Making the Case

"Making the Case" is the fourth episode of the first season of The Loud House.

Plot
Lincoln secretly records his sisters' most embarrassing moments in order to win a video contest at school.

Synopsis
Lincoln explains that all his sisters have won a number of awards and acknowledgements, like Lynn's soccer trophies, Lola's pageant crowns, Lisa's Junior Nobel Prize, and even Lily won trophies by simply sucking her thumb. Lincoln feels overshadowed by his sisters, as he is the only one without a trophy, award, certificate, plaque, medal nor an accolade. He had already tried everything to get a trophy, and three flashbacks are shown. The first one shows Lincoln running a marathon, only to come in dead last, the second one shows Lincoln at a karate tournament trying to chop three planks of woods but he breaks his hand and gains a cast, and the third and final one shows Lincoln in a kid pageant, only to be runner-up.

Lincoln says he finally has his chance, because there is a video contest he is entering. He explains whoever's video gets the most votes will win a trophy. Clyde asks if Lincoln thinks he can win, and the latter says yes, but the former mentions the results of the pageant from earlier. Angered, Lincoln says he was robbed, then tells Clyde to get his camera. Later at Lincoln's house, Clyde is filming Lincoln, who is covered in breath mints, and attempts to skateboard into a kiddie pool full of soda, and succeeds forming a geyser with it. Clyde thinks it is good, and claims everyone is going to vote for Lincoln, but when they upload the video he gets no votes at all.

Clyde says the reason nobody is voting for Lincoln is because of a video called "Hamstacam", which got 50 votes. Annoyed, Lincoln wonders what's so great about a simple hamster, which offends Geo. Lincoln then states he's awesome. A comment appears asking him to check out Lincoln's sister's website. They click the link to see it is Luan's website. Lincoln is shocked to see that Luan has 50,000 followers, and hopes Luan can help them win. Upstairs, in her room, Luan examines the video, but doesn't think it is good. She states that stunts aren't gonna cut it. Desperate to know how to make an entertaining video, he asks her how and she says to follow her number #1 rule: to always keep your camera on you, as you never know when you'll find "Comedy gold".

Outside, Lincoln and Clyde are trying to find humorous stuff to film. Clyde spots Lynn repeatedly bouncing a soccer ball on her head counting how many times she can do so near a rake and Clyde wonders if she will get hit by the rake. Lincoln gets an idea and both of them hide in a bush. While Lynn is counting, she accidentally stumbles backwards and gets hit by the rake, stumbles backwards and trips on the soccer ball, falls backwards onto the trampoline and is bounced into the soda-filled pool, getting drenched.

Lincoln is astonished by this and thinks the only way to beat Hamstacam is by filming his ten sisters. A montage plays of the duo filming Lincoln's sisters doing embarrassing and funny things. Once the video is uploaded, his classmates are impressed and vote for him. Once they make fun of his sisters, he regrets this. As Clyde and Lincoln walk home, the latter says his sisters will never know about it. Unfortunately for him, as he opens the door, he reveals his sisters standing irrationally enraged, that Lincoln embarrassed them and he explains that he wanted to win a trophy like the girls, only for them to be too furious at him. Upon seeing the humiliating videos of themselves, they all disown him, and pretend to get rid of their brother.

Lori is known to be the most angry at him because when she farts, she lies by saying it's her shoes. He tries to apologize by showing respect to them, but to no avail, which they disrespect him. First, he goes to Luna to let him explain the situation but blasts him out with heavy metal frustration. Lastly, he turns to Luan because she was the one who told him to do it, but she says that he broke the rule to never upload the video without anyone's permission before expelling him by closing the door on him.

Upset at the situation, he immediately deletes the video, thus disqualifying himself. Lincoln gets an idea of how he can make it up to his sisters. He runs to Luan to help him, and she opens her closet to show him many video tapes from Lincoln's past. He then uploads a new video of him doing embarrassing and funny things to himself this time, but to Lincoln's dismay his classmates tease him (with one named Cristina, who is shocked that Lincoln has a crush on her) and say that his new video isn't going to help him win the contest.

He sadly walks home, and before walking in, he hopes his sisters will reconcile with him. However, when he opens the door his sisters are still irrationally enraged, like in the previous scene. He is mortified that it didn't work, causing himself to confess the truth, explaining that he embarrassed himself to make it up to them. However, instead of being angry, they are happy and joyful that he embarrassed himself to get even, and they walk up to him, and forgive him. They are also happy that Lincoln did the right thing by confessing to what he did instead of lying to her or just not telling them about it. Luan consoles Lincoln about not winning the trophy, and Lori says they appreciate what he did and give him a small trophy. Grateful, Lincoln thanks them. After Luna, Lynn and Lola embrace him, he runs to the trophy case and puts it in his empty spot.

The trophy has a #1 on the top, and says "Most Improved Brother" on the bottom. Lincoln is glad that he finally won a trophy. He then awkwardly says Cristina is switching classes, but is even more glad that his sisters no longer disrespect and hate him and that he finally made the case. A fart can be heard, much to Lincoln's confusion. It turns out it was Lori who farted, and she still lies by angrily stating it was her shoes, as her siblings just stare at her in disbelief.

Cast
Lisa, Artie, Lindsey, Penelope, and Cristina have no lines in this episode.
 * Grant Palmer as Lincoln
 * Catherine Taber as Lori / Computer Voice
 * Liliana Mumy as Leni
 * Nika Futterman as Luna
 * Cristina Pucelli as Luan
 * Jessica DiCicco as Lynn / Lucy
 * Grey Griffin as Lana / Lola / Lily
 * Caleel Harris as Clyde
 * Daran Norris as Little Miss Cutie Pie Pageant Judge
 * Zoe Pessin as Classmate #1
 * Jay Gragnani as Classmate #2

Trivia

 * It's revealed that Lincoln and Clyde are in 5th grade.
 * Edwin is a character from "Vampires of Melancholia", which was said to be Lucy's favorite show in "Left in the Dark".
 * Though Lily is an infant, she realizes what Lincoln has done when Lori shows her the humiliating video involving her and her sisters, but Lincoln recorded no videos of her so, it is unknown why she was mad at Lincoln, unless she just wanted to be part of the group.
 * This is the first time Mick Swagger is mentioned on the show.
 * This episode has a similar title to the Season 2 episode "Making the Grade".
 * Coincidentally, both of these episodes were storyboarded by Darin McGowan.
 * Lincoln wasn't the only sibling without a trophy in the case. Lori, Leni, Luan, Lucy, and Lana didn't have trophies as well.
 * It is possible that they share the one in the top row of the middle column, as that one has nobody's name on it.
 * This is the first time Luna is seen wearing pants.
 * This is the first time Lincoln is naked onscreen.
 * This is the first time Lincoln is heard singing. He sings in the shower in one of his comedy videos.
 * This is the first time Lincoln becomes an outcast. This happens later in "The Green House", as well as "Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru".
 * This is the first time Lisa appears without any lines of dialogue (aside from the pilot).
 * Things Lincoln recorded his sisters doing:
 * Lori - Checking if the coast is clear so she can fart.
 * Leni & Lisa - Walking/running into the wall.
 * Luna - Ripping her pants after doing a split, exposing her underwear.
 * Lynn - Walking into a rake, and falling into a pool of soda and breath mints.
 * Lucy - Kissing her bust of Edwin.
 * Lana - Chewing gum from the trash.
 * Lola - Photos of her from numerous pageants, and showing her sleeping with a brace, and with very messy hair.
 * Luan and Lily were the only sisters not seen being recorded by Lincoln.
 * In the Latin American version, when Luna does a "split", it's her who says "Oh rayos" ("Oh dang it!"), instead of Lincoln as in the original version (in that case he says "Oh drafty!").
 * This is the first episode to not have Lincoln's physical appearance on the title card. He instead appears as the golden statuette on a trophy.
 * The trophy case was never seen again until the release of Living Loud: Lincoln's List.
 * Innuendo: Lynn's sports certificate reads "Kicks A+", a subtle reference to the phrase "kicks a**".
 * Moral:
 * The end doesn't always justify the means.
 * Don't let your envy cloud your moral judgement.
 * Don't publish humiliating videos online (or at least not without someone's permission first).
 * Timeline: After "The Green House", since Cristina is still in Lincoln's class.

Errors

 * When Lincoln is opening the case to put his trophy in, in the top right row of the case is a golden gramophone as Luna's trophy, but after he put the trophy in, the golden gramophone is gone.
 * Lily has five trophies in the beginning of the episode, and later, only two are seen.
 * When Lincoln opens the front door to reveal his mad sisters, Luna and Lynn are standing to Lori's right, while Leni, Lisa, and Lily are standing to her left, but in the next shot when they are criticizing Lincoln, their locations are reversed.
 * The same thing happens towards the end, when Lincoln comes home after he made the embarrassing video of himself.
 * When Clyde tells Lincoln "They know", he has a chipped tooth.
 * When Classmate #1 laughs at the embarrassing video that Lincoln made to humiliate himself, the eyelashes on both her eyes are disconnected.
 * When Lincoln is sleeping with Bun-Bun, his shirt is blue instead of his trademark color orange. This could be because it is dark, thus changing the color of his clothing; yet in other episodes, his clothes don't change color.
 * When Lana blows a bubble after grabbing her gum from the trash, her eyelashes are missing.
 * When Lincoln hits his hand on the wood board his eyes are wide open and his hand is red, but when he gets put in the ambulance it is normal colored and his eyes are half open (possibly because he could've been in so much pain that they gave him medicine to calm him down/make him sleepy).

Running Gags

 * Lori farting when no one else is around, or so she thinks, and blaming it on her shoes when she denies it was her.
 * The sisters getting rid of Lincoln by slamming the door in his face.
 * Lincoln and Clyde mentioning Hamstacam.
 * Lincoln uploading a video that he expects to be number 1 to win him the trophy, but ends up not working out.

Auf Trophäenjagd Llegando a la Vitrina Попасть на полку Le trophée pt-br:Na Estante Making the Case