Sticks Stink

"**Sticks Stink**" (French: "Mi-cadeau") is the second episode of season one of *The Crumpets*.

## Synopsis

Thinking his family is in a plot against him prior to his first birthday, Li'l One convinces King to swap their identities and clothes for 24 hours.

## Plot

During the night, Ma takes Li'l One for his bedtime at his crib amidst his opposition. Meanwhile, the rest of the family are wearing scarves and rushing to the hall to input birthday present ideas for the baby kid, and Li'l-One unsuccessfully tries to understand from his mother what they're doing. With Ma giving him toys to the crub, Li'l One anticipates having his video game console. Pfff also goes to Li'l-One's bedroom and reminds Ma of the family gathering, but as Li'l-One gets offended that one of his siblings is interacting their mother, Pfff pretends he's referring to another mother. Pfff makes more signals at Ma, who then finally departs from the bedroom after dropping a huge elephant plush at Li'l One.

Li'l One suspects his family is in a plot against him. He exits the bedroom and glances a no nappy sign in the hallway, fueling his suspicion they might ban nappies or discriminate him. He sneaks and moves along the wall, but accidentally enters the bedroom of King through the door flap. At the family gathering, Pa waits for the present suggestions from the family members, who keep sneezing from the cold.

King growls and pounces Li'l One at greeting him, and the latter asks King that he is needed by the family. King tells Li'l One that he won't go with them due to his fear of germs and viruses. Li'l One seeks from King any details of the family meeting, but King says their mother tried to fetch him but he has the ability to stay incognito with the lion costume. This fascinates Li'l One, although King says that their mother will keep trying to search and bath him, which he hates doing. After Li'l One smells King's stench, the latter feels disadvantaged by his bragging younger brother. Li'l One tells King that because he likes him, he would like to switch clothes until tomorrow morning. Once King refuses, Li'l One offers to sacrifice his lifestyle for King to participate, but the latter goes back to showing how much he hate germs and that the lion costume shields him from germs. Li'l One makes the final point that the clothing switch would let King get Ma's love, and King agrees to make the deal. Li'l One uncovers King's afro and cuts it down to match his hair with his own.

Wearing King's costume, Li'l One enters the hall and gets to be part of the meeting. The doorkeeper Triceps spots what appears to be Li'l One (King with Li'l One's nappy) outside Li'l One's room, and King cries out for Ma, who rushes out and bumps Li'l One at her path. Pa finishes the count of his children and reveals that Li'l One is the one whose birthday present will be decided. Li'l One gets excited upon hearing this, but Pa explains that the input on what the present should be must be inserted to a dropbox, there can be no store bought or mercantile items, and it has to be a "group gift" and "completely natural". Li'l One asks Caprice if Ma can contribute, and Caprice responds saying Ma's responsibility is keeping him away from the meeting, causing Li'l One to growl at her. Granny interrupts the crowd by proposing the video game console, and the kids become thrilled at her idea. Pa disagrees because consoles and other devices are "unoriginal", recommending something where people can play together. Pfff points that the video game console can let multiple people play and Caprice also supports having a console for Li'l One. Li'l One exclaims that he would vote for the console, but Pa reminds him (thinking he's King) of the idea placed to the dropbox, freaking out Li'l One because he's unaware of King's input. Pa reveals King's idea as a "king-sized recorder set", dashing Li'l One's hopes. Trying to reverse the input, Li'l One claims to have been "smoking jungle weed that day" and was joking the idea, then mentions pick-up sticks. Caprice discovers pick-up sticks to be the definite gift for the "little runt", and Pa instructs the kids to produce two sharp Mikado sticks and insert them to the dropbox to be wrapped by Pa.

As it seems he won't obtain the gift he desires, Li'l One looks at his bedroom and learns that Ma is sleeping in the crib with the Li'l One-disguised King. With things not going how he wants, he sleeps in King's bedroom. He dreams of an African landscape getting bombed, followed by rising King-like phantoms over a red background. Waking up and horrified by the nightmare, he returns to his bedroom and forcefully pulls the nappy back from King, who holds on to the crib. Being thrown to the floor, King calls for Ma's help against "King", and she and Pa arrive to break up the fighting boys while being deceived of their identities.

The rest of the family dash past Ms. McBrisk outside her home, who is trying to maintain her hedge. The family finds a tree on a hill, and after Pa greenlights the tree's destruction and leaves, Triceps runs a chainsaw and chops in half from the top. As the kids transport one half to their house, the tree half damages the edge of McBrisk's lawn and McBrisk yells and faints. In Ma's workshop, one branch gets processed in a machine into two sticks. While Ohoh is on a stool to drop a branch, Blister pushes the stool so he can lean and fall to the processor. He exits the machine shaped, painted, and sounding like a wooden stick. Triceps cuts a bigger portion of the tree like a ninja into two big sticks that would be knocked down by the stick-shaped Ohoh. Bother steals a guitar from Pfff and sends it to the processor. Triceps attempts to cut another guitar but is unable to.

After giving some attention to the Li'l One-disguised King, Ma talks to the King-disguised Li'l One that she wants to spend time with "Li'l One" that she admires. After King appears, Li'l One distracts Ma and tries to tell the truth until she picks him up midway and sends him to the spinning clothes wheel, punishing him for "having a grind" on "Li'l One"'s birthday. Being stuck hanging on the wheel to the night, he shouts in anger regarding Ma's maltreatment. Ms. McBrisk hears him from her house and looks at him crying.

In the birthday party, Caprice sings a segment of "Happy Birthday" to King, while she's also unaware that he's not actually Li'l One. Once Ma delivers the cake to the table, the real Li'l One arrives to confront his deceitful brother. The fake Li'l One makes a proclamation at his siblings to perform all of their chores until he is a grown up "starting today or else immediately". The real Li'l One responds by vowing to include recycling bins and to pay forty-twelve times a day so that King can end up doing them. Escalating their feud, King announces that Li'l One moves to his room and King himself would move in to their parents. Li'l One pounces King and fight him, the two eventually crashing the cake. Ma halts the fight and King hides in her tummy hatch.

Ma hears Li'l One inside a cabinet, but King tries persuading her to ignore him. When she denies his request in spite of the birthday, King gets a "happy birthday" shout from his siblings, who sneeze mucus at him and leaves him nervous. Li'l One tells Ma that he wants to explain a surprise, but the doorbell and arrival of the McBrisks disrupt this opportunity. Cassandra gifts King a huge present, and he opens it to reveal it's a video game console. Ms. McBrisk obtained because she heard Li'l One crying last night and thinks he was anxious about his first birthday. The fake Li'l One announces the video game console to be given to King tomorrow because of his loneliness, therefore the fake Li'l One would play mikado sticks. Li'l One shouts "No!" at this arrangement.

Outside the house, Pa expects the kids to play mikado sticks with him rather than a "plastic made in China video game joystick". He finds himself lonely at the activity.

## Trivia

* The episode's French title is a pun on "mikado".
* In France, there was a questionnaire on this episode for children.
* A concept art piece of Li'l One wearing King's costume is on the show's Facebook page.