"'Disco Girl'? Never heard of it."
The sixth episode of Gravity Falls.
After being made fun of for his wimpiness, Dipper finds a hidden tribe of "manotaurs" in the forest, and asks them to teach him to be manly. Meanwhile, Mabel tries to teach Grunkle Stan how to be attractive to women, particularly the waitress in the local diner, Lazy Susan.
Tropes in this episode:
- Abhorrent Admirer: In The Stinger, Stan is ignoring Susan's calls. She leaves him 36 messages.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Multibear for liking bubblegum pop.
- An Aesop: Being a man isn't about being macho, but standing up for yourself.
- Bad with the Bone: The spear given to Dipper consists of the blade and 2 bones tied with rope.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Averted. Dipper is shirtless in a good number of scenes throughout the episode, and has visible nipples in all of them. The Manotaurs are also shown with visible nipples, and one gag even features a Manotaur with fists for nipples
. - Bears Are Bad News: Subverted; the Multi-Bear may look terrifying with his numerous heads and claws, but it turns out he isn't really a bad guy.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Stan gets a chance with Lazy Susan, but she turns out to be annoying, clingy, and too zany for him and he's quickly left praying for her to stop calling him.
- Brick Joke: After storming out of the diner, Dipper passes by a broken fire hydrant, with Sheriff Blubs noting that fire hydrants all over the town keep breaking for no apparent reason. Later, during Dipper's Training Montage, one of the Manotaurs is seen smashing a fire hydrant to use it as a drinking fountain, revealing that they're the ones responsible for all the broken hydrants.
- Carpet of Virility: Throughout the episode, Dipper's complete lack of chest hair is taken as a sign of unmanliness. He finally manages to grow one at the end, but then Mabel pulls it out to put in a scrapbook. Stan also has a huge amount of chest hair which instantly regrows the second Mabel tries to shave it, and he shows off to Dipper to let him know body hair is something everyone gets eventually.
- Continuity Nod: Mabel has a picture of a beheaded Wax Stan in her scrapbook.
- Crazy Cat Lady: Lazy Susan has at least three.
- The Dreaded: The Multibear amongst the Manotaurs, because he likes bubblegum pop.
- Elderly Blue-Haired Lady: Lazy Susan.
- Fat Flex: A funny variation happens during the training montage: a clip of Mabel showing Stan how to suck in his gut is immediately followed by a clip of Dipper and the Manotaurs relaxing and letting their bellies drop.
- Foreshadowing: Early in the episode, Lazy Susan talks about Stan affectionately, so it's not too surprising that she'd accede to dating him.
- When Chutzpar first meets Dipper and Dipper mentions he is having emotional issues, the manotaur listens to him as he voices his concerns, foreshadowing the Aesop that manliness isn't all about violence and physical strength.
- Girl of the Week: Played With. Lazy Susan continues as a recurring character, but Stan quickly loses romantic interest in her and their relationship never goes any further (though their first date is seen in a later episode in a flashback) than it does here.
- Guilty Pleasures: Dipper loves bubblegum pop, like BABBA ("Disco Girl"), but doesn't admit it to the Manotaurs until the end of the episode. The vinyl soundtrack album features a full version of the very ABBA-like song, with caustic commentary by Grunkle Stan.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Dipper doesn't realize the Manotaurs are bad after their leader eats an elderly member of the tribe.
- Impact Silhouette: Chutzpar leaves one when he and Dipper pass through the Man Cave.
- I Want to Be a Real Man: The point of the episode for Dipper.
- Jerk Jock: The Manotaurs again.
- Large and in Charge: Leaderaur towers over the other Manotaurs.
- Last Request: After Dipper bests the Multibear, it accepts its fate and asks only that it be allowed to listen to its favourite song as it dies. Dipper agrees and, upon realising that the Multibear also listens to BABBA, realises he can't bring himself to kill it.
- Loincloth: Dipper dons one during the latter half of his manliness training.
- The Makeover: Mabel tries to teach Grunkle Stan how to be a gentleman so he can court Lazy Susan.
- Misplaced Wildlife: The Training Montage has Dipper dealing with alligators. In Oregon.
- Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: The Multibear. He's not The Dreaded amongst the Manotaurs because he's evil (which he's not), but because he likes bubblegum pop music. Because of this, Dipper refuses to kill him.
- Monstrous Cannibalism: Leaderaur is introduced by swallowing an elderly Manotaur.
- Must Have Caffeine: Old Man McGucket is drinking a lot of coffee at the diner when the Pines walk in.
- Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: The Manotaurs initially decide against training Dipper. He calls them chickens for supposedly being scared of the challenge. They realize this is a trick, but change their minds anyway."I feel all weird." "He's using some sort of brain magic!"
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: BABA is clearly based on ABBA, and the song featured in this episode is a parody of their song "Dancing Queen".
- One Last Song: Subverted. The Multi-Bear asks to listen to his favorite song, "Disco Girl" by BABBA, while Dipper kills him. However, because Dipper also likes the song, he refuses to kill the Multi-Bear.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: The Manotaurs are pretty much standard minotaurs, except manlier.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: The Multi-Bear. A bear that looks like it consists entirely of bear heads.
- Our Slogan Is Terrible: "Greasy's Diner: We Have Food"
- The Power of Love: Stan guesses this is what Mabel thinks will get him a date with Susan. Mabel denies this, saying it's she's actually talking about "The Power of Mabel".
- Punny Name: Lazy Susan, as well as the various names of the Manotaurs. Manotaur itself is considerably punny.
- Real Men Eat Meat: To the point where a bag of jerky tells Dipper he's inadequate, the smell of which summons Chutzpar. Exaggerated with Leaderaur, who eats another Manotaur.
- Reverse Psychology: Dipper invokes this on the Manotaurs after they initially deny his request to teach him manliness.
- Running Gag: The credits cryptogram for the episode reads: "PU. FDHVDULDQ ZLOO EH RXW QHAW ZHHN. PU. DWEDVK ZLOO VXEVWLWXWH.". When decrypted, it reads: "MR. CAESARIAN WILL BE OUT NEXT WEEK. MR. ATBASH WILL SUBSTITUTE." In other words, future cryptograms will use the Atbash cipher instead of the Caesar cipher used thus far.
- Scream Discretion Shot: After Dipper puts his fist into the "Pain Hole".
- Series Continuity Error: Mabel (along with Stan) doesn't consider Dipper manly but in "The Hand That Rocks The Mabel", she claims the reason why she liked hanging out with Gideon so much was that she could do girly stuff with him, something she couldn't do with Dipper because he was always doing boy stuff with Soos.
- Shirtless Scene: Dipper has this during his final test. The Manotaurs are shirtless all the time. Stan is shirtless for a scene in which Mabel attempts to shave his chest, but the hair regrows instantly.
- Status Quo Is God: Susan agrees to start dating Stan, but Stan almost immediately gets sick of her and calls it off, removing any impact Stan having a love interest would have on the show.
- Suspiciously Apropos Music: Parodied with the Training Montage, which is kicked off by Mabel saying, "This is going to take some really great training music," and putting on a CD labeled "Training Mix." The lyrics end up getting...oddly specific.When the tiger roars and the mountain cries
You gotta dream the dream, you gotta win the prize
You gotta go the miles, you gotta face the trials
Never lose sight of the sights you see
You gotta believe your beliefs are real
Now you're drinking from a fire hydrant
Teach your uncle how to wear a cummerbund
Now you're gonna jump a crazy gorge
Keep on shavin' that hairy uncle
Uh...I don't really know what's happenin' in this part
Your heart's on fire and the fire is in your HEEEAAAAARRRT!!'' - Test of Pain: One of the tests that the Manotaurs give Dipper in order to prove his manliness is to stick his hand in the hole of pain. He does so reluctantly, and can be heard screaming offscreen.
- Testosterone Poisoning: The Manotaurs, and Dipper wants to invoke it on himself.
- "Test Your Strength" Game: Dipper's inability to get a high score on such a grip-strength-testing game (combined with relentless teasing from others and Manly Dan breaking the machine with barely a touch with his machismo) is what prompts him to try asking a group of Manotaurs for help in becoming more manly.
- Training Montage: Of Mabel trying make Stan classier and Dipper doing the manotaur's trials.
- Took a Level in Badass: You could definitely say this for Dipper.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Soos throws away his sandwich in surprise upon laying eyes upon Stan's not-smile. It sticks to the ceiling; Soos heads for the hills.
- Ultimate Final Exam: Dipper must conclude his manliness training by hunting down the Multi-Bear.
- The Unsmile: While learning how to be a gentleman from Mabel, Grunkle Stan pulls off one that manages to send Soos running in terror.
- Versus Title: Dipper vs Manliness.
- The Worf Effect: Even Manly Dan flees before a manotaur.
