"3 Big Problems" is the fourteenth episode of the first season of Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero. It premiered on March 23, 2015.
Synopsis[]
The team zaps into a world where they are enormous monsters and must convince the human president of a nearby island nation that the monsters mean them no harm.
Plot[]
The episode starts Middleburg Central High School's gym, where a dodgeball game is taking place. Sashi is hitting students with dodgeballs as she swiftly dodges dodgeballs thrown at her. Boone uses two players to protect himself from two dodgeballs as he then throws a dodgeball at her. Sashi dodges the dodgeball as it bounces back, hitting the school mascot and, therefore, hit Boone from behind. Penn goes to face-to-face with Sashi, who is about to hit him with a dodgeball, but a bell sound is heard, leading Sashi to think the game ended in a draw, so she and Penn hold hands as he bumps a dodgeball towards her head. Penn then tells to her that it was actually the firefighter's fire bell and not the school bell, laughing at her before he looks and gets scared at Sashi's angry face.
At The Odyssey, the heroes go to get zapped in the next mission, with Penn having welts on his face. Phyllis mistakes Penn's welts for an infection, so she quickly presses an alarm button. Penn gets grabbed by a robot hand as he gets put inside a capsule as Phyllis announces she is gonna send him into the sun. Sashi tells Phyllis the spots on his face are just welts from dodgeball, which Penn affirms. The robotic hands then take Penn out of the capsule as he is placed alongside Boone and Sashi, visibly scared, before they are zapped into the world.
Now zapped in, Penn realizes that he is a lizard, so he guesses what the mission would be, thinking they would either eat flies, catching a race or selling car insurance. Penn is annoyed by what seems to be a fly, but turns out to be actually a helicopter. Penn then finds out they are giant monsters, with Boone being a horned gorilla-like creature and Sashi being an insect. Penn sees Sashi angrily staring at him, scaring him as he accidentally shoots his fire breath at her. Sashi counter-attacks him by shooting lightning out of her eyes, but shoots at Boone's toe instead, causing him to fall behind some rocks. Sashi then tells the mission: they have to convince the human president that the monsters don't want to cause harm. Penn and his friends then see other monsters chilling around in the island. A baby monster wanders in as Boone praises him, but he causes the baby to cry as he shoots out lasers out of his nostril, hitting Boone's butt. Penn, seeing how chill the monsters, assumes the president will be reasonable with them. However, a missile hits a mountain in their island, causing the monsters to flee away in fear. A boat is shooting missiles towards the heroes, scaring Penn as he shoots his fire breath towards one of the missiles, exploding it. Sashi then hits two missiles with her lightning attack as she sees a missile being shot towards Boone, but it hits the rocks stuck on Boone's horn instead. Boone then demonstrates to his friends that he can make sounds with his horn and does it, making trombone-like sounds with his horn.
Rippen, riding the ship, watches the heroes with a pair of binoculars as Larry tells him he would wear a tall hat if he had a horn like Boone's monster form. The two are then contacted by The President, who tells them not to attack the monsters. Rippen eye-rolls as The President tells him she saw him do it, so he lies saying he was checking eyebrow to make sure they are still there. He then tells her that the monster are a threat to their lives, so he tells her he need access to the greatest weapon: the Monster Buster Bomb. The boat starts to shake as Larry sees the monster heroes wandering in the ocean, going towards the city. Rippen asks The President if she saw what he meant, leading her to eye-roll, but he notices it, so she lies to him she was checking her eyebrows.
The monster heroes are approaching the city as the inhabitants flee away in fear. Penn accidentally steps on the city hall, so he tells the new inhabitants he and his friends will do chores to pay for a new city hall, but, as he talks, accidentally shoots his fire breath towards a TNT museum, blowing the museum up and its surroundings. Penn complains about the city having a museum of TNT as the inhabitants escape from the monster heroes in boats and helicopters. Penn tries to talk to Boone, who is clinging a building, but launches his fire breath at another building once again, causing more explosions. Penn then complains that he always blows things up when he tries to talk, so Sashi suggests him to whisper instead. So, Penn whispers to Boone that they are here to help them, but Boone misspells help with melt. Penn angrily corrects him, as he shoots his fire breath towards the city's bridge. Penn then complains once again about his inability to talk without shooting his fire breath, but he quickly gets an idea.
Rippen and Larry go to the president's office and tells her that it's only a matter of time before the city gets destroyed by the monster heroes. The president tells them that, at least, the Roller Rink Of Togetherness is still standing, just before Boone accidentally steps on it. The president tells them that they don't know if the monsters want to cause harm, as she thinks these could be accidents. Rippen shows her footage of Boone saying they want to melt you, not knowing it was a misspelling. Larry tells him that, by melting, Boone either meant melting their hearts or getting in shape by melting their calories. The president is drawing herself being carried by a muscular Larry as Rippen angrily tells her to give the launch code for the weapon, but stomping sounds are heard, distracting the president. The president checks her window, seeing the monster heroes doing a charade. Rippen tells her they are doing a war declaration, but Larry tells him they are doing charades, which the president agrees. The president uses a megaphone to contact with the monsters as they do a charade to communicate and she guesses that they want peace, so Penn and Boone joyfully hold hands together to signify peace, but Penn accidentally steps on the Sentimental Violin Factory. She tells Hermen, a violin player, that his violin is smoking, but he falls unconscious, leading the president to faint. Rippen demands her to give him the launch code, so she tells him it, turning out to be just 3. She tells him the code could be one to ten digits long and that she decided the code to be one digit long so it could be easy to remember. Rippen inputs the launch code, causing a turret filled with missiles to emerge from the ocean and shoot its missile towards the monster heroes.
Boone, seeing the missiles, decides to give up and tells Pen to tell his best friend that he loves him. Penn tells him that he thought he was his best friend until Boon tells him he is his best friend. The boys hold hands together as the missiles are about to hit them. However, Sashi tells them they aren't gonna die as she pretends to play dodgeball with them, tossing a missile towards another missile and exploding them. Boone does the same and so does Penn, exploding the missiles. The monster heroes celebrate, but, however, a missile goes through the explosion, bouncing and destroying buildings in its way before landing inside a volcano. Boone says they got lucky that the missile went inside there, not realizing it is a volcano and thinking it is just a mountain with a hole. The volcano erupts as the president angrily tells Rippen that he doomed them all. Rippen tells her it is just the 1st phase of his plan as he shows her a "map" that is just a sheet of paper and she reads it as Rippen escapes from the office. The president tells Larry that there is lunch meat in the fridge, so he goes after it. The lava is flowing towards the city as Boone freaks out and complains about how would a city be built next to a volcano. Penn quickly gets an idea: he and his friends lift the entire city out of the ground and carry it along the ocean, placing it on the island of the monsters. The president then thanks the monster for saving the city, though they ruined the power grid and sewer system, ending the episode.
Cast[]
- Thomas Middleditch as Penn Zero
- Tania Gunadi as Sashi Kobayashi
- Adam DeVine as Boone Wiseman
- Alfred Molina as Rippen
- Larry Wilmore as Principal Larry
- Sam Levine as Phyllis, Terry
- Maria Bamford as The President, Baby Monster (guest starring role)
- Fred Tatasciore as Mr. Egsgard
Trivia[]
- Penn's monster form is an allusion to Godzilla, Sashi's is an allusion to Mothra and Megaguirus, and Boone's is an allusion to King Kong.
- This episode is a homage to giant monster franchises.
- The part time-heroes are giant monsters, just like Rippen and Larry are giant babies in Babypocalypse.
- When Penn thinks that he is a lizard, he asks if his job is selling car insurance, an obvious reference to the Gecko mascot featured in numerous Geico commercials.
- The Foxtel TV guide mistakenly called this episode "4 Big Problems".
The Odyssey's marquee signs[]
- TOGETHERNESS, ISLAND, 3 GIANT MONSTERS, CLOSED
Gallery[]
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