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, after finding everyone sick with chickenpox. Eddy goes completely insane with nobody to scam and it's up to Ed and Edd to capture him.

Plot
Eddy's grand scheme of the day is to sell "Ice Cream - Big Scoops" from a cardboard box that is thinly disguised as a sales van. The fact that this ice cream is actually made of pink-painted tennis ball scoops, paper cones and glue doesn't seem to bother him. What does bother him is there's not a single customer within sight. Where are all the other kids?

They go to a house and knock on the door. Jimmy comes out but he is sick and has the chickenpox. He mistakenly thinks it is the postman with eggs for him. He then scratches due to his itchiness from the pox. Ed wants to touch it since it is so gross, but Edd stops him saying Jimmy has chickenpox and if he touches him, Ed will get chicken pox too. Jimmy approaches Ed and Edd as Eddy quickly grabs a sign to make him go back into his house. Edd is shocked that the sign is a "Quarantine" which is really bad. Ed notes he has seen this before. Eddy demands where and Ed answers they are "there" around the entire cul-de-sac. Edd realizes it must be an epidemic going around. This means the Eds - the only healthy kids in the Cul-de-Sac, are just going to have to amuse themselves today until everyone has recovered from the chickenpox. That normally wouldn't be so bad; that is, if only Eddy wasn't so difficult to please and constantly griping about the others boring him with their ideas of fun. After playing kick the can, Eddy gets so angered over not getting a turn to kick the can that he crushes up the can with his feet before he storms off. Ed and Edd are then shown playing cat's cradle, but while doing so Ed accidentally tangles himself up and falls. Ed and Edd have a brief laugh before Eddy angrily tells them they're boring him. Eddy then mocks Ed on having one eyebrow and no chin and then tries to take Edd's hat off to see what is under it, but fails. Ed suggests they change a lightbulb, but Eddy dismisses it as boring. Eddy really wants to scam somebody, but Edd points out that with no kids around there are no scams to do on people. Ed and Edd then leave Eddy alone while they go change a lightbulb (He tries to get them to stay by amusing them through a trick, but the trick he uses is one that they have already been seen so he bores them which causes them to leave).

Eddy tries to see who isn't sick, but no such luck, and he even when he even calls for Sarah in his desparetion, much to his shock. Eventually, the lack of potential earnings from any of the other kids causes Eddy's brain to have a total meltdown and he cracks under the strain. He starts running amok, confusing fire hydrants for Jawbreakers and wooden fences for some ham, eggs, and buttered toast, and not to mention swindling the local squirrel population out of its nut supply! Ed sees this as a funny scene, but Edd realizes that without any kids to scam, he's gone crazy! Ed and Edd realize they have only one safe solution left to save their friend, capture him by any means necessary.

It won't be easy, but with the right kind of bait, the trap can surely be sprung. They try disguising themselves as Jonny and Plank, but Ed's mask falls off (Eddy says, "Jonny, you dropped your face! I'll get you a new one!") and causes Eddy to get away. Then then switch to luring him with a dollar bill all the way to a shed. After getting him in, Edd locks the door and gives Ed the key which he must hide discreetly. Ed does as Edd tells him to by eating it sandwich style. Eddy is happy that he has money and Edd then shows him a whole pile of cash. This gets Eddy back to normal after he sees and have fun in the pile, but to his shock the money is fake due to them all having Ed's face on them. Ed then reveals that he drew the money himself. Eddy is angry at this, but this means he is finally back to normal. However the Eds have now capturing themselves in the process and they can't unlock it since Ed ate the key (even worse the kids have all recovered from their illnesses and Eddy wants to scam them of their money so bad). The episode ends with Eddy using Ed as a shovel to dig their way out.

Memorable Quotes
Eddy: [pointing at Jimmy's sickly face] "Look at his face!" Ed: [advancing on the chicken pox stricken Jimmy] "It's so gross! Can I touch it?" Edd: [blocks Ed from touching Jimmy] "Aah! Ed, no! He's got chickenpox. Touch him and you'll get it too." Eddy: [points] "Double D, behind you!" ''[Jimmy advances toward them. Eddy quickly uproots a picket sign and points it at Jimmy]'' "Back, chicken boy! Back!" [pushes Jimmy back with a picket 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: [about the "QUARANTINE" sign] "I've seen this before." Eddy: "Where?" Ed: "There!" [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?" [laughs nervously] Edd: "So it seems, Eddy." Eddy: "Well, come on guys! Let's do something!" Ed: "Like what?" [the Eds stand and sit around for a while until Ed comes up with something to do] "Oh! I got an idea!"
 * 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 in 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: [angrily] Where's the key?!"


 * Eddy: "KEVIN! SARAH! Oh no, I'm calling on Sarah!" [loses it]


 * 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!" [runs off]

Edd: "Ed, close the door!" [Ed closes the door then comes back and opens it]
 * Eddy: [sounding like Desi Arnaz] "Lucy, I'm home!" [jumps on Edd]

Trivia/Goofs

 * Chickenpox 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 aired and were on the verge of recovery as of the time in which the episode took place.
 * The quarantine signs appear 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.
 * 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 when he was a baby in "Every Which Way But Ed".
 * 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/had other things to do.
 * It is illegal for Ed to make fake dollars (this is called counterfeiting and is illegal because you are not supposed to forge a copy of something else). However, he was only doing this to fool Eddy and get him back to normal. The second time the Ed Dollars idea was seen again in Ed, Edd n Eddy's Hanky Panky Hullabaloo, although in that case it was a totally illegal operation, as Eddy planned on actually using the fake dollars.
 * 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 back) when he jumps on Edd into the padded room.
 * When Edd and Ed were doing macrame, Ed accidentally entangles himself in the strings and falls down, but in the next scene he wasn't entangled and was standing upright.
 * While Edd is teaching Ed how to do macrame, 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.
 * The Kankers do not appear in this episode at all.
 * 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. We also promptly learn that the cure for this condition is cash.
 * Nazz, Kevin, Sarah and Rolf 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," which is a dog.
 * 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. This shows that Ed has pica, a condition in which people have the urge to eat things that aren't food.
 * It was not revealed how and who spread the chickenpox plague that caused the kids to get sick. It is implied by the fact that the Eds aren't ill that either they have all 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 it is most likely the result of an outside force.
 * This is the second time Ed said "Drink, mister?". The first time was "Over Your Ed."
 * When Edd is doing macrame to show Ed, he laughs while doing it, but his mouth did not move at all.
 * Jonny's mouth didn't move when he said "What's that Plank?"
 * Ed has some artistic talent since he can draw his own face very easily with no problems.
 * A running gag in this episode is that after Eddy goes insane he does weird things in this state. (examples include getting into a mailbox, stealing nuts from squirrels, swallowing a fire hydrant; etc)
 * 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 marry. Eloping is the act of running away and getting married, usually without parental consent.