"Joke's On You" is the twelfth episode of Season 1 of the 2021 CGI TV series, The Smurfs.
Characters[]
- Vanity Smurf
- Jokey Smurf
- Mini-Jokeys
- Papa Smurf
- Clumsy Smurf
- Brainy Smurf
- Grouchy Smurf
- Gargamel
- Azrael
- Lazy Smurf (Does not speak)
- Dimwitty Smurf (Does not speak)
- Greedy Smurf (Does not speak)
- Farmer Smurf (Does not speak)
- Harmony Smurf (Does not speak)
- Handy Smurf (Does not speak)
- Poet Smurf (Does not speak)
- Homnibus (On a picture in Papa Smurf's lab)
- Mummy (Mentioned only)
- Unnamed Smurfs
Synopsis[]
Vanity gets tired of Jokey's exploding boxes and uses a magic explosive powder to punish him, creating hundreds of Mini-Jokeys.
Summary[]
As Jokey goes around the Smurf Village playing his usual surprise package prank on unsuspecting Smurfs, Vanity examines himself in the mirror by the time Jokey reaches his door. Jokey claims to be giving Vanity his birthday present, but Vanity claims he isn't fooled by Jokey's usual prank. Jokey then tosses aside the present he was holding, causing it to harmlessly explode, when he presents Vanity with his "real birthday present". Vanity accepts Jokey's present and opens it, only to find it exploding in his face as usual. Joined by a few Smurfs who were the butts of Jokey's prank, Vanity decides to get even with Jokey.
So, rummaging through Papa Smurf's laboratory, they assemble a surprise package for Jokey to open, containing a jar of mysterious magical blue powder that they call Dragon Drool that they find in a locked chest.
The next morning Jokey finds a present outside his door and thinks somebody is playing a joke on him, until he sees a card from Vanity saying, "No hard feelings" and then decides to chance it. The present explodes, and Vanity and his fellow Smurfs laugh at Jokey's mishap, but then something strange happens -- a miniature version of Jokey wielding a surprise package appears and also opens his surprise, causing it to explode and produce another miniature version of Jokey, and so on.
The mini-Jokeys wreak havoc throughout the village with their pranks. They cause Lazy to slap himself in the face with a handful of whipped cream. They sprinkle pepper on one of Greedy's cupcakes and watch him get a fiery mouth. They steal Brainy's smurfway and go riding around in it. They cause Grouchy's seat to move around until it launches him in the air. They draw red spots on Vanity's face to make him think he's coming down with a contagious skin disease. They even upstage and play pranks on Jokey himself. Papa Smurf (who is a butt of the mini-Jokeys' pranks by having a bullseye painted on his back, and even having a false fire alarm being pulled) finds out somebody has gotten into his chest and taken the magic blue powder, and later tells Jokey and Vanity to get those "mini-Jokeys" under control.
Out in the forest, Vanity and Jokey try to speak to the mini-Jokeys to get them to control their behaviors, but the mini-Jokeys decide to rebel against Papa Smurf's authority and have Vanity and Jokey tied to two big mushrooms while they go and get Papa Smurf to do something to him.
Presents! Presents!
Vanity and Jokey both uproot the mushrooms they are tied to and try to head back to the village, thinking that things couldn't get much worse, when things do take a turn for the worse as they run into Gargamel out in the forest. They both run away from Gargamel at first, but when the evil wizard catches up with them near a ravine, Jokey decides to mislead Gargamel by directing him to find the Smurf Village.
In that misdirection, Jokey leads them to the bottom of a ravine, where the mini-Jokeys have tied Papa Smurf to a firecracker rocket, which they intend to ignite. Gargamel sees the mini-Jokeys and captures them all while Vanity and Jokey try to free Papa Smurf from the rocket, only to find that the ropes were tied so tightly around Papa Smurf. As Gargamel's sack expands with the increasing number of mini-Jokeys that multiply, Vanity and Jokey decide to ignite the rocket and ride it safely from the ravine, where Gargamel and Azrael are catapulted into the air when the mini-Jokey population reaches critical mass to the point where they all explode.
Back in the village, Jokey tries to make amends with Vanity by presenting him with a real belated birthday present. Vanity opens the package and finds that inside is a kaleidoscope, through which he could see "mini-Vanitys". Then Jokey laughs at Vanity when he removes the kaleidoscope from his left eye, seeing that he has coated the eyepiece with shoe polish so that it would give Vanity the appearance of a black eye.
Trivia[]
- This is the first episode in which no female characters appear.
- The title is a reference to the saying of "the joke is on you" which is used to describe a situation in which a person trying to make something happen to someone else (such as being tricked or embarrassed) ends up having it happen to himself or herself instead.
- Clumsy and Dimwitty's operation of the Fire Brigade Truck is reused footage from "Smurf-Fu".
- The pan of the village towards the end of the episode reuses footage from "Who's Heftier?".
- The mini-Jokeys play a similar function to that of the Gingerbread Smurfs from the 1980s cartoon show episode "The Gingerbread Smurfs".
- The black-eye trick was previously done before in the 1980s cartoon show episode "April Smurf's Day".
- Vanity's birthday is not referred to as a "smurfday" in this episode. The term of a "smurfday" was not used until "Cover Story".
- The episode's concept features elements that do not appear in the final version:
- Papa Smurf was the one that altered the box instead of Vanity.
- Instead of the Mini-Jokeys showing up at his doorstep after he gets pranked, Jokey would have fallen into a state of depression, but would later have learned about how the box was cursed and deliberately creates the Mini-Jokeys out of revenge rather than on accident.
Goofs[]
- When Jokey and Vanity go into the bottom of the ravine, Vanity's flower changes from the right side to the left side. This flower change stays until they try to free the rocket tied to Papa Smurf.
Videos[]
