A Day At The Beach
Manny and the tools are enjoying a vacation to the beach- until Elliot, the beach’s lifeguard, manages to break the stairs to his lifeguard chair. Without a functional lifeguard chair, he’ll have to close the beach- until Manny figures out how to fix it, despite not having access to Kelly’s hardware store.
”A Day At The Beach” provides examples of:
- Beach Episode: Manny and the tools go to the beach for a relaxing day off, but end up having to fix the steps on Elliot’s lifeguard chair.
- Brick Joke: While on the car ride to the beach, the tools play “I Spy”, and Pat promptly “spies” the toolbox twice in a row. Later, at the end of the episode, Pat suggests they play “I Spy On The Beach”. Cue "Everybody Laughs" Ending.
- Busman's Holiday: Manny and the tools find themselves having to work on their day at the beach, to fix Elliot’s lifeguard chair and prevent him from having to close down the beach.
- Call-Back: Elliot being a lifeguard, a fact first mentioned in “Frank’s Barber Shop”, is an important plot point.
- Chekhov's Gag: Rusty burying his head in the sand cartoon ostrich-style after being scared is a Running Gag; one time when Rusty does it, he ends up discovering a piece of driftwood, which has Manny realize that the supplies they need to fix Elliot’s chair were there on the beach all along.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Manny is fixing a lamp at the beginning of the episode:Manny: Let’s see if we can get this lamp to light up again.
(Flicker hops into the lamp’s shade and shines his light) - Continuity Nod: The menu for the beach’s snack bar has the same images of cartoon Anthropomorphic Food as the menu for Fast Eddie’s Diner.
- Car Ride Games: While riding in the car to the beach, the tools try to play “I Spy”.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending:Pat: Ooh, let’s play “I Spy On The Beach”! I spy something… brown… and sandy.
Turner: Oh brother. - Feedback Rule: Elliot’s megaphone inexplicably produces (a small amount of) feedback every time he uses it.
- Hidden Depths: Apparently, windsurfing is Kelly’s hobby.
- Improvisational Ingenuity: When Elliot breaks the steps on his lifeguard chair, Manny ends up building him a replacement set of steps out of driftwood (and some fasteners Kelly had in her truck).
- Jaw Drop: Rusty does one when the helpful windsurfer who caught the tools’ beach ball after Pat sent it flying out to sea turns out to be Kelly; Stretch helpfully pushes his jar closed a few seconds later.
- Limited Wardrobe: Actually averted, as Manny, Mr. Lopart, Kelly, Elliot, and most of the other people from Sheet Rock Hills wear different clothes on the beach than what they normally wear.
- Offscreen Crash: Elliot jumping off his lifeguard chair and… not exactly sticking the landing is presented this way.
- Ostrich Head Hiding: Rusty buries his head in the sand this way whenever Elliot’s megaphone scares him.
- Running Gag: Rusty being scared by Elliot’s megaphone and engaging in Ostrich Head Hiding.
- Sarcasm-Blind:Manny: Thanks for working on our day off, tools. It’s the only way we can fix all of our own broken things. And we have a lot of broken things.
Turner: Yeah. Thanks, Pat.
Pat: Yeah! (beat) Hey! - Something That Begins with "Boring":
- When the tools are playing “I Spy” on the car ride to the beach, Pat obviously looks down at the toolbox before saying that he spies something red. Then, after Dusty correctly guesses what he spied, Pat looks down at the toolbox and says he spies something red again. Pat obviously looks down at the toolbox, “spies” it twice.
- Then, at the end of the episode:
Pat: Ooh, let’s play “I Spy On The Beach”! I spy something… brown… and sandy.
The Party Dress
It’s the day of the taredara (a spring festival), and Kelly wants to wear her grandmother’s dress to the event. Unfortunately, the rack said dress is on in Mrs. Thompson’s laundromat gets stuck- and then, when Manny tries to fix it, the rack goes completely haywire, ruining the dress.
Tropes in “The Party Dress” include:
- Audible Gleam: The tools whom Rusty and Squeeze polish at the beginning of the episode (specifically, Turner and Pat) each emit one after being polished.
- Continuity Nod:
- Mrs. Thompson’s laundromat is again seen stocked with boxes of Spiffy Soap.
- This isn’t the first time Mr. Lopart has tried to run a lemonade stand.
- Foreshadowing: Early in the episode, Kelly says that she hopes the sleeves on her grandmother’s dress won’t make it too hot for her to wear in the warm spring weather; later, the dress ends up getting both its sleeves accidentally torn off… and Kelly decides she likes it that way, and asks Mrs. Thompson to properly convert it into a sleeveless dress.
- Grandma's Recipe: At one point, Mr. Lopart is seen attempting to sell some (unbelievably sour) lemonade which he claims is his mother’s “55-Lemon Lemonade” recipe. Later in the episode, it’s revealed that he misread the recipe, which actually only calls for five lemons.
- Knew It All Along: Pat claims this after Dusty points out that “another hammer” he saw was actually just his reflection in a toaster.
- Lemonade Stand Plot: Mr. Lopart’s subplot involves him trying to sell lemonade, made according to his mother’s recipe- which apparently calls for 55 lemons. And is completely sugar-free. Needless to say, he doesn’t get many customers.
