Who's to Flame?

"Who's to Flame?" is episode number 4.3 of the Happy Tree Friends television series.

Plot
As Petunia makes pancakes for Giggles and Mime, she gets a telephone call. As she talks, she doesn't pay attention to the stove, which she leans against. After at a few seconds, her tail catches fire and she runs around, screaming. Giggles reacts quickly, grabs the tablecloth, and attempts to smother the fire. Unfortunately, the tablecloth ignites and Giggles is set on fire as well. Mime desperately tries to call Lumpy at the fire-station, but since he's a mime, he is unable to communicate the disaster. Believing nobody is on the line, Lumpy hangs up, and Mime leaves the house to seek help.

Meanwhile, Cuddles, who works for the fire-brigade, rescues a cat out of a tree, while his fellow firemen, consisting of Toothy, Sniffles, Disco Bear, and The Mole, cheer him on. Mime arrives and despite his best efforts to explain the situation at Petunia's house, the fire-brigade doesn't understand him. Luckily, Cuddles spots the fire from atop the ladder and convinces the fire-brigade to spring into action. Before driving off they fail to put the ladder down, causing Cuddles to lose his balance and fall off the ladder. He is impaled on a picket fence around the tree, while the cat, unharmed, proceeds to play with Cuddles' severed scut.

When the fire-engine arrives at the burning house, Pop and Cub are watching it from the sidewalk. Toothy tries to enter the house by breaking down the front door with an axe, but he accidentally hits Petunia who was about to escape. Sniffles tries to enter the house via a second floor window he reaches using a ladder, but the window explodes as he reaches the top, the glass shards cutting him to pieces. Cub picks up Sniffles' helmet off the ground, but the ladder falls down and slices Cub to pieces.

The Mole tries to attach the fire hose to a fire hydrant, but instead attaches it to the fire truck's gas tank. Disco Bear, who controls the fire hose, doesn't see this and sprays gasoline on the fire. The fire spreads down the hose and sets other houses on fire. The fire-engine explodes and Flaky is hit in the head by the siren, forcing her brain out of her head. Luckily for the fire-brigade, Handy arrives in his helicopter and extinguishes the fire in one of the houses with water from his helicopter. Needing more water to extinguish the other buildings, Handy flies to a nearby river.

Unfortunately, Handy is unable to press the right button because he has no hands. When he finally succeeds, Russell's garbage boat sails underneath the helicopter and Handy's crane reaches down into Russell's boat. Not knowing this, Handy flies back. Meanwhile, Lifty and Shifty have stolen Pop's wallet from his corpse (he was probably killed by the explosion of the fire-engine), but they argue over who gets to keep the money. Eventually, Lifty knocks Shifty down and takes the entire wallet, but his head is crushed by an engine block that has fallen out of Handy's helicopter. Shifty then takes Pop's wallet, but he is impaled by multiple sharp objects dropped from Handy's helicopter. Shifty falls on his back, pointing the sharp objects upwards, causing a falling Russell to be impaled on them as well. Disco Bear, severely burnt and unable to hold the hose straight, accidentally sets Handy's helicopter on fire, making it spin out of control. Handy is able to activate the ejector seat in time, however this only causes Handy to be sliced to pieces by the rotor blades. His remains fall on the sidewalk below, causing Nutty and The Mole to run for cover.

The Mole accidentally falls in the sewer but survives and starts walking, unknowingly turning a giant ball-valve which releases gas into the town. He ignites a match, not knowing that there is a gas-leak, causing the entire town to explode. Mime rides up on his unicycle carrying the kitten from earlier. Mime looks around and sheepishly pretends to walk down an unseen staircase behind some wreckage. The episode ends by showing the frying pan with the three burnt pancakes, where it all began.

Moral
"If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen!"

Deaths

 * 1) Cuddles is impaled on a fence post.
 * 2) Petunia is accidentally hit in the head through the door with an axe by Toothy.
 * 3) Giggles dies from the fire in the house (death not shown).
 * 4) Sniffles is burned and cut to pieces by the shards of glass of the window when it exploded.
 * 5) Cub is sliced to pieces when the ladder falls on him.
 * 6) Disco Bear dies when the town explodes. (death not shown).
 * 7) Pop dies when the fire truck exploded in front of him (death not shown).
 * 8) Flaky is hit in the back of the head by the fire truck's klaxon, forcing her brain through her mouth.
 * 9) Lifty's head is crushed by an engine forcing his brain out.
 * 10) Shifty is impaled by two needles in his eyes and other numerous sharp objects.
 * 11) Russell falls on the same sharp objects that impaled Shifty's body.
 * 12) Handy is shredded to pieces by the rotors of his helicopter.
 * 13) The Mole dies when the town explodes.
 * 14) Nutty dies in the explosion (Debatable).
 * 15) Lumpy and Toothy might have died when the entire town exploded (Debatable).
 * 16) Some Generic Tree Friends might have also died in the explosion.

Goofs

 * 1) The Mole, Pop, Cub, Flaky and Nutty didn't have featuring pop-ups, indicating they were appearing characters, even though they were more of featuring characters.
 * 2) Russell's voice can be heard cheering after Cuddles rescues Mittens/Honey from a tree, even though he does not appear until later in the episode.
 * 3) When Mime approaches the fire-brigade for help, he runs from the opposite direction that the fire is in.
 * 4) If the fire was in the opposite direction that Mime was running, Cuddles is looking the wrong way.
 * 5) When Mime tries to explain what happened to Sniffles and Toothy, he stands on the sidewalk. When we see their reaction to his performance, however, their bodies are angled as though they’re facing someone standing in the road.
 * 6) When Cuddles is impaled on the fence, his scut falls off. Strangely, there's no blood on it.
 * 7) Toothy throws the axe at the front door of Petunia's house, but it can later be seen flying through the air after the fire truck explodes.
 * 8) Even though the fire truck explodes, the flaming gasoline still comes out of the hose.
 * 9) When Handy comes on the scene the first time, one can clearly see him activate the lever to pour out the water.
 * 10) When Handy dumps water on a house, Nutty and The Mole are standing on the sidewalk. The scene then immediately cuts to Nutty and The Mole waving at Handy, though Nutty is now on the grass and The Mole is on the edge of the sidewalk.
 * 11) While on his boat, Russell was standing under a small roof with walls on three sides of him and no garbage behind him. It would have been impossible for Handy to pick both him and some garbage up at the same time.
 * 12) Russell's hook goes from being on his right arm for most of the episode to being on his left arm when he dies.
 * 13) The houses surrounding Petunia’s house change places occasionally.
 * 14) The mole on The Mole's face changes places a few times.
 * 15) After Lifty attacked Shifty for Pop's wallet, Pop suddenly disappears.
 * 16) Russell should have fallen at the same time as the other items Handy picked up, but he fell last.
 * 17) Handy continues screaming even after his head is completely sliced by the helicopter blades.
 * 18) When Handy's body parts land on the sidewalk, there are two identical torso parts (both include his arms with the top of the bandages still in tact).
 * 19) Despite crashing, the remains of Handy's helicopter are nowhere to be found.
 * 20) The gas signs that surround The Mole don’t appear until after he lights a match.
 * 21) Pop's wallet comes form his mouth
 * 22) When Handy was sliced by the helicopter's blade, his blood was red. But when it lands on Nutty's standing position, it is orange.
 * 23) Mime is given a starring role, despite only coming in at the beginning and then appearing at the end. Giggles and Petunia would have most likely had starring roles.
 * 24) Mittens/Honey looked at Cuddles hair before it was in front of her.

Trivia

 * The inspiration for this episode came from a traumatic incident from when Ken Pontac was a toddler. He saw his mother catch on fire while making breakfast because she was talking to his grandmother on the phone while she was next to the stove.
 * While dialing for help, Mime performs the old gag that he’s forgotten the number to 911.
 * The kitten that the fire-brigade saves from the tree is none other than Mittens/Honey, first seen in Tongue Twister Trouble.
 * When the cat is playing with Cuddles' tail, background music plays. On the DVD, however, a different tune plays.
 * Sniffles' death is similar to his injury (before death) in Take a Hike.
 * The Cursed Idol and a Lumpy doll from The Wrong Side of the Tracks are among the items that falls out the crane of Handy’s helicopter.
 * This episode features the only instance in the television series, and one of only three instances in the entire series, that Lifty dies before Shifty. The other episodes were Milkin' It, when Lifty was impaled by a tree before Shifty was cut in half by and swung around by a windmill, and in Swelter Skelter where Lifty dies in a "ice" explosion before Shifty dies from getting impaled on an icicle.
 * If every debatable death counts as death then Mime is one of the 4 characters to star in an episode with a large cast and be the only survivor. The other three are Giggles (Dunce Upon a Time), Splendid (Breaking Wind) and Lumpy (Aw Shucks!, Remains To Be Seen).
 * This is one of the few episodes in which all of the featuring and appearing characters die or are presumed dead while the starring character survived.
 * This is one of the darkest episodes of the TV series and the episode with the third most deaths (behind Wrath of Con and Class Act). Though there were a couple of other episodes with 16 deaths, this one shows almost every death and most of them are seperate from one another.
 * Flippy, Cro-Marmot, and Splendid are the only three characters who didn't appear in this episode.
 * Handy's death is similar to Cuddles' death from Party Animal, Toothy's death from Mime and Mime Again, and Pop's death from Havin' A Ball.
 * When this episode aired along with Easy For You to Sleigh and Wishy Washy on YouTube, the alternate title for the conglomeration of the segments was named "Four on the Floor."
 * Another instance of Lumpy's stupidity is that he's a firefighter in this episode, yet he plays with a burning matchstick.
 * Mime stars in this episode, yet he only appeared at the beginning and the end. It is possible that he could have escaped from the town before it exploded.
 * Splendid, Flippy, and Cro-Marmot didn't appear in this episode, yet they also could have died when the town exploded. Coincidentally, they are the only three characters in Class Act whose deaths are debatable.
 * This is one of the few episodes where Lumpy's antlers don't change directions.
 * According to the commentary on this episode, the writers needed to make a cheat sheet to keep track of the characters that died and how they did.
 * This the only episode where Disco Bear cause the deaths of his three most frequent victims (Cuddles, Handy and Flaky) as a featuring character. Also, this is the first time he killed Pop.
 * The title is a play on the saying "Who's to blame?"
 * Petunia is responsible for starting the fire, meaning that she is responsible for the deaths of Giggles, Sniffles, and Cub. This marks Petunia's first kill other than herself in Wishy Washy.
 * Cub's death is similar to Toothy and Flaky's deaths in the comic strip Lost Claws.
 * All deaths in the video could have been either caused by Petunia (she put herself on fire) or Mime (he couldn't speak on the phone when dialing 911).
 * When Cuddles was getting Mittens/Honey, he made the same noise in Hole Lotta Love.