Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?

"Brother, Can You Spare an Ed?" is the 21st episode of Season 3 and the 73rd episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy. In this episode, Sarah trusts Ed with her allowance money to purchase some fudge for her and Jimmy, but instead he ends up buying jawbreakers due to Eddy's interference. Now the Eds must find a way to pay Sarah back before she turns Ed into dog meat.

Plot
Edd is providing the music by way of his pedal steel guitar for yet another one of Eddy's scams. This one is a hula dancing gig, with Eddy believing that hula dancing lessons are huge. Suddenly, Sarah wanders onto the scene and gets the attention of Ed. Eddy isn't happy about this though, and he and Sarah get into a fight that Edd provides the music for until Eddy yells for him to knock it off. He is about to get back into it with Sarah until he hears what Sarah is telling Ed. Apparently she has gotten her allowance, and is entrusting Ed with the money so that he can buy her fudge, with lots of nuts, from the candy store.

Eddy, of course, tries to weasel his way into the cash, but Ed is for once too smart for Eddy. The Eds are nearly at the candy store when Eddy changes tactics and starts suggesting to Ed that he buy jawbreakers rather than fudge with the money. Edd disagrees, and they begin to fight over Ed keeping his word and buying fudge or giving into temptation and buying jawbreakers like Eddy wants. The pressure is too much for Ed, though, and when he goes inside to get away from his friends, he stands in front of the fudge counter but keeps glancing over towards the jawbreakers.

A few minutes later, Ed and Eddy are seated outside, slurping on two gigantic, round, white, sugary candies. Ed has given in to temptation, and Edd can barely stand the guilt of not being able to get his friend to make the right decision. To this extent, he refuses to take his jawbreaker, as he feels it would be a betrayal of his principles, but he has to take it anyway, as Ed forces it down his throat. With a moan of ecstasy, Edd sucks on the candy, amazed that something so bad can taste so good.

Later, however, the Eds are headed home, and Edd has resumed his protestations over their decision. After a bit of this, it finally sinks into Ed's brain that he's dog meat, and he begins to panic. Fed up, Eddy scoops up a pile of mud and hands it to Ed, telling him that he can give it to Sarah as fudge. Ed is still panicking, so Eddy angrily grabs his friends and outlines a plan, the first step of which is avoiding Sarah and Jimmy. Unfortunately, it seems this plan is not to come to fruition, as the two imps appear and search Ed's person for the fudge. Unable to find it, Sarah asks Ed where her fudge is, and Ed nervously sputters out the truth. Sarah is about to attack again when Edd steps in and tells them that he and his friends will pay back what they stole with interest. Eddy is naturally angry about this, but Sarah (after some convincing from Jimmy) accepts the deal.

As the initiator of the scams, it falls on Eddy to devise a scheme. After a few seconds, he gets an idea, runs off, and comes back with a sign declaring "weGeeS". He then loudly announces it to the cul-de-sac, and Kevin readily steps up and serves Eddy's friends a pair of wedgies. Once the fun is over, Eddy suggests another round, but it seems Kevin is broke. Ed and Edd are hanging from a tree, however, so Eddy quickly comes up with another scheme: piñatas, and you can keep whatever you catch. Jonny is of course into this, and he beats up Ed and Edd with a hockey stick, picking up Ed's coconut bra from the mound of junk that falls from his jacket. With all but the interest paid back, Eddy schmoozes up to his friends and mentions that they have interest. Edd is not dissuaded from the path of redemption, however, at least not until his and Ed's underwear break and he ends up with a strip from Ed's covering his face. Panicked, he heads home to change, but is stopped by Eddy, who has another idea. Of course, Edd is fed up by now, and he has an idea for how best to pay Sarah back.

Shortly thereafter, Eddy is the one in the tree. Beneath him as a makeshift seesaw, and the kids are paying to leap onto the board and send Eddy flying. Nazz, Rolf, Kevin, and Jonny are all eager customers, and the debtors are also getting entertainment by watching the spectacle. Charging a penny a shot, Edd admits that it will take a while to pay Sarah back, but she expresses delighted acceptance. Rolf, not to be outdone, has brought a massive sack of pennies for a seemingly endless amount of turns.

Memorable Quotes
Eddy: [through a megaphone] "GET LOST, TWERP! Ed's working." Sarah: [through the same megaphone] "BUZZ OFF, EDDY!" [Eddy lands.] "Fathead." Eddy: "Why, you little–" [to Edd, who has been providing sound effects] "GIVE IT A BREAK, WILL YA?" [Edd chuckles.]
 * Sarah: "Listen to me, you idiot! I want you to–"

Eddy: [looking at Sarah's dollar intently] "ED!" Ed: "Maybe."
 * Ed: [after Sarah gives him her allowance and tasked him with buying fudge] "It has been absorbed. You can count on me, yup, or my name's not...um..." [He stares blankly into space.]

Edd: "Clean and press?" Eddy: [silencing Edd and turning to Ed, who is sniffing the dollar] "Makes you wanna throw up, don't it? Lemme take that for ya, so you don't contaminate those badly drawn fingers."
 * Eddy: [trying to get Sarah's allowance off of Ed] "Gee Ed, that loot looks pretty disgusting, pal. I mean, it's all stained and wrinkled like, my friend. Why don't you let me clean and press that cash for you, bosom buddy?"

Ed: "To buy my baby sister and her persnickety friend fudge. With lots of nuts."
 * Eddy: [stopping Ed, who is about to enter the Candy Store] "Wait! Where you going, Ed?"

Edd: "Not if it was the last edible substance on our planet, Ed." ''[Ed ignores him and stuffs the jawbreaker into his mouth. Edd moans in ecstasy.]'' "How can something so bad taste so good?" Eddy: "When someone else coughs up for it, that's how."
 * Ed: [trying to get Edd to eat the ill-gotten jawbreaker] "Open wide and say bomb, Double D."


 * Ed: [going off topic] "You should write your name on your underwear, Double D." [pulling up his underpants to show Edd] "See? I'm hand wash only."

Sarah: [watching Eddy getting smacked into the tree] "That's okay, Double D." Eddy: "Don't do it, Kev!" [He gets smacked into the tree.] Sarah: "I've got all the time in the world." Ed: "And I've got a jar on my buttocks."
 * Edd: "At a penny a turn, it may take a while to pay you back, Sarah."

Trivia

 * Goofs:
 * When Ed went to the Candy Store, he was still in his hula costume, but when he got there, he is suddenly back in his normal clothes even though he wasn't seen going in the direction that would lead to his house. However, he could have gone around the back of his house to enter his room to change.
 * When the Eds were returning from the candy store, Ed's stomach was bloated from having swallowed the jawbreaker. However, when Ed suggested that Edd write his name on his underpants, his stomach was normal.
 * Eddy received more than 4 quarters from Kevin and Jonny together, so he should have been able to pay the debt he owed Sarah.
 * However, given that the actual value of the coins was never shown, it's possible that Kevin and Jonny paid in coins of lesser denominations such as nickels and dimes.
 * It is revealed that Ed writes his name on his underwear.
 * The episode's title is a reference to the song "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?"
 * Eddy breaks the fourth wall by saying "Let me take that for ya so it doesn't contaminate those badly drawn fingers," referring to the way the characters are drawn.
 * Eddy later broke the fourth wall again by saying "Who writes this guy's stuff?" referring to the script (and the way Edd was talking).
 * This the fourth time the Pedal Steel Guitar is shown.
 * This marks the first time the Eds successfully make money, purchase, and fully ingest jawbreakers, albeit not in that order.
 * This is the third time the Eds successfully bought Jawbreakers. The first time was in "The Ed-Touchables" and the second time was in "Fa-La-La-La-Ed."
 * This is the 53rd time that the Kankers don't appear.
 * Ed's habit of eating his jawbreakers whole was referenced in the game Infect Ed.