Class Act is the first Christmas episode of the Happy Tree Friends internet series, the tenth episode of the second season, and the thirty seventh overall. To date, it is the only episode to feature all of the original main characters (though half of them only have background cameos), except for Lammy, Mr. Pickels, and Truffles, who didn't exist at the time. It is by far one of the most popular episodes of Happy Tree Friends.
HTF 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 Generic Tree Friends watching the play.
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 of the play, motions for Toothy to walk onstage. Holding a candle, Toothy moves to the center of the stage when a spotlight shines several feet to his right. Lumpy then tells The Mole, who is operating the spotlight, to move 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 for the background. With everything in place, Lumpy tells Toothy to start the show.
Toothy begins singing "Oh Christmas Tree" while Giggles, Sniffles, and Cuddles come onstage dressed in cardboard cut-outs of a present, a candy cane, and a Christmas tree respectively and begin dancing. From Nutty's point of view, however, he can only see the top part of Sniffles' candy cane costume; on top of that, the spotlight makes the costume look like a real candy cane. Toothy stops singing upon hearing a crunching noise and a scream. Everyone looks over to see Sniffles with a big bite taken out of 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, despite Sniffles' screams of pain.
Toothy begins singing again, sounding a little uneasy. While Toothy continues singing, Sniffles runs offstage and gets the curved part of his candy cane costume caught on a rope, causing a sandbag to drop and force Giggles' costume
Toothy struggling to sing while the play goes haywire.
downwards, causing the music to stop. Unfortunately, this also cuts her face off, which lands at Toothy's feet. Horrified, he looks back at Lumpy for guidance. Once more, Lumpy tells Toothy to keep singing, not minding the brutal injuries.
By now, Toothy can barely sing as he cries in fear. Giggles runs around the stage in a panic, until she slips on her own face. It flies up and hits The Mole in his face, causing him to swing the spotlight over to Lifty and Shifty. They give a cry of shock and throw their hands up to shield their eyes, dropping Flaky in the process. She falls down the prop chimney, her quills seen poking through as she makes her way down. As she emerges out of the fireplace, her skin and quills have been completely ripped off, exposing all of her muscles. Toothy and Cuddles are horrified and look over to Lumpy yet again. Lumpy, now realizing the problem, is seen climbing out a window. Upon seeing Lumpy flee, Cuddles and Toothy run away offstage in fear, but not before Toothy tosses his candle into the air.
The Tree Friends manage to barely escape the burning school with their lives.
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 push against him, trying to get out. Eventually, Cuddles is forced out of the face-hole of his costume, squeezing his head into a red, cylindrical glob of flesh resembling a slinky as it bounces down the stairs. Finally, his costume breaks, and the audience comes flooding out of the burning school.
Disco Bear is standing next to Lumpy, the entire right side of his face and afro burnt. Lumpy coughs and sighs (after one of the Generics runs away with fire all around him/her) before looking around at the damage. The Mole's cane has impaled him through his eye, Pop is burned and bruised, Cub is screaming in pain as a Christmas star is lodged in his head and most of his left fingers have been cut off, and Cuddles weakly moves his hand. Blood and organs are everywhere.
Nutty appears to have been lightly burned, crying as well, and has some blood on his fur (though it is not clear if it is his or someone else's). Flaky is kneeling on all fours, freezing without any skin. In the background, Mime tries to comfort a burned Generic Tree Friend while a flipped-out Flippy is stabbing 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.
The aftermath.
Cro-Marmot stands off in the distance (strangely and seemingly undamaged), and Shifty is dragging a wailing Lifty (who is missing the bottom half of his body) away. Everywhere, dead and dying Generic Tree Friends litter the ground.
Toothy starts facing the snow, upset and thinking about what he triggered after he accidentally threw the candle moments ago, but as a shooting star flies by in the background, he straightens up, determined and steadfast. Once more he begins singing, and everyone looks up. Behind Toothy, Splendid finally lands in the middle of it all, having apparently been alerted by the Tree Friends' screams, yelling, shrieks, and crying. The cries, shrieking, and whimpers stop and everyone smiles, moved by Toothy's singing (except for Fliqpy, who continues stabbing his victim). Lumpy is moved to tears by the sound of Toothy's voice and takes off his beret and puts it to his chest. Suddenly, everyone starts joining hands, hooks, and bones around the burning school, joining Toothy in his song. Giggles joins hands with Russell,
Toothy manages to lift everyone's spirits with his song as the episode closes - before they all die.
as well as Disco Bear with Flaky, and Petunia with Mime. Before long, everyone who escaped from the burning school have stopped their cries of pain and start singing along with Toothy while holding hands around the now burning school. As the camera pans up into the sky, we see a giant twinkling star shimmering with all its glory. Suddenly, the school explodes, killing everyone, and burning bodies are sent flying everywhere. Then the screen closes in on the twinkling star, ending the episode.
Moral[]
"It is better to give than to receive!"
Deaths[]
- Numerous Generic Tree Friends are possibly incinerated and die in the fire.
- Some Generic Tree Friends die when everyone is trying to get out of the burning school. A few examples are one with a big hole in their head and their brain is exposed, and three hearts seen laying on the ground.
- Fliqpy is seen already flipped out after seeing the school on fire (possibly reminding him of war), and is stabbing a Generic Tree Friend to death with his knife.
- When the school explodes, it kills everyone. (Debatable for The Cursed Idol as is could have just been launched into the sky. The deaths of Fliqpy, Cro-Marmot, and Splendid were confirmed by Warren Graff.)
Injuries[]
- Sniffles has part of his torso bitten off by Nutty.
- Giggles' face is cut off when her costume is pulled down by a falling bag.
- Flaky's quills are ripped off when she falls through a prop chimney.
- Cuddles gets his face forced out of his costume.
- The right side of Disco Bear's face and afro is slightly burned.
- Lumpy inhales some smoke from the fire.
- The Mole somehow has his cane impaled through his left eye and out of the back of his head.
- Pop is burned and bruised.
- Cub has the Christmas star from Cuddles' costume lodged in his head and is missing the fingers (excluding his thumb) on his left hand.
- Nutty appears to have been lightly burned and has some blood on his fur.
- Mime is seen with light burns over his body.
- Lifty is missing the bottom half of his body.
- Shifty is burned.
- Handy somehow lost both of his feet while trying to get out of the burning school.
- Toothy received a burn and a scar.
- Petunia loses a part of her hand, as her exposed bone is seen.
- It can be assumed that an unknown amount of Generic Tree Friends are trampled, burned, and/or injured in unknown ways in the middle of the panic while trying to get out of the burning school.
Survival Rate[]
- Amount of surviving main characters: 0
- Amount of dead main characters: 20
- Total rate: 0%
Destruction[]
- Sniffles' candy cane costume gets a chunk bitten out of it.
- A chimney prop gets several quills stabbed into it.
- The curtains of the stage get lit on fire.
- The star on Cuddles' Christmas tree costume gets ripped off.
- Pop's robe and hat and Shifty's hat are burnt and scratched up.
- Disco Bear and Mime's clothes are blackened and burned.
- The Mole's glasses are broken.
- There's a crack on one of the lenses of Sniffles' glasses.
- The school blows up when it is lit by a candle.
Controversy over who started it all[]
Since the episode aired, there were masses of controversy over whether or not Toothy was to blame for the deaths in this episode. There are a few key points to consider: Though Toothy dropped the candle and caused the fire, he did it out of panic due to the chaos that had occurred up to that point. Fans who identified with said reaction have mostly blamed the whole affair on Nutty since he took a bite out of Sniffles, which led to the sandbag slicing Giggles' face off and so on. However, Lumpy should not be ignored as he was the one who encouraged Toothy to continue with the play, even though Sniffles was clearly in pain, and he attempted to run away from the building when the situation finally degraded, finally causing Toothy to panic and throw the candle.
Also, in regards to the ending, while some claim that Toothy gave everyone an excuse to stand near the school before it exploded, others have argued that it was the characters' decisions to join in the singing and stand in a circle around the building.
While inevitable in the dangerous world of the Happy Tree Friends, in real life, the candle would not have caused the explosion on its own, though there may have been highly flammable/explosive items inside the building at the time.
As a conclusion, Toothy is definitely to blame for the fire, almost certainly to blame for the school explosion, but getting the other characters killed in the explosion comes down to a matter of opinion: do you blame him for telling his friends to walk into a hazard, or do you blame the others for not thinking things through--there are two ways this massacre could have been avoided right at the end.
Although an official source declared it was originally The Cursed Idol who was to blame for the school exploding and injuries, Kenn Navarro made a tweet on September 18th, 2015 claiming that it was written as a group effort between Giggles, Toothy, Lumpy, Nutty, Sniffles, Flaky, The Mole, Lifty, and Shifty, so that leaves everybody responsible.
The deaths of Flippy, Splendid, and Cro-Marmot were previously debated. Years later, Warren Graff confirmed everyone died, according to a reply on a forum (which is unavailable now).
Crew Members[]
- Toothy - Main Role (singer)
- Cuddles - Christmas Tree
- Giggles - Present
- Sniffles - Candy Cane
- Lifty, Shifty, and Flaky - Background Snow (background effects)
- Nutty - Unknown Sleeping Role
- Lumpy - Director
- The Mole - Lighting
Goofs[]
- Toothy has normal buckteeth through most of the episode. His teeth even switch between normal and split in continuous shots.
- The positions of the ornaments on Cuddles' costume change several times.
- The shade/color of Lumpy's hat changes when he turns his head to Lifty and Shifty.
- Lifty and Shifty do not have their Pac-Man-shaped pupils.
- There are numerous instances of the characters' pupils switching to a circular shape as opposed to their Pac-Man pupils.
- Flaky when she's being shaken by Lifty and Shifty, when she falls above the chimney and is skinned, and when she's outside.
- Sniffles, when he's bitten by Nutty. His eyes stay circular for the rest of the episode.
- Toothy's eyes switch between Pac-Man and circles throughout the play.
- When Giggles' face is sliced off. Her pupils become Pac-Man shaped again when she's outside.
- Cuddles, when he and Toothy run off stage. His eyes stay circular for the rest of the episode.
- Disco Bear in his one shot.
- Lifty and Shifty start shaking Flaky for the snow effect, but after the camera moves to Toothy, the "snow" stops.
- The curve on Sniffles' costume changes places after he is bitten by Nutty.
- Sniffles loses his arm after being bitten by Nutty, but he regains it once he is outside.
- Usually, blood tastes salty instead of sweet. It is possible that Nutty either didn't notice as he was too busy enjoying the taste, or he likes salty foods as well. (Debatable: Considering that the substance on Nutty's face is brown and not red, it's possible that Sniffles' costume actually has real candy or chocolate inside.)
- When Giggles' face gets sliced off, her eyelashes disappear.
Goof #10, Giggles without her eyelashes.
- When Giggles' face is sliced off, her tongue and the inside of her mouth are also sliced off. But when her face falls on the floor, her mouth is to hollow for her teeth.
- The way Giggles' face is sliced should leave her with no way to breath.
- The inside of Giggles' face is inexplicitly hollow after it was sliced off, as it doesn't show any eye sockets, nostrils, mouth, or internal organs.
- The Mole's mole changes places several times, sometimes during continuous shots.
- Flaky's dandruff falls from above the window, but she falls down in the fireplace which is to the side of the window.
- The cup surrounding the candle that Toothy holds disappears briefly after Flaky falls through the chimney.
- Cuddles' and Toothy's philtrums disappear when Flaky falls through the chimney.
- When Sniffles gets bitten and Giggles loses her face, they both spread blood all over the stage, but when the curtains get set on fire, the blood on the stage is gone.
- When Giggles' face is sliced, Toothy's pupils face away from each other.
- When Toothy drops his candle and starts the fire, Flaky and Nutty disappear beneath the chimney. (Debatable: It's possible that they left.)
- Even though Lumpy's hat falls off when he runs out the window, he has it again when he is outside. (This is mentioned in the Blurb.)
- Petunia's philtrum is missing when she screams at the camera.
- There is no logical way for Cuddles to survive his injury, as he gets decapitated and forced out of his costume in a very round and bloody mush.
- When Generic Tree Friends escape from the burning school, two of them are missing when they push out Cuddles' costume, only to later run next to Pop and Cub.
- When the characters escape from the burning school, a running Generic Tree Friend disappears.
- When Pop and Cub escape from the burning school, Cub is missing his buckteeth.
- Some Generic Tree Friends continue burning even when they reach the snowy ground.
- Nutty's all-day sucker is on the left side of his face when he's outside.
- When Nutty bites Sniffles, his arm is shown to be eaten. Later, when everyone is outside, Sniffles still has both of his arms.
- Flaky should have died of hypothermia as she had no skin after the fire.
- Before Toothy starts singing at the end of the episode, there are three burned Generic Tree Friends in the shot with Giggles, Sniffles and Handy; however, the next time we see the same characters, an additional Generic Tree Friend can suddenly be seen next to Lifty and Shifty.
- When Toothy starts to sing and the screen cuts to Sniffles and Giggles, a piece of intestine, a kidney, and a third dead Generic Tree Friend are on the ground, despite not being there before.
- When Handy looks at the singing Toothy, he has gapped buckteeth.
- When Nutty smiles at Toothy's singing, he is missing his buckteeth.
- When Splendid lands, his left arm disconnects from his patagium.
- When Toothy begins singing near the end of the episode, if one looks closely, the pupils on Giggles' sliced face can be seen moving. Since her face was sliced off, it should have been impossible for her to do so. (Debatable: This may have been done for comedic effect.)
- When Lumpy tears up, his antlers have switched positions.
- Even though most characters suffer brutal injuries, they appear to be fine and even regain limbs and body parts when they stand around the school (e.g. Handy has his feet back). Shifty also retains his burned tail.
- In the shadows near the end, Handy has hands and Giggles (the one at Russell's right) is missing her bow.
- Throughout the episode, there are three steps in front of the school. At the end of the episode, however, there are two steps.
Quick Shot Moment[]
When Lifty and Shifty drop Flaky in order to shield their eyes from The Mole's spotlight, there is a brief shot of Petunia screaming once the stage gets caught on fire.
This Quick Shot Moment looks exactly like the episode's YouTube thumbnail.
Note: This was fixed in the Blurb version and in the Classics Remastered version.
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