Recap / Handy Manny S 1 E 13

Not-So-Fast Food

Manny is called by a frantic Fast Eddie- the order box at his drive-thru restaurant is broken, so he has to physically run back and forth between the kitchen and customers’ cars taking orders. Manny quickly discovers the problem, and needs to go to Kelly’s for some replacement circuit parts- but his tools ask to stay at Eddie’s diner, because they want to help him take orders. Unfortunately, Felipe’s “brilliant” plan to cut down on the amount of time spent going between the driveway and the kitchen ends up causing more problems than it solves…

“Not-So-Fast Food” contains examples of:

• An Aesop: The faster way isn’t always the better way.
• Anthropomorphic Food: Cartoon images of some of these (specifically, a burger, a box of fries, and a drinks cup) can be seen on Fast Eddie’s sign.
• Compartment Shot: There’s one of the tools looking into the inner workings of the order box after Manny opens it up.
• Gossip Evolution: Felipe decides to have the tools take orders for Fast Eddie by having them stand in a line, with each one relaying the order to the next in line. Unsurprisingly, this ends up totally garbling the orders, although it’s unclear how much of this is actually from Gossip Evolution and how much is the result of Pat.
• Invisible Anatomy: In the episode’s opening, Pat is somehow able to pick up bolts and fling them by putting his nose next to them.
• Offscreen Crash: One happens when Mr. Lopart loses control of the floor buffer he was using and is dragged offscreen by it.
• Pun-Based Title: On the concept of “fast food”.
• Stock Animal Diet: At Fast Eddie’s Diner, Mr. Lopart (after ordering for himself), orders tuna and a small milk for his cat Fluffy.
• Stock Phrases: Fast Eddie asks each one of his customers
  Fast Eddie: You want fries with that?
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Among the drawings of Anthropomorphic Food on Fast Eddie’s sign can be seen a box of fries with eyelashes.

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Merry-Go-Round

Mayor Rosa calls Manny to tear down the town park’s beaten-up old merry-go-round so she can replace it with a brand new one, but, somehow, Manny just can’t bring himself to see the old thing go…

“Merry-Go-Round” includes instances of:

• Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: The carousel provides an in-universe example of this, as three of its horses are rather improbably colored- specifically, Thunder is red, Sparky is blue, and Verde is green.
• Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: This happens to Manny after he lists what’s wrong with the carousel (after realizing that Kelly’s store has the supplies required to fix all of these problems.)
  Manny: Tools, are you thinking what I’m thinking?
  Rusty: Yeah. We’d better stay away from that merry-go-round or someone’s gonna get hurt.
• Audible Gleam: The merry-go-round emits one after being cleaned and repaired.
• Brick Joke: Early in the episode, Mr. Lopart is seen trying (and failing) to ride his childhood scooter. This is forgotten about once the main plot sets in… until after the merry-go-round has been repaired, when he shows up in the park on the scooter and slams right into Manny’s (thankfully-empty-at-the-time) toolbox.
• Companion Cube: The kids of Sheet Rock Hills treat the horses on the town merry-go-round as a downplayed version of this, having given them all names and being concerned about what their fates will be if the carousel is replaced.
• Meaningful Name: The children of Sheet Rock Hills have named the carousel’s green horse “Verde” (the Spanish word for “green”).
• Odd Name Out: The horses on the carousel are named Frisky, Sparky, Thunder, and… Verde?
• Offscreen Crash: Mr. Lopart produces one when trying to ride his old scooter.
• Pink Means Feminine: Squeeze, upon hearing a suggestion for Manny to get a new toolbox, says she wants him to get a pink one; a few minutes later, upon hearing that Sheet Rock Hills is getting a new merry-go-round, she says she hopes it has pink horses.
• Pun: At one point, Rusty says that the decrepit old merry-go-round in the park looks more like a “scary-go-round”.
• Stock Sound Effects: A stock “metal grinding” noise plays when the carousel is turned on; somehow, Dusty is able to perfectly imitate the noise for Kelly by bending her blade a certain way.