"The Volunteer" is an episode in the fifth season of Full House.
D.J. volunteers at a local nursing home and befriends a patron there named Eddie, who turns out to suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Rebecca has Jesse wear a pad that's strapped around his waist to imitate the state of pregnancy Rebecca is going through at the time, but Jesse wants to quit soon afterwards, and so Rebecca challenges him to keep it strapped on for 24 hours, using their preferred nursery wallpaper choice as wager. Stephanie and Kimmy argue about which one of their respective dog is smarter than the other, culminating in a neighborhood dog show in which both of them enter their respective dog to settle the matter, while Danny poses as the judge.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: When D.J. states that she feels unsure what to talk about to the senior citizen she's befriending, Joey suggests that she talk to him about events that occurred during his lifetime.D.J.: I'm kind of nervous about meeting Eddie. I mean, what am I gonna talk to him about? He's 75 years old.
Joey: Well, you talk about his life. He's been through The Great Depression, two world wars, and five stooges. - The Bet: Rebecca challenges Jesse to wear the pregnancy imitation pad for a day, with the authority for wallpaper choice being the wager — Jesse wins if he manages to keep the pad on himself for an entire day, but Rebecca wins if Jesse fails to fulfill the condition. Rebecca ends up being the winner.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Jesse decides to take the pad off himself before the one-day time limit is up due to his backache from carrying the added weight the pad induces and asks Danny to watch the door to the kitchen. Danny does so, but Rebecca enters the room via a different path. Neither Jesse nor Danny has realized Rebecca has entered the room until Jesse asks for a massage to the neck and back, for which Rebecca obliges. By the time Jesse realizes what's happening, it's already too late and Rebecca has won The Bet.
- Hypocritical Humor: Joey bursts out in hysterical laughing fits at the sight of Jesse wearing a pregnancy imitation pad that's strapped around the waist. Upon noticing Jesse casting him a Death Glare (and pointing his index finger at him for further emphasis), Joey says "I'm done" and stops laughing... only to laugh again as he quickly walks out of the room.
- Ironic Echo: Overlaps with Tempting Fate. Happy with D.J. kindly reaching out to and befriending a senior citizen, Danny expresses hope for the next generation. Just then, Kimmy barges into the house and brags to D.J. about being able to stuff six hot-dogs inside her mouth.Danny: Then again, "hope" might be too strong a word.
- Literal Ass-Kicking: Subverted. Jesse's attempt at literally kicking Joey's butt for laughing at his Pillow Pregnancy (after Joey claims he's done laughing at him, too) ends up failing because the pad being strapped around his waist gives him such a terrible backache that his foot fails to touch Joey's backside — or any other part of Joey's body, for that matter — before Joey manages to quickly walk out of the room.
- My New Gift Is Lame: After the neighborhood dog show concludes and Teddy is announced as the winner, Danny hands out his award... a poop scoop. Teddy is not pleased.Teddy: A pooper-scooper? Haven't you heard of a trophy?
- Pillow Pregnancy: It's a "pad" instead of a "pillow", but the trope applies all the same otherwise. Rebecca has Jesse strapping a pad around his waist to get him to understand better about what being pregnant is like.
- Right Behind Me: When Jesse has the pregnancy imitation pad taken off prematurely, he claims Rebecca will never know about it... just as Rebecca, behind Jesse, is walking ever closer to him, unnoticed by either him or Danny.
- Scatterbrained Senior: The elderly man D.J. befriends acts rather forgetful at times. It's attributed to him suffering from Alzheimer's disease, as the nurse looking for him informs D.J.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Stephanie and Kimmy both enter the neighborhood dog show contest to settle their argument about which one of their dogs is smarter. Come the contest time, Comet and Kimmy's dog end up taking a liking with each other and snuggling too much to even pay attention to their respective owners, let alone do any tricks, effectively forfeiting themselves from the contest in the end.
- Tempting Fate:
- Jesse remarks early in the episode that he wishes to know what it's like to be pregnant. Rebecca grants it soon afterwards by having him walk around with a pad strapped around his waist in imitation to pregnancy.
- One example overlaps with Ironic Echo. Happy with D.J. kindly reaching out to and befriending a senior citizen, Danny expresses hope for the next generation. Just then, Kimmy barges into the house and brags to D.J. about being able to stuff six hot-dogs inside her mouth.Danny: Then again, "hope" might be too strong a word.
- As Jesse has Danny keep a lookout on the door to the kitchen while he takes his Pillow Pregnancy pad off prematurely, he remarks that he can strap it back on after his break from it and Rebecca will never know the difference... right as Rebecca silently walks ever closer behind him, unnoticed by either him or Danny.
- Toilet Humour: After watching Stephanie trying to train Comet to jump on command without success, Kimmy claims that her dog can do better tricks.D.J.: Drinking from the toilet is not a trick.
Kimmy: It is when she does it through a straw.
