The Game (Recess)

"The Game" is the first segment of the sixteenth episode of Recess.
==Synopsis==
A new craze called 'Ajimbo' sweeps across the playground, brainwashing all the kids at recess. Can T.J. resist and bring back his friends, or will he be swept in as well?
== Plot ==
A young boy in ragged clothing runs past Third Street School with a small plastic blue piece with a picture of a heron on it. He angrily tosses it over the fence and claims that he is free of its influence. The piece is found by Gus who takes it to the rest of the Gang. Gretchen immediately identifies it as a piece of the Ajimbo, a collecting based game that is known to drive kids into obsession. They all agree to avoid the temptation of playing it and T.J. tosses it away. However, the piece ends up in the Diggers' hole who become interested in it and head over to Kelso's to buy more Ajimbo pieces and share them at school.
The next day, the Recess Gang arrive to see that kids have started playing Ajimbo and notice that it is already causing those to succumb to angrier outbursts and ignorance towards actual sports and physical activity. Soon, Gus begins playing the game and becomes addicted like the other kids. Mikey follows shortly after, no thanks to Guru Kid. Spinelli gets distracted by the game when Mikey introduces her to it and teaches her how to play. Gretchen somehow also gets caught up in the Ajimbo craze and is further agonized when someone manages to best her winning strategy. Vince openly gives into it, leaving T.J. all by himself.
With everyone already attached to Ajimbo, T.J. takes his ball and tosses it away where the Kindergartners find it. He decides to finally join, only to see that everyone has turned into zombies and chase T.J. Suddenly, everyone takes notice of the Kindergartners who have started playing with the ball that T.J. tossed away. He manages to get everyone to finally wake up and return to playing ball. Back to normal, the Recess Gang collect the Ajimbo cards and toss them away, only for Gus to find the blue heron in his pocket. He tosses it over the fence to get rid of it, where two other kids, presumably from another school, find it and decide to buy more as Kelso's.
== Cast==
*Andrew Lawrence as T.J. Detweiler
*Rickey D'Shon Collins as Vince LaSalle
*Pamela Adlon as Ashley Spinelli
*Ashley Johnson as Gretchen Grundler
*Jason Davis as Mikey Blumberg
*Courtland Mead as Gus Griswald
*April Winchell as Muriel Finster
*Ryan O'Donohue as Randall Weems, Digger Dave, Kid #3
*Klee Bragger as Guru Kid, Digger Sam
*Lane Toran as King Bob
*Francesca Marie Smith as Upside-Down Girl, Cornchip Girl, Ashley Boulet
*Justin Shenkarow as Kid #1, King Bob's Guards
*Elizabeth Daily as King Sticky, Kid #2
*Kath Soucie as Spencer
*Michael Shulman as Kid #4
*Erik von Detten as Kid #5
== Trivia ==
* Ajimbo serves as a thinly-veiled parody of the Pokémon craze in North America (having started in Japan one year earlier), and Ajimbo may be referencing the card game of the franchise. As of July 2011, the craze is still going strong. The television show was dubbed in English by 4Kids (and now dubbed in-house by The Pokémon Company), and was shown on Kids' WB!, which was the biggest competitor to Disney's One Saturday Morning (Disney and Warner Brothers have been competitors since the 1930s) until OSM was terminated in 2002. The second Pokémon movie was supposed to compete with Recess: School's Out as well, but Disney pushed the movie's release back to avoid competition from the franchise.
* From this episode onward, T.J. is voiced by Andy Lawrence.
*This episode shares the same title as an episode of Disney's Aladdin TV series.
==External links==
*The Game at the Recess Wiki
Category:Recess episodes