The sixty-first broadcast episode and the sixty-fourth production episode of Tiny Toon Adventures.
Buster and Babs hold auditions for new characters on their show.
Short One: "The Roches"
The Roches, a trio of singing cockroaches, hold a concert at Hamton's house. When Hamton finds his kitchen infested with bugs, he attempts to exterminate them, but The Roches soon have him singing a different tune.
Short Two: "The Return of Pluck Twacy"
While attempting to get an autograph from Daffy Duck as Duck Twacy, Plucky slips on a banana peel that Shirley tosses on the floor and gets knocked out. In his dream, Plucky is "Pluck Twacy", a detective searching for Shirley's missing evil aura.
This episode provides examples of:
Overall:
- Animation Bump: Jon McClenahan's animation in the wraparounds. A very intentional one occurs with the Roger Rabbit cameo at the start, where Roger is animated very fluidly and on ones, to mimic the way Roger was animated in his movie.
- Creator Cameo: Executive Producer Steven Spielberg voices the White Rabbit.
- Credits Gag: Special Thanks to - Martin Scott, Teddy Wainwright.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Roger Rabbit appears at the beginning of the episode, trying unsuccessfully to audition for Tiny Toons. He is shown wearing a yellow shirt and green pants, rather than his red overalls, and is referred to as "White Rabbit" in the closing credits. He is also The Faceless, only seen from the back.
- That Came Out Wrong: When the Roches appear on stage to audition, Buster tells them to step on it. Terre and Suzzy scream and faint while Maggie says "Never say 'Step on it' to a roach".
- Trap Door: Buster and Babs send Roger Rabbit through one at the beginning of the episode.
- Two Shorts: The fifth of eight episodes to use this format.
The Roches:
- The Cameo: The Flea Family from "Starting From Scratch" and the Lone Ant from the "You Asked For It Again" episode segment, "Hold The Sugar" make cameo appearances as part of the audience of The Roches' concert.
- Dawson Casting: The animated Roches seem to be teenagers or in their early 20s at the oldest, but they were voiced by the real-life Roche sisters, who were 34 (Suzzy), 37 (Terre), and 39 (Maggie) at the time the episode aired.
- Eccentric Exterminator: Hamton becomes one when he finds his kitchen full of insects, until Maggie stands up to him, and she and her sisters sing him a song convincing them that insect lives matter as well.
- Four-Legged Insect: Averted with the Roches themselves, but played straight with the other insects that attend their concert.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Musical sister trio The Roches portray anthropomorphic insect versions of themselves in this short.
- Last-Second Word Swap: This line from the song The Roches sing to Hamton;"Some folks try to lure us into a Roach Motel,
As far as we're concerned, they can go to... Carnell!" - Shout-Out:
- On the back of a bus, there is an advertisement for ACME Super Bug Spray, featuring an Arnold Schwarzenegger caricature called "The Exterminator", with the slogan, "They won't be back!".
- The cans of succotash in Hamton's kitchen say, "ACME Sufferin' Succotash", a reference to Sylvester's catchphrase.
- Sibling Rivalry: The Roches have this with each other when they're not performing on stage.
- Visual Pun: Maggie, Terre, and Suzzy Roche are depicted as anthropomorphic cockroaches.
The Return of Pluck Twacy:
- Affectionate Parody: Of both the Daffy Duck cartoon, "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", and the 1990 film, Dick Tracy. In the prologue, Daffy even says, "Honest to Warren Beatty", who was the star writer and director of the latter film.Plucky: You're all under arrest!!
- All Just a Dream: Much of this episode's events are a dream of Plucky's.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: When Plucky first enters the villains' lair, Shirley's Aura prepares to bash his head in with a safe when he seemingly fails to notice her and is speaking to the viewer, only for him to shout in her face before she can, shocking her into dropping the safe.Plucky: Funny how you get a feeling a house isn't (turns to Shirley's Aura holding a safe) safe!
- The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed, but the dream ends with Shirley's Aura and several other villains assaulting Plucky with a bunch of mallets. This causes Plucky to wake up, but upon realizing how much he enjoyed it, knocks himself out to live the rest of it, only for the episode to end.
- Banana Peel: Plucky slips on one that Shirley tosses on the floor, which sets the short's plot in motion.
- Decoy Damsel: When Plucky finds Shirley's Aura, she pretends to have been kidnapped by the criminals there instead of joining them willingly and seduces Plucky to get him to let his guard down.
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: When facing Ticklepuss and unable to stand his Tickle Torture, Plucky decides to inflict so much pain on himself that he won't be able to feel the tickle sensation. It works, and Ticklepuss suffers from Shameful Shrinking as a result, but Plucky is left so dizzy and disoriented from injuring himself afterwards that Shirley's Aura nearly manages to behead him in a guillotine before he regains his senses.
- "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: In a line borrowed from The Great Piggy Bank Robbery as Plucky is surrounded by the villains:YOU'RE ALL UNDER ARREST!
- Femme Fatale: Shirley's Aura is a beautiful pigeon who joins a gang of vicious criminals and cutthroats. She successfully seduces Plucky several times, making him think she was actually kidnapped, before attempting to kill him while he's love-struck. One of the reasons Plucky knocks himself out to relive the dream was because of the beautiful villainess, still wanting to rescue her.
- Forceful Kiss: When Plucky finally accepts Shirley's request to bring her Aura back home, she calls him her hero and he quickly kisses her three times
- Help, I'm Stuck!: Plucky winds up getting himself stuck in a model train while taking on Boxcars.
- Interspecies Romance: Much like his Mentor, Daffy Duck with the pigeon from "Plane Daffy", it seems that Plucky has a thing for Shirley's Aura.
- I Was Having Such a Nice Dream: While Plucky was initially happy to be awake after his nightmare, once he gets to telling the other toons about Shirley's aura, he trails off and says something to the extent of "Hey! What am I waiting around here for?" and promptly knocks himself unconscious again so he can get back to the dream.
- Jaw Drop: Plucky's jaw drops out of frame when he gets a good look at Shirley's Aura. She teasingly pushes it back up with a finger while flirting with him.
- Loophole Abuse: Ticklepuss tells Plucky he's ticklish in the ear. Plucky knows that Ticklepuss won't be able to tickle him, since Ducks don't have ears. Ticklepuss then puts ACME rubber ears on Plucky and is able to tickle him.
- Lustful Melt: When Shirley's Aura seduces Plucky a second time he melts in her grasp. She then opens a trap door while he is just a puddle.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Shirley has this reaction when Plucky slips on her banana peel and gets knocked out.
- Mythology Gag: Not only does Daffy shows up in his "Dick Tracy"-inspired disguise from "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", but Ticklepuss is played by Sloppy Moe from the classic short "Wagon Heels", and Hata Mari from "Plane Daffy" is Shirley's aura. Although, possibly due to political correctness, Hata Mari does not speak in a German accent like she did in the original cartoon. And Boxcars is the often used Peter Lorre caricature used in cartoons such as "Hair-Raising Hare".
- No Ending: By the end of the episode, Plucky wakes from his dream after only defeating two of the criminals, and being assaulted by the rest of the gang. Realizing he wants finish the dream, he knocks himself out again, only for the episode to abruptly end without showing the rest of his adventure.
- Ocular Gushers: Parodied to the extreme; Shirley cries so much that her tears flood Pluck Twacy's office and send him onto the street, miles away.
- Shameful Shrinking: Ticklepuss does this when he is unable to tickle Plucky.
- Off with His Head!: Shirley's Aura tries to slice Plucky's head off in a guillotine, but he stops it by wearing an army helmet.
- Take That!: The villain Wolvertoon, who resembles a deformed Bob Clampett-style Bugs Bunny with a huge overbite and crooked teeth, is a reference to artist Basil Wolverton, who was known for his deformed and disgusting artwork.
- Tempting Fate: When Plucky runs into Shirley's Aura at the end, seeing her holding a mallet over her head, he laughs at her for thinking "one itty-bitty mallet" can stop him. But then he notices she is joined by several other villains, each wielding multiple mallets of their own, and join her in assaulting Plucky. This is how his dream ends.
- Tickle Torture: Done by Ticklepuss to Plucky when he puts ACME rubber ears on him and tickles them. Plucky manages to escape it by inflicting excruciating, agonizing pain on himself, he won't sense the tickle sensation.
- Trap Door: Shirley's Aura sends Plucky down one at the end of the first act.
- The Vamp: Shirley's Aura plays this up for all its worth, throwing Plucky off-guard by flirting with him.
- Verbal Backspace: When Plucky confronts Shirley's Aura demanding she return home with him, she initially starts to refuse, saying he'll never take her back, only to stop herself and speak seductively to him, saying she will be glad to go with him if he can "save her" from the criminals first.
- Villainous Face Hold: Shirley's Aura does this while seducing Plucky. She places a hand on his face and chin while first acting like a Damsel in Distress to him and teasingly pushes his dropped jaw closed with a finger, and later when pretending to agree to let him take her home she rubs cheeks with him while again holding his face, causing him to melt in her grasp.
