Prank wars and the challenges of being a cool kid take center stage in this week’s episode of Hamster & Gretel on Disney Channel.
I Think Therefore I Slam
Gretel and Bailey are hanging out at school and doing some sponge painting. Something that apparently is always done at this school because of a clerical error in which the school ordered a gargantuan surplus of sponges for painting.
While this seems fun and delightful, they deem it a bit childish, especially since they are in sight of Colleen and her group of friends – you know, the cool kids. Colleen comes over to ask them to use their paint, but not for sponge painting. Her Tween angst is too cool for school, even though they’re at school. In fact, these kids are so cool that they were even part of a focus group for Slamonade, where they deemed their mascot Stan The Slamonade Man unhip and uncool.
This leads to what can immediately be seen as this episode’s villain origin story, as we see Stan the Slamonade Man (who sounds an awful lot like SNL alum Bobby Moynihan) get fired from his job, and now vow revenge on whoever was in the focus group, Read: Colleen and her friends at the school.
To get that invite to the cool kids table, Gretel and Bailey sit with the coolest person they know for advice. No, it’s not Kevin. It’s Fred! And her big tip to get that invite is not to care about it, or anything, at all.
This causes a bit of an internal struggle inside both Bailey and Gretel, who care a lot about a lot of things. However, we see them approach some playground objects, and inevitably get that invite to the cool kids table.
Elsewhere, Stan the Slamonade Man keeps breaking through floors and walls (a la the Kool-Aid man) and discovers it was a group of students from a school that were in the focus group. Now he knows what school they’re at, and is sure to arrive soon.
As Gretel and Bailey are sitting with Colleen and the cool kids at recess, their nervousness is blowing their cover. Which works really well, because as they take a moment to regroup, Stan the Slamonade Man shows up, seeking revenge on the cool kids. In fact, that’s exactly who he asks for and everyone at recess points to their table. When he confronts the cool kids – who reinforce that he’s not cool and should work somewhere else – we get the REAL villain origin story.
Stan gave up a lot for that company, and he’s more than just a mascot in a suit. He was genetically altered and built in a lab to be “Slammin’.” His unbreakable suit is actually his body. A thought that makes this villain battle a bit more unsettling than others. As Gretel quickly intervenes (in superhero form) and takes on Stan, she realizes she can’t break his body. So would that make the juice blood? Either way, at one point all this juice can easily be accessed since his lid unscrews at a certain point.
Bailey reminds us that the one thing that the school has a surplus of is sponges, and the duo are able to get the sponges into Stan’s open top and soak up all the juice (but really, is that his blood?) inside.
Police later squeeze the juice out into a steel box that now has Stan’s face on it, so is it like, his essence? I’m confused.
After all this, Gretel and Bailey are back to their sponge painting and Colleen invites them to join anytime. In a twist, Gretel and Bailey ask them to join their table (since the cool kids one was destroyed) to which they take up the offer and a group sponge painting/slam poetry session commences. But I’m still confused about Stan. Anyone want to help me figure this one out? Bobby? Someone?
Thanks But No Pranks
An internet influencer specializing in pranks is growing in popularity in town. Kevin and Anthony are among the many fans of web sensation Hank Franklin, AKA Hanky Pranky.
They quickly begin pranking each other as part of a new viral challenge, and both vying to win a promised new scooter. The pranks start out simple, but quickly become a bit more elaborate. This also helps thanks to a song montage that shows how extreme the pranks are getting.
Elsewhere, Gretel and Bailey are working together and building birdhouses. While Bailey is building with precision and attention to detail, Gretel is making cuts, at one point even failing to install brackets that support the walls of the birdhouse, so it all comes crashing down. Keep this storyline in mind for a few moments.
We get back to Kevin and Anthony, and see a climactic moment in their prank battle, as Kevin deletes over 6 months of progress on Anthony’s Sim City-esque game. Thinking there had been a prank truce called, this angers Anthony but he is quickly revealed to have violated the truce as well. Kevin rises from his beanbag chair and finds that his pants are glued (or otherwise attached) to the novelty seat. Frustrated and mildly panicking, Kevin breaks his laptop and blames Anthony since it wouldn’t have happened if he weren’t stuck in the beanbag chair.
This causes a rift between the two, who are revealed to be the finalists in the Hanky Pranky Prank War. This is a big deal too, because Hank himself is returning to town and having a giant Wipeout-style prank course, and everyone was getting in on the prank fun too, including Kevin and Gretel’s parents.
There, Hank tells Kevin and Anthony (who are no longer talking to each other) the rules. They are going to go through this elaborate course, complete with cases of novelty items to prank each other along the way, but the whole thing is actually a ruse.
You see, Hank has a blue face – which apparently is permanent. When he was younger, some folks in town pranked him and now he’s left with his cerulean visage. As payback, this whole competition is an elaborate prank that is more payback than a jovial practical joke.
When the boys get the finale, they will stand on a giant button that will activate a giant vat of blue dye that will tip and pour all over the town’s residents who are there to witness the showdown.
Hank made a big mistake though, and told the boys his entire plan. Now, not only are they not willing to help, they actively set out to stop it (which means they’re talking to each other again). So, Hank traps them. He tells the audience that he will now run the course, and sets out to do so.
However, Kevin and Anthony break free and are able to start making their way through the course to stop him. Kevin is also able to reach out to Gretel (who is in the audience) and tells her to help them stop Hank, explaining why.
Gretel and Bailey quickly assess how they can help, and quick realize that Hank has done exactly what Gretel did while building the birdhouses, skipping steps and making cuts. Much of his course wasn’t properly installed. So, piece by piece, Gretel, Bailey, and Hamster (who has been absent most of the episode) start messing up the course.
Eventually, Hank succeeds and makes it to the finale button, but Hamster is quickly able to tip the dumping vat in the other direction, which causes the hot dye to pour into a new track that was created by Bailey and Gretel’s broken items, dumping all over Hank and blasting him into a nearby billboard.
Kevin and Anthony, who were both excited about winning the scooter can’t decide who actually gets it, so they decide to share it. Somehow I suspect another rift will be caused by this, but I doubt we’ll see that story.
This episode of Hamster & Gretel is now available on Disney Channel and the DisneyNOW website. You can catch up with earlier episodes on Disney+.