The thirteenth episode of the third season of Tiny Toon Adventures, and the ninety-first episode overall.
One day at Elmyra's house, Furrball is playing with his toy mouse, and accidentally tosses it near a rather sleepy Byron Basset. Furrball tries to get it back, but Byron awakens and chases him all throughout the house, until they reach the kitchen, where the Duff Family (sans Elmyra and Duncan) are having breakfast. Furrball escapes Byron by clinging to the curtains. As Baby Brick plays with his cereal, Emily talks to Mac, telling him that Duncan is sick and has to stay home from school today. She asks him if he's all right with that, since he just has a cold, and if it becomes a problem for him, he can call her at the radio station, and they'll discuss it on the air. Mac is pre-occupied with his latest invention, and Amanda asks him what it is. Mac explains to her and Emily that his new machine desalinizes tears and recycles them into drinking water. Amanda finds this disgusting, but Mac is determined to take advantage of this new untapped resource. What he needs now is a fluid specimen.
In Elmyra's bedroom, Elmyra is feeding her pet hamsters, who are named after The Brady Bunch characters; Bobby, Cindy, Greg, Marcia, Peter, and Jan. She is then shocked to find that Jan passed away on her hamster wheel, and faints.
Elmyra's Grandmother comes to visit before she goes to Penewawa to play Contract Bingo. Elmyra runs down, carrying Jan's carcass. Elmyra tells her family "Jan Brady's a goner!", and Mac, thinking she meant the actress, Eve Plumb, tries to tell her it's not true. Amanda then tells Mac that Elmyra was talking about her pet hamster. As Elmyra cries, Mac collects her tears. Elmyra puts Jan's carcass in a tupperware that Emily has, and Emily tells her about the stages of coping with the loss of a loved one; denial, anger, guilt, letting go, getting on, and getting off it. Grandma then leaves for Penewawa, but Elmyra still feels sad. Amanda tries to cheer Elmyra up by telling her, "Come on, don't be sad, be the other way".
Grandma boards her taxi, and asks the driver if he's ever been to Penewawa with a mature woman. The Taxi Driver asks her, "Eh, you talkin' to me?", and Grandma worries she might have offended him. As he drives away, one of Grandma's boxes falls off the roof and lands in the front yard of Mr. Bump, the Duffs' next-door neighbor.
In his bedroom, a sick Duncan pretends to be a superhero named Captain Quark. To help pass the time, he watches Nosy Neighbors on his TV, which gives him the idea to snoop on his neighbors. He sees Mr. Bump arrive home and get his mail, but is too sick and tired to investigate any further. Mr. Bump finds Grandma's box and takes into his house.
At Harvey Korman Elementary School, Elmyra's teacher, Mrs. Hinkle asks Elmyra a math problem. Elmyra is still upset over Jan's death, and faints. Mrs. Hinkle sends her to Nurse Kleinerman, who is on the phone with Cora, the telephone operator. When Elmyra awakens, Nurse Kleinerman asks her what's wrong. Elmyra tries to tell her about what happened, but is very sad, and makes it sound as if her Grandmother passed away on the whirl-o-wheel. Nurse Kleinerman, feeling sorry for Elmyra, gives her a pass to excuse her from class for the rest of the day. Elmyra thanks her and hugs her before she leaves. Nurse Kleinerman then calls Cora to tell her that Grandma Duff has passed away.
In the second act, Elmyra goes to Mrs. Hinkle's class to tell her that she's going home since there's been a loss in her family. In Nurse Kleinerman's Office, Nurse Kleinerman tells Cora that Grandma Duff passed away on the Whirl-o-wheel. Cora asks if it's for hamsters, but Nurse Kleinerman tells her that it's a carnival ride in Penewawa. Soon, they call Hiram Heep and the Heberly Twins to tell them the news. Even Mr. Bump gets called about this, and he feels bad about it.
Back at Elmyra's house, Duncan spies on Mr. Bump with his binoculars. He sees Mr. Bump open Grandma's box and pull out her nightshirt. After seeing a scene from Nosy Neighbors, he decides to call Grandma, only to find out that she isn't home, and her answering machine has picked up. After seeing another scene from Nosy Neighbors, Duncan realizes that Grandma is missing, and thinks that something bad must have happened to her.
Elmyra is on her way back to her house, having gotten over Jan's death. She comes across the Heberly Twins, who tell her they've heard about the loss of her loved one, and feel sorry for her. Elmyra, thinking they are talking about Jan, tells them about her hamster-like instincts, such as wetting everywhere when let out of her cage, and crawling up Mac's pants. The Heberly Twins are shocked when they hear this, and faint as Elmyra leaves.Duncan runs up to Mac, who is chopping onions. He asks him where Grandma is, and Mac tells him, "She's gone". He cries as Duncan leaves, and it is revealed that he was chopping onions to collect his tears. He then turns on the radio to listen to sad music as he continues chopping onions and crying.
Elmyra is now in her bedroom, having bought new outfits for Bobby, Cindy, Greg, Marsha, and Peter, to help them take their minds off Jan. She then decides to tell them a Mr. Skullhead story, in the style of The Brady Bunch theme song. She then sees an ad for Hiram Heep's Funeral Service and Mambo Dance Band, which she decides will make the perfect funeral for Jan.
Back in his bedroom, Duncan begins to suspect that Mr. Bump killed Grandma. After seeing another scene from Nosy Neighbors, he looks out the window and sees Mr. Bump holding knives. Duncan tells Mr. Bump that he, as Captain Quark, is onto him.As Furrball continues to cling to the curtains, Elmyra calls Hiram Heep's Funeral Service to arrange Jan's funeral, mentioning that the funeral will take place in her backyard. Mr. Heep finds this unusual, but Elmyra tells him, "Well, it's better than flushing her down the toilet!". As she hangs up, Mr. Heep says, "What should I expect from a Duff?".
After watching another scene from Nosy Neighbors, Duncan gets the idea to sneak into Mr. Bump's house while Mr. Bump isn't looking. To get Mr. Bump out of his house, Duncan calls Mr. Bump, telling him to meet him at the bar at the Albert Hotel, quoting Nosy Neighbors word-for-word. He then tosses an anchor and rope at Mr. Bump's house, and is about to swing in, when he sees Elmyra knocking on Mr. Bump's back door. She opens the door and walks inside, and Duncan suddenly worries that Elmyra might be in danger. Elmyra finds Grandma's box just as Mr. Bump returns, and Duncan decides to swing into Mr. Bump's house to save her.In the third act, Duncan lands in Mr. Bump's kitchen sink. Elmyra scolds him, telling him to get back into bed to recover from his "inflection". Duncan then tells Mr. Bump that he's onto him, and Elmyra wants to invite Mr. Bump to Jan's funeral. Duncan then takes Elmyra and runs away with her, and Mr. Bump says, "Eh, what should I expect from a Duff?".
Jan's funeral begins, and Mrs. Heberly stops by. As she cries, Mac collects her tears. Mrs. Heberly gives her a three bean casserole, and the Heberly Twins, now dressed in black, arrive. As they cry, Mac collects their tears. The Heberly twins give Elmyra creamed corn, and ask her, "Remember when she'd go dancing with us?". Elmyra, thinking they are talking about Jan, tries to imagine her dancing with them. Nurse Kleinerman and Cora arrive with a Jell-O mold, and as they cry, Mac collects their tears.When Emily and Amanda arrive home, Emily is surprised to see all the neighbors at her house. She asks Elmyra what's going on, and Elmyra tells her about Jan's funeral. Even Amanda is amazed that everyone showed up to a funeral for a hamster. Emily tells her that Elmyra is dealing with Jan's death in a creative and significant way.
Duncan watches as Mr. Bump leaves his house, carrying a box. He decides to stop him, risking infecting the neighbors with his cold germs. When Mr. Bump is at the end of the stairs, Duncan slides down the rail and knocks him down. To Duncan's surprise, a beef pot pie was in Mr. Bump's box.
At the funeral, Mr. Heep asks Emily where the body is. Emily, thinking he's talking about Jan, tells him, "I put her in tupperware this morning.". Elmyra begins her "effergy", which makes everyone cry, and Mac serves his first batch of Duff Water, made from everyone's desalinized tears. Mac proposes a toast to Elmyra's eulogy, and tells everyone about his Duff Water. Everyone tries it, but it tastes terrible, and they spit it out on the lawn. Grandma then shows up, and Mr. Heep is shocked to see her alive and well. Elmyra explains to everyone that the funeral isn't for her Grandmother, it's for her pet hamster, Jan Brady. Grandma gives Elmyra a new hamster, telling her she won it at Contract Bingo. Elmyra is glad to have a new hamster.That evening, Emily tucks Duncan back into his bed and shuts off his TV just as a movie called The Eavesdropper airs. She doesn't want him watching that movie, as it will put ideas into his head.
In Elmyra's backyard, Mac is upset that his Duff Water was a failure, but he then realizes that when it was spit out onto the lawn, it had a residual effect on the slugs. In short, he has just invented a powerful new slug repellant. The slugs crawl towards Grandma, who is trying to enjoy her dinner. Mr. Bump walks up to her to return the box she left on his lawn. Grandma thanks him for returning it to her, and asks him if he saw the nightshirt inside. Upon hearing this, a shocked Mr. Bump runs away from her.
Elmyra introduces her new hamster to the other hamsters as the new Jan Brady, and a mid-season replacement for the old one. In the kitchen, Furrball is still clinging to the curtains from when Byron chased him earlier that day.
This episode provides examples of:
- Attending Your Own Funeral: Jan dies around the same time Grandma visits, which makes Elmyra upset and leads everyone to believe that Grandma really died. When Elmyra throws a funeral for Jan, everyone believes it to be for Grandma, and thus are shocked when she shows up alive and well.
- Bland-Name Product: Grandma's gym bag is revealed to say, YIKE, a parody of the popular Nike brand.
- Brick Joke: At the beginning of the episode, Byron chases Furrball onto the kitchen curtains. In a later scene, when Elmyra is calling Mr. Heep, Furrball is still clinging to the curtains. At the end of the episode, Furrball is still clinging to the curtains.
- Credits Gag: TV Guide said that writer, Deanna Oliver, was "Deliciously Clever" - but that was another episode.
- Don't Wake the Sleeper: At the beginning of the episode, Furrball tries to get his toy mouse back from a sleeping Byron without waking him up. It doesn't end well.
- Games of the Elderly: Elmyra's grandmother goes to Penewawa to play Contract Bingo. Near the end, she wins a hamster in her game of Contract Bingo and gives it to Elmyra to replace the one that had earlier passed away.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Amanda shows a small act of kindness towards Elmyra when Jan dies. She tries to cheer her up by telling her, "Don't be sad, be the other way".
- Kid Hero: Duncan, in his Captain Quark persona.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Duncan, who has been watching Nosy Neighbors while he was sick in bed, believes his next-door neighbor, Mr. Bump, killed his grandmother when he thinks he spots parallels between the movie and Mr. Bump.
- Never Say "Die": Despite the episode's title, any words related to death ("die", "dead", "kill", etc.) are never actually used in the dialogue. Only euphemisms like "goner" and "done for" are used.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Elmyra is heartbroken over the death of Jan Brady, one of her pet hamsters, which coincidentally happens around the same time her grandmother went on vacation. When she faints from grief in class, she is sent to the school nurse, where she babbles a bit about her hamster (but in incomplete sentences) and ends by saying "Grandma went bye-bye." The nurse then promptly spreads word that Grandma passed, leading to a bunch of people arriving at the Duff household for an impromptu wake. Nearly every conversation with the Duff family regarding the deceased falls into this for the rest of the episode.
- Onion Tears: Throughout the episode, Mac tries to desalinize tears so he can turn them into drinking water. To collect his tears, he intentionally chops onions while listening to sad music on the radio.
- "Rear Window" Homage: Duncan is sick and has to stay home from school. To pass the time, he watches Nosy Neighbors on his TV, which gives him the idea to snoop on his neighbors. Thanks to some shenanigans with Elmyra's hamster, Duncan comes to believe that his grandmother has been offed by Mr. Bump. Grandma isn't even dead in the first place.
- Salt Solution: Mac spends the whole day trying to make drinking water from desalinized tears. However, towards the end of the episode, when he tries to serve it to the guests at the funeral for Jan, it tastes terrible and they spit it out on the lawn. After the guests leave, Mac discovers his latest experiment will make a good slug repellant.
- Sequel Episode: To "Take Elmyra Please", given that like it, this episode focuses on Elmyra's family, rather than the usual cast of Buster, Babs, Plucky, and Hamton.
- Shout-Out:
- Elmyra named her pet hamsters after the six Brady kids from The Brady Bunch, and the Mr. Skullhead sketch is done in the style of The Brady Bunch's opening theme.
- Nosy Neighbors, the movie that Duncan watches, is a parody of the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film, Rear Window.
- The taxi driver is a caricature of Travis Bickle from the 1976 film, Taxi Driver.
- The school Elmyra attends in this episode (as opposed to Acme Looniversity in the rest of the series) is named for comedian Harvey Korman, who co-starred on The Carol Burnett Show and the film, Blazing Saddles.
- Sick Episode: Duncan is revealed to have a cold in this episode.
- Train Problem: Mrs. Hinkle asks Elmyra one of these, but instead of asking her what time the train would reach the station, she asks how many sandwiches one of the passengers ate.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: Towards the end of the episode, Emily shuts off Duncan's TV just as The Eavesdropper airs, not wanting Duncan to watch that movie and get ideas.
- You Don't Look Like You: For this episode only, Amanda has pink streaks in her purple hair.
