Aw, Shucks!

Aw, Shucks! is episode number 9.3 of the Happy Tree Friends TV Series.

HTF Episode Description
Farmer Lumpy proudly protects his giant "son" ear of corn from a hungry crow!

Farmer Lumpy battles a hungry crow as he grows a giant ear of corn for the fair. (DVD)

Plot
The episode begins with Lumpy preparing a full country breakfast, made up of steaming coffee, fried eggs, bacon, ham, and a stack of pancakes. He puts the food on a tray and carries it out to his cornfields where a giant ear of corn is propped up against other stalks of corn. Lumpy places the breakfast on the ground in front of the corn, next to another tray with several empty plates on it, and puts a bib around the corn before kissing it. A few seconds later, a crow comes by and perches itself on the giant cob. Lumpy sees this and starts to yell at it to make it go away. Once the crow leaves, Lumpy consoles the giant corn once the crisis gets averted.

Lumpy returns to his house and he starts to eat his own breakfast: a stale, moldy piece of bread which breaks his teeth as he eats it. He looks over at a row of pictures and tears of pride well up in his eyes. The pictures show the growth of the ear of corn and everything it and Lumpy when through in between, such as the corn starting out as just a single kernel, the corn learning to ride a trike and the corn graduating with Sniffles. Lumpy is broken from his trance, however, when he notices some more crows are hovering over the corn fields.

He runs out to the field and chases the crows away again, placing a large band-aid over a small hole a crow punctured in one of the kernels of the big ear of corn. Taking action, Lumpy orders something "post haste" over the telephone. Cuddles arrives literally a second later to deliver a scarecrow, which Lumpy immediately sets up. However, when he sticks the post of the scarecrow into the ground, it severs a power-line buried deep into the ground. As Cuddles drives away from Lumpy's house, he stops at a railroad crossing where the lights are flashing. Because Lumpy messed up the power line, however, the crossing barrier doesn't go down. Confused, Cuddles looks both ways and doesn't see a train approaching, so he decides to cross. Just as Cuddles starts moving forward, a speeding train zooms by just before his truck touches the railroad, figuratively scaring the poor bunny to death. After the train passes, Cuddles gets out of his delivery van and breathes a sigh of relief, only to have the crossing barrier unexpectedly come down and split him in half.

Back on the farm, a crow lands on the scarecrow. It flies away in fear, however, when the scarecrow goes up in flames from the electricity of the severed power line. The crow flies past Lumpy and into a nearby tree, prompting an angry Lumpy to begin chopping the tree down. The tree falls and breaks a section of Lumpy's barbed wire fence, sending both down into a nearby pond with fence posts sticking out. The crow flies into Lumpy's house and the door shuts behind it, locking Lumpy out. Seeing the crow messing with his TV, Lumpy begins to use his axe to break down the front door. As the crow flies around the house, Lumpy fails to hit it with his axe, and as a result, he ends up destroying his furniture. After many more failed attempts, his entire house collapses.

After feeling a draft pass by, Lumpy places another order on the phone and once more only has to wait a second as Toothy shows up with an electric blanket. As Toothy walks back to his van, Lumpy sees the crow sitting on a tree branch hanging over Toothy's delivery van. He throws a rock at the crow, but misses and hits a beehive. The hive falls in front of Toothy and breaks, sending a swarm of angry bees to attack him. Toothy sees the pond from before and, getting an idea, runs over and jumps into the water. Unfortunately, he gets tangled up in the barbed wire from the fence, causing him to drown.

Later that night, Lumpy places the electric blanket and a sleep mask over the big ear of corn. He looks around and wonders where the scarecrow went. Seeing one of the posts from the fallen fence, Lumpy assumes he found it. He places the post, with Toothy's dead body tied around it with barbed wire, in the ground in front of the corn. He then goes back to his destroyed house and sleeps on the floor, using a piece of wood as a blanket.



The next day, a carnival is being held. Happy Tree Friends gather at the joyous location with livestock, games, rides, and food stands all over the place. As we pan across the fair, Pop and Cub enter, Petunia and Russell operate the food carts, Flaky sits as the victim of the dunking booth, Disco Bear tries to seduce Giggles (and failing again), and Lifty and Shifty stand next to a cow, pulling off their signature grins. On a stage, there's a giant vegetable contest being held. The contestants reveal their vegetables: Sniffles hold a glowing green carrot, Mime is seen trying to lift an invisible (and heavy) object, Nutty is seen eating his entry, a caramel apple, and Handy, who is upset after he accidentally drops his entry, a giant tomato. The last contestant is Lumpy, who has the blue ribbon for the biggest vegetable. As Lumpy cheers at his victory, another air draft passes by, and Lumpy gets the chills. Lumpy then pulls out the electric blanket and wraps it around his corn. Unfortunately, as Lumpy sets the heat to maximum, the knob on the control box breaks off. Seeing the corn turning red, Lumpy quickly tries to pull the blanket off, but as soon as he touches the overheating blanket, Lumpy ends up burning his hands due to the extreme heat it emits. Once the blanket reaches it highest peak, the kernels on the giant corn begin to pop.

Large pieces of popcorn fly out in every direction, much to Lumpy's dismay. While Disco Bear still attempts to seduce Giggles, he turns around. At that exact moment, the first piece of giant popcorn falls on Giggles' head, bashing her brain out. When Disco Bear turns back, he notices Giggles standing up, stumbling around and the giant popcorn still on her head. Disco Bear assumes that Giggles is dancing, and the popcorn is her "afro." As Disco Bear proceeds to kiss Giggles, another giant piece of popcorn falls on top of him, smashing his body. Seconds later, Giggles' dead body falls over. While Flaky still sits at the dunking booth, she witnesses a piece of popcorn flying towards her. Luckily it misses her. As Flaky gives a sigh of relief, then screams when more pieces of popcorn fly towards her. Miraculously, none of them hit Flaky. Unfortunately, as Flaky turns her head to give another sigh of relief, a piece of popcorn smashes her head off her body. Suddenly, someone tosses a ball at the target, making Flaky's headless body fall into the tub. It turns out to be The Mole, who shakes his fist in success, only to be killed quickly. As the last pieces of corn pop, Lumpy quickly ducks as one flies towards him. This causes Nutty, Mime, and Sniffles to get beheaded.

Before long, the livestock, carnival-goers, and carnies are all dead at the hands of the killer popcorn.

On the stage, Lumpy is curled up in a ball, then he hears a loud thud. Lumpy crawls up to the burnt cob, which only has two kernels left on it. He cries in anguish at the loss of his beloved corn, before one of the remaining kernels pops and hits him in the face. Liking the taste, he removes the popcorn and begins consuming it, he then ducks out of the scene. As the episode ends, the crow from before (or possibly a different crow) flies up and takes off the last kernel.

Moral
"Friends are flowers in the garden of life"

Deaths

 * 1) Cuddles is cut in half by a falling barrier at a railroad crossing.
 * 2) Toothy is attacked by bees and ends up drowning when he jumps in a lake and becomes tangled in barbed wire.
 * 3) Giggles is hit by Lumpy's killer popcorn, forcing her brain out of her head.
 * 4) Disco Bear is crushed by Lumpy's killer popcorn.
 * 5) Flaky is decapitated when she is hit by Lumpy's killer popcorn.
 * 6) The Mole has his head crushed by Lumpy's killer popcorn.
 * 7) Nutty, Mime, and Sniffles have their heads and arms knocked off by Lumpy's killer popcorn.
 * 8) A cow, a goat, two pigs, two sheep, Lifty, Shifty, Handy, Russell, Petunia and Cub are also killed by Lumpy's killer popcorn. Their deaths were not shown but are seen when they are dead or the popcorn finishes popping.
 * 9) Pop is possibly killed by the killer popcorn, as he is seen lying on the ground after the mayhem occurs. (Debatable, as there is no blood on him and he doesn't appear crushed)

Injuries

 * 1) Lumpy breaks his teeth when eating a stale piece of bread.
 * 2) Toothy is stung all over his body by bees.
 * 3) When Lumpy tries to remove a heating mat, his hands burn due to the increasing heat.
 * 4) One of the corn's kernels pops on Lumpy's face.

Goofs

 * 1) Lumpy's antlers change directions numerous times, sometimes during continuous shots.
 * 2) First the door to Lumpy's house opens outwards. When he opens the door for Cuddles, it opens inwards. When the crow flies into Lumpy's house, it opens outwards again. When Lumpy bursts open the door to attack the crow, it opens inwards once more. When he opens the door for Toothy, it opens outwards again, but now it opens in the other direction. However, it may be a free swing door.
 * 3) One of Cuddles' cheeks overlaps his mouth when the train nearly hits him.
 * 4) Toothy's mail van is right next to Lumpy's porch, but when Lumpy throws a rock at the crow, the van is further away near a tree.
 * 5) The beehive on the tree doesn't appear until after Lumpy throws the rock.
 * 6) There are no lily pads on the surface of the pond, but they are visible when Toothy is below water.
 * 7) The barbed wire goes from being wrapped around Toothy's left ear to his right ear when he goes from being above the surface of the water to below it.
 * 8) There are several goofs in the panoramic shot after the destruction of the fair:
 * 9) Lumpy and his corn are not on the stage.
 * 10) The Mole was closer to the stage than in front of Flaky's dunk tank.
 * 11) Giggles is seen smiling, even though she didn't die with that facial expression.
 * 12) Flaky's dunk tank appears undamaged, despite receiving giant holes from before.
 * 13) It's pretty odd that Sniffles lost the competition as he was smart enough to make a growing formula in his Smoochie.
 * 14) Sin_título_(5).png Sniffles, Mime, and Nutty die, their fruits/vegetables are gone. (Mime's was invisible so this doesn't count, and Nutty probably finished eating his, but Sniffles' is gone.)
 * 15) When Giggles' brain is bashed out by one of the giant pieces of corn, her brain lands on the table. The blood on the table is a very light shade of pink.

Trivia

 * The phrase "Aw shucks" is a comedic way of saying "Oh my gosh."
 * When this episode aired along with Idol Curiosity and Home Is Where the Hurt Is on YouTube, the alternate title for the trio was "Nine Lives". Lumpy, Giggles and The Mole appear in all three episodes. Giggles and The Mole die in all three episodes while Lumpy dies twice.
 * In this episode, Lumpy shows signs of codependency.
 * Giggles is the only character in Lumpy's photos that didn't go to the zoo with Lumpy in From A to Zoo and with Lumpy in Take a Hike.
 * Lumpy breaking down the bathroom door with an axe, sticking his head in, and shouting, "Here's Lumpy!" is a reference to The Shining, most specifically its famous "Here's Johnny!" scene. Also this is the first time a character mentions his own name.
 * This is one of the few episodes in which all of the featuring and appearing characters die while the starring character survives.
 * Lumpy is responsible for every death in this episode.
 * Toothy is the only character to die a slow death in this episode.
 * About 14 characters are killed at the fair, yet we only see about half (7) of them die onscreen.
 * This is one of only four times Lumpy isn't seen living in a trailer, the other three times being Junk in the Trunk where he lived in a house, Dunce Upon a Time where he's a giant in a castle, and Peas in a Pod where he lives on a farm.
 * In the Fall Out Boy music video The Carpal Tunnel of Love, we see that Toothy seems to be allergic to bee stings. In this episode, however, the bee stings don't cause any apparent allergic reaction (though it's possible the music video wasn't canon or Toothy is being stung by wasps or hornets in this episode).
 * Lumpy, Cuddles, and Toothy are the only characters (that appear in this episode) that aren't killed by Lumpy's giant popcorn.
 * This episode has a total of 16 deaths (The same amount as Who's to Flame?). However, this episode is not considered as one of the most violent and darkest episodes as most of the deaths are fast and unseen.
 * As the camera pans across the carnival (not when everybody's dead), we see Lifty and Shifty wearing their signature smiles next to a cow, a possible reference to the episode, Milkin' It.
 * Crowtv.png the crow turns on the TV in Lumpy's house, the carnival that appears later on in the episode is depicted on the screen.
 * Splendid, Flippy, and Cro-Marmot are the only three characters that didn't appear in this episode.
 * Nutty, Sniffles and Mime's deaths are similar to Mime's, Disco Bear's and Russell's death in Wrath of Con.
 * Giggles seems to be smiling in her remains.
 * The other contestants in the giant vegetable contest must have all lost for specific reasons:
 * Nutty began to eat his entry (a caramel apple), or because his entry was a fruit, not a vegetable. His entry was also very small.
 * Sniffles' entry (a glowing green carrot) could've been disqualified because they think Sniffles tried to cheat by making his entry bigger scientifically.
 * Mime's entry (something invisible) wasn't real.
 * Handy dropped his entry (a giant tomato). If Lumpy didn't participate in the contest, Handy would've most likely been the winner, regardless as to whether or not Handy would have dropped it.
 * The music that plays during the carnival overview is the same music used in the online HTF game Tightrope-A-Dope.
 * Out of all the things shown at the carnival, the only thing that didn't receive any damage was a carousel.
 * When Lumpy was sleeping in his destroyed house, he is shown to be able to fold his antlers. This is the only episode where he has achieved this.
 * Before a giant piece of popcorn killed Sniffles, Mime, and Nutty, Sniffles covered his eyes, and Mime covered his mouth. This was an indirect reference to the idiom "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil", which means to follow only good things, and not bad things. However, Nutty didn't cover his ears.
 * This is one of the many episodes where a character makes "Puppy eyes". The other instances are Lumpy in Class Act, In a Jam and Letter Late than Never, Toothy in Better Off Bread, Lumpy and Russell in Get Whale Soon, Petunia, Giggles, Lumpy in Stealing the Spotlight, Flaky in Ski Ya, Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya!, Lifty in Easy For You to Sleigh, Fliqpy in Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow, Sniffles in Wrath of Con, and Nutty in Icy You.