Stealing the Spotlight

"Stealing the Spotlight" is an episode of the Happy Tree Friends internet series. It is the twenty-third episode of season two, and fiftieth overall.

HTF Episode Description
Once again, Lumpy is trying hard to be the best, but he just can't get it right. This episode opened our very first television special shown on MTV International and MTV 2, "Happy Tree Friends Winter Break." It was an exciting time for our team and we plan to do more specials for television in 2005.

Plot
Lumpy walks out of his trailer, holding a coffee cup and wearing a nightcap, apparently having just woken up. He looks with pride at the broken and flickering blue Christmas lights that decorate his home, but he spits out his coffee when he looks over at Pop's house. Pop and Cub are working together to string up brand new, multi-colored Christmas lights. Jealous, Lumpy mutters beneath his breath and retreats inside his trailer. As he closes his door, his Christmas lights fall down.

Meanwhile, Cub plays with a hammer while Pop descends his ladder. He picks the ladder up and carelessly swings it around, accidentally knocking Cub face first to the ground. One of Cub's front teeth falls out of his mouth, and he begins crying. After sticking the tooth back into Cub's mouth fails, Pop uses his hammer to force the tooth into Cub's mouth. He and Cub are both satisfied with the result, even though the tooth is clearly not where it should be.

Lumpy drags a heavy ball of Christmas lights, while Nutty comes hopping down the road carrying a lollipop. He sees the brightly colored Christmas lights and mistakes them for candy. He throws his lollipop away and starts eating the cord of Christmas lights, not realizing he's consuming plastic and glass rather than the sugar he craves. As Lumpy tries to hang up his Christmas lights, he feels some resistance in the cord. He yanks it and we hear a squishing noise as Nutty screams. Later, Lumpy stares proudly at his lights, not noticing that Nutty's digestive system and organs are attached to them.

On the roof of his house, Pop hammers down nails to tie the Christmas light cords around. As he hammers, a bucket of nails next to him slowly slides to the edge of the roof, eventually falling off. Pop looks down from the roof and sees that the bucket has landed top-down on Cub. From Cub's point of view, we see Pop lift the bucket in horror and then replace the bucket as he is about to vomit. Inside, Pop removes the nails lodged in Cub's head with the claw of his hammer. One nail won't come out, however, so Pop hammers it down and smiles, satisfied despite Cub's cries.

Back outside, Pop and a bandaged Cub plug in their Christmas lights, amazing spectators, including Lumpy. Realizing that he has to pull out all the stops, Lumpy drops a small Christmas light he's holding and sneaks away while still holding onto a larger bulb. Back at Lumpy's trailer, a crowd gathers to see Lumpy's decorations. Lumpy has many items stacked on his trailer, tied together with Christmas lights. The items decorating Lumpy's home include a street lamp, a disco ball, Lumpy's car, and a lighthouse light, among other things that aren't even Christmas related.

Lumpy, donning a pair of tinted safety goggles, throws the switch to his lights, lighting up the entire forest. While shielding her eyes, Giggles' arm catches fire which soon spreads to her entire body. Behind her, a blinded Lifty and Shifty run into each other. Pop's head begins to boil, while the top half of Cub's body explodes. Toothy and two Generic Tree Friends are instantly vaporized from the extreme heat of the light, while The Mole actually has to shield his eyes. The rays from Lumpy's lights are so strong, they even cause the moon to explode.

Lumpy, burnt and blackened, turns off the lights and removes his goggles, and gives a smile of satisfaction, whereupon his eyes immediately melt from the hot temperature. Nearby, The Mole gives Lumpy a thumbs up, not realizing that his thumb is on fire.

Moral
"Always look on the bright side of life!"

Blurb
The Blurb video of Stealing the Spotlight contains these annotations:
 * BlurB!
 * Lumplandia Deluxe Trailer now available
 * Decorative tire is extra
 * Yawning is contagious
 * You're yawning right now aren't you?
 * WARNING:Strobe lights are used in this performance
 * Pssst, We switched his coffee with decaf!
 * Climbing is one of the first things bears learn
 * The next thing is hammering
 * Lumpy hates decaf!
 * Hey who shut that door?
 * Hammers first appeared around 30,000 BCE
 * MC Hammer first appeared around 1961
 * Ladders were first used around 10,000 years ago
 * First used by bears in 1957
 * Ladder beats hammer!
 * Tooth Fairies are leaving about $2.64 per tooth now!
 * Wow Pop owes Cub like 20 bucks for that one!
 * It was around 1968 that bears started doing dentistry
 * but weren't good at it
 * Until they started using hammers!
 * Clap Off
 * Clap On
 * With the right tools, the most talented bears achieved great success;
 * While the others muddled through.
 * Are you yawning now?
 * The comedy robot was introduced in 2002 (in binary)
 * Order Nutty's "FaceCandy" kit before midnight,
 * and we'll throw in this mighty morphing candy necklace!
 * it's 2 great tastes in 1 delicious treat!
 * 97% of ladder injuries happen at home.
 * 100% of them involved ladders.
 * Clap Off
 * Clap On
 * Get your HTF holiday lights now!
 * or you could make your own!
 * The best part of﻿ a blurb is the comedy robot (in binary)
 * Only after mastering the ladder and the hammer, could bears then evolve
 * into roofers.
 * While roofing was profitable for bears,
 * offspring survival rate was at an all time low.
 * What do you really think about this blatant repurposing of old content?
 * Airport security nightmare!
 * Jewelry available in the HTF body piercing store.
 * FREE piercing kit included!
 * Do-it-yourself in 28 EZ steps.
 * So stylish!
 * 29 EZ steps.
 * Satisfaction guaranteed!
 * S K Y C A M
 * Hey, what was that?
 * We brought in Margaret Keane to do Lumpy's eyes,
 * But could only afford her for a few frames.
 * Jazz Hands!
 * Member of Team Lammy. 
 * Team Truffles.
 * Add a little class to your trailer with the "Touch of Elegance" holiday light package!
 * Exact replica of the "Illumin" sculpture in New Mexico.
 * Motion captured from the 1932 movie "Frankenstein's Neighbor".
 * But no one gets to enjoy his genius beyond the end credits
 * Ever suffer from itchy burning skin?
 * Try our Happy Tree Friends soothing strawberry steroid cream!
 * not for use around the eyes.
 * For best results avoid over exposure to the sun.
 * The hottest day on record is 57.8 C (136 F)
 * Fried beaver tail is a culinary treat in Montana.
 * Until now
 * Planet explosion taken from the 1978 "Superman" film.
 * It was released at Christmas.
 * Animated late at night by a guy named Dali.
 * The Mole "Thumbs Up" lighter available for a limited time,
 * at all of the finer cartoon character novelty lighter stores near you.
 * It's the perfect gift for everyone. But hurry it will sell out fast.
 * If you miss out on this amazing opportunity,
 * you can try making your own!
 * But if you do, be very careful;
 * Moles really like their hands!
 * Are you done? (in binary)
 * Note to self: Call IT Dept to fix my computer
 * Haha (in binary)
 * I wasn't trying to be funny
 * You succeeded (in binary)
 * Shut up
 * You shut up (in binary)
 * No, You shut up {Shown repeatedly}
 * You shut up (in binary) {Shown repeatedly}
 * Are you yawning yet?
 * (Binary code)
 * ...and we prefer the term "Refreshing a Classic!"
 * And now because of a contractual obligation, the Comedy robot!
 * (Binary code)

Deaths

 * 1) Nutty has his organs and intestines ripped out of his body after mistaking Lumpy's Christmas lights for candy.
 * 2) Giggles is set on fire by the heat of Lumpy's lights and is presumably burnt to death. (debatable)
 * 3) Pop's head boils from the heat of Lumpy's lights.
 * 4) Cub's head explodes from the heat of Lumpy's lights.
 * 5) Toothy and two Generic Tree Friends are instantly vaporized from the extreme heat of the lights.
 * 6) Petunia, Sniffles, Flaky, Lifty and Shifty are vaporized by the heat of Lumpy's lights. (debatable)

Injuries

 * 1) Cub (before death) has his left tooth knocked out because Pop carelessly swung his ladder at him. A bucket of nails fall on Cub and gets numerous holes on his head.
 * 2) Lifty and Shifty blindly run into each other, knocking them out. (Debatable if they got killed or not)
 * 3) Lumpy's eyes pop and melt from the lights (after he turns them off).
 * 4) The Mole's thumb is caught on fire.

Goofs

 * 1) When Lumpy is drinking his coffee, his mouth is at the end of his nose. When he spits it out, however, his mouth is further back where it usually is.
 * 2) When Lumpy backs up into his house the door closes even though he kept his hands down.
 * 3) When Pop turns around while holding the ladder, Cub is hit by the portion of the ladder behind Pop, even though he was standing to where he should have gotten hit by the portion of the ladder in front of Pop.
 * 4) When Lumpy was pulling the string and causes Nutty's death his stomach passed the last step of the ladder without even bumping into it.
 * 5) The direction of Lumpy's antlers changes frequently throughout the episode.
 * 6) When Pop is removing nails from Cub's head, he comes across a nail he can't remove. Prior to his examination of the nail there are about a dozen nails still lodged in Cub's head. After he hammers the nail down, however, there are only two other nails in Cub's head. Similarly, at the first shot where we see Pop removing the nails, there only a couple nails in the cup. In the next shot there are significantly more nails in the cup.
 * 7) Right before Pop plugs his Christmas lights in, Cub's tooth injury is gone. In addition, some of the nails he left in Cub's head switch places.
 * 8) As Petunia and Giggles approach Pop's house, the fence is as high as their heads. In the very next shot, however, the fence only comes up to their chests.
 * 9) In that same scene, there are holes on the back of the girls' ears, and their head markings are missing.
 * 10) When Giggles, Petunia, and Lumpy are gazing at Pop's lights, when the camera focuses on Lumpy, the tip of Petunia's tail disappears.
 * 11) While Giggles is screaming in pain after getting caught on fire, Lifty & Shifty bump into each other. After they fall down, Shifty's hat falls off his head, but what appears to be a second set of his ears are shown attached to top of his fedora.
 * 12) When Pop and Cub are burning to death, Cub's tooth injury is completely healed and all the bandages and holes in his head are gone.
 * 13) Seeing how Lumpy was closest to the lights when they killed everyone, he should have died too, as well as receive the most damage to his body.
 * 14) Cub's tooth changes shape when it is out of his mouth. It looks more like a real tooth instead of a flat rectangle.
 * 15) Nutty wasn't at the end of the string of Christmas lights, but he appeared to have eaten them from the end of it when you see his organs on the string.
 * 16) Pop and Cub's house looks different than it does in "Read 'em and Weep" and "Easy For You to Sleigh".
 * 17) If you listen really closely, Cub can be heard screaming, even after his head explodes.
 * 18) When Giggles and Petunia approach Pop and Cub's house, the fence they're standing next to is shown to have separated, pointed boards, but in the next shot, the fence boards are together and rounded.

Trivia

 * The term "stealing the spotlight" means to grab all the attention, which describes Lumpy's behavior at the beginning and at the end of the episode.
 * On Winter Break, Nutty was given a starring role, even though he had an appearance role in the original episode. This was done for an unknown reason.
 * Starting with this episode onwards, Jerome Rossen became the music composer for the rest of the series.
 * From this episode to Wrath of Con, Ellen Connell replaced Dana Belben as the voice of Cub, Petunia, and Giggles.
 * Nutty's death is similar to Sniffles' deaths from Tongue in Cheek and In a Jam.
 * This episode shows that Lumpy is very competitive.
 * Truffles makes two appearances in the Blurb version of this episode, when Nutty bends over and again behind Pop and Cub's house.
 * This is the second time that it was animated by the Fatkat Animation, and since Class Act.
 * This is one of the seven episodes to be remastered for the Blurb version. The others are Class Act, Blind Date, Just Desert, Can't Stop Coffin, Nuttin' but the Tooth and 'Keepin' it Reel.
 * Toothy's death is similar to his death in Easy Comb, Easy Go and Mime to Five.
 * The ending of this episode is quite ironic because The Mole cannot see and yet, he can somehow recognize that Lumpy's lights have outshined his competitors.
 * Lumpy is responsible for every death in the episode.
 * If one looks closely, the Generic Tree Friends that end up being vaporized look like tailless cats. This is due to their animation sprites being the reused ones from Lifty, albeit completely purple like the usual Generic Tree Friends and lack a tail.
 * When Cub is giggling that his tooth is back, he makes the same sound in Rink Hijinks.
 * Despite Lammy not appearing in this episode, the Blurb mentions her once.
 * The YouTube thumbnail for the original episode spoils Pop's death, and the thumbnail for the Blurb version spoils Lumpy's injury.
 * If Lifty and Shifty didn't die, this would be the only episode in the Internet series that they survived so far.