Guide to: Dares and Bad Habits

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“Guide to: Dares and Bad Habits”
Ned's Declassified episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 8
Guest stars Carlie Casey as Missy Meany, Mat Hoffman as himself, Hamilton Mitchell as Vice Principal Crubbs, Jennifer Hyatt as Doris Trembly, and Lusia Strus as Dr. Olga Xavier
Written by Lazar Saric, Rick Groel
Directed by 'Savage' Steve Holland
Production no. 209
Original airdate January 14, 2006
Episode chronology
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"Guide to: Gross Biology Dissection and Upperclassmen" "Guide to: Substitute Teachers and The New Kid"
List of Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide episodes

"Guide to: Vice Principals and Mondays" is the 21st episode of the American teenage show Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide. It originally aired as the 8th episode of Season 2 on January 14, 2006

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

[edit] Plot

[edit] Guide to: Dares

Cookie dares Ned to ask Missy out on a date, which he does, and to Ned’s horror, Missy says yes to! In retaliation, Ned dares Moze to wear a flowery, frilly dress for 24 hours. She does so, and she attracts the attention of three other flowery, frilly dress wearers, May, June and Julie. Moze thinks there’s something slightly off about them, but she can’t figure out what, though June’s occasional spontaneous jerking might be a clue. Cookie declares himself the King of Dares, so him and Loomer have a dare competition. Eventually they decide on the ultimate dare, to jump over a shark at the Northside Aquatic Warehouse while riding a bike. They both agree to it.

Moze joins May, June and Julie at lunch, and is freaked out by how co-ordinated with each other they are. When Moze comments that they’re like a ‘well-oiled machine’, the three of them leave, but not before Moze notices several electrical components fall out of Julie’s bag. Later on, Moze invites them to go swimming with her, but they decline. Moze spots a small oil stain on Julie’s dress, so May, June and Julie head to the bathroom to wash it off. While they’re in there, Moze watches June pull May’s arm right out of her socket! Moze, understandably, is convinced they’re robots! Ned tries to break his date with Missy, but is guilted into going along with it, when Missy thanks him for asking her out, and that it meant a lot to her. Ned and Moze try to convince Cookie to back out of the dare, but Cookie is even more psyched to do it when Mat Hoffman personally gives Loomer and him a bike to do the stunt with!

The day of the jump arrives, and Ned and Moze arrive at the Aquatic Warehouse. Ned tells Moze that to his surprise, he really enjoyed the previous night’s date. Cookie arrives at the site, and together with Mat Hoffman (who’s changed his mind), they manage to convince him to back down, which he does. Loomer then attempts to jump the shark, but misses the shark by a mile and lands in an ambulance. Next, Missy finds out that Ned only went out with her for a dare, and despite Ned’s pleas is extremely angry, and pushes him into the shark tank. Luckily, the shark is completely harmless, but the water does soak May, June and Julie, who start to jerk. Moze runs over to them, believing them to have short-circuited, and tells them that she knows that they’re actually robots. May tells Moze that they’re not robots, that Julie just has an interest in electronics, June has a twitch, she has a prosthetic arm, and that Moze is an ‘insensitive clod’, and the three of them storm off. Finally, Mat Hoffman ends the short by finally performing the ‘jump the shark’ stunt.

[edit] Guide to: Bad Habits

Everyone has bad habits. Ned says ‘yes’ to everyone and everything, Cookie is a pack rat, and when Moze plays volleyball, she’s a trash-talking potty-mouth! All three of them try to break their habit. Gordy tries to help Ned by telling him that he doesn’t have to say ‘no’, he just doesn’t have to say ‘yes’, and he should lie himself out of these situations. Sadly this doesn’t work, and advise from Vice Principal Crubbs also proves to be unfruitful too, who’s able to say ‘no’ to everyone, except Martin Qwerly, the main cause of Ned’s problems in the first place.. Cookie goes from one bad habit to another, from pack ratting to chewing gum, to biting pencils to biting his nails!

Moze tries to play a nice, clean volleyball game, without any trash talking, but she stinks because of it. Later on, Cookie loans her his translator so she can trash talk in Dutch, and no one’ll know what she’s saying. Sadly, this plan fails when the game’s referee turns out to be from Holland. Ned tries to get help from Dr. Xavier, but this fails as well. Finally, all the people he had said ‘yes’ to, and made promises to do things for them, but didn’t, confront him. Ned fakes fainting, and gets taken to the Nurse’s Office. Here he talks to Nurse Hunsucker, who tells him that she had the exact same problem as him, but overcome it by thinking about ‘how great life would be without it’.

Moze gets the idea of taping up her mouth during matches, so she can shout abuse at her opponents all she likes, and no one’ll hear what she’s saying, and Cookie finally takes small steps at a time at beating his habit. Ned also manages to beat his habit, finally saying ‘no’ to Martin. Unfortunately, he enjoys saying ‘no’ so much, it almost becomes second nature, and he accidentally says ‘no’ to a date with the crush of his life, Suzie Crabgrass!

[edit] Trivia

  • In the Dares short, May, June and Julie are probably student parodies of The Stepford Wives
  • This is Mat Hoffman’s second appearance on the show, he first appeared in Guide to: Sick Days and Spelling Bees in Season 1.
  • In Dares, Cookie wears his Super Cookie outfit, first seen in Guide to: Pep Rallies and Lunch. He even states, "I can't believe that I get to wear this again!"
  • The stunt of jumping a shark performed in the Dares short is widely thought of a reference to the TV term ‘jumping the shark’, as this is the first episode that takes place off school property. However, it is widely regarded that Ned’s Declassified, to date, hasn’t jumped the shark.
  • In the Bad Habits short, Dr. Xavier’s attempted brainwashing of Ned is a spoof of A Clockwork Orange
  • In Dares Mat Hoffman wore the same outfit he wore in Tony Hawk's American Wasteland.
  • The idea of jumping a shark is immatated of Henry Wrinkler's character on Happy Days jumping a shark

[edit] Tips

Dares

  • You’re not chicken, you’re smart
  • Dangerous dares are not worth it

Bad Habits

  • Admit your bad habit and get psyched to beat it
  • Replace bad habits with healthier habits
  • Takes small steps to beat your bad habit
  • Think about life without your bad habit

[edit] See also