Hard, Easy, Change

**Hard, Easy, Change** is the seventh episode of the second season in the series *A Little Curious,* and the 32nd episode in total. It aired on February 14, 2000. It focuses on the subjects of the words hard, easy, and change.

## Segments

### Try Harder (CGI)

Little Cup, Mary Jane, and Lacey cheer for Bob, who is trying to make it in a basketball hoop. He tries harder and harder until he makes it in the trash can right next to the hoop. Bob jumps out and states that it wasn't so hard.

### Hard to Lift (Cel)

Doris is at a desk announcing a "heavyweight lifting contest" where weightlifters lift large weights. Plush is first in the contest, and after struggling, he manages to lift it up, even keeping it idle in the air as he spits on his paws. However, he ends up dropping it and it breaks a hole in the stage.

### A Little Reality

Some kids are trying to reach for the monkey bars the hard way but make it easy for a little boy.

### Easy for You (Crayon or Pen Drawings)

Bob and Mr. String have to cross a water brook, and Bob hops across it using rocks while singing. Mr. String hesitates that if he hops, he'll look a frog who has a long tongue, and he'll trip over it and get tongue-tied, but he hops over it and faints on the other side.

### Easy for Me (Cel)

Bob, Mary Jane, Doris and Mr. String sing about how one thing a character does is really easy for them, but not for the other.

### A Little Reality

Ice Sculptor, Dennis Gogg, changes a hard block of ice into a character sculpture of Plush.

### Change Your Mind (CGI)

Mr. String is at the table ready to eat some hot cereal, but then he worries that if he eats hot cereal on a hot day, his bow tie will wilt like a lettuce leaf, then a rabbit would come biting it and he didn't have any salad dressing. So he changes his mind and goes to eat some cold cereal instead, but then he worries his teeth would chatter like a chipmunk and have to store nuts in a tree for winter. He changes his mind again, but then can't make up whether he wants hot or cold cereal. He then sees Plush with a muffin and decides to go with a banana muffin, but then he wants a carrot muffin. He keeps changing into both a banana and a carrot while Plush eats the muffin.

### Song: Mr. String (CGI)

The Mr. String song "He's Jumpy" is played.

### Presto Change-O (CGI)

Bob and Little Cup are on stage for a magic trick, which Bob will turn Cup into a wild animal. He fears that he's going to change, but Bob explains that it's just a trick. He hops into the box and Plush comes out, then Little Cup comes out of Bob's hat saying he didn't "change-o" and stayed the "same-o".

### A Little Reality

Several girls go into a tent at the beach and change into bathing suits.

### Easy Does It (Cardboard/Stop Motion)

Bob tries to build a triangular house of cards, stacking them one by one with Mop, Mr. String, and Pad and Pencil reminding him in song to be careful. Easy does it. He successfully puts it together, but the wind blows it all down.

### A Little Reality

In this segment, a boy takes it easy to build a triangular house of cards. Easy does it.

### Song: Doris (CGI)

The Doris song "Swing Doris Swing" is played.

### Hard Bagel (Cel)

Plush tries to bite into a bagel on a plate, but it's too hard. Doris says it's not that hard, so he proves it to her that it's hard and bangs on the table with it, which causes it to crack, then he kicks it which hurts himself. Doris says this is getting hard to believe, so he continues and pounds a nail into it, but it falls apart, then jackhammers into it. Doris asks what he's going to with the hard bagel, and he attaches it to her knocker. Doris jokes that she's from "the school of hard knocks".

### School of Hard Knocks (Cel)

Doris sings about how she went to the School of Hard Knocks, and opens herself to a younger self singing with two other doors.

### A Little Reality

Many people knock on doors using either the knockers or with their hands, rhythmically.

### How Times Change (Cel)

Pad and Pencil sing about how the times change during their relationship, and that the technology they used to communicate with got even better.