Class Act

"Class Act" is the first Christmas episode of the Happy Tree Friends internet series, and to date, the only episode to feature all of the main characters (though many of them only have background cameos).

Starring Roles

 * Toothy
 * Lumpy

Featuring Roles

 * Nutty
 * The Mole
 * Lifty and Shifty
 * Flaky
 * Giggles
 * Sniffles
 * Cuddles
 * Petunia
 * Pop
 * Cub
 * Disco Bear
 * Mime
 * Handy
 * Flippy
 * Cro-Marmot
 * Splendid
 * Russell
 * Generic Tree Friends
 * Flippy
 * The Cursed Idol

HTF's Episode Description
This is the first Holiday episode we made and it features the entire cast. You have to admire Lumpy's attitude that the show must go on, but sometimes there is even too much disaster for even the Happy Tree Friends gang to handle. In true holiday spirit, they pull together for a tear-jerk ending. Peace to everyone.

Plot
The episode begins on a clear starlit night, at the Happy Tree Friends' school in the middle of the forest. Generic Tree Friends fill the auditorium, where onstage Nutty lies in a bed in front of a set resembling a bedroom. Offstage, Lumpy, the director, motions for Toothy to walk onstage. Holding a candle, Toothy moves to the center of the stage when a spotlight shines several feet to the left of him. Lumpy clears his throat, and The Mole, who is operating the spotlight, moves the light onto Toothy. Lumpy then motions up to Lifty and Shifty, who stand above the stage. The two begin shaking an upside down, and obviously upset, Flaky, her dandruff acting as snow in the background. With everything in place, Lumpy motions for Toothy to start singing.

Toothy begins singing "O Tannenbaum", while Giggles, Sniffles, and Cuddles come onstage dressed in cardboard cutouts of a present, a candy cane, and a Christmas tree, respectively. From Nutty's point of view, however, he can only see the top part of Sniffles' candy cane costume. The spotlight makes the costume look like a divine treat. Toothy stops singing upon hearing a crunching noise and a scream. Everyone looks over to see Sniffles with a big bite mark on his costume and torso. Everyone looks over to see Nutty lying in bed with blood on his face, giggling happily, unaware that he just consumed cardboard and flesh rather than a candy cane. A scared Toothy looks over to Lumpy, who tells him to keep singing.

As Toothy begins singing again, Sniffles runs offstage and gets the curved part of his costume caught on a rope. This causes a sandbag to drop and knock Giggles' costume off her body. Unfortunately, this also cuts her face off, which lands at Toothy's feet. Screaming, he looks back to Lumpy for guidance. Once more Lumpy motions Toothy to keep singing.

By now, Toothy can barely sing as he sobs in fear. Giggles runs around the stage in a panic, until she slips on her own face. Giggles' face flies up and hits the Mole in his face, causing him to swing the spotlight over to Lifty and Shifty. They throw up their hands to shield their eyes, dropping Flaky in the process. She falls down through the chimney in the set and, as her quills poke through the set, emerges out of the fireplace, missing her skin. Toothy and Cuddles scream and look over to Lumpy yet again. Lumpy, scared himself, is climbing out the window. Cuddles and Toothy scream and run offstage, but not before Toothy tosses his candle in the air.

The candle lands right by the curtains, setting them ablaze. Petunia screams in fear while everyone starts panicking and running from their seats. Cuddles is the first to reach the door, but in all the confusion he forgets to remove his costume. He gets stuck in the doorway, while numerous Generic Tree Friends run against him, trying to get out. Eventually, Cuddles is forced out of the face-hole of his costume, squeezing his face and the insides of his body into a red, cylinder-shaped glob of blood. Finally his costume breaks and animals come flooding out of the school.

Disco Bear stands next to Lumpy, the entire right side of his face (and Afro) burnt. Lumpy coughs and looks around at the damage. The Mole's cane has impaled him through his eye, Pop is burnt and bruised, Cub screams in pain as a Christmas star is lodged in his head, and slowly, a Generic Tree Friend weakly raises his hand. Blood and organs are everywhere.

Nutty appears to have been lightly burned, and has some blood on his fur, though it's not clear if its his or it belongs to someone else. Flaky kneels on all fours, freezing without any skin. In the background, Mime tries to comfort a burnt Generic Tree Friend while a flipped out Flippy stabs another Generic Tree Friend. Giggles laments the loss of her face, Sniffles looks nervously at the gaping hole in his torso, and Handy stares horrified as he is now missing both of his feet in addition to his hands.

Cro-Marmot stands off in the distance, and Shifty drags Lifty (who is missing the bottom half of his body) away. Everywhere dead and dying Generic Tree Friends litter the ground. Behind Toothy, Splendid lands in the middle of it all, apparently having been alerted by the Tree Friend's screams.

Toothy looks down in despair, but as a shooting star flies by in the background he looks up, determined. Once more he begins singing, and everyone looks up. The cries and whimpers stop and everyone smiles, moved by Toothy's singing (except for Flippy who continues stabbing his victim). Lumpy is even moved to tears by the sound of Toothy's voice. Suddenly, everyone starts joining hands, hooks, and bones around the burning school, joining Toothy in his song. As the camera pans up to the clear night sky, where a bright star shines brilliantly, a loud explosion is heard, and bodies are sent flying into the air.

Moral
"It's better to give than to receive!"

Deaths

 * 1) Cuddles dies when his face and insides are forced out of the face-hole of his costume, forming a bloody cylinder.
 * 2) Many Generic Tree Friends die trying to get out of the burning school.
 * 3) A Generic Tree Friend is killed by Flippy, being stabbed many times.
 * 4) Everyone else is killed when the school explodes. There are three possible exceptions to this. The first is Splendid, who is usually not hurt by common things (for example, a bus once ran into him at full speed with no effect on him), although the explosion may have injured him. The second is Cro-Marmot, who is usually safe from injury due to the block of ice protecting his body (although the heat from the explosion may have melted it). Third is Flippy, who didn't react to Toothy's singing and thus probably didn't join the others around the building. It all depends on whether or not he was far enough away from the building when the explosion occured.

Goofs

 * 1) Throughout the episode there are three steps in front of the school. At the end of the episode, however, there are two steps.
 * 2) The positions of the ornaments on Cuddles' costume change several times.
 * 3) The curve on Sniffles' costume changes places after he is bitten by Nutty.
 * 4) The Mole's mole changes places several times, sometimes during continuous shots.
 * 5) The cup surrounding the candle that Toothy holds disappears briefly after Flaky falls through the chimney.
 * 6) When Giggle's face was sliced off, it was a clear cut and her eye, nose, or mouth holes weren't visible.
 * 7) When Nutty bites Sniffles, you can see that he ate his arm. Later, when everyone is outside, he still has both of his arms.
 * 8) Flaky's dandruff is falling from above the window, but she fell down in the fireplace which is to the side of the window.
 * 9) Toothy has normal buckteeth through some parts of the episode.
 * 10) Even though Lumpy dropped his hat when he ran out the window, he has it again when he is outside. (the writers make fun of this in the "BLURBED" version.)
 * 11) If one slows down the frame rate, they will see when the shot of Toothy singing outside the school grounds changes to the shot of Flaky, Nutty, Mime, Flippy and Splendid, Splendid and Flaky don't appear at first and Toothy can be seen next to Nutty, without a head.
 * 12) Even though the most characters had brutal injuries, they appeared fine when they stood around the school (e.g., Handy had his feet back).
 * 13) In the shadows near the end, Handy has hands.
 * 14) Lifty and Shifty don't have thier Pac-Man shaped pupils, even though they weren't stealing anything.

Trivia

 * 1) This is the only episode that features all 20 main characters.
 * 2) This is the first episode to have a winter version of the opening. The next Christmas opening would occur in We're Scrooged! Toothy and Lumpy star in both episodes.
 * 3) The Cursed Idol sits on a shelf in the background as Flaky falls.
 * 4) Flaky would later suffer a similar injury in Let it Slide where she would drown after her injury.
 * 5) Cuddles would later suffer a similar death in Ipso Fatso.
 * 6) This is the only time Flippy and Splendid are together. Splendid flies in at the end while Flippy stabs a Tree Friend.
 * 7) When Toothy begins singing outside the school, Giggles' eyes on her severed face move to look at Toothy.
 * 8) The scene where everybody joins hands and sings around the burning school is likely a reference to How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
 * 9) After the school explodes, Cuddles' costume flies in the air.
 * 10) This is the only episode in which Splendid has a featuring role.
 * 11) This is (debatably) Splendid's first and only death in the internet series. He also dies in the TV episode Gems the Breaks.
 * 12) The only major character who definitely wasn't killed by the explosion was Cuddles (who was killed earlier).
 * 13) This is one of the few episodes where Lifty and Shifty do not steal anything.
 * 14) Lifty's injury is similar to Petunia's injury from Snow What? That's What!
 * 15) Russell is the only character whose entire body and face isn't shown.
 * 16) This was the last episode where Mark Giambruno provided the voices for Lifty and Shifty.
 * 17) This is the only episode where Splendid does not save or kill anybody (although he was about to save the generic tree friend that got stabbed by Flippy).
 * 18) During December 2009, a remastered "BLURB" version of this was released, featuring remastered animation and pop-up facts, much like the Popcorn version of Spin Fun Knowin' Ya.
 * 19) This is one of the few episodes where Lifty and Shifty show concern for each other; Shifty seems to be trying to help or get help for Lifty when part of his body is cut off.