Or as Oswald likes to call it, "Michael".
Osmerelda: Greetings, agents! I'm Osmerelda.
Oswald: And I'm Oswald. And we're here to help you with a problem that all agents face.
Osmerelda: What to do when nothing odd is happening.
Oswald: The solution is... [distorted] OSBOG. [normal] It stands for...
Osmerelda and Oswald: Odd Squad Book of Games!
— Opening of every episode
Odd Squad Book of Games is a short-form Spin-Off series from Odd Squad, one of two that were released on April Fool's Day as part of the Odd Squad Movie Marathon for PBS Kids Family Night (and also as a presumed prank, though if that was the intent or not is unknown).
The series is hosted by Oswald and Osmerelda Kim, who use the titular book (abbreviated as OSBOG) to teach Odd Squad agents about various games that they can play on their downtime, sent in by different agents all around the world. Since this is a World of Weirdness, the games can range from just plain weird to being literal. Either way, Hilarity Ensues.
The four shorts released can be watched on the PBS Kids Video App, and also on its online video player
.
For the other short-form series released on the same day as this one, see Odd Squad Gadget Testers.
Odd Squad Book of Games provides examples of:
- Aesop Enforcer: In "The Slime Bucket Walk Game", Oswald does cut to the chase and explains that a person can make the gallon-size bucket of slime they need using...well, a gallon-size bucket. It doesn't stop him from enforcing the aesop of measuring liquids by listing off all the other ways someone can measure up to a gallon, though.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Oswald lives in a World of Weirdness where most anything is possible and most anything can happen, but Osmerelda claiming that her browning banana is a phone is where he has to draw the line. That is, until he sees it in action.Oswald: I win! My banana's more yellow!Osmerelda: Yeah, but mine is a phone.Oswald: Come on. You expect me to-[ringing noise]Osmerelda: Hello? [garbled speech] I'm kind of in the middle of something right now. I'll call you back later. Bye!Oswald: [sighs]Osmerelda: You were saying?Oswald: You win.Osmerelda: Yes!
- Artistic License – Physics: Not that the world of Odd Squad has many rules of physics to begin with, but when playing Imaginary River Rafting, Osmerelda and Oswald are able to sit in midair despite their boat being imaginary.
- Osmerelda standing on a stage when declared the winner of Lawn Bowling would play the trope straight, if not for the fact that Oswald explicitly states it's an invisible stage, not imaginary — making this an aversion.
- Big "YES!": Occurs when Osmerelda and Oswald find the Wish Pineapple in "Find the Wish Pineapple Game".
- Blank Book: The text of the Odd Squad Book of Games is simply Lorem Ipsum text.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: For the Say It and Spray It game, Oswald tells Osmerelda to spray and conjure up an orange, a harmonica, and a "harm-orange-ica".
- The Cameo: Surprisingly, Oz of all agents gets a mention in "Lawn Bowling", having sent in a game known as Imaginary River Rafting. His last physical appearance (or rather, vocal appearance) was in the Season 1 finale, "O is Not For Over".
- Captain Obvious: There is a game in existence called "Don't Reheat Last Night's Fish Dinner in the Microwave". The premise of the game is pretty straightforward, as Oswald explains.Osmerelda: Uh, how do you play?Oswald: You don't reheat last night's fish dinner in the microwave, because it'll stink up the van? That's it. Game over.Osmerelda: Eh.
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The Cast Showoff: Osmerelda doing an impressive split in "The Party at the End Game" may count as this, considering promotional art made use of her athletic prowess. - Cool Chair: The Odd Squad Director who runs a precinct on a beach in a place known as Aubergine has a chair made out of sand and nothing else. His desk is an actual sandcastle to boot.
- Confetti Drop: At the end of the Party at the End game, confetti rains down on Osmerelda and Oswald.
- Cut and Paste Environments: The background in the credits for all episodes is taken straight from Season 2 of OddTube, drawings and all.
- Denser and Wackier: Along with Lighter and Softer, and yes, it's even more zany than the original show. This series hasn't lost the charm and antics that Odd Squad has, but it's also very comedic in nature, with no antagonists and very little action.
- Description Cut: At the end of "Find the Wish Pineapple Game", Oswald and Osmerelda talk about how they can't cut a pineapple open correctly. Then the scene cuts to Ompire, who's halfway through a whole pineapple and doesn't seem to mind it too much.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: During the Slime Bucket Walk game, Ompire whistles the Odd Squad theme song as Osmerelda and Oswald see who can get the farthest before she finishes.
- Down to the Last Play: In "Lawn Bowling", when playing the titular game, Osmerelda and Oswald both manage to get their lawn pieces close to the bowl, and they look to be equal length from the corner of the pieces to the bowl. However, when Ompire measures each piece, she finds that it's 7 inches from Osmerelda's piece to the bowl, and 8 inches from Oswald's piece.
- Dreadful Musician: Oswald tries playing the harm-orange-ica. Osmerelda dances about with a big smile on her face while remarking on how "this sounds awful!"
- Edutainment Show: But of course, for being a Spin-Off of Odd Squad.
- Employee of the Month: Oggy is stated to have been Agent of the Year in 1975.
- Foregone Victory: The game of Rock-Paper-Lizards doesn't make sense if one considers that either player could just pick lizard and have an immediate win. This comes in handy at the end of "The Slime Bucket Walk Game", where Osmerelda and Oswald play the game to determine who should clean up all the slime left behind by playing the titular game. Both end up winning because they both pick lizard.
- Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: All of the games in the Book of Games are sent in by one or two agents, and in turn, are likely published into said book.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In some shots, the slime that Osmerelda and Oswald use for the Slime Bucket Walk game appears to be frozen or glued in such a manner that allows the agents to walk freely (albeit awkwardly) instead of splashing slime everywhere. Slime does manage to spill out of the buckets by the end of the game, however.
- Functional Magic: The Mobile Unit owns a spray bottle that has the ability to conjure up most anything if the user thinks about it. If the game of Say It and Spray It is any indication, however, the name of the object that the user wants to conjure up must be spoken first.
- An agent can conjure up a banana in their hand simply by chanting "banana in your hand", in the game of the same name. Whether the banana is yellow, green or brown, however, appears to be completely randomized.
- Graceful Loser: Neither Osmerelda nor Oswald holds anything against each other when one of them loses each game, and they still remain as friendly to each other as ever.
- I Call It "Vera": "Lawn Bowling" has Oswald refer to the book as "Michael", leading to Osmerelda doing a Berate and Switch.Oswald: Or as I like to call it, "Michael".Osmerelda: Really?Oswald: Yes.Osmerelda: Seriously?Oswald: Yes.[beat]Osmerelda: I love it!
- Idiot Ball: Oswald, who is the resident Smart Guy of the Mobile Unit, doesn't understand how the game of Talking Charades works despite the game being straightforward and simple (you guess what the other person is acting out, going by what they tell you they're acting out). Osmerelda tells him that she's a tire, and he gives out answers that are anything but. He gets it right on the third try after sitting on it for a bit.
- In "The Slime Bucket Walk Game", Oswald loses to Osmerelda at "Name Your Favorite Rock" when he gives the name of a mineral found in rocks (quartz) and she gives the name of an actual type of rock (metamorphic).
- Just the Introduction to the Opposites: In "Lawn Bowling", Osmerelda and Oswald are introduced to Talking Charades. How the game works is that someone says exactly what they're acting as, and lets the other person guess.
- Lazy Bum: The series is basically designed to avert this trope, especially for agents who aren't working.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Whereas the two older agents of the group, Omar and Orla, host Odd Squad Gadget Testers, Osmerelda and Oswald, who are the two younger characters, host this series. Neither pair of agents appear in the others' series.
- Like a Duck Takes to Water: Despite having never done imaginary river rafting before, Osmerelda and Oswald get the hang of it immediately. It's even lampshaded by Osmerelda in an Aside Comment to Oswald.
- Literal Metaphor: In this World of Weirdness, "lawn bowling" is taken literally — you take a piece of lawn and try to fling them into a bowl in the hopes of getting your piece closest to the bowl.
- The term "say it, don't spray it" is also given a literal twist in the form of Say It and Spray It, a game where one person names something and the other person uses a spray bottle to conjure up that item by spraying a surface.
- Manly Facial Hair: Oginack, who sends in the Rock-Paper-Lizards game, is a Cowboy agent who wears half a mustache, which apparently makes him famous in the world of Odd Squad. Somehow.
- Mundane Wish: A Wish Pineapple is a fruit that will allow a person who finds it to have one wish granted. When playing Find the Wish Pineapple Game, Osmerelda wins, and decides to wish...for two bowls of diced pineapple. Which is then lampshaded by Oswald.Oswald: You could've wished for anything, but you wished for a pineapple to be cut up?Osmerelda: Yeah, so we can eat it.Oswald: That is...the best idea I've ever heard!
- Newhart Phone Call: The call that Osmerelda takes in "Find the Wish Pineapple Game" goes like this, with the voice at the other end being garbled.
- Overcrank: Used in "The Slime Bucket Walk Game" during the titular game.
- Piss-Take Rap: This is perhaps the best way to describe what Oswald does at the beginning of "The Slime Bucket Walk Game". What he's saying makes sense ("help you know what to do when you don't know what to do"), but it's the delivery and the gestures he makes that sells it as him trying to rap, which makes Glee Dango begin Corpsing.
- Pseudolympics: The Odd Squad Book of Games has a symbol on the cover that is a blatant Shout-Out to the logo for the Olympics, with all of the main department's logos (barring Medical, Creature Care, and the Mobile Unit). Considering that the world of the show has its own Olympics-style event in the form of the O Games, however, this is most likely just Played for Laughs.
- Recycled Soundtrack: The credits for "Lawn Bowling" feature The Potato Song from "O is Not For Old".
- Rock–Paper–Scissors: Osmerelda and Oswald play a variant of this in the episode "The Slime Bucket Walk Game", called Rock-Paper-Lizards. The scissors in the original game is substituted for a closed-hand gesture, which represents lizards. Unlike scissors, however, lizards can cut through rock, paper, and other lizards, essentially making it a Foregone Victory for anyone who plays and making the game unfair overall.
- Shoe Phone: While playing the Banana in Your Hand game, Osmerelda conjures up a banana that is very brown. She ends up losing the game because Oswald's banana is more yellow than hers, but her banana doubles as a phone, which Oswald doesn't believe up until she actually gets a call on it.
- Spell My Name with a "The": All of the official titles of the episodes lack a "the", with the most obvious example being "Find Wish Pineapple Game".
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Spiritual Successor: Given the lack of a fourth wall, the aim to make the target demographic see themselves as Odd Squad agents and Osmerelda being a bonafide Audience Surrogate character, this series could be considered a successor to The Really Really Awesome PBS Kids Activity Challenge, a series of PBS Kids interstitials that teach kids about fun activities they can do with their parents or friends. The difference between the two, however, is that Odd Squad Book of Games is slightly longer due to being an interstitial meant for airing after Odd Squad.- It can also be considered a successor to the That's So Interesting shorts from Elinor Wonders Why, since they are in the same vein (being short-form series derived from already-existing shows) and will most likely air after Odd Squad in regular rotation.
- Super-Senses: Although just for the purpose of pushing the lesson of rulers and measuring, Oswald can see the tiny numbers on a ruler that's a good distance away from him, and read them off with ease. Osmerelda notes that he has good eyesight.
- Theme Twin Naming: The agents who send in the idea for Talking Charades are twins named Olexander and Olexaaaaaaaaaander.
- That Reminds Me of a Song: At the beginning of "The Party at the End Game", Oswald decides to sing a song about the Book of Games and couple it with some dancing. Osmerelda shuts him down within a second by saying that the partner pair could just read the book instead, which Oswald agrees is better.
- Threatening Shark: Subverted and played for laughs when Oswald seemingly spots a shark while engaging in imaginary river rafting, only for him to state that it's actually a waterfall that he and Osmerelda are about to go over.
- Tuckerization: The three tortoises seen with O'Darwin are named Mark, Blair, and J.J, after Mark De Angelis note , Blair Powers note , and J.J. Johnson note .
- The Voiceless: Ompire, who appears in nearly every single episode, has no speaking lines at all and generally looks to be an Emotionless Girl (outside of one sparse moment where she smiles and gives a Wink "Ding!"). She communicates solely with sound effects, and by blowing her whistle.
- Überwald: O'Halla worked in Blobsylvania and still found the time to send a game to the publisher of the Book of Games. Her picture depicts her as being quite unhappy and covered head to toe in blobs.
- Wink "Ding!": Done by Ompire at the end of "The Slime Bucket Walk Game".
- Worldbuilding:
- There is an Odd Squad Grounds Crew in existence, with Oothby, an agent who sends in the Lawn Bowling game, being a part of it. Supposedly, they do outdoor maintenance, although specifics are never given. They also wear a uniform similar to that of Coach O's.
- Keeping with Odd Squad being around since the dawn of cavemen, O'Grunt is introduces as one of the first agents in existence, and a picture shows him writing math equations on a rock using a piece of chalk. He not only has the same theme naming as that of Precinct 13579's tube operators, but if the fact that he sent in a game of his own is any indication, he can also speak fluent English.
- Oswald is revealed to have a cousin named Becca, who looks identical to an Odd Squad agent named Ola. This makes the second family member of his revealed after his twin brother O'Paddy in "The Thrill of the Face".
- In addition to there being an Agent of the Month award for each precinct, there are also Agent of the Year awards that agents can compete for.
