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The Loud House Encyclopedia
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A Crime to Dye For

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"A Crime to Dye For" is the tenth short of The Loud House Digital Shorts.

Plot[]

When Lincoln is accused of dying the family's laundry orange, Leni decides to investigate the fashion crime.

Synopsis[]

On a rainy day, Leni is told by Lola that there has been a fashion emergency. Rushing downstairs, Leni discovers that everyone's laundry has been dyed orange (the only color visible in this primarily black-and-white short). When everyone questions how this happened, Luan immediately points the finger at Lincoln by saying that he was on laundry duty when the incident happened (as stated on the chore list). Lincoln insists that he's innocent, but he's ordered by Lola to be taken to the slammer (which is actually just a fortress made of the couch's cushions). Leni suspects that Lincoln has been subjected to foul play and decides to get to the bottom of it so she can clear her brother's name.

After entering the "slammer" by bribing Lily (one of the guards), Leni asks Lincoln on what he did today that led to the incident. Lincoln says that this morning, he was eating breakfast alongside everyone, where he told a joke to Lana (causing her to snort milk out her nose), and then later, had a large meatball sub. Afterwards, he went downstairs to do the laundry. Upon throwing all the whites into the washing machine, he quickly ran upstairs when he started to get an upset stomach due to the sub. When Leni asks how long he was upstairs, Lincoln says it was between 12:00 and 12:30, and when she asks who she could ask to corroborate his alibi, he states that the only ones present in the house were Luan, Lynn, and Mr. Coconuts, prompting Leni to go and ask them.

Approaching Luan in the kitchen, Leni discovers her making coconut pies for a new comedy act. When Leni asks Luan if she was in the kitchen this whole time, Luan says that she was, and has Mr. Coconuts confirm it (after Leni's initial attempt to get the answer out of him proved unsuccessful due to being an inanimate object). When Leni asks again if he was in the kitchen the whole time, Mr. Coconuts states that he temporarily stepped outside to get some air (as the kitchen heat started to warp his wooden body), and that Lynn can confirm it. After Lynn confirms that Mr. Coconuts was outside with her, Leni believes that the three witnesses have clear alibis, so she decides to investigate the laundry room. Initially not finding anything, Leni was about to give up, when she suddenly spotted something that ties the whole crime together.

After gathering everyone to the living room and into a mock trial, Leni proclaims that, after collecting enough evidence, Lincoln truly is innocent, and that the real culprits are Luan, Lynn and Mr. Coconuts. When the three accuse her by saying that she doesn't have proof, she reveals the truth: while Lincoln was upstairs to deal with his upset stomach, the three made their way to the laundry room, and deliberately dyed the white laundry orange by throwing in Luan's yellow socks and Lynn's red jersey, all while Mr. Coconuts was guarding the door as a lookout. When Mr. Coconuts states that it doesn't add up, Leni reveals that the detergent used in the laundry is coconut-scented, and states that while she was interrogating Lynn, she noticed that her jersey smelled the same as the coconut pies Luan was making (which she was most likely making in an attempt to camouflage her coconut-scented clothes). Upon sniffing the aforementioned clothes, Lana confirms that Leni is correct, thus proving the three of their guilt. When Lincoln asks them why they did it, they state that they were upset at him because of all the things he did to them earlier. It turns out Luan and Mr. Coconuts were telling the joke during breakfast, and Lincoln stole their punchline (Lana also snorted her milk onto them), and the sub he ate was Lynn's, as she was planning to eat it before her game. Because of this, the three decided to enact a revenge plan against Lincoln, but eventually admit that they took it too far since the rest of the family didn't wrong them. When the three promise to replace everyone's clothes, Rita decides to punish them by assigning them laundry duty for the next month, a decision the rest of the Louds accept. To make up for all the trouble Lincoln endured, Lynn tells him that they'll get him a limited-edition David Steele comic as compensation.

With Lincoln's name cleared, a proud Leni declares the case closed. Suddenly, it's revealed that the "rain" outside is actually Mr. Grouse washing the window with his hose. When told by Rita to stop with what he's doing, he suddenly loses his balance and falls down.

Cast[]

Luna, Lucy, Lisa and Lily have no lines in this short.

Trivia[]

  • This is the last short to premiere in 2023.
  • This is the second short to be primarily in black and white, the first being "The Maltese Bear".
  • Red, orange, and yellow are the only visible colors in this short.
    • In fact, while the credits are in black and white, the only thing that was given color was the orange Nickelodeon logo.
  • The premise of this short is similar to the Loud House episodes "Crimes of Fashion" and "Frame on You", as they're both about a character being accused of a crime they didn't commit, and someone close to them trying to gather evidence to clear their name.
  • Innuendo:
    • Whenever Leni looks out the window, it appears to be raining, but at the end, it turns out the "rain" is actually Mr. Grouse washing the Loud House's windows with his hose.
    • When Lola says that French Terry has died, Leni think she's referring to a person dying, but Lola reveals her dress, made from French terry fabric, has been dyed orange.
  • Foreshadowing: There are a few subtle hints that reveal that Luan, Lynn, and Mr. Coconuts were the true culprits (aside from being the only ones present in the house when the crime happened):
    • Luan was the first to accuse Lincoln of the incident by bringing up the chore list, a tactic most suspects use to avoid people suspecting them first.
    • The things Lincoln did before he did the laundry have some relation to Luan and Lynn's main hobbies (he told the punchline of a joke to Lana instead of Luan, and he ate a meatball sub that Lynn was saving for a game).
    • Luan and Lynn's primary colors are yellow and red, respectively, and those two colors mixed together make orange.
  • Cartoon physics:
    • Lana manages to drag Lincoln to the slammer, despite him being bigger than her.
    • The "slammer" is made up of the couch's cushions, but it appears much larger on the inside.

References[]

  • A Crime to Dye for - The title of this short is a pun on the detective series A Lie to Die for.
  • Guys and Dolls - The title of Luan and Mr. Coconuts' comedy act, Pies and Dolls, is a pun of the 1950 Broadway musical.
  • Sin City - The visual style of this short is similar to the visual style of this graphic novel series by Frank Miller, as they're both primarily depicted as being in black and white, and have only small fragments of color for the purpose of adding emphasis on certain elements.

Errors[]

  • Despite being listed in the credits, Lily does not have any lines in this short.
  • When everyone turns to Lincoln after Luan announces he was on laundry duty, Leni's shadow can be seen despite her watching everything in the dining room.
  • The jail made out of the couch's cushions disappears when Leni tells her family who the real culprits were.

Videos[]

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