"My Fair Mandy"

Original Air Date: July 29, 2005

Wanting to show-up Mindy and prove that she can be pretty, Mandy signs up for a beauty pageant; however, her crabby attitude and unwillingness to smile makes things difficult for her. In an effort to help out, Grim enlists the aid of a fashionista and old friend to make Mandy pretty and win the contest.

"My Fair Mandy" contains examples of…

• Actor Allusion: Mandy begrudgingly sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for the talent competition. Grey DeLisle loves The Wizard of Oz (1939), and actually got her start doing impressions of the characters for a standup routine.
• Adam Westing: Tom Kane and Tom Kenny reprise Professor Utonium and the Narrator, respectively, for the Powerpuff Girls sequence.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: When reality starts to come undone due to Mandy smiling, Grim tells Billy he's going to hold on to him tightly and never let go, despite how much he and Mandy constantly annoy and anger him.
• Beauty Contest: The main conflict of this episode centers around Mandy entering a beauty pageant competition to show-up Alpha Bitch Mindy.
• Continuity Snarl: Downplayed. The episode shows that Mandy would break reality if she smiles, even though she has smiled and grinned several times before (for example in the ending of the pilot episode) without disastrous consequences. It could be argued that in those instances Mandy smiled on her own and forcing her to do it against her will is universe-breaking; and it must also be kept in mind that every previous smile was sadistic rather than cheerful, which may have played a factor.
• Death Glare: Mandy in response to Mindy trash-talking her backstage.
• Dope Slap: Crabina says that the Mandy they all knew is dead.
  Billy: GRIM, SHE MURDERED MANDY!
  Grim: [slapping Billy so hard his nose comes off] It's a figure of speech, dummy!
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Mindy is obnoxious that Billy and Grim both end up getting pissed off on Mandy's behalf, even after the two spent a whole day laughing at the idea of Mandy participating in a beauty pageant. Grim even offers to destroy Mindy before Mandy decides to take Mindy down herself.
  • Mindy's mom is one of the pageant judges but still deducts points when her daughter wasn't able to complete Gom Jabbar.
• Evil Is Petty: According to Professor Utonium, the "girls" are needed because Mojo Jojo snuck into a movie theater without paying.
• Foreshadowing: One of the students seen at the very beginning of the episode looks an awful lot like Princess Morbucks. Tom Kane is also present to voice Captain Green Gums, and ends up reprising his role as Professor Utonium at the end.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Parodied. When Mandy is forced to smile affectionately at the goading of her friends to beat Mindy in the beauty pageant, it triggers a Reality-Breaking Paradox that tears apart the universe itself, before rebooting itself as The Powerpuff Girls universe with the three mains as the titular trio.
• Gainax Ending: After Mandy finally manages to smile, she accidentally breaks reality and causes it to collapse in on itself. The main trio find themselves in the The Powerpuff Girls universe dressed as the titular girls.
• Getting Them to Smile: When Mandy decides to compete in the Miss Scurvy Pageant and try to win to prove Mindy wrong, Crabina tells her the only way she can win is if she smiles. Billy and Grim spend the episode trying to get her to smile, only to realize too late that actually getting her to do this upsets the natural order of things so much that reality falls apart, and the show transforms into The Powerpuff Girls (1998).
• Inflating Body Gag: Grim inflates Billy's head with an air tank until he takes off deflating like a balloon in an attempt to make Mandy crack a smile. It doesn't work.
• It's All About Me: The moms having their girls take part in the beauty pageant give this vibe, caring more about themselves than their own daughters.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: At the end of the episode (after Mandy destroys the universe with her smile, and the main trio find themselves in the PPG universe):
  Grim: Ok, we keep flying, we never head back, we never talk about this again!
  Billy: Yep.
  Mandy: Uh-huh.
• Literal-Minded: Once more, Billy shows off his stupidity.
  Crabina: True beauty lies within.
  Billy: In [Mandy's] lungs?
  Crabina: [Beat] In her attitude.
• Medium-Shift Gag: The photo showing Grim as a "nerd" before Crabina gave him a makeover is a live-action picture of a human male standing in a kitchen.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Grim and the gang realize too late that making Mandy smile at the pageant causes their reality to be destroyed. Even Crabina says, "What have we done?" as reality begins to break apart.
• My God, You Are Serious!: After laughing for a solid day after hearing about Mandy's intention of entering a beauty pageant, both Grim and Billy have this reaction towards her.
• Mythology Gag: During Grim, Billy, and Mandy's version of The Powerpuff Girls opening's flying sequence, the theme for Grim & Evil can be heard, In the Style of the former's theme song.
• Negative Continuity: In true Billy and Mandy fashion, everyone's warped to Townsville, but by next episode, everything's back to normal.
• Nepotism: Grim scoffs at how despite the competition being advertised as a fair one, Mindy’s mother is one of the pageant judges. However, it seems slightly downplayed as her mom doesn't give her full points at the Dune reference.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Grim's fashionista friend, Crabina, seems to take inspiration from Joan Rivers in appearance and mannerisms.
• Oh, Crap!: Everyone has this when Mandy smiles and it wrecks reality. Bonus mention goes to hammy apathetic Sir Raven, who calls everyone out.
• Pet the Dog: Skarr hugs Captain Green Gums over how he lost his gums to scurvy.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Mandy succeeds in besting Mindy, even turning her head into a turnip when reality falls apart, but by the end of it, it's clear she doesn't really care about the pageant in the grand scheme of things.
• Reality-Breaking Paradox: This is what happens if Mandy gives a smile that isn't sinister. Result? The entire universe is basically undone and her, Billy, and Grim end up as the Powerpuff Girls.
• Running Gag: Mindy pointing out something she just said was sarcasm.
• Shout-Out:
  • This episode contains a few references to other pieces of media.
    • The title and premise are based on My Fair Lady, another story about a girl who has to undergo a serious makeover.
    • Dune: One of the acts during the talent show was for Mindy to put her hand in a hole in a box, mirroring the Gom Jabbar trial Paul Atreides goes through in the story. She even gets penalized for taking her hand out early.
    • The Wizard of Oz (1939): Mandy sings a rendition of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" for her talent show act.
    • 2001: A Space Odyssey: As the universe collapses in on itself, there are brief shots of flashing colors and horrified faces, much like in the movie's "Stargate" sequence.
    • The Powerpuff Girls: After the universe collapses, the main trio (and Irwin) find themselves in Townsville.
  • Irwin's response to seeing Mandy in a swimsuit? "Baby got back!"
• Sleep Cute: During Mandy's song, Billy closes his eyes and gently rests his head on Grim's shoulder in this fashion, greatly annoying Grim who shoves him off in disgust.
• So Once Again, the Day Is Saved: Appropriately, how the Gainax Ending caps off after the trio agrees to never talk about this again.
• Space Whale Aesop: Everyone has their own way of expressing themselves. Forcing them to do so much as a smile they don't even want can cause reality to unravel.
• Stage Mom: Grim unintentionally makes a jab at the entire concept of children's beauty pageants being centered around the mothers.
  Grim: Look at these little girls, all tarted up! What kind of sad, needy person would force them to do that?
  Mom 1: Don't forget, this is mommy's big day!
  Mom 2: The bigger you smile, the more beautiful mommy looks!
  Mom 3: Baby, it's time to earn mommy's love.
• The Stinger: A brief scene shows Irwin had been transported to the PPG universe as well, and he's dressed up as Mojo Jojo.
• This Is Gonna Suck: When Mandy finally manages to smile, there's a lengthy beat. Grim then says he's got the feeling something really bad is about to happen. Reality starts coming apart before he manages to finish the sentence.
• The Un-Reveal: Mandy's smile is never properly shown in-full. The camera focuses in on the corners of her mouth raising upward and a distant shot of her with a somewhat squiggly expression, but that's all.
• Wham Shot: Played for laughs. After reality comes apart, there's a white light. Suddenly, we see the main trio dressed as the Powerpuff Girls.
• You Fool!: Sir Raven over how the protagonists caused reality to come apart.
  Sir Raven: YOU FOOLS! YOU'VE MESSED WITH THE NATURAL ORDER!