Too Smart for His Own Ed

"Too Smart for His Own Ed" is the 9th episode of Season 5 and the 111th episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy. In this episode, Ed wins the spelling bee after a slip of the tongue from Double D. This in turn makes Ed the new brainiac and leaves Edd completely sad and unwanted from his peers.

Plot
It's the Eighth Annual Spelling Bee at Peach Creek Jr. High and Edd is feeling very confident that he will, once again, win the competition. After all, his opponents consist of the silent Plank, the nervous Rolf, and Ed. Before the spelling bee started Kevin and Eddy decided to make a bet to see who would win. Kevin bet on Edd while Eddy bet on Ed.

Edd had everything going smoothly during the Spelling Bee. Advantages such as Plank being disqualified for not speaking on his turn and Rolf resigning himself from the Spelling Bee due to his inability to spell seemed to make the contest a surefire win for him. He had the moment to claim victory in the final round against Ed, until one flaw happened in front of the audiences: he misspelled "gravy" because he spelled it with an "i" instead of a "y". Horrified, Edd attempted to correct himself but had his turn ended. Ed took the position of reciting the same word and spells it correctly, claiming victory for the contest much to the dismay of Edd. With Ed winning,  Kevin had to pay up Eddy and he yells at Edd angrily for making him lose. Later, Jonny, angry at Nazz for ending Plank's turn during the contest, tries to trap Nazz with a banana under a cardboard box. His plan failed and proceeded to call her a "wood hater". Meanwhile, Edd could only watch in wide-eyed shock as his friend is awarded the prize. Edd couldn't undo the error he's made, misspelling "gravy". Now, he has to live through his life without that ribbon with a cold empty slot on his wall of Spelling Bee awards.

After the events of the Spelling Bee, the kids now turn to Ed for his intelligence for academic assistance instead of Edd. Seeing this gives Eddy an idea to start up a scam to help the needs of the kids, by making them pay to use Ed's services of course. Thus "Egghead Ed" is born. Eddy even takes advantage of his friends by ripping them off too, using Egghead Ed to earn cash by charging a quarter per question. Edd hides because he thinks he couldn't spell "gravy". Edd knows how to spell "gravy", but that mistake doesn't make everything the same when seeing the scam unfold. Fortunately, he believes his Mother's edible tuna salad would help him cheer up from his defeat.

Things start to go downhill for the Egghead Ed scam, the kids angrily confront Ed & Eddy. because they all got failing grades due to Ed's lack of intelligence. They then chase Ed and Eddy back to the school, but Ed trips over,which makes Eddy trip over too. Before he can get back up to resume the chase, the Kids have caught up to them and corner them. Edd watches the pounding behind the school doors, only able to watch as his friends are beaten senseless. They beat up Egghead Ed and Eddy while receiving refunds in the process. As a result of the Egghead Ed failure, order is restored, school is out for the day, and Egghead Ed is no more. Edd is back to being the smart kid on campus. As for Eddy, he runs off to try to reclaim his money back from the kids. Edd then congratulates Ed for his victory at the spelling bee and Ed takes Edd to his house for cookies and mayonnaise.

Nazz is then shown to have fallen into a hole dug by Jonny in an attempt to exact revenge against her. After getting out Nazz out, Jonny forgives Nazz for what happened at the spelling bee. However after being rejected to hold hands with Nazz, Jonny later complained that "she hates bald kids too."

Memorable Quotes
Jimmy: "I can't feel my toes anymore, Rolf. We've been practicing for hours!" Rolf: [grabbing Jimmy by the neck and Edd by the shirt] "What prayer does Rolf have against this, this, too smart for his hat Ed boy?!"
 * Rolf: [trying to spell 'watch' while feeling tired] "W … O … T … H. Wrist clock!"

Eddy: "What's it look like? Ed's cramming for the spelling bee! Feeling smarter, Ed?" [Eddy stuffs Ed's ear with more ripped pages from the dictionary] Ed: "What?"
 * Edd: [looking in horror as Eddy tears up a dictionary] "What are you doing to that poor defenseless dictionary?"


 * Edd [angry that Eddy expects him to cheat and lose the spelling bee on purpose]: "Surely you jest, Eddy! How could you ask me to disengage the rules of literacy? To squander the values of scholastic tradition? To spit upon the very foundations of what our language is built on?"


 * Rolf: [hopelessly and nervous while whispering into the microphone] "Rolf's mind goes blank." [breathing heavily] "Colonial." [more heavy breathing for a few moments, finally an outburst] "POPPYCOCK! Curse this monkey ritual of English words!" [knocks over the microphone, then the sound of one person clapping and runs off the stage] "Thank you, Nana!"


 * Ed: "Oh, oh, I know! I saw it in a movie once. [rolls on the stage floor] Ectoplasm. E-C-T-O-P-L-A-S-M. Ectoplasm." [this brings good to Eddy while concern to his opponent, Edd]

Nazz: "Oh... dude, you know the rules. Over to you, Ed. Can you spell 'gravy'?" [Ed walks over to the microphone and moves Edd aside] Ed: "Gravy. G-R-A-V-Y. Gravy. Yum." [applause] Nazz: [giving Ed a ribbon] "This year's winner of the Peach Creek spelling bee is Ed!" [cameras goes off as Ed waves to the audience taking his picture of victory]
 * Edd: "Gravy. G-R-A-V-I. NO, Y! Y is what I meant to say..."


 * Ed: [attempting to solve Jimmy's 'if X is Y what is P' equation] "Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yes, well, 2P or not 2P, that is the question!"

Eddy: "Egghead Ed helped you, cough up a quarter." Edd: [sighs] "I reminisce on those days when it was my intellect you exploited for your own monetary gain, Eddy. Alas, they're just bittersweet memories now." Eddy: "Yeah, yeah. Just let me see the cash, Hamlet."
 * Ed: "May I aid you? As I am a good speller. See?" [spelling "pull" while pointing each letter backwards] "P-U-L-L. Pull." [Double D walks into the cafeteria and Eddy stops Double D]

[Double D giggles and Eddy hits Ed on the head angrily]
 * Ed: [sits on and squashes a tomato] "Bread sticks hurt my gums."


 * Ed: [while carrying Edd away] "Cookies at my house, Double D! With lots of mayonnaise!"

Trivia

 * Eddy has a book in his locker on how to be rich. It was also seen in "Smile for the Ed."
 * This is the fourth time Rolf used the word "poppycock" to describe insanity or foolishness. The first time was in the episode "Will Work for Ed," the second time was in the episode "See No Ed" and the third time was in Ed, Edd n Eddy's Hanky Panky Hullabaloo.
 * Jimmy's homework: "What does happy mean?" Ed wrote "Popeye the Sailor" as the answer, referencing the famous comic strip/cartoon.
 * When we see the front of the kids F-graded papers that they are holding, the kids' faces are dark.
 * Running Gags:
 * Jonny attempting to get revenge on Nazz because she claimed that Plank ran out of time on his turn in the spelling bee.
 * Ed being so "smart" by doing everyone's work.
 * AKA staff name appearances:
 * Edd's Spelling Bee Preparation for Advanced Spellers book is written by B. Jim. B. Jim is AKA storyboard director "Big" Jim Miller.
 * Jimmy's Algebra for Wee Ones is by Daniel Sioui. Daniel Sioui is the show's producer.
 * The notice board asking for Volunteer Year Book Club - ask Nurse Prowse. Nurse Prowse is a reference to Ceile Prowse, the show's design coordinator.
 * On the same board Mr. Toomey (the show's props & character designer) is in charge of the storytelling competition.
 * This is the second time Ed has won a contest. The first is in "Ed or Tails," and the second is in the episode "All Eds Are Off."
 * Edd has ribbons from the previous seven Peach Creek Jr. High Spelling Bees and one blank space, which suggests that the school has eight grades.
 * Jonny and the Kankers were the only people that did not ask for or need "Egghead Ed's" help.
 * All the characters appeared in this episode, and all but the Kankers spoke.
 * Each of the kids have their own handwriting, as shown on their papers.
 * It is unknown what Ed did with the ribbon he won at the spelling bee.
 * When Ed was helping Jimmy out on an algebra problem, he said "2P or not 2P, that is the question." He's referencing William Shakespeare's phrase "To be or not to be? That is the question."
 * To add to that, Eddy called Edd Hamlet during his lament of not being the one people could rely on anymore.
 * Apparently, Rolf can't spell words of even the simplest vocabulary such as "watch".
 * Each of the spelling bee's contestants were given words that reference them in some way. Edd's word "cerebral" referred to his own brain. Plank's word "deciduous" is a reference to hardwood trees, such as oak trees. Rolf's word "colonial" refers to his "colonial" heritage. Ed's word "ectoplasm" suggests his knowledge of horror movies, and "gravy" is one of his obsessions.