The fourteenth episode of the third season of Tiny Toon Adventures, and the nintety-second overall.
The Tiny Toons present three musical adventures in a proscenium theater.
Short One: "Ruffled Ruffee"
Buster plays his electric guitar, which inadvertently interrupts a concert hosted by the Raffi Expy, Ruffee, who yells at him to be quiet and tosses his electric guitar and speakers into his burrow in response. To get back at him, Buster attends Ruffee's concert, disguised as a baby, and sabotages the concert.
Short Two: "The Horn Blows at Lunchtime"
Li'l Sneezer practices his trumpet in the basement of Acme Looniversity while eating limburger cheese during lunch, causing assumed flatulence in the cafeteria.
Short Three: "Loon Lake"
Shirley the Loon attends a ballet class alongside the snooty Perfecto Prep swans, led by Giselle. The Swans bully her, but with Babs' encouragement (and backstage sabotage), Shirley manages to outshine the Swans at their recital.
This episode provides examples of:
Overall:
- Continuity Nod: Banjo Possum is seen in the opening wraparound and in "The Horn Blows at Lunchtime", meaning this episode could have taken place after the events of the Direct-to-video movie, How I Spent My Vacation.
- Credits Gag: Just between us - Letterman should have gotten the Carson gig. note
- Musical Episode
- Three Shorts
Ruffled Ruffee:
- Baby Talk: Buster pretends to talk this way while in his baby disguise.Ruffee: Excuse me, little boy, are you having trouble finding your seat?
Buster: Nope. (shoves his diapered butt in Ruffee's face) It's wight hewe. - Bookends: The short begins and ends with Buster playing his electric guitar.
- The Faceless: Like many of the parents on Tiny Toon Adventures, the father of the baby that Ruffee yells at is only seen from the neck down.
- Friend to All Children: Buster saves the children from being bored to death by Ruffee by sabotaging his concert. He even plays his electric guitar for them at the end of the short, and they dance along.
- Goo Goo Getup: As part of his plan to sabotage Ruffee's concert, Buster dresses himself in a diaper and a green bonnet. This comes into play near the end of the short, when Ruffee reaches his Rage Breaking Point and tries to yell at the disguised Buster, but instead yells at a human baby dressed in a nearly identical way.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Played with; the normally pantsless Buster doesn't wear his red shirt while in his baby disguise, but his waist is covered by his diaper.
- Impact Silhouette: When Buster tests his electric guitar right as Ruffee is standing next to the speakers, Ruffee gets launched into the air and lands in the ground, leaving a hole shaped like his body in it.
- Incessant Music Madness: The short begins with Buster playing his electric guitar and inadvertently interrupting Ruffee's concert, promting Ruffee to yell at him to be quiet and toss his electric guitar and speakers in response.
- Mistaken for an Imposter: When Ruffee reaches his breaking point, he tries to yell at the disguised Buster, but mistakenly yells at a human baby dressed in a nearly identical way. This proves unwise.
- Papa Wolf: The human baby's giant father, who scolds, and later beats up Ruffee for yelling at his son."No one yells at my son! It's not nice!"
- Rage Breaking Point: Ruffee reaches this after the children cry due to Buster messing with the "Baby Monkey" song.
- Rule of Three: Buster sabotages three of Ruffee's songs. He sabotages "The Animal Song" by choosing animals that aren't particularly known for making sounds (A giraffe and a three-toed sloth), "The Body Song" by speeding up the tempo to the point where Ruffee explodes, and "Baby Monkey" by adding his own sheet music so that the song ends with the monkey getting hit by a bus.
- Script Swap: Buster does this to Ruffee so that the "Baby Monkey" song ends with the monkey getting hit by a bus.
- Spiritual Successor: To the Looney Tunes short, "Long-Haired Hare" with Buster and Ruffee in the roles of Bugs Bunny and Giovanni Jones, respectively.
- Take That!: Ruffee is a parody of the famous children's singer, Raffi Cavoukain, and this short satirizes his earliest perfomances, where he found it difficult to perform for his target audience (children under the age of three), due to their tiny attention spans being a distraction to him and the rest of the audience.
- "Take That!" Kiss: Buster gives one to Ruffee when he announces a new song where only he knows the words. It's possible that he did this so that he could get a better look at Ruffee's sheet music.
- This Means War!: Buster decides to get back at Ruffee after the latter yells at him to be quiet, tosses his electric guitar and speakers into his burrow, and even slaps him forcefully.
- White Gloves: During "The Body Song", Buster takes his hands out of his gloves so that they can continue gradually speeding up the beat while he builds a fort out of sandbags to hide behind when Ruffee explodes from singing too fast.
- Whole-Plot Reference: This is a loose remake of the Bugs Bunny short Long-Haired Hare.
The Horn Blows at Lunchtime:
- Camera Abuse: In the prologue, Buster and Babs hide behind a fort of sandbags as Sneezer is about to play his trumpet. Sneezer sneezer while he does so, which causes the camera lens to break.
- Food Fight: Sneezer causes assumed flatulence, leading to everyone blaming and tossing food at each other, until Buster finds him in the vent near the end. Sneezer then plays his trumpet gracefully, and the food fight continues.
- Growling Gut: Sneezer is a victim of this before he starts practicing his trumpet, which sets the short's plot in motion.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Sneezer is splattered by a tomato at the end of the short.
- Mistaken for Flatulence: Sneezer blowing on a tuba and eating smelly cheese in the Looniversity's air ducts, which permeates into the cafeteria and leads everyone there to accuse one another of passing gas.Babs: Who wrote this?
- Pass the Popcorn: At one point in the short, Buster and Babs sit back and share a bag of popcorn as they watch the chaos ensue.
- Porky Pig Pronunciation: From the Trope Namer himself at the beginning of the short:Porky: N-now, Sneezer, you've gotta practice your trumpet extra hard. Alo-alo-alo-alo... all by yourself.
- Shameful Shrinking: When Plucky blames Hamton for Sneezer's assumed flatulence, Hamton shrinks down to the size of a mouse and hides behind his milk carton.
- Smelly Skunk: Surprisingly averted. Fifi is present and is among the group of toons blaming each other, but she's never called out specifically for causing the smell.
- Who Writes This Crap?!: At one point, Babs bluntly asks, "Who wrote this?", before Sneezer plays his trumpet right under her.
Loon Lake:
- Ax-Crazy: At one point, Babs cuts holes in the floor with a chainsaw that the swans fall through. She even laughs maniacally whilst she does it.
- Ballet Episode: Shirley takes up ballet in this short.
- Banana Peel: One of the swans ends up a victim of this thanks to Babs.
- Break the Haughty: Giselle and the Swans end up being put through the wringer thanks to Babs, all because they tried to ruin Shirley's performance. By the end, Shirley's the only one left standing and gets all the applause.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Giselle and the Swans try to mess up Shirley's dancing, which not only fails but convinces Babs to step in and unleash Hell.
- Chromosome Casting: All of the characters in the short are female.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Shirley. Also, this is the only segment where all the speaking characters are female.
- Death Glare: The swans give Shirley particularly disturbing ones as they surround her during the finale.
- The Determinator: Shirley goes through with the entire performance despite the Swans repeatedly trying to trip her up and actively threatening her.
- Evil Laugh: Nearly all of Babs' dialogue in the last half the short is one long stream of maniacal laughter, as she unleashes chaos.
- Heroic BSoD: Shirley goes through this when she overhears what Giselle and the Swans said about her. She even considers quitting ballet, until Babs sticks up for her.
- Shout-Out:
- This short's title is a reference to the famous ballet, Swan Lake.
- In the prologue, Babs shows the viewers posters for The Nutty Cracker and Monteo and Julieidiot.
- Babs imitates Glinda the Good Witch of the North to encourage Shirley during her ballet recital.
- Valley Girl: Shirley, and this is one of the things Giselle and the Swans make fun of her for.
- Watch Where You're Going!: During her recital, Shirley utilizes some ballet-inspired Deadly Dodging, causing two of the Swans trying to attack her to smash right into each other.
