Recap / The Venture Bros S 6 E 6 It Happening One Night

Doctor Venture is arched by a bizarre group of post-modern villains, while Hank and Sirena have a night out together.

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• Accidental Murder: The Monarch as the Blue Morpho lines the Doom Factory's hideout with grenades, but thinks they are duds. After the Doom Factor gets on, he accidentally drops the trigger which causes it to explode with them inside. He doesn't seem to mind however.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Between Sirena and Hank with the explosion of the Doom Factory at the background.
  Hank: I believe in long, slow, deep, soft wet kisses that last three days... stopping only to go to the bathroom, uh, obviously.
• Confusion Fu: The Doom Factory's MO when they attack VenTech: stage a Happening in the lobby, convince Rusty's he's a superstar for 15 minutes or so, then simply loot the place while he's still trying to process what the hell's going on.
• Continuity Nod: Many previously-seen GCI villains are at the Doom Factory party, including Scare Bear.
• Enemy Mine: After fighting to a standstill, Rocco and Brock decide to work together to find their respective wards (Sirena and Hank respectively).
• Expy:
  • The Doom Factory itself is obviously one for the Legion of Doom, they even have a lair that rises up from the murky depths and flies. The "Factory" was the nickname for Andy Warhol's studio and each member is a hybrid of a Legion of Doom villain and a Warhol associate.
    • Their leader, Wes Warhammer, is a mix of Lex Luthor and pop artist Andy Warhol.
    • Frigid is Captain Cold and Brigid Berlin.
    • Serpentine is The Riddler and Ondine.
    • Eenie-Meanie is obscure DC superheroine Bumblebee and Edie Sedgwick.
    • Gerard the Gorilla is Gorilla Grodd and Gerard Malanga.
    • Black Maria is Black Manta and Paul Morrissey.
    • Trashenstein is Solomon Grundy and Joe Dalessandro.
    • Ultra-Violent is Star Sapphire and Ultra Violet.
    • She-Hemoth is Giganta and Holly Woodlawn.
    • Billy Maim is Cheetah and Billy Name.
    • Hard Candy is Bizarro and Candy Darling.
• Farmer's Daughter: Dr. Mrs. The Monarch's costume for her sexy roleplay with the Monarch.
• Goo Goo Getup: Billy (of course) has to dress up as a baby for one of Hank's impress-Sirena skits
• Jerkass Has a Point: Phantom Limb shoots down Dr. Mrs. The Monarch's theory that Rusty is the Blue Morpho. He argues that the footage Dr. Mrs. The Monarch shows in her attempt to prove Blue Morpho's identity doesn't leave enough time for the suspects to change clothes.
• Kitschy Themed Restaurant: The ninja theme restaurant.
• Legion of Doom: The Doom Factory are a clear parody of the original legion.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: Subverted, after Hank learns of Sirena's past experiences, she asks him if he has a complex about this. Hank denies it and states he's only worried if she's only interested in him just to make her dad angry.
• Pet the Dog: While it's more a cover for The Monarch to plan his nightly "Blue Morpho" escapade, he tries to allay his wife and their recent marital frustrations with a soothing back rub, a hot makeout session and some naughty "barnyard" role-playing, although the last goes a bit awry due to the Morpho tranq gun. Hilariously enough, it continues the Running Gag of the Monarchs' naughty role-playing never going according to plan.
• Screamer Prank: The Doom Factory sends their threat to Dr. Venture in the form of a tape that shows a black-and-white shot of the Ventech building which eventually cuts to a harsh cacophony with the words "Venture, tonight you meet your doom!" along with red-and-black flashing images of mannequins, a goat head, cockroaches, and a leg sticking out of a dumpster.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Sirena actually feels this way about Hank, as none of her previous dates/boyfriends ever went out of their way to set up musical interludes or take her to something fun like a ninja Kitschy Themed Restaurant, but would rather just try to get her drunk and sleep with her.
• Shout-Out:
  • Near the beginning, Dr. Venture and Sergeant Hatred are shown playing a round of Team Fortress 2. Interestingly, [adult swim] had an earlier cross-promotion with Valve that introduced some [adult swim] inspired items to Team Fortress 2, some of which were based on this very series. Brock and the Team Fortress 2 Heavy had also both appeared as characters in the Poker Night at the Inventory games, albeit in different installments.
  • Hank's speech about what he believes in is partially based on a similar speech in Bull Durham.
  • The episode title is a reference to the film It Happened One Night with Andy Warhol's practice of referring to his art installations as "happenings" added in.
• Skinny Dipping: Downplayed as the go in their underwear, but Hank and Sirena do this in spirit after their date, kissing underwater.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: The Monarch successfully pulls this off in The Stinger, making it seem as if both he and Mrs. The Monarch had been tranquilized by "The Blue Morpho" to draw suspicion off of his whereabouts. However, this, along with his flashy assassination of The Doom Factory in front of VenTech Headquarters ends up putting Rusty in the crosshairs of The Council of Thirteen, having been previously, and mistakenly, identified as "The Blue Morpho."