotaging an elaborate plan to destroy it will convince Eddy that preserving it is the best option. All it does is make Eddy, whose patience has been stretched to the absolute limit, forgo any more subtle planning and just simply try to smash the thing himself, prompting Edd to confess that he sabotaged the plan and pathetically attempt to justify it by rattling off about how beautiful the violin is, which only enrages Eddy even further.
- I Reject Your Reality:
- Ed's mom is convinced that Ed can be made into a competent violinist. Ed is under no such illusions and snarkily declares that such a scenario is "in [her] dreams".
- Edd likewise insists to the end that Ed will eventually get better in the face of all evidence to the contrary and keeps insisting all the pain and suffering Ed's horrible playing causes is worth the price for a sweet melody that will never come about. After the violin is finally destroyed, he mopes about how it will never produce classical music "again", despite the fact that it never did which causes Eddy look at Edd with an annoyed 'seriously?' look.
- Irony: After spending the whole episode sabotaging Eddy's attempts to destroy the violin, it's Edd who ends up smashing it by accident when he trips and falls right on top of the instrument, crushing it much to his dismay and sorrow. Eddy laughs at seeing this irony happen.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- While Eddy isn't exactly being subtle about it, he does have a point that Ed's awful violin playing is actively destructive to the Cul-de-Sac. It becomes even more justified after Ed barges into Eddy's room unannounced and decides to practice there without getting Eddy's permission first, coupled with Edd's willingness to let him and the other kids suffer because of the violin being "symbolic art" and "cultural learning".
- Sarah and Jimmy also don't enjoy Ed's performance themselves, but not having him practice would go against his mother's orders, so they can't just let Eddy or even the other kids interfere.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In some way, Edd’s ironic accidental destruction of the violin despite trying to protect it from Eddy and his beatdown at the hands of Sarah is this due to spending the bulk of the episode having appalling delusions that Ed will get better with the violin despite blatant evidence that he never will, in addition to being completely unsympathetic to the annoyance and destruction Ed is causing with it and betraying Eddy by sabotaging the plan to destroy it.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: Edd comes up with a plan to break Ed's violin in a very public staged accident so Sarah would have no reason to blame anyone... or so he says. In reality, he's actively trying to sabotage his own attempt and convince Eddy that destroying it would be futile, which was successful for the former but failed for the latter.
- Misplaced Retribution: Sarah still ends up taking out the fact that Ed's violin got ruined on Ed, despite the fact that Edd was the one who smashed it by accident while trying to prevent Eddy from doing the same.
- Music Is Eighth Notes: Ed's violin playing manifests itself like this at times. At one point, they collide with Eddy's head hard to reflect his irritation with the cacophony. Once Ed increases the tempo, a barrage of notes proceeds to slam into his head and bury him.
- No Sympathy: Edd does not care that Ed's playing is annoying everybody and causing physical damage to his surroundings, preferring to baselessly insist that it will improve and become enjoyable at some point when it is clear it will not. He doesn't even react (But smile) to Ed barging into Eddy's room unannounced to practice with it, and treats Eddy's hostile yet justified response as though the latter was in the wrong.
- Not So Above It All:
- Edd admonishes Eddy's ill-guided attempt at faking armpit hair, but it turns out that even he did the same thing to his armpits.
- While Edd encourages Ed to keep practicing the violin, he can't physically hide the fact that he can't tolerate his playing which Eddy calls him out on.
Eddy: (after finding Edd hiding with a pair of earmuffs on) Ah-ha! I was right, Ed stinks! - Noodle Incident: Why did Ed's mother want him to play the violin in the first place?
- Only One Finds It Fun: Only Jonny finds Ed's playing enjoyable, calling it a real "toe-tapper".
- Rube Goldberg Device: Edd rigs one up to destroy Ed's violin and make it look like an accident.
- Saying Too Much: Eddy never would have guessed that Edd sabotaged the elaborate plan to destroy the violin had Edd just shrugged off the "failure". But Edd can't resist feigning shock and babbling about how the plan's "failure" was "Divine Intervention", which immediately tips Eddy off that the plan was sabotaged and who's responsible for it.Edd: *pretending to be surprised* "Completely! But how could it be? My computations were precise, rigorous, and painstaking. This goes beyond science, Eddy. An unfathomable force has sent us a clear message. That the violin shall not be harmed. That the violin shall be played, and produce wonderful–"Eddy: *catching on* "It was you!"
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Eddy, while not being nice about wanting to destroy the violin, is only doing it because of the excruciating pain and irritation it brings to him, Ed, and the other kids all while knowing the risks of Sarah's wrath.
