The children give Lily an old singing toy from the attic to help her stop crying, but it quickly drives them crazy.
Synopsis[]
Lily has been crying nonstop for an hour for no reason, and the other siblings are not sure how to cheer her up. Rita and Lynn Sr. explain that babies cry for no reason, and that she will eventually tire herself out soon. Suddenly, Lori remembers that she used to have a toy called Fenton the Feel-Better Fox, a singing animatronic fox. After some digging up in the attic, Lori finds Fenton. She presses Fenton's foot, and Fenton begins singing. The song manages to cheer up Lily, and she stops crying. However, as the siblings watch Lily play around with the toy, Rita and Lynn Sr. are horrified to learn that the toy is out. The parents warn their kids that the toy will eventually drive them crazy, but the kids, simply believing their parents are overreacting, do not see what harm the toy could do.
Unfortunately, over the next three days, Lily starts to make Fenton play the song nonstop, gradually driving her siblings insane. Eventually, they decide they have had enough and declare that they have to get rid of Fenton. The siblings hold a meeting, and Lincoln explains that Lily has Fenton no matter what she does, with one exception: when her diaper is changed. He states that while Lily is getting her diaper changed, they will use that distraction to take Fenton away. Later, as Luan changes Lily's diaper, the siblings manage to take Fenton away, out of the house, and tossed into the dumpster bin at Flip's Food & Fuel. After getting her diaper changed, the siblings commence the second phase of the plan: keep Lily from crying. The siblings attempt to keep Lily from crying by doing numerous activities with her, but she simply remains glum throughout all of them. After doing enough activities, Lily begins to fall asleep, and Lincoln concludes that if Lily can go to sleep normally, the plan would succeed. Lori places Lily in her crib, and she goes to sleep soundly.
The next day, the siblings are all relieved that the annoyance is over, but when Luna brings Lily into the kitchen, she is very sad. The siblings try to cheer Lily up by feeding her, playing with her blocks, and make a fort out of the sofa cushions, but none of them cheer her up. They eventually realize that Lily misses Fenton, and admit that even though they love the silence, they'd rather have Lily happy. The siblings check the dumpster where Fenton was tossed out, but Fenton is gone. They rush off to the junkyard, and manage to find Fenton, but it is too late, as the toy has gone through a trash compactor, destroying it in the process. As the siblings sadly head back home, they realize that Fenton's song is catchy and is stuck in their heads. This gives Lincoln an idea on how they can cheer up Lily.
Back at the Loud House's living room, the siblings bring Lily to Lincoln dressed up as Fenton. Luna begins singing the song while Lincoln dances to it, successfully cheering up Lily. When Lily wants them to sing the song again, Lincoln admits that they might have to sing the song for the rest of their lives, but at least Lily can be happy. As all the siblings begin to sing the song, Rita and Lynn Sr. come back home, witness their kids singing Fenton's song, don their earmuffs, and run away screaming in terror.
This episode reveals why Lucy's hair covers her eyes: when the siblings were babies, they all had a tendency to cry, but Lucy just silently stared at her parents, and Rita and Lynn Sr. let her grow her bangs out, believing that she won't stare at them anymore should they cover her eyes. However, Lucy states that she can still see through her hair, mortifying them.
Lisa (along with Lily) was the only Loud sibling to not react when Lynn Sr. brings up how Lucy would just stare during her infancy implying that Lucy's bangs were fully grown out between the years the twins and Lisa were born.
Humorously, later on in the episode, there was another joke involving Lucy's eyes: when Lily pushed away Luan's balloon dinosaur, the balloon's eyes landed on Lucy's hair (hinting the location of her eyes), just before they pop.
This episode, along with its sister episode "Anti-Social", aired on Black Friday, right after Thanksgiving. They premiered simultaneously on Nickelodeon, TeenNick, and the NickToons network, as a lead-in to the premiere of Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie on all three networks, marking the first Loud House episode to premiere on three networks at once (and also the first time The Loud House aired on TeenNick).
On the newspapers Rita and Lynn Sr. were reading, three of the articles were titled "King Breaks Silence", "Murphy Loses Keys", and "Savino Escapes Custody".
The part where they keep Lily from crying after they took Fenton has the scene changing while Lily stayed in the sitting position in the same spot of the screen.
The music that plays on the title card is a rock variant of Fenton's song.
At the beginning, Lisa describes Lily's crying as caterwauling, a shrill howl or wailing type of noise, particularly towards cats.
Fenton's song is sung sixteen times throughout the episode.
The first thirteen times were sung by Fenton itself, while the last three times were sung by the Loud kids.
It's revealed that when Lori originally played with Fenton, it drove the Loud parents nuts to the point where they almost decided to not have anymore kids meaning Lori would have been an only child.
Irony: There's a sign on the garbage dump fence that reads "No dumping".
Cartoon physics: The cube of garbage containing Fenton disintegrates into ashes.
Innuendo: After Rita says how she and Lynn Sr. almost did not have anymore kids due to Fenton driving them crazy, Lisa casually remarks "Well you certainly went the other way with that".
References[]
The Crying Dame - The title of this episode is a parody of the 1992 film The Crying Game.
Arthur - In Lola's room, there is a toy that resembles Woogles, a collectible item that was featured in the episode "Arthur Rides the Bandwagon".
Sid the Science Kid - There is also a toy that resembles the main character of this show.
Fennec fox - The name "Fenton" is a pun on the name of this breed of fox.
Teletubbies - At the end of the episode, the sun that resembles Fenton's face on it is a reference to the baby sun from the show.
Train - Fenton's song has a similar melody to a line in this band's 2012 song "California 37" that reads, "Making love now, not mistakes. Working hard instead of looking for breaks."
Errors[]
On the title card, Lily has three toes instead four.
Lily usually does not have eyebrows (at least in early seasons), but has them when she cries at the beginning, when she hugs Fenton in the attic, and when she is sad.
When Lori is driving her siblings back from the city dump, the shift lever is in Park.
When Lori pulls out Fenton from the box in the attic, she presses the toy's button almost immediately. It should not be playing the song, because the batteries would have been corroded by then, since it's been there for almost seventeen years.
Fenton plays the song nonstop when the button is not even pushed. Toys do not usually do this, unless it is possibly broken. Besides, the batteries would have run out of juice, since it went on for three days.
When Lola confesses that Fenton must go, Leni's left eyelashes are missing.
It is mentioned that Lily has Fenton with her during baths. Since Fenton is an electric toy, it should have shorted out, and stopped functioning. It is possible that Fenton is water-proof.
While the frying pan's reflection shows that Leni cut off the center portion of Lori's hair, Lori's model still has her hair intact.
When the kids are running through the dump, Luna's bracelets on her right arm are missing.
Fenton is missing his microphone when he gets dropped into the trash compactor. It could be possible it fell off beforehand.
Lincoln wears his Fenton costume over his usual clothes. However, his shirt is white and his jeans are gray when Lily taps his foot and Luna begins to sing Fenton's song, before reverting to their usual colors when he starts dancing. His jeans also become gray when Lily presses his foot again, begging for more.
When Lincoln knocks down a house of cards, Lincoln's groan is used in Grant Palmer's voice instead of Collin Dean's.
Videos[]
"The Crying Dame" Animatic The Loud House Nick Animation