"Lying Around the House" is the 23rd episode of the fifth season of The Powerpuff Girls and the 107th episode overall.
It was produced in 2003 but premiered on Cartoon Network in the United States on January 9, 2004.
Plot[]
Lying gets out of control at The Utonium House, causing a little white monster, embodying all the house's fabrication to appear into existence and run amok.
Synopsis[]
The Professor wakes the girls up for breakfast, and they are excited as Buttercup requests bacon and eggs, Bubbles requests waffles, and Blossom requests French toast. However, he makes them plates of liver and onions and sneakily sneaks himself a plate of pancakes (claiming to have a lot of work, causing a white creature to appear), which he later throws away (while claiming to have slaved away making their breakfast). He also claims to have a lot of work to do just so he can watch a TV program. He tells them that they are not allowed to leave the table until they eat the liver and onions. The girls feed their food to stray dogs and lie to make the Professor sound right when he guesses they ate their breakfast, causing the white creature to get bigger.
Next, while Bubbles is coloring on paper, some of the crayon's wax ends up on the wall, which she tries to hide with a plant. But that doesn't work, and she lies about it, causing the creature to get bigger. Buttercup then plays catch alone by throwing a ball to herself, pretending to be against herself (that's right, inside the house) until she misses the ball and it breaks the Professor's major brain award (or nerd award as she calls it). When the Professor finds out about his award being broken and asks Buttercup, she lies about it, causing the creature to get bigger.
Later, Blossom loads her own, Bubbles' and Buttercup's dresses and the Professor's uniforms into the washer and overloads it with soap (in fact, she adds the whole box, and it won't all fit in it). She crams it by jumping on top of the washer before starting it. This causes the washer to shake around the house and flood the house a bit with soapy water. When the Professor asks Blossom about overloading the washer (again), she denies it, even as he points out that her pants are on fire and hanging from a telephone wire (much to her dismay). This causes the white creature to become a hairy monster.
The girls continue lying around the house, as the Professor finds some of Blossom's hair in the tub drain, the chocolate milk bottle being (almost) empty (Buttercup has a mustache of it), and one of his beakers of potions (the Mutation one) being used (as Bubbles' right arm became a tentacle).
Finally, the creature, being a big monster, causes problems and scares the girls. He messes up the house and denies everything he does. Finally, back in the girls' bedroom, he is running around and destroying things. When Blossom declares that they must stop him, Buttercup says that "to tell you the truth, [she doesn't] know how." Blossom decides telling the truth would work. Blossom starts to stop the monster and admits to the time she ate Buttercup's chocolate bar, much to the latter's anger, but the monster starts to shrink down a little. Blossom apologizes, promising to buy Buttercup a new chocolate bar, but she decides that the way to defeat the monster is by confessing all lies. Blossom takes the monster with her outside the room where the Professor is. She confesses her lies to him, shrinking the monster, and so does Bubbles, and the Professor congratulates each confession. Buttercup then refuses to do her part, but reluctantly gives in. When the Professor, wanting to be left alone, asks them to keep it down and says that he is busy, the creature gets bigger again. That is when they find out that the Professor is lying. He is, indeed, not busy doing any work but watching a TV game show. They question him for his lies, much to his dismay, until Blossom reveals the creature, until the Professor admits his lies, causing the creature to vanish. When the girls commend the Professor for this, they pounce on him, and he hopes they learned that tiny little white lies can cause a big problem. They tell him they did. The Professor then asks to plug the TV back in.
Blossom is then fixing the walls, Bubbles is cleaning her crayon mess, Buttercup is fixing the nerd award, and the Professor is vacuuming... at least until the Mayor rings the doorbell. He tells everyone that he gave a re-election speech, but now another of those white monsters (manifesting lies) is attacking Townsville. (He lied at the speech.)
Characters[]
Trivia[]
- Moral:
- Lying is bad no matter how big or small it is.
- Always tell the truth
- This, along with its sister episode "Bubble Boy" were the first episodes to air in 2004.
- The washing machine says "WETAG" on it, a reference to the appliance brand Maytag.
- The plot of this episode is extremely similar to the VeggieTales episode, Larry-Boy! And the Fib from Outer Space!, which also features a monster that grows in size with every lie and shrinks when the truth is told.
- The 2016 reboot episode Secret Swapper of Doom features a monster that is similar to the White Lie which shrinks whenever a secret is told.
- Ironically, when the Professor claims to have gone through a lot of trouble preparing the girls' breakfast (and though the girls later find out that it was only a TV dinner from a box in the trash), the white creature doesn't grow. However, when the Professor admits he didn't slave away on the stove, the creature does shrink.
- This is one episode that the girls don't use violence to fight the monster.
- Both Buttercup and the Professor have left the toilet seat up. Buttercup leaving the toilet seat up may be a joke on Buttercup's tomboyish attitude, assuming she pees like a boy. (Of course, she could've noticed that the seat was up because of The Professor, and didn't fix it.)
- It's unusual that the Mayor came to the Powerpuff Girls' house instead of using the Hot Line.
Production Notes[]
- Although this episode premiered in the United States on January 9, 2004, it was actually produced in 2003 according to the credits.
- This episode was finished in November of 2003.[1]