"Whiffle While You Work" is the twenty-ninth episode of Darkwing Duck.
Plot[]
Summary[]
Drake is cleaning house when he sees Gosalyn playing a video game called Whiffle Boy. She tells him that she is in the semi-final video game playoff and continues to play. Drake turns off the tv on her and tells her that she needs to go do her homework and that too many video games will "rot her brain". She breezes through her homework, although only halfway answering the questions in her math, history, and science books and finds Drake playing the video game now. It seems that Drake is in the contest as well. Gosalyn confronts her father about and ask him should be out fighting crime
Meanwhile Quackerjack shows up at a Whiffle Boy warehouse in a robotic gorilla and captures the two guards and proceeds to wreck the warehouse. One of the guards tells him that he can't stop Whiffle mania and that there is a contest at the local mall. Quackerjack decides that he will go there to stop the game once and for all and blows up the warehouse with his gorilla and leaving two stunned guards.
At the mall, it is announced that Gosalyn has the lead and it's now Drake's turn at the game. Just as he is about to start the game, Quackerjack blows it up and Drake goes to find a closet to change into his Darkwing Duck disguise. Quackerjack tells Darkwing that he doesn't want to fight him and that his problem is with Whiffle Boy since Whiffle Boy products put him out of business. Darkwing is determined to stop him, but after a brief battle, Quackerjack gets away. The Whiffle Boy people invite Darkwing to compete with the champion in a Whiffle Boy playoff and Darkwing agrees. The champion he has to face is Gosalyn.
They are flown to Whiffle Town to compete. As they tour Whiffle Town, Quackerjack shows up in a giant Crying Crissy Doll and uses it to start flooding Whiffle Town. Darkwing tries to stop it and fails. Gosalyn recognizes the doll and knows it's weakness. She hops on a surfboard and swims around it quickly causing the giant doll to spin it's head quickly to keep up with her. The head pops off with Quackerjack and floats out of town.
Darkwing and Gosalyn now face off in the challenge and Pat and Pat show off the molecular digitizer and digitize a Whiffle Boy character onto the game. Quackerjack shows up and in the mayhem, he and Darkwing get digitized into the game.
Weasel Kid shows up and begins to chase Darkwing. Whiffle Boy appears, but since no one is controlling him, he does nothing and gets zapped leaving only two lives left for him. Quackerjack teams up with Weasel Kid since they both hate Whiffle Boy. Darkwing takes off. Whiffle Boy appears again and Gosalyn takes control of him. They complete several levels and make it to the Ultimal Level with Whiffle Boy only having one life left. Quackerjack shows up with Weasel Kid's giant robotic dad and they zap Whiffle Boy leaving Darkwing on his own in a level that he has never played. They chase Darkwing through the level and Darkwing falls on a train track activating a locomotive tank. The tank charges toward him and Darkwing fakes being injured to lure Weasel Dad and Quackerjack down on the track. Darkwing jumps away and Weasel Dad gets hit. Quackerjack recovers and chases after Darkwing. Darkwing finds the exit to the level and also finds out that it is guarded by Gater Gal. He jumps off of Gater Gal to make it to the exit and re-appears outside of the game. Quackerjack tries to follow but gets eaten by Gater Gal.
Darkwing and Gosalyn agree to never let anything come between them again until they are awarded the trophy and they start to fight over it.
Quotes[]
Quackerjack: I like coffee, I like tea, I like toys and they like me! I see London, I see France, I see Whiffle Boy kicked in the pants!
Quackerjack: (To Darkwing in the "Whiffle Boy" video game) Try your ninja nonsense on Mr. Banana Brain, my fine feathered fop!
- Darkwing: Any super-secret crimefighter worth his salt is never far away from a broom closet!
- — Drake become Darkwing.
- Darkwing: I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the bubble gum that, uh, clings to your.... Shoe?
- — Darkwing Duck making his "Entrance."
- Darkwing: I am the terror that flaps in the night! I am the wrong number that wakes you at 3am! I am...! Soaked.
- — Darkwing Duck making his "Second entrance."
Quackerjack: (While being outnumbered by Darkwing in their fight) Mama!
- Darkwing: I meant to do that.
- — Darkwing
Notes[]
References[]
- The title "Whiffle While You Work" is a pun on "Whistle While You Work", a song from the 1937 movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- At one point in this episode, Quackerjack, in his attempt to defeat Darkwing with his Mr. Banana Brain doll in the Whiffle Boy video game, says the word "Fop" in a way that that viewers could easily confuse for a much more profane word.
- Closed-captioning on Disney+ replaces the unclear word with two question marks.
- The line "It's only a flesh wound," is a repeat of a popular line that previously appeared in the 1942 strip-within-a-strip Fearless Fosdick, the The Goon Show 1957 episode "The Giant Bombardon", and the 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- "I've fallen and I can't get up!" originates from the 1989 LifeCall television commercial.
Milestones[]
- This episode marks the first appearance of Quackerjack, Patrick and Patricia, the prototype versions of Mr. Banana Brain, Crying Chrissy, and the molecular digitizer.
- This episode marks the first time Quackerjack exclaims "Mama!" The second time would be in Jail Bird when he dizzily exclaims "Mummy?" upon being beaten by Darkwing at the museum along with Megavolt, Bushroot, and Liquidator as he lands on a mummy statue’s pair of arms.
- Quackerjack briefly cries in this episode due to the tear gas Darkwing accidentally shot at him and the giant Crying Chrissy doll instead of the intended mortar gas.
- This is the first episode where Launchpad does not appear.
Errors[]
- When Quackerjack releases his giant mechanical teeth they are of equal size, but the ones that chase Pat and Pat and Darkwing somehow become very large while the one that Gosalyn scares off with a dental drill somehow become very small.
- Sometimes the head band on Gosalyn's 5D-glasses goes around her head all the way and sometimes it doesn't.
- In fact, this whole episode’s animation design and movements appear very cartoony and way loonier than any other episodes. So, whatever animation studio worked on this episode really cranked the animation’s looniness up to eleven. Even another episode, “Dry Hard,” went through the same animation cartoony looniness as this episode, possibly by the same animation studio that worked on this episode.
- When Darkwing, Gosalyn and the others drive through Whiffle Town in a tour bus, they are being driven by a bus driver and Gosalyn and the female Pat are on on one side behind the driver sitting in a single seat and Darkwing is on the other side. After they come across the Crying Chrissy mecha, the male Pat is the driver and everyone is in the front bench seat.
- When seeing Quackerjack getting eaten by the crocodile, Gosalyn shields Darkwing's eyes and she says, "Don't look, dad." She said it right in front of the Pat and Pat (male and female). This is one example of how through out the series, Gosalyn often called Darkwing "Dad" in front of other people, which could put Darkwing's secret identity at risk.
Other[]
- The original name in the show bible for this episode is "Toying with Disaster".