Original air date: 1/20/1999 (produced in 1998)
Production code: PPG-109
Bubblevicious: Bubbles attempts to Take a Level in Badass but overshoots the mark.
The Bare Facts: The girls tell the Mayor how they rescued him but refuse to tell him what was so funny about it.
Bubblevicious contains examples of:
- An Aesop:
- It's important to be tough, but don't get too tough or you'll hurt others.
- Don't change who you are even if you're made fun of. Just be yourself.
- Agony Beam: Bubbles is zapped by Mojo Jojo's giant laser when it is set up to eleven. At the end, he zaps all 3 girls.
- All Crimes Are Equal: Bubbles beats a guy who didn't keep off the grass to a pulp, punches a guy who litters to the ground, and throws a car with a woman driver in a no parking zone resulting in a crashing sound.
- And Here She Comes Now: Said by the narrator near the beginning of the episode.
- Ax-Crazy: When Bubbles gets fed up with everyone thinking she's cute and harmless, she starts beating the crap out of people for things like not staying off the grass and littering.
- Baby Talk: Mojo Jojo speaks like this while explaining his plan to Bubbles.Mojo Jojo: I plan you zap you with my laser, causing you to cry out just wike a wittle baby, which in turn will cause your sisters to come flying to your rescue, for which I am well prepared!
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Bubbles beats up the Talking Dog over him driving and holding up a traffic.
- Battle Cry:
- Bubbles issues two. One after she wipes blood from her mouth, the other before she explosively breaks the shackles on Mojo Jojo's giant laser and beats the living crap out of him. And they are definitely not the sort of scream you would normally hear from Bubbles.
- Mojo Jojo was also expecting Bubbles to cry out just like a little baby when he zapped her with his laser.
- Big Sister Instinct: Exploited — Mojo's evil plan is to zap Bubbles with a giant laser and make her cry out in pain, which will summon her sisters to come save her and lead them straight into a trap. Unfortunately for him, Bubbles has other plans.
- Berserk Button: Bubbles' is being called a weakling of any sort.
- Beware the Nice Ones: The entire episode is based around Bubbles being more (and definitely too) assertive after her family calls her weak. Don't worry, though; she's back to her usual cute and sensitive self at the end of the episode.
- Big, Stupid Doodoo-Head/Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Bubbles has words to say to her captor while being zapped by her captor's giant laser.Bubbles: I'm not... gonna... cry... you... dumb... DOO-DOO BRAIN!
Mojo Jojo: "Doo-doo brain"? That's it! I've had it with your sassy mouth! I didn't want to do this! ...Well, actually, I did.
(Mojo turns the dial on the laser up to eleven.) - Big "YES!": Mojo says two of them when Bubbles is zapped with the laser on level 11 and struggles not to cry.
- Blood from the Mouth: Bubbles gets a drop of blood on the corner of her mouth after being kicked the crud out of by the level eleven monster simulations.
- Book Ends: Bubbles' first fight is with a robot that zaps her when she isn't paying attention. After she saves herself, makes a battered wreck out of Mojo Jojo and goes back to her usual happy self, she's zapped by Mojo's ray gun. You can probably tell where this is heading.
- Bowdlerisation: When the show aired in the UK, the lightning strikes that occur when Mojo Jojo kidnaps Bubbles were slowed down so as to not cause seizures among epileptic viewers. The flashes that happen when Bubbles is being zapped by Mojo Jojo's laser were slowed down as well.
- Breaking the Bonds: Bubbles, after screaming with rage at being zapped by Mojo Jojo's giant laser, is so mad that she explodes the shackles holding her down. Before Mojo Jojo can react, he is reduced to a battered wreck by Bubbles.
- Bring It: After entering the fighting simulator on her own, turning the danger level up to 11, and inflicting a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on all the monsters at once, Bubbles roars, "WHO ELSE WANTS SOME?!?!?!"
- Brought Down to Normal: Blossom and Buttercup are able to get Bubbles back to her usual cute and sensitive self at the end of the episode.Blossom: And you know what?
Bubbles: WHAT?!!
Blossom/Buttercup: You're hardcore!
Bubbles: (sweetly) ...Really? (giggles) Aw, shucks! - Curbstomp Battle: Every fight Bubbles gets in over the course of the episode save the first two.
- A Day in the Limelight: This episode follows Bubbles and her attempts to be hardcore.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Even those who commit the most minor of offenses aren't safe from Bubbles' wrath. Parking in a no parking zone, littering when you're not supposed to, etc.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Bubbles just wants to be treated equally like her sisters.
- Epileptic Flashing Lights: It's probably wise not to view the scenes where Bubbles is being captured by Mojo Jojo and where she is zapped by Mojo Jojo's giant laser if you have epilepsy.
- Extremely Easy Exam: When Bubbles enters the Professor's fighting simulator, he turns it down to level 2 and pits her against a goofy 1950s-style toy robot smaller than her that says, "Boo! I'm gonna get you! Boo! I'm gonna get you! Boo!" She protests that she's just as capable of fighting monsters as Blossom and Buttercup, but the robot zaps her when she isn't looking, causing the Professor to tell her she's not ready for the higher levels yet.
- Fake Action Prologue: Buttercup is fighting a giant slug until the Professor ends the training simulation.
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Blossom and Buttercup attempt this twice in the episode. The first time, when they tell Bubbles that it isn't the Bubbles they know, it doesn't work. The second time, when they say that she's hardcore, it works, and Bubbles is back to her usual sweet and happy self.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Bubbles gets this.
- Hard Light: The monster simulations are strong enough to hurt Bubbles, she even gets a drop of blood at the corner of her mouth. Damn good holograms.
- Jerkass Ball: Bubbles takes it too far when she starts to harm Blossom, acts rude to the Mayor, beats up the Talking Dog, and starts beating up random people for minor things.
- Everyone else in the Utonium family (even Buttercup for her standards) kick-start the events of the episode by taunting Bubbles over how her sisters are more advanced than she in fighting with the usually Reasonable Authority Figure Professor not doing anything to console Bubbles or tell her sisters to stop taunting her but rather backs up their taunts.
- Kick the Dog: Or rather beat up the dog, by Bubbles during her "hardcore" phase.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Bubbles flat out kills the monster simulations, tackles Blossom with enough force to emulate a meteor crash, gears up to give one to the talking dog only to be stopped by her sisters and reduces Mojo Jojo to a broken wreck (but only once, after being zapped by his giant laser. The second time, she just beats him senseless). Also, Buttercup beats a slime monster this way until the Professor orders her to stop (after most of the body is splattered all over town).
- Proscenium Reveal: The episode begins with Buttercup fighting a monster in Townsville, then Professor shouts at her to stop, before it is revealed to have come from the simulator she's trying out.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:Bubbles: Ha! I got you! You're out! Gone! Finished! You were beaten down, sister, by CUTE! LITTLE! BUBBLES!!
- Sanity Slippage: Bubbles has a HUGE one after she proves herself to be "hardcore". She eventually changes course when Blossom and Buttercup finally tell her that she's hardcore.
- Shout-Out
- Bubbles' line under Virtue Is Weakness is a reference to The Karate Kid.
- The dial for the simulation and, later, Mojo's laser go to eleven.
- Skyward Scream: "WHO ELSE WANTS SOME??!?!!??!?!"
- That Man Is Dead:Blossom: Bubbles!
Buttercup: Have you lost your mind?!
Blossom: This isn't the Bubbles we know!
Bubbles: The Bubbles YOU know is GONE!!! I'M HARDCORE NOW!!! - This Is Gonna Suck: After waking up from being beaten single-handedly by Bubbles, Mojo zaps the girls from behind with a ray gun just as they're reconciling with each other. Mojo realizes he made a mistake when Bubbles turns to him and the other two leave her to take care of it.
- Took a Level in Badass: Bubbles is out to prove she is hardcore. She takes the full blunt of Mojo's giant laser before she explosively breaks the shackles holding her and gives Mojo such a severe beating that the poor monkey is literally reduced to a broken wreck. And then she's back to her usual sweet and happy self by the end of the episode.
- Virtue Is Weakness: When the source of a traffic jam is revealed to be a small defenseless dog:Dog: Bubbles...have mercy...
Bubbles: Mercy is for the weak!
The Bare Facts contains examples of:
- Art Shift: The girls' three flashbacks are portrayed in art styles that suit them. Blossom's art style is professionally drawn, but the colors present are only shades of red. Bubbles' art style is drawn in all crayon. Buttercup's is drawn in the style of a green and black comic.
- Baby Talk: Bubbles speaks like this after describing what happened after Buttercup hurt Mojo's head.Bubbles: And I would have kissied his widdle boo-boo, but then I remembered he was a bad monkey, so I KICKED IN HIS FACE!
- Borrowed Catchphrase: The mayor of Townsville says the Narrator's line of "The city of Townsville" at the beginning of the episode. It makes sense, too, given that the two
share the same voice actor. - Brick Joke: Mojo wanted to "strip" the mayor of... something. It is assumed to be just power, but the end shows to be more than that.
- Buffy Speak: Blossom says that Mojo used "ninja thingies" before Buttercup tells her it was nunchakus.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Blossom explains they found a note on his desk.Blossom: Mr. Mayor, you had written an elaborate note telling Ms. Bellum that you’d gone home to write your election speech.
Mayor: I did? How smart of me!
Blossom: That’s not what I mean! See, you didn’t actually write the note.
Mayor: But you just said I wrote the note!
Blossom: Ms. Bellum said that you couldn’t have possibly written the note because she writes all of your speeches.
Mayor: Ms. Bellum wrote the note?
Blossom: NOOOO!! Neither you nor Ms. Bellum wrote the note!
Mayor: Then who wrote the note? I’m sorry, Blossom, but this is all terribly confusing.
Blossom: I knew that there was only one evil menacing character cunning enough to do this.
Bubbles: Mojo Jojo!
Mayor: Mojo Jojo?
Girls: Yes! Yes!
Mayor: Mojo Jojo wrote my speech? I’ll have to thank him!
Buttercup: AAAAAARGH!!! Mojo wrote the note! MOJO WROTE THE NOTE!!! - Department of Redundancy Department: Bubbles, while flying to Mojo Jojo's observatory in Townsville Park, saw a cloud that looked like a cloud.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Indeed, the girls' laughing was inappropriate considering the very real danger the Mayor was in. Unfortunately, he still couldn't be bothered to notice his own lack of clothing that prompted this outburst.
- Fan Disservice: The mayor being naked, naturally.
- Foreshadowing: Mojo mentions that in order to conquer Townsville, he must become the mayor. So he would need the suit of the mayor himself.
- Framing Device: The episode is basically a series of flashbacks told by the girls to the mayor explaining how they saved him.
- Here We Go Again!: Bubbles re-recapping the beginning of the episode, only to be stopped by her sisters.Bubbles: And then we took off your blinfold, and then you asked us "Hey, what happened?" And then I told you that I was drawing a picture of a pretty flower, and then Blossom said...Blossom/Buttercup: You're telling the story all over again!Bubbles: Tee hee! Sorry.
- Hypocritical Humor: Bubbles and Buttercup call Blossom for making the story all about herself, yet perform the same stunt, though to different degrees.
- I Want My Mommy!: "Is that you, mommy?"
- It's All About Me: A bit desperate on Blossom's side of the story, as she decide to try taking a little too much credit for the rescue, after having been interrupted by Bubbles and Buttercup just earlier.
- Naked People Are Funny: The mayor, who was naked from the time Mojo Jojo kidnapped him and took his clothing too when the girls left. Even Buttercup found it funny.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The girls beat Mojo again, and we don't get to see it.
- P.O.V. Cam: The entire episode is seen from The Mayor's point of view, and we don't even get a third person viewpoint until the very end of the episode (save for the girls' flashbacks). This is intentional due to The Mayor being stripped naked after Mojo kidnapped him.
- "Rashomon"-Style: The girls tell The Mayor their versions of what happened while he was blindfolded and kidnapped by Mojo Jojo: Blossom has one that focuses almost entirely on her, Bubbles has a cutesy version depicted with crayon drawings, and Buttercup describes an action-packed story (also mainly centered around her).
- Stuffed into a Trashcan: According to Blossom, this is where the girls put Mojo after beating him up.
- Sympathy for the Devil: Per her version of the story, Bubbles sees Mojo as just a sad monkey deep down.
- Title Drop: While chastising Bubbles for talking about drawings of flowers, Buttercup says, "He just wants to know the bare facts."
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: In Bubbles' side of the story, it's revealed that the girls hit Mojo so hard in the stomach, he vomits. He appears to be puking so much, it's shooting in a straight line until offscreen. This may have just been how Bubbles pictured it, though.Bubbles: And then, there were some guts! Oh, I didn't like the guts. Yuck.
