KID STEALS Tickets at Fun Center, He Lives to Regret It is the 184th episode of the 9th season of Dhar Mann. It aired on August 3, 2022.
Plot[]
The episode opens with Samantha and Addison performing a karaoke duet together in front of the other partygoers. The former happens to be the birthday girl, whose birthday party is being celebrated at a local fun center. Mikey, Jay, and Landon are the only three boys participating in the party, and the reason why they were invited in the first place was that their mothers were good friends with Samantha's mother. At this, Mikey brags that he will win the most tickets after playing all the games, but Jay is uninterested, as the prizes are rather lame. Mikey concurs and laments that he wishes for better prizes, such as PS5s and tablets.
Just after Samantha and Addison finish performing their vocal duet, Samantha's mother announces that the winner will receive two passes to Video Game Con, a convention where attendees have the privilege of playing new video games before their release to the public. She then hands everyone a game card, which gets punched for each game played. As a result, Mikey gets excited and is determined to win as many tickets as possible. However, before he and Jay receive their game cards from Samantha's mother, she warns them both to play fair and not to cheat, as both boys are notorious for their dishonest behaviors. They try to bribe Landon into joining in, but he refuses, believing in playing fair as per Sam's mom.
Not long after, Mikey spots Samantha winning many tickets, far exceeding him. After some initial reluctance, Mikey manages to convince Jay to team up with him, combining their tickets together and using dishonest strategies to win as many tickets as possible. They almost get caught by Samantha's mother a few times, but narrowly manage to escape each time. An hour passes, and the children line up at the counter to have their tickets counted.
Knowing that he would lose, even after he cheated, Mikey and Jay begin thinking of ways to win the contest, nevertheless. Jay creates a distraction by pretending to trip and fall over a small football, allowing Mikey to steal a large number of tickets from the garbage can and add to his overall collection. The two boys lie to Samantha's mother, with Jay claiming that he did not even play any games and that all the tickets belong to Mikey. Despite the boys' efforts, they still come up short by six tickets, allowing Samantha to win. Mikey gets furious and loses his temper, as the second prize winner would only receive a large pencil as a reward.
Just then, someone comes to the counter with seven tickets that were supposedly forgotten, and Mikey quickly claims them, allowing him to win first place and thus, the two passes to Video Game Con. Upset at having lost, Samantha protests while Mikey and Jay celebrate their victory. Their mothers arrive to see the boys celebrating, but in the midst of their excitement, Samantha's mother informs them that as they are both under 14 years of age, they will both need an adult to accompany them which shocks both boys. Thus, only one of them will be able to go to Video Game Con. Jay proposes that Mikey give him the passes, but Mikey feigns politeness in front of the crowd and asks to speak with Jay privately in another room.
He and Jay go behind the stage and instantly begin quarreling over who should get the passes. Unbeknownst to them, a microphone was lying on the table next to them, allowing everyone else to overhear their conversation clearly. In their heated argument, Mikey and Jay accidentally reveal that they had cheated to win, before beginning a tug of war over the passes. Having overheard their argument, the crowd comes over and Samantha's mother revokes the passes from the boys, realizing that they did not play fair at the fair.
Samantha, the birthday girl, is naturally crowned the winner of the contest. As she’s 14 years old, she’s able to go to Video Game Con without an adult, and thus has the right to choose a friend to go with her. She picks Landon, as he refused to cheat and even handed her tickets that she had left behind in a machine.
Meanwhile, Mikey and Jay both get grounded by their mothers, and are led away for their misdeeds and taken home. Before they leave, Jay asks for a slice of birthday cake, as red velvet is his favorite. His mother pretends to agree, just to get his hopes up, but then adds that he may not, and drags him by the scruff of his neck as he tells her to chill. Mikey laughs, but then his mother snaps and drags him away by the ear. To add more salt to the wound, Mrs. Miller also informs Mikey that she’s taking away his PS5 (which he had just gotten back from a previous punishment), this time for good.
Following the boys' departures, Samantha declares that she’s going to miss those two boys which results in a round of laughter from Samantha, her mother and all the other children around them.
Moral[]
If you cheat, you'll never get ahead.
Cast[]
Main Characters[]
Mikey - Kaido Lee Roberts
Jay - Shaun Dixon
Landon - Jacob Childress
Samantha - Kayden Tokarski
Kathy - Katherine Norland
Regina - Shaunte Massard
Supporting/Minor Characters[]
Arcade Employee - Nick Darnell
Samantha's Mom - Lisa Cole
Female Friend 1 (Addison) - Charlie Bells Parsells
Female Friend 2 - Emmelyn Dare
Female Friend 3 - Isla Bruner
Female Friend 4 - Addison Dare
Female Friend 5 - Ariyah Johnson
Friend 6 - Sophia Rodriguez
Friend 7 - Ronik Sehmi
Friend 8 - Polina Semenova
Parent 1 - Julie Khamvongsa
Parent 2 - Lori Caulfield
Parent 3 - Theodore Mark Martinez
Parent 4 - Michele Marotta
Trivia[]
- The song Samantha and Addison perform at the beginning of the episode is "Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder. It was released in 1983 and peaked at #5 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.
- Derek does not appear in this episode, with Landon seemingly replacing him.
- This marks the first time that Kaido Roberts, Shaun Dixon, Jacob Childress, Lisa Cole, Shaunte Massard, and Katherine Norland, and Kayden Tokarski have all worked on an episode together.
- This marks the first time that Jay and Mikey's moms have ever been in an episode together.
- This is the last episode to have a Behind-The-Scenes video.
- The arcade itself has some parts from a Chuck E. Cheese Circles Of Lights stage.
Allusions[]
Errors[]
- The microphone would have only received a few words of Jay and Mikey's bickering.
- Mikey and Jay were somewhat cruelly punished, as cheating at an arcade is not that much of an offense. But maybe their parents had enough of their nonsense and punished them. The way they also took them home (when Regina grabbed Jay by the neck & Kathy grabbed Mikey by the ear) are both child abuse AND assault.
- Realistically, someone would also actually call out Regina and Kathy for child abusing their children, NOT laugh at them. Also, they would even call the police/CPS on them.
- It would have also made sense if Regina and Kathy had just scolded their sons for their actions rather than abuse them in any way.
- Continuity Error: While punishing Mikey, Kathy mentions that the PS5 is Mikey's. However, it's actually Jayden's according to Student CHEATS on FINAL EXAM, Instantly Regrets It (although it's possible Mikey had gotten his own PS5).
- Realistically, Samantha wouldn't be eligible for the prize; as she is the birthday child, it is unfair to just reward her. However, she could have had the second most tickets.