"It's Laughter They're After" is the tenth episode and the season one finale of Monsters at Work. It aired on September 1, 2021 on Disney+ and aired on February 4, 2023 on Disney Channel.
Synopsis[]
Tylor achieves his dream and is promoted to Jokester… but he feels torn on leaving MIFT. Meanwhile, Laugh Power is threatened when Mike and Sulley are given an ultimatum: generate more power or be shut down.
Plot[]
As things at Monsters, Inc. appear to be running smoothly, the company suddenly experiences another power outage. Mike and Sulley meet with Roz, who is revealed to also be a member of MERC, who tells them that they need to get 1,000,000 "gigglewatts" by tomorrow or else MERC will shift their entire power source to rival company Fear Co. who still uses scream power. Down at MIFT, Tylor suggests they build bigger cannisters for the Jokesters. As they prepare for the big cannister, Val asked Tylor if he’ll have time but Tylor’s not worried because he’s no longer going to comedy class to practice being a jokester before revealing that he had given up being one and tossed out his Jokester material, which Val does not believe.
Tylor suddenly gets called up to the training room where Ms. Flint informs Tylor that she had reviewed the footage from Mini Monsters Day and that he does have potential when performing a pratfall with donuts. Mike tells him that he will be a Jokester in training. Tylor is immediately signed with a transfer, but he is starting to have second thoughts as this means that he will not see his friends in MIFT. As he sulks outside, he meets Sulley and learns why they decided to shift from scream power to laugh power and starts feeling sympathetic towards the decision. Sulley tells Tylor about his realization with scaring when he saw the fear that Boo had. He states that Tylor was the reason for the new slogan and that he should keep on trying.
Tylor gets prepared for the Laugh Floor, but feels that he does not get the same welcome as he does in MIFT. The team invite him back down for a celebration and everyone says their piece about him. Tylor announces that he is staying in MIFT. As Fritz brings his things back, he and Val see that he still had his Jokester material and rush him back up to the Laugh Floor; telling him that it is okay as Val even volunteers as his assistant, due to the Laugh Floor being understaffed and Ceilia being too busy with paperwork from Roz. Tylor does his donut pratfall bit and successfully makes the child laugh. It’s finally Mike’s turn, but they’ve run out of scream cannisters and only have a few moments left in the work day. Using Tylor's idea, Mike uses the larger prototype cannister to collect more laughs, thus getting the power necessary to stay in business with MERC.
Mike tells Tylor that he is an official Jokester now and MIFT reveals that they have already prepared his new desk which contains a photo of them. Tylor, now in high spirits, arrives to his new job as a Jokester and greets Sulley (who is currently moments away from discovering that Mike had rebuilt Boo's door) and learns that Val had also made a transfer to being his assistant. The rest of MIFT come and happily encourage Tylor as he enters the door and makes a child laugh; filling up a full canister.
After credits quote[]
- “It's over? Sad sigh. Anybody know if there's a season two?”
- ―Fritz foreshadowing a season pickup
Cast[]
- Billy Crystal as Mike Wazowski
- John Goodman as James P. Sullivan
- Ben Feldman as Tylor Tuskmon
- Mindy Kaling as Val Little
- Henry Winkler as Fritz
- Lucas Neff as Duncan P. Anderson
- Alanna Ubach as Cutter, Carla Benitez
- Bonnie Hunt as Ms. Flint
- Jennifer Tilly as Celia Mae
- Bob Peterson as Roz
- Stephen Stanton as Needleman and Smitty, George Sanderson
- Christopher Swindle as Fungus, Phlegm, Charlie
- Curtis Armstrong as Mr. Crummyham
- Dee Bradley Baker as Banana Bread
- Hiromi Dames as Additional monsters
Trivia[]
- This is the last episode where Jennifer Tilly voiced Celia.
- This episode is named after the new slogan that Tylor gave as the new name for the company.
- This episode and "Welcome to Monsters, Incorporated", are the only ones of the first season that do not contain a Mike's Comedy Class sketch at the end.
- Tylor is now officially promoted to jokester from this episode onwards.
- The episode was released on the same day as Dug Days.
- The episode initially begins a few months before the ending of Monsters, Inc, and then finishes on the same day in which the laughter takes off.
- Sulley mentions Boo to Tylor, explaining his reasoning why he won't return to scaring children.
- This episode marks the second time Boo has been mentioned in the series. The first being in "The Damaged Room", where she was mentioned by Mike.
- Roz is revealed to be a member of MERC besides the CDA. She adds that there is a lot that Mike and Sulley do not know about her, implying that she has much more authority than she lets on.
- It is shown that Tylor didn't cross out Waternoose's signature on his acceptance letter, despite already learning about his true colors.
- The episode implies that Roz and Roze might actually be the same monster.
- Fritz breaks the fourth wall during the end of the credits when he says he’s disappointed about the season being over and hoping for a season two.
- Val becomes Tylor's official laugh assistant at the end of the episode. Deciding to transfer from MIFT after the day of helping Tylor's day 'in-training' to save Monsters Inc. due to the shortage of workers, finding it fun, she would be on the Laugh Floor from this episode onwards.
- MIFT created the new, larger laugh canisters to be able to properly contain the powerful laugh energy.
- Near the end of the episode, Sulley carries his clipboard while watching the party happily. It is possible that he would still have Boo's picture of them holding hands underneath the graph chart, and a piece of her door below from the original movie. Though the things he has aren't seen in this episode, but it is however the part where Mike surprises Sulley with Boo's door rebuilt and for him to finally see her again.
- At the end of the episode, it gets left off where all the monsters have the party from the original movie, Tylor and the rest of the MIFT crew join the party, but they weren't seen at the party back in the movie, because they weren't existing monsters back then, though they would've been apart and it would have happened offscreen, as the movie didn't focus on them.
- Tylor entering through the child's door at the end is a reference to the end of the original movie in which Sulley entered through Boo's door. The events also take place at the exact same time if the events of the party and the epilogue of the final movie are played at the same time.
- This is the second episode Boo gets mentioned despite not appearing herself; she would later be mentioned again in "Lights! Camera! Chaos!"
Goofs[]
- While George’s hair had revealed to have grown back by the end of the original movie, he is still hairless in the ending of this episode.
