Laugh Ed Laugh

"Laugh Ed Laugh" is the 19th episode of Season 1 and the 19th episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy. In this episode, the Eds find out that everyone else in the Cul-de-Sac is sick with chicken pox, so they have to play by themselves until everyone recovers. Eddy finds everything that his friends do boring and with no people for him to scam, he eventually goes completely insane. It's now up to Ed and Edd to capture Eddy for his own safety.

Plot
Today, Eddy's scheme is to sell ice cream from a fake Ice Cream Truck. Of course, he and his friends can't afford real ice cream, so they're going with mock-ups of pink paint, baseballs, paper, and glue. Even though the likelihood of this succeeding is low at best, Eddy still believes the plan is foolproof until no kids appear. Annoyed, they head off to find some suckers, ignoring Ed's explanation of a wormhole. The first place they visit is Jimmy's house, and once Jimmy opens the door, it becomes clear that he has chicken pox. Even worse, the whole cul-de-sac seems to have come down with the sickness, as they're all under quarantine.

Of course, Eddy is sure that the Eds can amuse themselves. Soon, he's proven half-correct: while Ed and Double D have fun with games of kick-the-can and cat's cradle, Eddy is bored by all of this stuff. Soon, Ed suggests that they change a lightbulb, but Eddy calls this boring and starts to make fun of his friends. This isn't a good move, though, as soon enough they get annoyed and start to leave him to go change the lightbulb. Worried, Eddy tries to attract their attention again and get them to stay, but this doesn't work, as they've already seen it, and now he's boring them.

Without anything to do, Eddy rushes madly around the cul-de-sac, trying to find someone who isn't sick. There is nobody home, however, and soon Eddy collapses on the sidewalk. Soon, he starts to go insane from not having a sucker, and both of his friends see him acting crazy. Edd realizes they must capture Eddy for his own safety, and Ed goes along with the plan.

Capturing Eddy may be harder than it sounds, however. After all, if Eddy is insane enough to believe that a mailbox is his house, he's also going to be nuts enough to believe that Ed and Eddy in Jonny and Plank masks are the real deal, right? Well, perhaps, but when Ed's mask falls off, that scheme falls apart. With trickery failing, they tail Eddy to the playground, where he's scamming squirrels of their nuts. This time, they try a direct approach, but Eddy takes off, swinging like Tarzan through the trees. Another attempt is made to ambush him, this time while he's sucking on a fire hydrant he thinks is a jawbreaker, but needless to say, this attempt fails as well.

Finally, they're back to trickery, luring Eddy to a shed with a dollar bill. Once inside, Edd locks the door to what has become a padded cell and tells Ed to hide the key. While Double D focuses on Eddy, Ed eats the key. As soon as Eddy cheers his success, Ed turns his head and shows him a humongous pile of cash in the corner. Ecstatic, Eddy leaps into the money and celebrates his newfound wealth. Once he's done, he says that they'll buy a truckload of jawbreakers with the loot, only to be informed that the money is all fake. Eddy is angry, which seems to have been Edd's point, as now Eddy is cured. Soon, though, Eddy's mind is off of the fake money, as he can hear the kids playing outside, having recovered from the disease. The Eds are going to have a hard time getting out, however, as Ed ate the key, and it seems that their only option is to use Ed to dig their way out.

Memorable Quotes
Eddy: [pointing at Jimmy's sickly face] "Look at his face!" Ed: [advancing on Jimmy] "It's so gross! Can I touch it?" Edd: [blocking Ed] "Aah! Ed, no! He's got chickenpox. Touch him and you'll get it too!" Eddy: [pointing] "Double D, behind you!" ''[Jimmy advances toward them. Eddy quickly uproots a picket sign and points it at Jimmy.]'' "Back, chicken boy! Back!" [He pushes Jimmy back with the sign and closes the door.]
 * Jimmy: [answering his door] "Hello Mr. Postman. Are those eggs for me?" [Jimmy scratches himself all over in front of the Eds.]

Ed: "I've seen this before." Eddy: "Where?" Ed: "There." [He points at more "QUARANTINE" signs which are scattered around the entire cul-de-sac.] Edd: [worried] "It must be an epidemic!" Eddy: "So I uh… guess we're the only ones… not sick?" [He laughs nervously.] Edd: "So it seems, Eddy." Eddy: "Well, come on guys! Let's do something!" Ed: "Like what?"
 * Edd: [looking at the "QUARANTINE" sign] "Oh, dear. A quarantine."

Ed: "Okay." Eddy: [crazy] "Will you marry us?" Edd: [taken aback] "I'm not registered for that!" Eddy: "Then we'll elope!" [Ed puts the key between two slices of bread and eats it like a sandwich.]
 * Edd: "Ed, hide this key discreetly." [Edd gives Ed the key.]

Ed: "I ate it! Discretely."
 * Eddy: [angry] Where's the key?!"


 * Ed: "Dig a hole, dig a hole, dig a hole." [Eddy grumbles.] "Ha ha, I am a good shovel, huh, Eddy?"


 * Eddy: [after Ed's Jonny mask falls off] "Jonny, you dropped your face. I'll go get ya a new one!"


 * Eddy: [sounding like Desi Arnaz] "Lucy, I'm home!" [He jumps on Edd.]

Trivia

 * Chicken pox would take days to heal, and yet the children, except the Eds, are feeling better by the end of the episode. It is possible that they had the chickenpox before this episode and were on the verge of recovery by the time which the episode took place.
 * This is the first time Sarah gets sick. She gets sick again in "Is There an Ed in the House?"
 * Goof: The quarantine signs appeared out of nowhere in the beginning scene. The signs show up after Eddy picks one up to keep a sick Jimmy away and Ed points out the signs are "there" around the entire Cul-de-Sac.
 * Goof: When Eddy is digging the gang's way out of the locked room, the size of the hole Eddy makes shrinks as soon as it shows a closeup of Ed's head.
 * Ed has difficulties pushing Eddy when he is sitting on a truck made of cardboard, but he can lift a house in "Cry Ed." Also, in other episodes, Ed can lift and push things heavier than Eddy and a truck made of cardboard.
 * Goof: At the start of the show when Eddy is in the ice cream truck, the red stripe on his shirt is missing.
 * Eddy goes insane without anyone to scam in this episode, but in other episodes, he does not even attempt to scam at all and still doesn't go crazy. This could quite possibly be because in this episode, he knew that he couldn't scam anyone when he really wanted and in later cases it's possible that he could scam but didn't want to or he had other things to do.
 * This is the first time any of the Eds have ever counterfeited money. They would do this again in "Stiff Upper Ed" and "Ed, Edd n Eddy's Hanky Panky Hullabaloo".
 * Eddy makes a reference to I Love Lucy when he says "Lucy, I'm home!" which is what Lucy's husband, Ricky, says when he comes home from work.
 * When Edd and Ed were doing cat's cradle, Ed accidentally entangles himself in the strings and falls down, but in the next scene he wasn't entangled and was standing upright. It's possible he quickly got untangled and up while Eddy was looking mad, but that would be too fast.
 * Goof: While Edd is teaching Ed how to do cat's cradle, look very closely as his nose disappears for a split second and then reappears when the split second is up.
 * The kids only appeared at the end of this episode, besides Jimmy who appeared at the beginning of this episode when the Eds were trying to sell ice cream.
 * 8th time the Kankers do not appear.
 * We learn from this episode that under certain circumstances, in this case a lack of people to scam and a great degree of boredom, Eddy goes insane and has hallucinations, such as mistaking a fire hydrant for a jawbreaker and a fence for ham, eggs, and buttered toast.
 * When Ed was holding the fake ice cream, he said "Drink mister", but the captions said "Big dessert."
 * Kevin, Rolf, Nazz and Sarah did not speak at all in this episode.
 * This is the second time we see other animal(s) in this episode, in this case squirrels. The first time was "Read All About Ed," where a dog appeared.
 * Edd doesn't want Ed to eat a baseball covered in pink paint because it's not food and can make him ill, but he ordered Ed to eat dirt in "A Twist of Ed", which is also not food. However, Edd did this to show Eddy the uses of reverse psychology.
 * This is the only episode where squirrels are seen in the show. Different-colored squirrels appear as enemies in the console video game Ed, Edd n Eddy - The Mis-Edventures. Also, in "Cry Ed", Jimmy manages to be injured by a squirrel.
 * It was not revealed who and how the chickenpox plague that caused the kids to get sick was spread. It is implied by the fact that the Eds aren't ill that either they have already had it, they got lucky and didn't get it, or are protected by the obligatory character shield for the sake of plot. It is even remotely possible that one of THEM spread the sickness unintentionally, but the chickenpox epidemic is most likely the result of an outside force.
 * This is the second time Ed said "Drink, mister?" The first time was in "Over Your Ed."
 * Goof: When Edd is doing cat's cradle to show Ed, he laughs while doing it, but his mouth did not move at all.
 * Goof: Jonny's mouth didn't move when he said, "What's that Plank?".
 * Ed is shown to have some artistic talent since he can draw his own face very easily with no problems.
 * When Eddy does some armpit sounds in this episode, it sounds like a pig. Yet, in "Hot Buttered Ed", it sounds like a regular flatulent noise.
 * Eddy mentions in his crazy state that he and Edd should elope instead of traditionally marrying. Eloping is the act of running away and getting married, usually without parental consent.
 * Goof: Edd and Ed were making the ice cream behind the truck, but they appear in the front of the truck when Edd says, "Maybe they're on to us.".