A Job From Outer Space
Manny’s midday siesta is interrupted by a call from Abuelito- and then interrupted again when, on his way to Abuelito’s, Manny sees a mysterious shooting star arc across the sky, and follows it to find, against all odds, a crashed flying saucer and a little alien boy stuck far from home.
”A Job From Outer Space” provides instances of:
- Alien Episode: Manny and the tools encounter a crashed flying saucer, and help repair it and get a young alien back home to his parents…
- All Just a Dream: … and then Manny wakes up.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Inam waves to the audience at the end of the episode, before zooming off into the sky.
- Came from the Sky: Manny and the tools follow a mysterious shooting star to the woods near Lake Nochanailin, and there encounter Inam and his crashed spaceship.
- Christmas Light Chaos: Mr. Lopart has to deal with some Halloween Light Chaos, as he first can’t get a string of skull lights untangled and then somehow manages to get himself tied up in the bundle.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Manny and the tools go for a siesta, Turner once again uses a roll of blueprints as a hammock.
- Rusty is once again shown to be scared of aliens.
- Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Inam can apparently make a helmet appear himself by pressing that circular yellow disk on the chest of his… uh, weird future space-clothes, and makes sure to wear it while riding in Manny’s sidecar, and while flying his spaceship at the ending.
- Flyaway Shot: The episode ends with an aerial zoom-out of Sheet Rock Hills, which pulls back until Inam comes into view.
- Flying Saucer: Inam’s spaceship looks like a cross between a flying saucer and Rocket from Little Einsteins.
- Free-Range Children: Inam seems to just be a kid, but he flew a spaceship to an entirely different planet without any parents in sight.
- The Greys: Inam is basically your standard gray alien, adapted to fit Handy Manny’s artstyle.
- Halloween Episode: Sort of; the episode takes place on Halloween, but it happens during the daytime, and the Halloween-y events (Mr. Lopart struggling to put up a string of skull-shaped lights, Abuelito inviting Manny and the tools over to carve pumpkins) are more of a backdrop for the episode’s crashed-UFO plot.
- Hologram: Inam has a small disk which emits a (small, see-through and flickery) hologram of himself and two larger aliens who are presumably his parents. Basically, a futuristic family photo.
- Language Barrier: Inam doesn’t speak any Earth languages, although he still manages to communicate “my spaceship is broken, and I need to get home” fairly well and appears to be able to figure out the gist of what Manny is trying to say.
- Mistaken For An Impostor: When Mr. Lopart sees Inam, he thinks he’s just a kid in an alien costume, although at least he does say that it’s a pretty good costume.
- Real After All: So, the encounter with an alien turns out to have been All Just a Dream… except, when the camera rises high above Sheet Rock Hills for the episode’s ending shot, Inam comes into view in his flying saucer, waves to the audience, and then zooms off.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Manny and a few of the tools (although the rest of the tools have more reasonable reactions) don’t seem shocked to see Inam and his crashed UFO, and neither does Kelly. This is justified due to the alien encounter being All Just a Dream, and the fact that people have a tendency to not register the weird things happening in their dreams as weird.
- We Sell Everything: Kelly’s hardware store sells intergalactic hyperdrives, although this can at least be put down to the episode being All Just a Dream.
Sounds Like Halloween
Manny and the tools help the Lees hang homemade Halloween decorations- but, when the CD of eerie Halloween noises they were planning to play that night turns out shattered, the tools find a way to replace it with their own actions.
Tropes in “Sounds Like Halloween” include:
- Artistic License – Music: Somehow, the writers managed to have this happen in an episode where no music is even being played. How? Well, believe it or not, by bending the blade of a saw, it can be made to produce eerily beautiful, ghostlike tones
. Now, in this episode, to replace a broken “Halloween Sounds” CD, Dusty does bend her blade… to make thunder sounds, showing that, somehow, the episode’s writers confused the musical saw with the thunder sheet. (Granted, she did make a variety of weird sound effects with her blade in a few other episodes, but this episode is definitely the worst offender in this regard.) - Bedsheet Ghost: One of the kids of Sheet Rock Hills (possibly Marcelo) dresses as one.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Flicker interrupts an "Everybody Laughs" Ending to wish the viewerFlicker: Happy Halloween!
- Chekhov's Skill: Pat of the tools’ strategy to replace a broken “Halloween Sounds” CD involves Dusty bending her blade to make thunder noises, which she first did at the end of “Rusty’s Second Wind”.
- Continuity Nod:
- Various shots of the Lee house allow the viewer to see through their upper windows into Kevin and Nelson’s room, and Nelson’s former room; Nelson’s Macho Verde poster is also still in his old room.
- The tools’ Halloween costumes return from the show’s first Halloween episode.
- Dramatic Thunder: This is invoked by Dusty, who fakes thunder noises to add effect to the Lees’ haunted house-porch.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: One happens when it’s revealed that Rusty spent the entire haunted house performance hiding inside an unlit jack-o-lantern.
- Ghostly Wail: Squeeze and Flicker make some for the Lees’ “haunted porch”.
- Halloween Episode: Manny and the tools go to help the Lees set up their Halloween decorations, but end up having to stay and figure out how to replace a broken “spooky Halloween sounds” CD.
- Improvisational Ingenuity: The tools engage in some of this to replace a broken “Halloween sounds” CD- Dusty bends her blade to make fake thunder noises, Felipe and Turner find actual chains to rattle, Stretch slowly opens and closes the Lees’ front door so it creaks eerily, Squeeze and Flicker make ghostly moans, and Pat fakes some pounding footsteps.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: This is subverted when Mr. Lopart says his “Halloween doormat” (which is supposed to say “Happy Halloween!” in a creepy voice when people step on it) will work this time- he steps on it, for a few seconds it looks like nothing’s happened and then, once he’s given up, the doormat activates, sending him jumping in shock.
- Offscreen Crash: Pat sending some pumpkins falling on Turner is presented this way.
- Security Cling: Mr. Lopart jumps half-into the arms of the nearest other person (who happens to be Manny) when his Halloween doormat activates unexpectedly and scares him.
- Stock Sound Effects: This is played with, as the tools end up having to find ways to replace a broken CD that’s supposed to contain spooky Halloween noises- Dusty bends her blade to fake thunder, Felipe and Turner rattle actual chains, Stretch opens and closes a door slowly to make it creak, Squeeze and Flicker make ghostly moans, and Pat hammers out some pounding footsteps.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Once again, Dusty spontaneously gains eyelashes while wearing her ballerina Halloween costume.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When Pat sends a few pumpkins falling towards Turner, Turner has just enough time to look up, see what’s about to fall on him, and emit an “Oh no.” before they fall on him.
