Minkus is being smug after class and the two teams decide to bet on who can make the biggest return on 10 dollars of real startup money. This clip is noteworthy because it marks the first time in the series that Topanga made me laugh.
Wait a minute... Wuh... Wuh wuzzat guy doin in the back of the frame there...
Who... what's he... is.. is he playin his Game Gear or somethin? Just sittin in a window sill playin, I dunno, Sonic the Hedgehog, on his Game Gear?
That's hysterical, he's totally playing a Game Gear in a window sill next to a garbage can. Ahahaha, oh wow, Game Gear Bonus Badge. You know, that is a flagrant misrepresentation of that device. The Game Gear eats through batteries faster than the actors work through this scene. It never would have made it. He probably has the trash can on hand so he can throw out his Game Gear when he realizes it's a piece of shit. Also there was a slight miscommunication between the wardrobe people and Common Sense because Shawn is wearing like eight shirts again.
Anyway Shawn's idea was to bet their money on horses via his uncle Frank. While waiting for the results of the race, Shawn reads a Valentine's card placed by Alan for Amy to find, and in doing so correctly pronounces the word "rendezvous", which is astonishing.
The boys' horse wins, netting them 99 bucks. They celebrate with their native mating dance.
Ya gotta love that. I also want to mention that there's a really annoying laugh in the audience during this episode. Listen for it if you watch this one.
Our heroes decide to use this story for their class assignment. Minkus is salty and calls shenanigans, but Mr. Feeny is surprisingly supportive. Remember how much of a bastard he was about Cory's dream of playing for the Phillies back in episode 9? I was expecting something similar here and I'm glad I was wrong. As always, Boy Meets World keeps us on our toes. Mr. Feeny uses their results to point out the "high risk high reward" nature of free enterprise, which is very true and very important.
That's some fine teaching, Feeny.
Some... Feeny teaching, fine...
...Finey teaching... feen....
Cory and Shawn decide to take their luck and push it, push it, to the limit, limit. And they win! $680, or in modern terms, 0.68 bitcoins. That's fuckin bookoo bucks for a 12 year old. (TIL "bookoo" is a bastardization of "beaucoup". That makes so much sense.) Shawn has moved up to nine shirts.
Shawn leaves to go buy a pizza at 12 minutes and 38 seconds into the episode. Morgan wants Cory to fulfill his babysitting duty of providing entertainment. But then... Shawn... calls...
That clip starts at 13 minutes 35 seconds. It took Shawn less than one minute to go from Cory's bedroom to Bob Stoopchek's Pizza World. Now just solve for the hypotenuse of the... parabola integral... adjust for relativity... and we get that that's impossible.
As soon as Cory's gone, Morgan's childhood cuteness is once again exploited by the writers as she does the most cringe worthy dance I've ever seen, which drives the audience wild. Overcome with the excitement of dancing to shitty funk-jazz, this happens:
Need to throw up? That's fine, I'll wait. Looks like Morgan owes her brother six cupcakes. The breakaway door does actually shatter, but it's hard to see in the gif. The pot is clearly glued to that stand though. Shoulda glued the stand to the floor while they were at it. That's why I always use Elmer's™ © glue. Gee whiz, it sure is the best! =D
Cory and Shawn return with their signed baseball cards and notice that the side door is broken and that Morgan is missing. Cory figures she's been kidnapped. Drastic, but understandable. He finds his sister in the tree house and over-acts the fuck out of his guilty apology speech. Cory takes responsibility and tells Morgan he's going to pay to fix the door. Good for you Cory, there's some character development.
Not your proudest moment, Minkus, and Sarcastic Feeny strikes again, completely stealing the scene. So Cory and Shawn never face repercussions for betting on horses. Neither Mr. Feeny nor Cory's parents find out about it. Their winnings all go toward fixing the door, but they've still got those signed baseball cards. Seems like a solid net gain to me. "Don't gamble what you can't afford to lose" is good advice, but I'm really not a fan of how they're trying to sell it. Morgan was an idiot and broke a door. That could have happened with the entire family home, it has nothing to do with gambling. And Cory didn't actually lose anything, he only thought he did for a couple minutes. Maybe that's the message, "Nothing really bad is going to happen if you gamble, but you need to stay responsible." I can dig that. This episode was written by Ken Kuta. His only other episode was 12, which I liked, but I actually had the same thought about that episode's life lesson: "Good lesson presented poorly."
Presumably you all want these gifs as much as I did, so here they are.
If you want other parts of that scene, or these two without the text, let me know and I'll whip it up for you.
The story was fun to watch. It's extremely unusual for risky and illegal activities to work out in these shows so it kept me guessing right through the end. I kept thinking "Yeah okay, when do they lose everything and get lectured...", but that never happened. Right on. 1 for plot. There was a lot of funny stuff, but just as much unfunny stuff, so 0.5 for humor. Cory showed genuine self-motivated responsibility, so 1 for character development. Good life lesson presented poorly, so 0.5 there.
3/4 with two Badges and a Game Gear Bonus Badge.
Thanks for reading! See you Wednesday.
Clips and images used under Fair Use.
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