Last Action Zero
Year produced: 2004
Production code: 202a
Original U.S. air date: 1/25/2005
Yep, it's THAT episode.
Brad joins the Skyway Patrol and finds that it's not all it's cracked up to be.
"Last Action Zero" contains examples of:
- Bothering by the Book: Brad joins the Skyway Patrol, only to discover that any action, no matter how heroic, has to be approved in duplicate and triplicate paperwork. After finally having enough and grabbing the controls away from the Skyway Patrol Captain to rescue Jenny from a sticky situation, he gets lambasted for taking unauthorized action and placed under arrest — after the Captain first fills out the mountains of necessary paperwork in duplicate, triplicate, etc., making sure it's notarized, authorized, and any other kind of "-ized" that deals with red tape bureaucracy.
- Convection, Schmonvection: While it would makes sense why Jenny and the Crater Critters wouldn't be affected, one has to wonder how the heck did Brad survive near an active volcano for so long.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat:
- When Brad joins the Skyway Patrol, he realizes that his dreams weren't all that cracked up to be when any form of a simple action in the line of duty as a Skyway Patrol Officer requires rolls upon rolls of Red Tape with a whole Mount Everest sized amount of paperwork to sign off on. Especially when Jenny is about to be dismantled by a group of Crater Critters, Brad is completely mummified in Red Tape when it comes to paperwork.
- Subverted and Double-Subverted by the Skyway Captain by initially agreeing with Brad's idea for taking "Rash and Immediate action", only for him to hand Brad more paperwork to sign off in triplicate.
- Reckless Sidekick: Brad at the beginning, stealing away Jenny's attention for the sake of Narrating the Obvious and halting her heroic efforts by impulsively leaping into action just for the sake of being a real hero like her.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Brad gets tired of just standing around having to do paperwork before actually doing anything heroic and eventually takes the controls away from the Captain to rescue Jenny. This results in him being placed under arrest for unauthorized action. After, of course, the mountains of proper paperwork are filled out.
- Take That!: Towards government agencies who rely on so much paperwork to avoid liability that it takes them forever to get anything done.
- Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal: The Trope Namer! A brain-eating rock monster says this about Brad's brain after he accidentally gets himself and Jenny captured.
Mind Over Matter
Year produced: 2004
Production code: 202b
Original U.S. air date: 1/25/2005
When the electricity-drinking energy alien Gigawatt attacks Earth, Jenny needs to find a way to defeat him without having her power drained.
"Mind Over Matter" contains examples of:
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Jenny vs. Gigawatt.
- Humongous Mecha: Jenny briefly becomes one, using a robot built with her own house!
- Self-Abuse: This little gem:Jenny: No time, Mom! I'll just download some new upgrades from the Internet!Nora: XJ-9, don't do that! You'll go blind!
