Recap / The Powerpuff Girls S 4 EP 6

Original air date: 7/12/2002 (produced in 2001)

Production code: PPG-406

Dick Hardly, a college friend of Professor Utonium, discovers the Powerpuff Girls and tricks them into telling him how they were made. He then starts mass producing Powerpuff Girlz X-Treme, cheap knock-offs of the girls.

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"Knock It Off" provides examples of:

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Professor Utonium literally begs Dick to let his girls go. Dick won’t listen to it.
• Big "NO!": Dick Hardly's last words, them growing more loud and intense with each iteration.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Where to begin with Dick Hardly? He pretends to be friends with Utonium solely so he can leech off him. And he even manipulates the girls by convincing them to give him Chemical X, stating he wants to make the world a better place with them. In reality, he wants to re-create the Powerpuff Girls for money.
• Body Horror: Dick’s transformation after swallowing the Chemical X is pretty freaky, along with some of the more deformed Powerpuff Girlz X-Treme.
• Broken Pedestal: At first, Professor Utonium is thrilled to see his old college buddy Dick again since he still fondly remembers him (having failed to notice Dick's true nature back then), but his image of his 'friend' is quickly shattered when he hears Dick talk about making money off the Powerpuff Girls and talks as if they were objects. Soon, Utonium gets so fed up he orders Dick to leave. It gets worse once Utonium sees what he's done to the girls and the Girlz Xtreme.
• Call-Back: The episode ends with the Narrator correctly making the "The End" quote reference that Blossom mangled at the end of "Meet the Beat Alls".
• The Cameo: Wally Gator has a cameo in this episode as a giant monster that trips over a bridge in New York, but is steadied by the first 3 Powerpuff Knock Offs before he falls onto any buildings. (Said buildings just so happen to be the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center)
• Collapsing Lair: Dick Hardly's factory ends up collapsing in the fight between him and the Girlz X-Treme.
• Creepy Monotone: The Girlz Xtreme do this at the end during their Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal.
• Cutting Corners: To make more money, Dick gradually cuts back on the ingredients for the Powerpuff Girlz X-Treme, resulting in the later knock offs being more and more deformed and malfunctioning.
• Darker and Edgier: This is by far one of the darkest episodes of the series due to the production of mass-produced sentient clones that are abused and killed, as well as the fact that Dick Hardly is killed at the end by his creations (thus making his death one of the few permanent villain deaths in the series). Not to mention the horrifying imagery and uncanny art.
• Decoy Protagonist: The Girls act as the main characters as usual for the show in the episode, however, after Dick Hardly turns into a One-Winged Angel and tries to painfully harvest them for their Chemical X, the Professor arrives and saves them with The Power of Love, while Dick is killed by his own creations. In a way, the Professor is the real protagonist of this episode, as Dick Hardly was his so-called good roommate from college and the episode follows the Professor's realization that his college friend was Evil All Along from the beginning when Dick announces in front of the Professor to exploit the Girls for profit to the climax when the Professor catches him trying to kill the Girls and comes to their rescue with the help of Dick's defective creations.
• A Dick in Name: Dick Hardly is hardly a good man.
  Blossom: That-that... Professor Dick!
• Disney Death: The Girls almost die after Dick saps nearly all of the Chemical X from their bodies. Thankfully, they're healed by a devastated Professor.
• Emotional Powers: The episode shows that the girls possess them in a sense. After having their Chemical X drained, and being left almost dead, when Professor Utonium embraces and weeps over his children, absorbing his love for them resurrects them. As opposed to Dick's knock-offs who he shows no love for whatsoever, each of which melts down and falls apart after a few hours.
• End of an Era: This was the last episode of the show produced with traditional cel animation.
• Establishing Character Moment: During the Professor's flashback, Dick leaves Utonium to do all of their homework while he goes on a date. From the moment we meet him, we know Dick is a shallow sleazeball.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: While Utonium loves and treasures his three creations, Dick saw the Powerpuff Girls X-treme as money-making objects. As lampshaded by Utonium himself at the end of the episode: "Old Dick may have gotten the formula right, but the one ingredient he forgot was love."
• Expy: In India, some of the Powerpuff Knock Offs fight a human expy of Mojo Jojo named Rajah JahJah. Likewise, in Japan, Expies of Mazinger Z and Ultraman can be seen mourning when the Powerpuff Knock Offs take away their job.
• Final Speech: Before the factory catches on fire with Dick still in it, a Blossom reject tells the Professor, "Get out, before it's too late."
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Dick Hardly was originally just a sleazy jerk who took advantage of Professor Utonium, but by the end of the episode, he becomes an immoral monster, both literally and figuratively.
• Greed: While he liked to present himself as a hippie when he was younger, Dick Hardly is revealed to be an incredibly avaricious businessman. He's willing to enslave his old friend, almost kill his friend's daughters, and even have his own personal creations/daughters die so he can sell more.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • The girls fail to realize Dick Hardly is up to no good when he convinces them to help him create more Powerpuffs, despite the fact that they clearly heard him call them "things" earlier, and were there when he tried to convince the professor to turn them into a gold mine.
  • Professor Utonium was also like this back in college, never noticing what a douchebag Dick really was. He quickly comes to realize Dick's true colors when the two meet again in present day though.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Dick Hardly calls the Powerpuff Girls things, angering Utonium. Dick even refers to the Girlz Xtreme as "its" every now and then. This certainly ties into Dick's complete absence of empathy.
• Jerkass: Dick Hardly was A Dick in Name back in the college days. He goes beyond this in the present.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Dick Hardly makes it seem like he makes to his own Powerpuff girls to sincerely help the world when all he actually wants is cash. Even when the Professor agrees to make Chemical X forever to let the girls go, Dick doesn't go through with it, all and all proving he has no heart whatsoever.
• Karmic Death: Dick Hardly is one of the most vile and repulsive villains in the show and one of the few to explicitly die once the creations he's been mass-producing for his own gain turn on him and save Utonium and the real Powerpuff Girls.
• Killed Off for Real: Dick Hardly and all his Powerpuff knockoffs that were still at the factory. The remainder likely died due to having a lifespan that could be measured in hours.
• Loony Fan: Dick Hardly is even worse than Lenny from "Collect Her". The latter was only a fan that wanted every piece of merchandise, while the former is worse in terms of morals (or lack thereof).
• Losing Your Head: As a PPG knockoff (who resembles Bubbles with Buttercup's hairstyle) living in Egypt says "I think they're asking for a hiney-whooping!", her head comes loose from her body and rolls away.
• Madness Mantra: The Powerpuff rejects repeatedly chant "Dick! Dick! Dick!" as they turn on him.
• Millionaire Playboy: Dick Hardly uses a lot of his money on women.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Seeing how Professor Utonium loves his girls and realizing that Dick never loved or even cared about them is what makes the Powerpuff Knock Offs turn on their creator.
• Mundane Utility: Dick first sees the Powerpuff Girls in action when they use their superpowers to help clean up the laboratory.
• Nightmare Face: Many of the Powerpuff Girlz X-Treme have this such as the one Utonium mistook for Blossom which has yellow hamster like teeth. The artists must've really had fun designing these mutant knock-off Powerpuff Girls.
• Non-Malicious Monster: A gigantic alligator monster (Wally Gator) nearly crushes Manhattan Island, but wasn't attacking anyone. He was on his way to work, when he accidentally tripped over, before being carried to a safe distance by the Powerpuff Knock Offs.
• Offing the Offspring: Dick Hardly having his too-perfect Buttercup knock-off destroyed can qualify as this.
• One-Winged Angel: Dick Hardly becomes a monster once he swallows the Chemical X. It's even Lampshaded by Dick himself.
  Dick Hardly: You know, for a second there, I thought I was gonna turn into a monster or something.
• Out-of-Character Alert: Professor Utonium's suspicions start when he hears a knock off Buttercup say "Girl power!"; something the real Buttercup almost never says.
• Papa Wolf: Utonium was willing to let Dick Hardly push him around even in the present, but drew the line and kicked Dick out when he started talking about merchandising the Powerpuff Girls.
• Pet the Dog: Despite Dick revealing his true colors to Utonium a few minutes later, he does tell him to pay one of his bills sooner or later.
• The Power of Love: What allows Professor Utonium to heal his girls.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: A Bubbles clone shouts, "Only a master of evil, Dick!" just before the rejects sacrifice themselves to destroy Dick.
• Punch-Clock Hero: A dark and unsympathetic example. Dick Hardly was using the Powerpuff Girlz X-Treme to fight villains only so he could make a fortune.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The reject Powerpuffs give a really good one to Dick after the Professor tells the girls he loves them and Dick never gave them any of that:
  Blossom clone: You never gave us love!
  Buttercup clone: Where was our love?!
  Dick: Get back! I am your master!
  Bubbles clone: Only a master of evil, Dick!
• Redemption Equals Death: The Powerpuff Girls' Knock Offs help the professor free the girls and escape the building, but are then killed off in the explosion that follows.
• Shadow Archetype: Hardly is this to Utonium. While the Professor loves and treasures his three creations, Dick regards the Powerpuff Girls Xtreme as expendable and only good for making money, even ordering his workers to melt down one of the clones for its Chemical X when he sees that she turned out to be a perfect copy of Buttercup.
• Shoddy Knockoff Product: The Powerpuff Girlz X-Treme are a living version of this. Being made with minimum material resulting in them falling apart within hours.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: The narrator is completely absent until the end shot, to make the buildup for what Dick does more unsettling and foreboding.
• Shout-Out:
  • One Bubbles clone responds to Dick saying he's the master of the Powerpuff Girls Xtreme by saying he's "Only a master of evil".
  • The ending has the Narrator quipping that "the love you take is equal to the love you make."
• Siding with the Suffering: The Powerpuff Girlz Xtreme obey Dick Hardly and start to take Professor Utonium away. They don't help the Powerpuff Girls (who are locked up in a chamber) until the Professor tells his dying daughters that he loves them. The Powerpuff Girlz Xtreme then realize that Dick has never given them any kind of affection, so they start to attack him, and several other clones release the girls and the Professor.
  Blossom clone: Get out, before it's too late.
• Super Prototype: The original Powerpuff Girls are clearly better than the mass produced knock offs Dick Hardly makes with minimum material to make money.
• Take Me Instead: The Professor offers to take the girls' place when he finds out Dick is draining them.
• Tranquil Fury: Utonium enters this once Dick starts talking about profiting off the Girls and calling them "things." While he's clearly furious, he keeps his cool and throws Dick out of the house without even raising his voice.
  Utonium: You just keep clear of me and my kids, pal. Consider our little visit over. [slams the door in Dick's face]
• Unreliable Narrator: Everything Utonium tells us about Dick is nothing but contradictory information when we see what he was really like.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Dick Hardly is hands down one of the darkest and most malicious villains in the show. While most of the bad guys, even the most malevolent and dangerous, have some comedic quirks, moral standards or redeeming qualities to offset their evil, Dick has nothing of the sort and is just a despicable slimeball willing to murder children en masse just so he can get rich.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's never revealed what became of the Powerpuff knock offs that were not at the factory when it blew up. They are never seen again after this episode. Then again, it was stated they each only lasted for a couple of hours.
• Wingding Eyes: Dick Hardly gets the classic dollar sign-eyes when he sees the Powerpuff Girls and realizes the fortune he could make with them. This is the closest the episode gets to any of his villainous traits being Played for Laughs and it still isn't particularly funny in context.
• Would Hurt a Child: Despite the Girlz X-treme being his "children" Dick Hardly is willing to make them so shoddy they'll literally fall apart and even have perfect knock-offs killed.
• You Fool!: Dick says this to the Professor as he Takes a Third Option by keeping the real Powerpuff Girls inside his Chemical X draining machine and taking him as his slave.
• You Have Failed Me: Dick Hardly has one of the Girlz X-treme killed for being too perfect as he wants to keep customers buying with unstable "products."
• Your Days Are Numbered: The Powerpuff Girlz Xtreme are said to last for only 3-5 hours which Hardly uses to sell more.

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