Funny Business

"Funny Business" is the forty-seventh episode of the first season of The Loud House.

Plot
When Lincoln becomes Luan's clown assistant, he starts hogging the spotlight.

Synopsis
The story begins with Lincoln ready to read a comic book under a tree, when Luan appears. She's about to fall from her unicycle, so she cries for help. Lincoln rushes to catch her, but she falls down. Lincoln helps her by collecting her party toys and props from ground. She offers to make him her clown assistant, because the other sisters she contracted ruined each of the birthday parties she performed for. Lincoln declines at first, but when Luan tells him that the clown and her assistant receive free pieces of birthday cake, he eagerly accepts the job.

At the next birthday party, where he assists, Lincoln accidentally slips on a whipped cream can, and falls on the presents, which the kids see as hilarious. Flattered with the laughs and applause, Lincoln begins to hoard the show by making pratfalls to make the children laugh while overshadowing Luan, who becomes jealous of him.

One day, Funny Business Inc. receives a call from a mother of the neighborhood to contract Luan as a clown in her daughter's birthday party, but Lincoln takes her place believing it's gonna be easy, as with the previous parties, and ignoring Luan's advice that being a clown is about more than just "falling on his butt". When he arrives at the party, he's surprised to see that all the kids are emo tweens, and the birthday girl, Maggie, is 13 years old. He then begins to do his act, but the emo kids boo him, and don't find him funny. Humiliated, Lincoln calls Luan for help, but she refuses at first, due to his inappropriate and selfish attitude towards her. He apologizes and recognizes that she's the expert and he isn't, but she still isn't convinced. He also tells her that if she doesn't come, her clown business will have a bad reputation, and she finally agrees to help him.

Luan comes to assist Lincoln, and after looking at the audience, she gets an idea. She and Lincoln perform a mime play, which all the emo kids enjoy and clap to. On their way home, Lincoln thanks Luan for her aid, and apologizes to her for his misbehaving. She forgives him, and she also apologizes as well, saying she shouldn't have been so harsh on him, remembering how she got her first laugh, and asks him if he will continue being her assistant, which he agrees. In the end, they both enjoy a moment of laughing together after they fall on some whoopee cushions.

Cast
Lucy has no lines in this episode.
 * Collin Dean as Lincoln
 * Liliana Mumy as Leni
 * Cristina Pucelli as Luan
 * Jessica DiCicco as Lynn / Audience Kid
 * Grey Griffin as Lana / Maggie's Mom
 * Lara Jill Miller as Lisa
 * Kari Wahlgren as Maggie / Unnamed Woman / Kids
 * Kimberly Brooks as Tween #1 / Kids
 * Charlie Schlatter as Dad #1 / Tween #2
 * April Stewart as Bratty Kid's Mom

Trivia

 * The title of this episode means unpleasant, or dishonest actions, which seems to describe both Lincoln and Luan's actions throughout the episode, and the fact that the episode's central theme is clowns.
 * On the title card, Lincoln's chipped tooth is noticeably dislocated. This might be because if it was positioned in the center, the clown nose he's wearing would obscure it.
 * The buzzing sound when the assistants got fired is the same as in "Undie Pressure", when someone lost the bet.
 * Luan's assistants prior to Lincoln and the reason they were fired:
 * Lucy - Scared Luan and the other kids, causing her to pop the balloon animal she was making.
 * Lynn - Threw a watermelon at Luan a bit too hard during her juggling act.
 * Leni - Stopped assisting to watch the show.
 * Leni is the only former assistant to be older than Luan.
 * Lisa - Thought the whoopee cushions were a case of gastroenteritis.
 * This is the first time that one of the twins is present (Lana), while the other is absent (Lola).
 * This is the second episode in which all ten supporting characters (both sets of parents, the Santiagos, and the four pets) are completely absent (no physical appearance and no mentions). The first is "Space Invader".
 * Rita was indirectly mentioned by Lincoln.
 * Bratty kid's mom, the female shopper from "Cereal Offender", and the unnamed woman from "Come Sale Away", make an appearance in this episode.
 * This is the second time Luan is in her mime outfit, after "Ties That Bind". Plus, she does the same mime trick when she calms Lily down at Maggie's party to satisfy the emo tweens.
 * This is also the third time Luan is in her clown outfit, after "Cover Girls" and "Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru".
 * It is revealed that Luan has her own pet rabbit named Gary.
 * This makes her one of the three siblings to have an exclusive pet along with Lana and Lucy.
 * Lucy's signature is her name with a drawing of a bat in the end.
 * Lisa's writing style is digital clock typography.
 * On Leni's business ID card, she didn't write "assistant" in the position space. Instead, she used both the signature and position space to write her signature.
 * Because Bratty Kid's Mom appeared during Maggie's birthday, there's a chance Bratty Kid has siblings who are of Lynn's age.
 * After Lincoln's second birthday, in Luan's clothes, there was a SMOOCH shirt.
 * In Luna & Luan's room, there was a poster which said "June", when Lincoln answered the phone.
 * Charlie Schlatter, Grey Griffin, Kari Wahlgren, Brian Stepanek, Catherine Taber, John DiMaggio, Jessica DiCicco, Daran Norris, Susanne Blakeslee, Greg Cipes, & Fred Tatasciore were coincidentally the cast of Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil, in which Savino first created the show.
 * On their assistant ID's, Lucy, Lynn, Leni, Lisa, and Lincoln's photos all show them in their designs from the pilot and "Left in the Dark".
 * Irony: Luan got narcissistic when people laughed at her for the first time, but didn't try to explain this to Lincoln based on her own experiences.
 * Karma: Lincoln got narcissistic, cocky, and didn't listen to Luan, so his next clown performance was a failure.
 * Moral:
 * Only the master knows best.
 * One accidental success doesn't make you an expert.
 * Be supportive to your friends and family.

Errors

 * Pterosaurs are not dinosaurs, but the kid who said this could simply don't know due to young age.
 * Lynn's business ID card shows that she has two freckles on her left cheek instead of three.
 * When Lynn and Lana are laughing at one of Lincoln's pratfalls, the FiOs captions said LENI and Lana were laughing, instead of LYNN and Lana.
 * While at the fifth birthday party with Lincoln, Luan gets angry, and when she shows her teeth, her braces are missing.
 * Not only that, but that party had a medieval theme, but when it shows Lincoln being admired by his fans afterward, it changes to a pirate theme.
 * When Luan arrives at Maggie's party, her eyelashes are missing.
 * In the flashback to the first birthday party, Lucy stays in her regular attire instead of an "assistant" black outfit like Luan's other assistants.
 * In the panoramic shot of Maggie's birthday party and its following shots, there are several continuity errors:
 * The piñata and the disco ball suddenly appears in the following scenes after the panoramic shot.
 * The arrangement of kids texting with their smartphones in one scene was different in the panoramic shot.
 * The piñata and the disco ball are not hanging from anything, making them look like they're floating on mid-air.
 * Two kids are shown being standing up in front of the stage, but then they are showing in the piñata scene. Additionally, the blonde hair girl with a wool cap is shown in three different consecutive scenes of the party.
 * In the panoramic shot, there are two cakes over the table next to the stage. However, when Lincoln falls on the cake table, there is one cake and a tray with muffins instead.

Running Gags

 * Flashbacks of Luan firing her previous assistants after doing something that she's not happy about.
 * Lincoln doing his pratfalls to make people laugh.
 * Gary pooping everywhere.
 * Luan getting annoyed about her brother stealing her spotlight by doing his pratfalls.
 * The "Funny Business, Inc." motto.

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