Happy Pipo

**"Happy Pipo"** is the thirtieth episode of the first season of *Sammy & Co*. It premiered on February 29, 2016, on Netflix.

## Synopsis

When Pipo's grumbling drives Ricky and Cie to the limit, they try to find a way to change his nature, but learn a hard lesson instead.

## Plot

The episode opens at the reef village where Ricky and his friends are all swimming to the shell school for class. But while Ricky and Ella are both excited for Lulu to teach them about whales, Pipo is in a bad mood that day and he grumpily complains that he hates whales. When the students settle into the class, Lulu announces that the next day there will be a test on humpback whales. But after Pipo starts complaining again, Lulu, recognizing that Pipo is in a bad mood and he doesn't want to be on the grumpy butterfly fish's bad side, changes his mind and suddenly announces to his class that the test for the next day is canceled and they're dismissed from their lessons. But while most of the students are happy that class only lasts for less than fifteen seconds, Ricky is not when he hears Pipo grumbling how unprofessional Lulu's announcement is all because of the butterfly fish's complaint. Annabel, wanting to lift Pipo's spirits up, asks her friends if they want to go to the playground, to which Pipo grumbles "how original. Like where [they] always go", but he follows his friends anyway.

At the playground, Pipo's mood didn't get any better when he complained to each of his friends' game suggestions to play. He grumpily makes a fuss about being tired of playing the coin toss again, sees riddles as a "silly game", and telling jokes is "even worse". However, Pipo's whining annoys all of his friends since they see him not wanting to have any fun. So when Ricky asks him if he could come up with something instead of criticizing, Pipo rants that there's never anything fun to do inside the reef. Ricky, wanting to have fun, suggests to his friends that they should head to the outskirts of the reef instead in the hope it'll satisfy his butterfly fish friend.

But when the four kids are on the outskirts of the reef, their choice of having fun is to pull pranks on an innocent shark who's only swimming by the entrance of the reef. But while Ricky, Ella, and Annabel have a great thing making fun of the shark, Pipo criticizes them for such a "super-silly game" as well as telling them that "it's not right making fun of [the] poor, old shark" who didn't do anything to them yet. When Pipo swims back to the reef, Ella asks him if everything is alright for him and rants to him that he's been complaining nonstop all day "even more than usual". Having enough of Pipo once again complaining to her for criticizing him when he's in a bad mood, Ricky, Ella, and Annabel all swim away to talk about their situation and finding a way to do something about it.

Back at the playground, Pipo meets up with his friends there and the four have a meeting. Ricky tells Pipo that while complaining is part of who he is, Pipo has been taking his complaints way too far than usual. Ella also threatens Pipo that while they all love having him around, if he keeps on annoying them with his complaints, then they won't be his friends anymore. When Ricky suggests that the four would play the coin toss, Pipo is forced to put on a positive face so he could satisfy his friends despite he's still in a bad mood and the four started playing.

When dawn comes, Pipo swims back to his home to get ready for the night. There, he rants his frustration to his father about what happened that day and how his friends are tired of him for complaining all the time so he is forced to be in a positive mood in front of them all the time even if he's not so he could keep his friendship with them. Arthur tells him that while his son has character, he asks him what his friends really want from Pipo and he rhetorically asks him whether they want him to always be enthusiastic or always say yes without giving it a second thought. This gives Pipo an idea after listening to his father's advice to teach his friends a lesson on not forcing him to smile even if he can't be happy all the time.

At the shell school the next day, Pipo puts on an overly-enthusiastic face and starts acting very hyperactive, excitable, quirky, optimistic, and energetic during class as part of his plan to get back on his friends. When Lulu is about to ask his students a question, Pipo enthusiastically didn't let him finish asking it and starts blurting out random answers which annoy Lulu that he punishes Pipo by giving him extra homework, but Pipo happily tells him that "it's a dream", much to the confusion of Lulu and the rest of all his students. Once the class is dismissed and the students all leave the school, Ricky, Ella, and Annabel are all visibly confused by Pipo's sudden change of demeanor and how he expresses how "lucky" he is that Lulu gives him so many punishments which are something Lulu never did before for just one student as if Pipo is glad to be punished. When Annabel wants to know what's wrong with Pipo, the butterfly fish tells his friends that he "finally understands that [they]'ve got to be positive about life" and because of his friends the day before, Pipo changes from being a complainer to being happy-go-lucky.

Using his positive demeanor act, Pipo shows it off to his friends by happily greeting Billy which scares him a bit, enthusiastically remarks how "adorable" Jimbo is when he's taking a nap despite his sleeping habits of sticking his tongue out make everyone think he's "dead", and happily tells the Rockfish how happy he is that they're laughing at him earlier in class that he even invites the three to play with him and his friends at the playground. While the Rockfish all decline his offer, Ricky and his friends are starting to get visibly annoyed by Pipo's nonstop happy demeanor.

At the playground, Ricky tells Pipo that it's out of the question for him to invite the Rockfish to play with them when the four already know that the trio is a gang of bullies who likes to pester them. Pipo grumbles that it's Ricky's turn to complain all the time and he repeats Ella's threat from the day before that if Ricky carries on with his complaints like Pipo did, then Pipo won't play with his friends anymore. This surprises his friends when they assume Pipo is turning the tables on them with their threats, but Pipo reveals that he's only joking. However, Ricky can tell Pipo is taking them for a bunch of fools with his false positive demeanor as payback to their threats from the day before. Later that day, when the kids swim back to the playground, Pipo is waiting for them there with the coin to get ready to play the coin toss. The kids, who now see through Pipo's scheme to annoy them with his nonstop happiness, give him their suggestion of a different game to play and Pipo enthusiastically said he likes all of them. But when Ricky suggests that the four of them should tease the shark just like they did the day before, Pipo tells his friends he has a better idea and that is the four of them should tickle the shark's nose to make him laugh since he's "just a big, old softy, so there's no risk", which Pipo accepts the suggestion. As soon as Pipo leaves to take care of his punishment and he promises that he'll meet up with his friends at the outskirt of the reef for their game, Ella is starting to get worried since it's far too dangerous for Pipo to tickle the shark's nose without getting caught and be eaten by him. But before she can follow Pipo to tell him he should forget about it, Ricky tells her and Annabel that he has an idea to get Pipo to stop driving them crazy with his perpetual positive attitude.

When the three kids are at Albert's den, they tell Albert their plan and they need his help for it to work. Albert has to pretend to be the other shark so that when Pipo doesn't recognize him at the outskirts of the reef, he'll get scared that he wouldn't dare to tickle Albert's nose. And once Pipo gets scared, it'll put an end to his intention to drive his friends crazy by his unnatural positive behavior. But while Albert doesn't really understand what the kids are talking about, he'll help them with their plan as long as it doesn't put any of them in danger. But as soon as the three kids all swim away from the den to initiate their plan, Pipo arrives and unfortunately he didn't notice that his friends already have a conversation with Albert. So because of it, Pipo asks Albert for his help for his plan which is ironically similar to his friends' plan, though the difference is that Albert has to pretend to be the other shark so he could avoid tickling the other shark's nose to prevent himself from getting eaten. So when Pipo is about to tickle Albert on the nose, then Ricky and his friends wouldn't dare let him go do it and they'll have to apologize to him for wanting to change him for who he is because he knows how much they care about him and they don't want him to be put in danger for real. Albert agrees to help Pipo with his plan, still confused about his role as well as also unaware that he's helping the two parties at the same time.

On the outskirts of the reef, Pipo is ready for the challenge his three friends dared him to do. So when a shark swims by, Pipo swims to it to tickle his nose. While Pipo is swimming to the shark, Ricky tells his friends that he believes that Pipo is only bluffing and in a few seconds, Pipo will soon go back down and come back to his friends to beg for his forgiveness, unaware that Pipo also believes his friends are bluffing and in a couple of seconds, they're gonna call him back to apologize to him. Just then, Albert appears behind Ricky, Ella, and Annabel, which surprises the three kids. Albert asks them if they can remind him what his role is since he's very confused about their plan. The three kids came to realize that the shark Pipo is approaching is not Albert but an actual shark from outside the reef, which they have inadvertently put their butterfly fish friend in danger in the process. Pipo also realizes his mistake upon seeing the shark having actual teeth and he gets chased by him, but Albert luckily manages to stop the shark by holding onto him while Pipo hides behind his friends. The shark tells Albert that the four kids have been mocking and making fun of him all the time that he wants to eat them up as payback. Albert feels bad for the shark since he has the right to not get bullied by a group of kids, so he asks the four kids to apologize to the shark for constantly messing with him. After the kids apologize to the shark, the shark still doesn't forgive them and he gets angrier when Pipo tries to reason that they're only playing around with him. The shark shoves Albert aside and starts chasing after Pipo again, but Pipo manages to annoy the shark by his constant chatter that the shark gives up and leaves everyone alone since Pipo "gets on [his] nerves" and "ruined [his] appetite". As soon as the shark leaves, Pipo's friends all apologize to the butterfly fish for wanting to change him into something he doesn't like and they prefer Pipo to be just the way he is regardless if he complains or not. Pipo forgives them and he's happy for real that he's back to be in his normal self and continue his friendship with them.

## Characters

### Major characters

* Ricky
* Ella
* Pipo
* Annabel

### Minor characters

* Lulu
* Glitz
* Crudd
* Babbles
* Arthur
* Albert
* Billy
* Jimbo
* Aroun (background)
* Mika (background)
* Unnamed shark
* Deep-water fish
* Whales (mentioned)
* Reef fish

## Trivia

* In the French version, the episode is called "Joyeux Pipo".
* Despite this episode is the thirtieth to aired on TiJi like its US airing order, it's the twenty-sixth episode to aired in France on M6.
* Pipo breaks the fourth wall at the end of the episode by winking at the audience.
* While Pipo often complains but he deep down cares for his friends, this is the only time his grumpiness serves as a plot point for an entire episode.
* The episode title is a play on the song "Happy People" which coincidentally can be heard playing in the background of *A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures*.
* It's unknown what causes Pipo to be a bad mood during the first half of the episode since Ella mentions that he's been complaining "even more than usual".
* The unnamed shark shares the same character design as Boris.
* This is the third episode in which Albert uses a deep-water fish to pretend that he has false teeth after "Like a Grownup" and "Fortune and Fib Telling".

### Errors

* When Ricky explains that Albert must pretend to be a mean shark so Pipo won't recognize him, the Netflix close-caption erroneously said, "All you have to do is look so mean and scary that **people** won't recognize you, just in case he might" instead of "All you have to do is look so mean and scary that Pipo won't recognize you, just in case he might"

## References

1. ↑ https://instantwatcher.com/title/80042306
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/m6/24-11-2014/
3. ↑ https://playtv.fr/programmes-tv/tiji/15-03-2015/
4. ↑ https://www.netflix.com/title/80042177