"Hunkahunka" is the thirty-third episodenote of Lilo & Stitch: The Series. It first aired on January 11, 2004.
Valentine's Day is here in the islands, and so too, is another escaped experiment.
The experiment of the episode:
- Hunkahunka (X-323): A small pink/purple hummingbird-like experiment who is designed to peck people, making them artificially fall in love with the first person they see. The effect is reversed by being sprayed with water.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- Abhorrent Admirer: After getting pecked by Hunkahunka, Gantu briefly falls in love with Stitch, to Stitch’s horror.
- Actually Pretty Funny: After Keoni again professes interest, Pleakley think he's under the effects of Hunkahunka and sprays him in the face with some water. He wasn't, though, but he thought Pleakley doing this was funny.
- An Aesop: It's more important to want someone who genuinely loves you for you, rather than make somebody love you.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Lilo allows Gantu to take Hunkahunka finding that it was causing too much trouble to reform properly.note
- Companion Cube: Hunkahunka makes Ice Cream Man fall in love with his own ice cream.
- Damned by Faint Praise: Under the effects of Hunkahunka, Hämsterviel says he loves Gantu, but all of his compliments are this, such as saying he loves the stupid look on Gantu's face.
- Gone Horribly Right: Lilo manages to use Hunkahunka to make Keoni fall in love with her. Great! The problem is, it leaves him with virtually no personality trait beyond being in love with Lilo and fulfilling her every whim.
- Hypocritical Humor: Unaware of the true circumstances, Nani chastises David as fickle for randomly falling head over heels for some random girl. A peck from Hunkahunka immediately causes her to fall head over heels for Gantu.
- Insistent Terminology: In response to Mertle claiming Lilo put a spell on Keoni, Lilo says it's not a spell, it's a "genetically-designed alien mutation". Not really much of a difference there since Hunkahunka making people fall in love with others against their will is like putting a spell on them.
- Irony: Nani grouses about how David is always asking her out, but when she finally says yes, he starts chasing another woman, due to getting pecked by Hunkahunka.
- Love Potion: The titular experiment has this effect on whoever it pecks. Should they be pecked by him, they will instantly fall in love with the first person they see.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: When Jumba's computer crashes from a virus because "somebody" had been using it to surf the intergalactic web, Stitch does this.
- Oh, Crap!: Stitch when Gantu falls in love with him.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: A variation. Under Hunkahunka's influence, a lovestruck Nani refers to Gantu as "20 feet tall, dark, and handsome".
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Keoni's crush on Pleakley turns out to be genuine. After all the grief he endured in this episode, Pleakley is thrilled that someone doesn't consider his disguise ugly.
- Valentine's Day Episode: The episode centers around the Valentine's Day dance. That being said, this episode first aired a little over a month before Valentine's Day 2004.
