Pain in the Ed

"Pain in the Ed" is the 6th episode of Season 4 and the 83rd episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy. In this episode, Ed is taking up the violin and must practice. Unfortunately, he stinks. Eddy hates the music so much that he tries to find a way to get rid of Ed's new violin, but he must do so without letting Sarah or Jimmy knowing.

Plot
For once, Eddy's newest scheme is not about scoring money. Instead, he wants to gain some social points. In his twisted mind, however, this is akin to simply claiming that he's entered puberty, so with Edd's help he glues some carpet to his armpits for fake body hair. He then approaches Jonny and Plank, but Jonny simply asks if Eddy's glued carpet to his pits. Eddy then shows up at Kevin's, and Kevin bursts out laughing, saying that Eddy's faking puberty. The next person to notice Eddy's faking is Nazz, who is likewise unimpressed. At this point, Eddy realizes that the kids have caught on and becomes grumpy. Ed then shows up with a violin and music stand. Eddy once again tries to show off, but even Ed is not dumb enough to fall for this.

Ed then begins practicing, first tuning his violin poorly and then playing badly. While Eddy tries to steal and smash the instrument, Edd stops him, and says that Ed should learn to play. Soon the music grabs the ears of Jonny and Plank, who start dancing to the horrid music. Eddy can't take it and goes inside. After a while, he stands up and goes into his room. Inside, he spies a familiar hat poking over his chair. When he rushes over and turns it around, he finds Edd. Before the two can argue, Ed arrives and starts practicing again. At this point, Eddy becomes fed up and decides to go and get rid of the violin once and for all. Edd tries to stop him, but Eddy marches outside, grabs Ed's violin, and throws it out into the street. Edd tries to go after the violin, but stops when he sees Jimmy and Sarah moving towards his room, carrying the violin.

Eddy is petting Ed, saying that it's nice to not have to listen to the violin, but Sarah appears, drags Ed outside, and tells him that he has to practice or she'll tell their mom. Ed reveals how much he has practiced, but Sarah and Jimmy see that he is stil terrible. Sarah and Jimmy hide behind a fence and the former tells Jimmy to keep an eye on Ed and make sure he practices. As soon as she leaves, Eddy once again tries to smash the violin, but Edd grabs it away and signals that they have company, in the form of a hiding Jimmy. Eddy then decides that Ed should find another, more private place to practice.

The Eds then waltz through the Cul-de-Sac, Edd and Eddy, with makeshift earplugs in, try to find a place to escape Jimmy. Unfortunately, Jimmy seems to ever be where the Eds are, be it the woods, the lane, or elsewhere. Eventually, Edd points out to Eddy that the only possible way to get rid of the violin would be to do it in a way that's so obviously coincidental that there's no way it could be traced back to them or even be considered anything more than an unlikely coincidence.

To this end, Edd constructs a gigantic replica of the Statue of Liberty in the middle of the cul-de-sac. All the kids notice the eyesore, and are somewhat confused by it, but their attention is soon drawn to Ed, who is standing in the middle of a painted target, playing his violin horribly. Kevin, Nazz, and Rolf recognize the playing as horrible (although Jonny still loves the music), and try to get away. In one of these bids, Rolf steps into footprints that Edd has outlined for him (seemingly having precognition of what path he would take) and his foot lands in a piece of gum Edd has set in the last one. Rolf continues to move, stretching the gum across the street until it will stretch no more and holds him there.

This is Eddy's cue to come out from the statue and introduce Plank to his new pal, a saw with a face drawn on it. Jonny, fearing for Plank's life, runs for it, running directly for the chewed up gum. Eddy puts a jack-in-the-box down where Jonny recently was, cranks it, and walks away. The next thing that happens is Jonny blindly runs into the gum, which stretches and then snaps back, sending him flying backwards, straight into the jack-in-the-box, which pops open and sends Jonny upwards. When he comes down, he lands in a pressure-device which sets off a multitude of contraptions inside the statue, which sends a bowling ball on a guided path intended to destroy the violin. As all this goes on, Edd surreptitiously feeds Wilfred a grease-coated magnet. Eddy watches, nearly overcome with glee, as the ball streaks downwards–until Wilfred walks past the music stand, tugging it along with him. Ed, needing to practice, follows the stand, leaving the ball to crash down, destroying nothing but itself and some pavement.

Eddy is confused by this turn of events. Soon enough, Edd starts moralizing on how maybe all this is a sign that maybe the violin should be played and not destroyed, and this tips Eddy off that something is up. He then rushes after Ed, determined now to destroy the violin. Eddy grabs it and is about to destroy it when Edd takes it. Edd then confesses that he sabotaged the plan as he could never destroy the instrument. Eddy enraged begins to chase him in order to destroy it. Edd runs for it and trips, falling on the violin and smashing it flat.

At this point, Jimmy jumps out and says that he's going to tell Sarah. Ed pleads Jimmy to not do that, but Jimmy ignores him. Eddy doesn't care about what happened to the violin. At that moment, Sarah arrives and proceeds to beat up Edd and Eddy before chasing after Ed. Ed comes to a solution, however; if no violin exists and he must practice, he must make a violin. Ed does so with Eddy's hairs and his violin bow, pulling both tight and drawing the bow across it, showing Sarah that, indeed, he is practicing.

Memorable Quotes
Eddy: [sighing] "Everyone knows hairy pits are a sign of manliness, Double D."
 * Edd: "Eddy, I have my doubts as to the success of using carpeting to achieve virility…"


 * Jonny: [seeing Eddy's overstuffed arms] "Wow Eddy, is that carpeting?"

Eddy: [reveals himself from behind the fence and shows off his "hairy pits"] "Hey ignoroid! Who's more mature now huh?" Kevin: [laughing as he head back inside] "The dork's faking puberty!"
 * Kevin: [flicking a card into a hat] "Choice."

Ed: [walking up with a violin and music stand] "Don't bother Double D, he is not home."
 * Edd: "We can call on Ed."


 * Ed: [every time he gets ready to play his violin] "Position and pose starts by fanning your toes and placing your left foot right."


 * Ed: "Practice I must or Sarah my head will bust!"

Ed: "In my mom's dreams I can!"
 * Edd: [delighted at Ed's acquisition] "Why Ed, I didn't know you played an instrument."


 * Jonny: [dancing to Ed's violin playing] "Woo-hoo! That's a real toe-tapper, Ed! You're giving me and Plank goosebumps!"


 * Ed: "Tell me a story, Eddy!"

Ed: "And four strings!" [taking back the violin from Eddy] "Position and pose starts by fanning your toes and placing your left foot right." [Eddy deliberately sweeps Ed's legs out from under him.]
 * Edd: [desperately stopping Eddy from smashing the violin on a rock] "Don't you dare Eddy! This instrument has a legacy!"

Kevin: "What an eyesore." Nazz: "Aw come on guys, I think it's cute."
 * Rolf: "Why is the Lady of Liberty looming over the Cul-de-Sac?"


 * Rolf: [panicking] "Save yourself Double D Ed-boy! A single fiendish fiddle of the mountains toys with our mortality!"


 * Edd: [to the bemused Wilfred] "I made a special treat for you Wilfred. A very powerful magnet - safe to eat and chock full of essential vitamins for the growing young swine."


 * Eddy: [after Edd has smashed the violin] "Ah good riddance, violins are for sissies. Now if I played an instrument I'd get something manly, like a kazoo or somethin'."

Trivia/Goofs

 * Eddy hasn't gone through puberty yet in this episode, but in "X Marks the Ed" he was shown getting a gigantic zit on his head, a sign of puberty (something that Edd even pointed out as part of maturing). It is possible that he just hadn't gone through getting armpit and body hair yet.
 * When Edd admits to spoiling the plan to destroy Ed's violin, Wilfred and the music stand vanish. However, just a second before Edd grabbed the violin from Ed, they were there.
 * We learn that Ed is a horrible violin player.
 * Eddy doesn't like it when the kids catch onto his tricks.
 * Eddy apparently believes that a kazoo is a manly instrument.
 * When Eddy says "Man, he's bad!", captions read "Man, he's deaf!".
 * This is one of the few times where neither Nazz nor Ed are fooled by something (they both knew that Eddy's "armpit hair" were just carpet pieces). In most episodes, they are easily fooled by other people and both are shown not to be very bright.
 * This is the first of two times a violin is seen, the second being "Smile for the Ed" (although there Nazz is the one seen playing it).
 * Jonny and Plank were the only characters that actually liked Ed's violin playing.
 * Running Gags:
 * Ed playing his violin everywhere he goes and doing it badly, plus annoying the others (except Jonny and Plank).
 * Eddy trying to destroy the violin, but either Jimmy or Edd discourage him otherwise.
 * Eddy being told by one of the other Eds that Sarah is here.
 * Jimmy keeping an eye on the Eds by disguising himself as various people/animals.
 * The title card is a reference to the play Fiddler on The Roof.
 * The episode's title is a reference to Pain in the Butt/Neck.
 * This is the first time we see Ed playing an instrument. He later plays the flute in "Who's Minding the Ed?", and then the saxophone in "Smile for the Ed".
 * 59th time the Kankers were absent.
 * This was the last episode to air in 2002.