Recap / The Powerpuff Girls (S1E6): "Telephonies"/"Tough Love"

Original air date: 12/23/1998

Production code: PPG-106

Telephonies: The Gangreen Gang uses the Powerpuff Hotline to make crank calls.

Tough Love: HIM unleashes a Hate Plague to turn the townspeople against our heroines.

Telephonies provides examples of:

• And This Is for...: When the girls beat up Fuzzy
  Buttercup: This is for anything you broke! (punches him)
  Blossom: This is for anyone you hurt! (pulls on his antenae)
  Bubbles: And this is for taking a bath! (smacks him in the head with his banjo)
  (Beat, as Fuzzy sinks into the tub)
  Buttercup: Uh-oh. I think maybe he was just taking a bath.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: The girls never realize the Gangreen Gang have been sending them on wild goose chases, so Mojo, Fuzzy and HIM are the ones who end up dishing out karma to the Gang.
• The Bad Guy Wins: A truly bizarre case of this, as Mojo, Fuzzy, and HIM of all people are the ones to thwart the Gangreen Gang's pranks after having been the target of their shenanigans. Even the narrator is baffled at the episode's close.
  Narrator: So once again the day is saved, thanks to... Mojo...Fuzzy...and Him?
• Be the Ball: Fuzzy uses Lil' Arturo as a baseball during the beatdown of the Gangreen Gang with Mojo using Snake as the bat.
• Berserk Button: This episode reveals that HIM, surprisingly enough, has one: never interrupt him while he's exercising. He holds it together when the Girls show up (probably deducing that they had been tricked), but he absolutely loses it on the phone afterward, almost exclusively using his demonic voice.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Fuzzy, HIM, and Mojo respectively form one when they team up to defeat the Gangreen Gang.
• Bullying a Dragon: The Gangreen Gang's crank calls indirectly target a mad scientist chimpanzee, a hillbilly monster, and an Eldritch Abomination who may or may not be Satan. This does not end well.
• Cassandra Truth: See Crying Wolf below.
• Crying Wolf: Subverted; the Girls never find out that the Mayor wasn't actually behind the first three calls, so they refuse to believe him during his only real call. To be fair, though, it was already rather unbelievable:
  Blossom: (sleepily answering the Powerpuff Hotline) Hello?
  Mayor: Powerpuff Girls! You're not gonna believe this! The Gangreen Gang, Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, and HIM are fighting right here in my office!
  Blossom: (sleepily hanging up) Yeah, right, Mayor. Very funny.
  (Blossom tucks herself back into bed and goes back to sleep.)
• Early-Installment Weirdness: This is the first episode in which Mojo Jojo and HIM appear together, and the way they interact strongly suggests that Mojo respects (and possibly even fears) HIM. This is in sharp contrast to later episodes that feature both villains, in which Mojo is not afraid to go against HIM or call him out.
• Epic Fail: Big Billy's attempt at a crank call goes about as well as you'd expect it to.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy and HIM may be evil citizens, but they are citizens nonetheless and they do not appreciate their off-day being ruined by prank calls that summon the Girls to beat them up. They actually intend to vent their complaints the legal way (namely complaining to the Mayor), but then discover the Gangreen Gang was directly behind these prank calls, so they opt to beat them up as revenge.
• Evil Versus Evil: The Gangreen Gang's prank calls get Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, and HIM attacked by the Girls for no reason, and they are not happy about it. Upon realizing that the Gangreen Gang are responsible for tricking the girls in the first place, Mojo, Fuzzy and HIM furiously subject the gang to a horrible beating as punishment.
• Faux Affably Evil: When the Girls barge in on Him, he doesn't break his cheerful attitude until they leave; then it becomes clear that he's not happy in the slightest.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, and HIM are about the attack the Gangreen Gang, you can see that Mojo briefly looks down at his gun, as if he's thinking "Nah, I won't be needing this to deal with these buffoons."
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Mojo Jojo uses Snake as a baseball bat, with Fuzzy using Lil' Arturo as the ball and Big Billy as a catcher's mitt.
• Insult Backfire: Mojo does this after chewing out on the girls for beating him up for no reason.
  Mojo: Oh, for crying out loud. No! I had no intention of committing any crimes today!
  Blossom: Then what were you doing before we got here?
  Mojo: (angrily) Sleeping!
  Buttercup: Before that!
  Mojo: (angrily) Reading the paper!
  Blossom: Oh..... well.... you better behave yourself, or we'll be back!
  Mojo: (sarcastically and furiously) Oh, goodness, I'd better not snore!
  (the girls are embarrassed of what they did to Mojo)
• Interactive Narrator: The narrator is the Gang's first victim.
• Laser-Guided Karma: For the Gangreen Gang, in truly epic fashion.
• Malaproper:
  Big Billy: He's not here right now. Can I take a massage?
• Mistaken for Prank Call: See Crying Wolf above.
• Mood Whiplash: The very mention of HIM briefly invokes this. They know the mayor would never make a fake call about that. But they don't know who was really behind the phone.
• Neck Lift: By HIM, on Ace.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, and HIM do not enjoy being Prank Call victims.
• Not Me This Time: Currently provides the page quote. Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, and HIM are each blamed for something that never happened, let alone that they did.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The girls get a big one after beating the crap out of Fuzzy Lumpkins, who was just enjoying a bath when they were tricked into fighting him. Fuzzy does NOT take this well at all, and the girls are quick to run like bats out of hell when he's ready to explode.
  • The Gangreen Gang gets one when Mojo, Fuzzy, and HIM break in to get revenge.
• Prank Call: The episode's entire premise.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: From HIM, of all people.
  HIM: So... you guys like to make crank calls?!
• Punch-Clock Villain: Mojo, Fuzzy, and HIM were all minding their own business and not up to anything evil when the Gangreen Gang tricked the girls into attacking them. Mojo was sleeping after reading the newspaper, Fuzzy was taking a bath, and HIM was exercising. Even the girls were embarrassed by their own actions after learning the truth.
• Ridiculously Long Phone Hold: Thanks to Arturo's prank call on him by tricking him into thinking he won ten million dollars earlier, Professor Utonium remains on hold for the remainder of the episode, despite the fact that Arturo has hung up on him hours ago.
• Rule of Three: The Gangreen Gang trick the girls into going after three villains; Mojo, Fuzzy, and HIM.
• Running Gag: Professor Utonium is told by Arturo that he's won ten million dollars and then to hold, only for Arturo to cut the call. For the entire episode, the Professor stands frozen in place, always with a different expression. By the end of the episode, he's still standing by the phone.
• Split-Screen Phone Call: Between the Gang and their first few victims, and between Mojo Jojo, Fuzzy Lumpkins, and HIM.
• Stock Sound Effects: An alarm sound that's fairly common in cartoons plays when HIM steps on Grubber's foot. Possibly justified; given that Grubber can perfectly imitate others' voices, but usually only "speaks" with raspberries and burps, that may have been his actual scream.
• Subverted Catchphrase: The narrator's usual crediting the girls for saving the day is replaced with him crediting Mojo, Fuzzy and HIM saving it instead in a disbelieving tone.
• Too Dumb to Live: Big Billy explains the Gang's prank-calling scheme to some random guy on the phone, and then identifies himself. Said "random guy" (HIM) has the Voice of the Legion and started the call by angrily demanding to speak with the Mayor. Let that sink in for a second. Of course, the other members of the Gang aren't too smart either, ordering pizza and then, like Goldilocks before them, taking a nap in the place they broke into.
• Tranquil Fury: HIM calls the Mayor's office in a rage, but as soon as Big Billy accidentally confesses how the Gang tricked the Powerpuff Girls into attacking the other villains, HIM immediately switches back to a calm tone of voice that underscores how much of an ass kicking the Gang's about to receive.
  Big Billy: Hello?
  HIM: I demand to speak with the Mayor!
  Big Billy: Uh he's not here right now can I take a massage?
  HIM: Do you know when he'll be back?!
  Big Billy: Uh I don't know, see Grubber tricked the Mayor into leaving so we could break in and use the Powerpuff Hotline to make crank calls.
  HIM: HUH?! You don't say. Well to whom might I be speaking?
  Big Billy: Uhh this is Billy.
  HIM: Billy who?
  Big Billy: Duhh Big Billy from the Gangreen Gang.
• Unknown Rival: The girls are unaware all the calls received were from the Gangreen Gang pranking them.
• Villain Team-Up: HIM leads Mojo and Fuzzy in exacting revenge on the Gangrene Gang.
• Villainous Friendship: Mojo, Fuzzy, and HIM all seem to get along with each other, seeing as how they have each other's phone numbers, and called each other to express their mutual anger. Mojo even addressed HIM as "Sir", recognizing him as the evilest of the villains.
• Villains Have A Point: All of the villains are furious to have been attacked by the Powerpuff Girls (though HIM is the exception as the Girls were flabbergasted by his exercising), even with their usual evildoing duly noted. But it's not so unreasonable seeing how each attack was completely unprovoked, and they know when to expect their usual opponents on the days where they are on a rampage. Even as Mojo pointed out that though he and the others are villains, they are still considered as citizens who have a right to voice their outrage on those who wronged them.
• Villains Out Shopping: Mojo Jojo is shown having fallen asleep while reading the newspaper; Fuzzy Lumpkins, singing and playing the banjo while taking a bath; and HIM, exercising. None of them were planning to do anything evil that day... and none take kindly to being interrupted.
• Voice Changeling: Grubber is able to imitate Ms. Bellum and the Mayor's voices perfectly.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: The girls never think to slap or punch the Professor or anything to snap him out of his hours-long trance on the phone. They don't even make an effort to snap him out of it by the time they've all gone to bed.

Tough Love provides examples of:

• Brainwashed and Crazy: HIM unleashes a Hate Plague in the city that causes everyone to hate the girls.
• Beat the Curse Out of Him: The girls convince themselves that the Brainwashed and Crazy citizens of Townsville are not their loved ones and beat the crap out of all of them and scare HIM into retreating, which causes the Hate Plague to die down.
• Cats Are Mean: The elderly woman's cat towards the girls after HIM makes everyone in town hate them. A good kick from Bubbles and a visit to the hospital help it get back to normal though.
• Expressive Accessory: The hotline has an angry face before the girls answer it when the Hate Plague takes effect.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: When everyone else delivers the punchline after the girls explain to them what happened and why they had to beat them up to the point where they all had to be hospitalized.
  Bubbles: Besides, it hurt us a lot more than it hurt you.
  Everyone: Well now, we wouldn't say that!
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: Him's Hate Plague turns everyone against the girls. Including The Narrator.
  The Narrator: Oh, for crying out loud, would you three shut up for once!? Always crying and moaning about something... sheesh, you give me a headache!
  • The ending also hints that the girls had to beat him up alongside the others in order to get him back to normal.
  The Narrator: Oh, nurse, isn't it time for my sponge bath?
• Hard Truth Aesop: Sometimes, to help your loved ones, you got to hurt them.
• Hate Plague: HIM is tired of hearing the Powerpuff Girls' praises, and decides to have everyone turn on them using this.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: The girls don't really convince anyone to fight off the Hate Plague. They simply justify fighting them because they would never hurt them otherwise.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: This bit.
  Blossom: Um...w-we'd love to stay and hang out with you guys, but, uh...I—I think I hear the Professor calling.
  Buttercup: Y-y-yeah, some other time.
  Bubbles: Hehheh...maybe we can have tea! [They zip away.]
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Before HIM leaves in defeat, he says that he never gives repeat performances. This can be seen as a way of saying that episodes with similar plots would make a TV show too stale and repetitive.
• Nightmare Face: The Professor gives the Girls one of these when they “barge” into his lab.
• Offing The Off Spring: Even the Professor tries to destroy the Girls in this episode. Even though they’re his own daughters.
• Oh, Crap!: HIM when he realizes that the Girls are willing to beat up their loved ones to free them from his control.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Whoever is affected by Him's Hate Plague gets these.
• The Un-Reveal: Ms. Bellum's face isn't out of frame for once, but it's completely covered in bandages.
• Would Hurt a Child: The whole damn city is willing to harm the girls when they are under HIM's influence, ranging from elderly ladies to little children and even a cat. Ms. Bellum even pulls a gun on them.

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