Billy Joe the Scholar is the third episode of Dude, That's My Ghost!. It aired for the first time on February 3rd, 2013, along with Cuckoo's Nest.
Synopsis[]
When Billy gloats after proving himself to be smarter than Spencer in school, Spencer takes advantage of Billy's pride and tricks him into doing his homework. However, the next day, Billy catches on to Spencer's intentions and retaliates.
Plot[]
Spencer Wright is filming a cemetery scene in his new movie, Eat My Brain With A Side of Fries, with Billy Joe Cobra and Rajeev. Billy is in charge of putting the smoke pellets in the smoke machine. However, he isn't paying attention, so when it comes time for him to fill the machine with pellets, he accidentally dumps in the entire container's worth of pellets. The entire room fills up with green smoke. Rajeev runs into Spencer amid the panic and his brain hat deflates. When asked about the incident, Billy, confusedly, says he put ten pellets in the smoke machine. Spencer frowns.
"How can you stay mad at this puppy-dog face?"
Later, Spencer is riding to school on his bike. Billy floats up beside him, encouraging him to not be upset and drilling his point in by transforming into a dog. Spencer sarcastically remarks that he ought to "learn to count", which Billy takes literally. After asking Spencer about the words for teachers, books, and classes, he goes to school -- this time to learn, not socialize, like he usually does.
In class, Ms. Rumsfeld is giving a pop quiz regarding the capital of Indonesia. Billy raises his hand, stating the capital of Indonesia is Jakarta, which turns out to be correct. When Shanilla asks him how he knows, it turns out that he was once arrested there for spitting. Later, in the Science Teacher's class, he correctly identifies an insect as Lethocerus indicus, which he knows of because it once got into his sleeve during a concert and made him start screeching and making awkward bodily movements.
After school, Billy Joe is delighted to find that during his first six hours of school, he knew all the answers to the pop quizzes. He goes on further to brag about his success, undermining Spencer's intelligence in the process. Irritated, Spencer refuses to go to the WiFri, instead going home to finish his "boatload" of homework. However, after Billy condescendingly accepts the day's plans, he seizes an opportunity and, channeling Tom Sawyer, makes doing homework sound fun. Billy is convinced by Spencer's talk about homework being "awesome" and decides to do homework instead of going to the "lame ol' WiFri". He steals Spencer's backpack and flies home with it, to which Spencer weakly tries to seem upset over. When Billy is out of earshot, Spencer grins, losing all pretenses of being upset.
It's not like taking advantage of a person is wrong or anything.
Spencer decides to go to the WiFri after all. There, he meets with Shanilla and Rajeev. Rajeev insists that Spencer is being a bad friend by tricking Billy the way he did, but Shanilla can see no wrong in Spencer's precious face. However, after Shanilla remarks that "taking advantage of Billy isn't the same thing as using him, right, Spencer?", Spencer feels bad and decides to go home to apologize.
Billy is doing homework back at the Cobra Mansion. He finishes off Spencer's science homework by recalling an incident with circuit overload he once had, and goes into Spencer's computer to learn the math that Spencer's homework had. By the time a guilty Spencer returns home, all of his homework is finished and ready for him. A newly selfish Spencer makes Billy feel bad about "stealing his fun", but instead of relenting, Billy, the quintessential jerkbutt, decides to do all of Spencer's homework all year. Spencer is once again glad to not be doing his own homework.
The next day, Spencer is in Ms. Rumsfeld's class. He receives an "A" on his assignment. When Ms. Rumsfeld asks Spencer why his grades improved, Spencer states that Ms. Rumsfeld inspired him, rather than saying that he had help from a friend (Billy). Billy is infuriated. He realizes that Spencer had been hoodwinking him all along.
Grrrrr!
At home, Spencer is watching TV and eating snacks. Billy is keeping up pretenses of not being upset. Spencer weakly insists that Billy "stop hogging all the homework", but Billy insists otherwise, having come up with a cunning plan. Spencer only shrugs, continuing to enjoy his snack.
Back at school, Spencer is expecting his next easy "A". However, Ms. Rumsfeld frowns and gives him an "F", declaring that she'd never seen a worse assignment than his in "all [her] eighty years of teaching". Disappointed and surprised, Spencer finds that Billy did his homework poorly on purpose. When Billy taunts him about it, Spencer snaps and attacks Billy, only for Billy to strike back and toss him around the classroom, even giving him a wedgie once. Ms. Rumsfeld watches all of this as her retainer falls out. Annoyed, she sends Spencer to Principal Ponzi's office.
Principal Ponzi is having a field day back at his office. Spencer's failing grade and outburst in class put him into "The Danger Zone", which means one strike and Spencer is kicked out of school. This strike, Ponzi insists, comes in the form of a surprise test, which will undoubtedly be hard and about an obscure topic, and he doesn't even care about it being unfair. Spencer is horrified, and he returns home sulking.
To quote Shanilla: "he's so cute when he's sleeping."
Billy apologizes back at home, insisting that he only retailiated because Spencer used him. Spencer insists that he only used Billy because Billy was being a condescending toolbag. Billy has no explanation as to why he was being a condescending toolbag, but apologizes again anyway. As both a token of forgiveness and an apology, he helps Spencer cram for Ponzi's test using the internet. After a long, late night studying everything ever, Spencer falls asleep.
The next day, he is shown to be asleep on Ponzi's personal test-taking desk, which is sealed in a soundproof, cement-sealed room to ensure no cheating. As Ponzi explains this, Billy casually phases through the wall and winks. The exasperated Spencer receives his test only to be horrified once again: it's about the life cycle of the giant tubeworm of the Marianas Trench, something which cannot be discovered on the internet due to lack of information. (Google it yourself and find out.) Instead of even trying, since he wouldn't know anything about the tubeworm anyway and he stayed awake all night, Spencer falls asleep.
Principal Ponzi soon dashes back in, only to find that Spencer got all of his answers correct and has a 100%. He gets so angry that he throws his toupee on the floor and stomps on it, putting it back on all messed up. As soon as he leaves, the confused Spencer asks Billy what happened. Apparently, Billy went down to the Marianas Trench and saw the tubeworm' life cycle for himself, having then returned to put the answers down on Spencer's test all correctly. Spencer is so glad to hear this, he doesn't see a small yellow worm left over from the Trench slip down Billy's shirt. Billy reacts the same way he did to Lethocerus indicus: screeching and making awkward bodily movements. He finally kills the worm by smacking his own butt, ending the episode.
Character Appearances[]
- Spencer Wright
- Billy Joe Cobra
- Principal Ponzi (later on)
Minor Appearances[]
Gallery[]
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