The Good, The Bad, And The Handy
Mayor Rosa calls Manny with an unusual job- restoring the old, historical well that resides in the town park. When the tools question why fixing up something so old and obsolete is necessary, she responds with the story of how the well came to be- that is, the story of how, in the days of the Wild West, a blacksmith named Manuel saved Sheet Rock Hills from drought.
Tropes include:
- Alliterative Name: Lefty Lumpart has one.
- Alternate Species Counterpart: Duffy, a horse owned by Mr. Lopart’s probably-ancestor Lefty Lumpart, is this to Fluffy the cat.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Duffy the horse is light blue, although this might just be a case of Fur Color Dissonance.
- Artistic License – History:
- As to be expected, the portrayal of the Wild West era takes quite a few liberties with what life back then was actually like.
- Much more notably, Sheet Rock Hills is shown to have already been named as such in the late 1800s, despite the fact that sheetrock as a building material wasn’t invented until 1916.
- Blatant Lies:Mr. Lopart: We Loparts are natural-born bikers. Have you ever heard of the Tour de Lopart?
Pat: Uh… nope.
Mr. Lopart: Why, it’s a world-famous bicycle race, named after my great-great grandfather, Handlebars Lopart. - Borrowed Catchphrase: In the days of the Wild West, Lefty Lumpart had a tendency to say “Oh, tumbleweeds” whenever something went wrong; in the present day, the tools say this when Mr. Lopart falls into the same horse trough Lefty did after Manny fixes it up.
- Brick Joke: In the part of the episode set in the past, Lefty Lumpart ends up falling into a horse trough while trying to get a drink from Manuel’s new water pump; later, in the present day, Manny fixes up the old pump and horse trough and Mr. Lopart promptly falls in it, prompting Dusty, Felipe, and Pat to say “Oh, tumbleweeds!”, Lefty Lumpart’s catchphrase.
- Character Catchphrase: Lefty Lumpart had a tendency to say “Oh, tumbleweeds!” whenever something went wrong.
- Compartment Shot: A variant occurs when the tools all look down the (very deep) well.
- Continuity Nod: Kelly’s identical great-grandmother is seen running the general store in Sheet Rock Hills 100 years ago, something that was established in “Manny’s Time Capsule”.
- Cowboy Episode: Well, sort of; a great deal of the episode consists of scenes set in the Wild West era, although Mr. Lopart’s ancestor Lefty Lumpart is the only actual cowboy.
- Extra-Long Episode: A full 22-minute story, while most episodes of Handy Manny are Two Shorts.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Manuel has one where he sees a gopher digging a hole, and realizes that he can solve Sheet Rock Hills’ water problem by digging a well.
- Flashback Effects: Ripple effects are used to begin and end scenes set in the past.
- Funny Background Event: Around the beginning of the episode, Fluffy hops into the basket of Mr. Lopart’s bike and sends it rolling away; Mr. Lopart can then be seen chasing Fluffy and the bike in the background of various scenes.
- Furry Confusion:
- Mr. Lopart uses an inanimate screwdriver while trying to attach a water bottle holder to his bike.
- The blacksmith Manuel is shown using an inanimate hammer.
- Generation Xerox: Apparently, over 100 years before the events of Handy Manny, the town of Sheet Rock Hills was inhabited by Manuel the blacksmith, who fixed everyone’s broken objects, a nameless general store owner who looked exactly like Kelly, and Lefty Lumpart, a Butt-Monkey of a cowboy who could never properly control his horse, Duffy.
- History Repeats: In one of the scenes set in the past, Lefty Lumpart falls into a horse trough while trying to get himself and Duffy a drink; later, after Manny has restored the well, the pump, and the trough, Mr. Lopart and Fluffy fall in when he tries to fill his water bottle from the trough without getting off his bike. The tools immediately lampshade this by trotting out (no pun intended) Lefty Lumpart’s Character Catchphrase.Pat, Dusty, and Felipe: Oh, tumbleweeds!
- Identical Grandson: Apparently, the population of Sheet Rock Hills in the Wild West looked exactly like if the town’s modern-day inhabitants would if they put on clothing from the late 1800s.
- Instantly Proven Wrong:Lefty Lumpart: Yup, me and my horse are the best of friends.
(Duffy immediately bucks him and runs off) - Mondegreen Gag:Mayor Rosa: ... and why it’s important to preserve our historical landmarks.
Pat: Hysterical what? - Musical Episode: Downplayed, as the episode contains one song that isn’t present in a normal Handy Manny episode: “Me And My Horse”, in which cowboy Lefty Lumpart sings about his horse, Duffy.
- Offscreen Crash: Pat falling off a stack of paint cans in Kelly’s store and landing in a pile of boxes is presented this way.
- Parrot Expo What:Mayor Rosa: ... and why it’s important to preserve our historical landmarks.
Pat: Hysterical what? - Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: On The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
- Premiseville: Señora Rosita at one point mentions a few towns near Sheet Rock Hills that are also named after geological building materials, namely “Limestone Flats” and “Gypsum Gulch”.
- Rough Overalls: Manuel the blacksmith naturally sports a pair.
- Stealth Pun: A gloriously bad one is hidden in the name of the blacksmith Manuel; at first, it might just seen like a Generation Xerox thing, with “Manuel” being the unshortened version of “Manny”, until you realize something: Manuel saves Sheet Rock Hills by digging a well. Man-WELL digs a WELL.
- Stock Rhymes: “Me And My Horse” rhymes “together” and “weather” in its opening verse.
- That Reminds Me of a Song: Lefty Lumpart at one point randomly decides that he feels like singing, and starts belting out “Me And My Horse”.
- Two Decades Behind: This is implied, as Sheet Rock Hills is stated to only be slightly over 100 years old in “Manny’s Time Capsule”, and yet this episode shows that the town had already existed in the Wild West era, which ran from approximately 1865 to 1895. The episode aired in 2009, and 100 years before that would be outside the Wild West era, but if we assume that the episode takes place two decades before it was aired (so, 1989), 100 years before that would be 1889, near the middle of the Wild West era.
- Uncatty Resemblance: Hilariously, Duffy the horse has a comb-over mane, to go with… well, we never actually see if Lefty Lumpart has a comb-over under that cowboy hat, but given that every other ancestor is completely identical to their modern-day descendant it’s fairly likely that he does.
