Original U.S. air date: 3/25/2005 (produced in 2003)
Production code: PPG-504
Nuthin' Special: Buttercup tries to figure out her special ability, jealous of Bubbles' many languages and Blossom's ice breath. Fortunately, only Buttercup is able to curl her tongue.
Neighbor Hood: The Wondrous World of Whimsical Willy, a children’s show loved by Bubbles, tries to convince its viewers to send them money, and Bubbles gives the show the town's treasury. Buttercup and Blossom must show her what really goes on behind the cameras.
Nuthin’ Special provides examples of:
- Big "NO!": Done by Buttercup when she overrules Bubbles’ idea to go home and make tacos in favor of finding out what her special power is.Bubbles: Let's go get tacos.Buttercup: NOOOOO!
- The Cameo: Gene Simmons of KISS cameos in the episode as one of the people who tries in vain to curl his tongue like Buttercup does.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: The girls can turn into puddles of water.
- Eye Pop: One of the girls' abilities, the Optometron, appears to be this.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Buttercup’s self-esteem takes a big hit due to her lacking a special power leads to her not playing any part in rescuing Townsville from the burning, giant squirrel.
- I Just Want to Be Special: Buttercup really wants to know her own special ability.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: The Girls can shrink themselves.
- Invisibility: The girls are apparently all capable of this.
- Man on Fire: The giant squirrel is burning with green flames, and the pain this causes him is the reason for his rampage. Blossom puts him out with her ice breath.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: The girls demonstrate a great number of superpowers they never used before in this episode.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The girls destroy a good part of Townsville while showing off their powers.
- Not So Above It All: Blossom is only too happy to match Buttercup power for power. When she can't curl her tongue like Buttercup can, she's rather petty about it. Even though she knows it's not a real special power, she's still annoyed that she can't do it.
- Rodents of Unusual Size: A giant, monstrous squirrel attacks Townsville at the start of the episode.
- Self-Deprecation: At the end of the episode, the Narrator bemoans how everyone waited all this time to learn what Buttercup's special power is, and it turned out to be curling her tongue. He denounces this as so lame and disappointing.
- Shout-Out: The Girls mimic the Bullet Time moves from The Matrix, and even name this move “Matrix”.
- Straying Baby: Blossom has to save a baby that wandered into the path of the giant squirrel.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After moments of being The Unfavorite and not having a special power like Blossom and Bubbles, she manages to curl her tongue which is something Blossom and Bubbles tried doing but failed, making her win against them for once.
- Tornado Move: One of the powers Buttercup hopes is her own talent, but the other girls can do it too.
- Twitchy Eye: Buttercup's eye twitches a few times due to anger in this episode.
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Buttercup’s special power is that she can curl her tongue.
- Wreathed in Flames: All girls can do this, in colored flames even.
Neighbor Hood provides examples of:
- An Aesop:
- Don't believe everything you watch on TV.
- Not all children's shows are what they seem to be.
- If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
- Broken Pedestal: Whimsical Willy, big time, once Bubbles learns the truth behind his show.
- Buffy Speak: Mr. Willy calls dollar bills "happy paper". Although, this makes sense considering if the con-men wanted to keep up the children's show charade up, they'd have to refer to money with a different word, or they might look suspicious.
- Children Are Innocent: Poor naive Bubbles believes everything she sees on The Wondrous World of Whimsical Willy, and thinks she actually does a good deed by giving Willy all the money in Townsville.
- Con Man: The Wondrous World of Whimsical Willy is revealed to be run by a group of con men, who use the show to defraud families of their money through the guise of a children's show.
- Expressive Accessory: Miss Happy Flower, the sentient flower on Mr. Willy's hat, changes her expressions based how Mr. Willy is feeling at the moment, such as smiling when he's happy or content, or frowning when he's sad or in fear.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Willy and his co-stars have this one after the other after Dynamite Dog tells of the Sadness Cloud, followed by Bubbles and the children after Maid Mary freaks out everyone could lose their happiness. They get it again when Willy asks them to send their money to him to send the cloud away, prompting everyone but Bubbles to run for it.
- Mood Whiplash: When Willy ponders on what to do, he asks the children to donate "happy paper" to the show to stop a sadness cloud. But every time "happy paper" is mentioned, Willy's voice sounds really off-putting and the music turns into a sinister xylophone tune. This prompts everyone but Bubbles to realize something is off with Willy and they quickly flee the TV.
- Rule of Symbolism: The Wondrous World of Whimsical Willy opens with what looks like a hypnotic spiral on TV. Considering how much of a Con Man Willy is, the metaphor isn't exactly subtle...
- Slasher Smile: Bubbles makes one
◊ when she imitates Whimsical Willy's smile. - Super Window Jump: Some of the Pokey Oaks students jump through the window once the end-of-class bell rings.
