Brake the Cycle

Overview

Gallery

Trivia

Looks like Toothy's interest for bikesjust went "down the hill!"
Season:	Internet Season 3
Episode:	72
Title Reference / Pun:	Break the cycle
Aired:	June 8, 2012
Production Number:	318
Writers:	Ken Pontac Warren Graff Kenn Navarro
Director:	Kenn Navarro
Starring Roles	Toothy
Featuring	Lumpy
Appearances	Mime Cro-Marmot Truffles Handy (mentioned in Blurb)
Videos	Blurb
Previous Episode	Royal Flush
Next Episode	Random Acts of Silence

Brake The Cycle is an episode of the Happy Tree Friends internet series, the eighteenth of season three, and seventy-second overall.

Plot

The episode begins with Toothy putting together his bike. When he turns around to screw in a bolt, a small orange bird flies up, and looks at one of the screws on the ground. It then takes it. Toothy looks back, and notices the the final screw is missing. Nevertheless, he decides to ride his bike anyways.

As Toothy rides his bike down a street, he suddenly goes down a steep hill. Wanting to slow down, Toothy slams on the brakes as hard as he can. However, the friction caused by the brakes causes the back wheel to catch on fire. As Toothy looks at his flaming tire in horror, he hits a log in the middle of the road, flinging him in the air, and causing his bike seat to detach from his bike. The bike lands back onto the ground, and Toothy comes down as well. Unfortunately, Toothy has his crotch impaled by his seat-less bike, making him scream loudly in pain.

Further up the road, Lumpy, dressed in a daredevil suit, stands next to a motorcycle. He grabs a container of gas, and pours gas into the gas tank, spilling a majority of the combustible fluid. After Lumpy fills his gas tank, it is revealed that he plans to jump over a gorge with a wooden ramp. As Lumpy prepares to take off, Toothy dashes by, and his flaming tire touches the gasoline Lumpy spilled, setting Lumpy on fire. Toothy rides up the ramp, and barely manages to make it across. He slams onto the edge of the cliff, dragging his face on the asphalt, and destroying his bike.

As Toothy tears up from the scratches on his face, he realizes that the pedals of his now destroyed bike are embedded in his intestines, and the chassis of his bike is hanging off the edge of the cliff, by his intestines. With these elements, the chassis begins falling down, and the pedals make Toothy's intestines spiral out of his body. Over the fear of losing his intestines, Toothy grabs hold of the pedals and struggles to pedal them back into his body. At that moment, the small bird from earlier flies onto Toothy's intestines, and steals another bolt on a piece of bike wrapped by his intestines, making his intestines split, and make the chassis fall down the cliff.

At the bottom of the cliff, Mime is having a picnic with Cro-Marmot (weird, since neither of them speak). After Mime cuts an apple, one of the bike's tires comes down and slices Mime's head just like an apple-slicer. Another piece of the bike comes down, and bounces off of Cro-Marmot's block of ice.

As Toothy begins crying at the pain he has suffered, Lumpy, still on fire and now reduced down to a skeleton, arrives and crushes Toothy's body with his motorcycle.

Back at the orange bird, it is revealed that it made its entire nest out of screws and bolts, and just before the episode ends, one of the eggs hatches, revealing a wrench.

Moral

"Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving."

Blurb

A blurb video was released on July 11, 2013 containing these annotations:

• BlurB!
• Beavers brush their teeth 3 times a day
• Moose go down a slide 3 times a day
• Toothy is very handy
• more so than Handy
• because he has hands
• Fun Fact: Birds like to build their nests out of hard metal objects
• Toothy once finished 12th in the Tour de France
• He was later disqualified for unknown reasons
• Brakes are great for stopping bikes
• Or starting fires
• Slow motion, tool of the lazy director
• Prepare to wince in
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
• Seeing that it's Lumpy, the fact he's TRYING to pour it in the right hole should be considered a victory
• Fun Fact: This ramp is actually a finished bridge
• built by Handy
• See, we told you he wasn't very handy.
• Didn't see that coming
• Toothy is excellent at flying
• Usually in First Class though
• The Tour de France will disqualify you if you use beaver intestines as a bike chain
• Remember what I said about birds?
• Prepare for ironic death in
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
• That hurts Cro-Marmot on the inside
• Prepare to be sued by Marvel in
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
• See, I told you
• Don't understand the wrench though
• Maybe Kenn can explain it

Deaths

1. Mime is instantly killed when his head is sliced by Toothy's bike wheel like an apple.
2. Lumpy is burned to death.
3. Toothy is crushed by Lumpy's bike.

Injuries

1. Toothy's backside is impaled on his seat stick.
2. Toothy receives multiple cuts on his face from the fall.
3. Toothy gets his intestines pulled out.
4. Lumpy is set on fire when the gasoline spilled from filling up his motorcycle fuel tank is ignited by Toothy's flaming bike wheel.

Goofs

1. It should not be possible to set rubber bicycle wheels on fire by using hand brakes.
2. When Toothy is flying, he is launched in front of his bike. But when the bike lands on the ground, Toothy lands on the seat stick.
3. It should be almost impossible for Lumpy to put his helmet on, due to his large antlers.
4. Pouring noises are still heard when Lumpy nods.
5. When Lumpy is set on fire, his jumpsuit is shown to have many rips and tears, but when he is a skeleton, the rips and tears are gone.
   1. In the same scene where Lumpy is a skeleton, his clothes are not burned away.
6. In the scene where Toothy is winding his intestines back in, the bike does not have a wheel. When the bike and part of his insides fall off the cliff, the wheel is back.
7. The title for the original version has "brake" spelled wrong. It is spelled as "break".

Trivia

• Despite the episode having "brake" in the title, the brakes only appear in the scene where they are necessary to the plot.
• This episode was confirmed by the HTF crew on Facebook. Its name was later revealed by a teaser.
• This is Toothy's first solo starring role since Eye Candy.
• Toothy is responsible for every death in this episode.
  • Additionally, if one considers the bird a character, it can also be held responsible.
• Like with Royal Flush, Mondo Media posted a behind-the-scenes teaser video for this episode on happytreefriends.com, but unlike the previous episode, a Sneak Peak was not posted of this one.
• This is the second time that Mime and Cro-Marmot are the only characters with appearance roles in an episode (not counting Truffles). The first episode where this happened was In a Jam.
• There are no female characters in this episode.
• This is Toothy's first actual starring role since Keepin' it Reel.
• The moral of this episode is the longest one so far.
• According to the storyboard, Russell was originally going to be featured in this episode, but he was later replaced by Lumpy.
• Lumpy's suit's design in this episode may have been based on the late Evel Knievel's.
• Lumpy's skeleton being on fire while he is riding his bike might be a reference to the famous "Ghost Rider".
  • This is mentioned in the Blurb, saying "Get ready to be sued by Marvel," which references the fact that Ghost Rider is property of Marvel.
• This is one of three times where a character has a death/injury involving their crotch. The others are Nutty in his Smoochie and Giggles in Home Is Where the Hurt Is.
• Truffles can be seen behind a tree when Lumpy is set on fire.
• This is Toothy's most torturous death since Eye Candy. Coincidentally, birds were involved in both cases (in the previous case, The Woodpecker).
• This is one of six instances where a character cries during his/her death due to the degree of pain. The other five instances are Toothy in Eye Candy, Lumpy in The Chokes on You, Petunia in Read 'em and Weep, Flaky in Ski Ya, Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya!, and Sniffles in Tongue in Cheek.
• This is the only Internet Season 3 episode to have just one featuring character.
• Toothy is responsible for Lumpy's death and, likewise, Lumpy is responsible for Toothy's death.
• 
  Mime's death is similar to Giggles' death in the comic strip Drop Me A Line and Cuddles' death in A Hole Lotta Love.
• Ironically, Mime was sliced right after he sliced an apple, and in the same manner.
• Since Lumpy spilled the gasoline, he is indirectly responsible for his own death.
• Despite Handy not appearing in this episode, the Blurb version mentions him twice.
• This is one of the only two episodes to only have one featuring character. The other episode is I've Got You Under My Skin.
• Lumpy's scream when he is set aflame is the same scream as the one he makes in Take a Hike when he is chased by The Grizzly Bear.
• The YouTube thumbnail spoils Mime's death.