Points of Canon: S9x14 - The Last Laugh · 6:33pm Aug 3rd, 2019
You know, just so that you would know that no more laughs will be forthcoming. It’s over. All the laughs are done.
I’m not dead, I’m just resting. Yes, yes, I have those specials to sift through as well, I’ll get to them later. Anyway…
- Chronology markers: School of Friendship is present on screen, Pinkie’s lines confirm Twilight as a prospective ruler of Equestria, Spike has wings. All of those put it firmly within S9 bookends, but no in-season markers are obvious. Specifically, the events of Newbie Dash, Fluttershy Leans In, and The Beginning of the End are explicitly referenced.
- “It’s an invitation to visit the Cheese Sandwich Amusement Factory!” I’ll go over the specifics further down, but this needs to be stated first: The factory itself is actually the most important contribution to long term canon this episode has, and probably, one of the more important episodes for a wider picture of pony civilization in general. It presents examples of mass production and industry not observed before.
1. Most notably the rubber tires. Which only appear on ONE actual vehicle, in Feeling Pinkie Keen, and that one is in flight being driven by pegasi. Every other rubber tire in the show is misused for something else. I still have no idea why.
“Rubber chickens?” See chemical industry. Notably, the rubber chickens are the only product described as made of rubber in speech that I could find, though other products that should be made of rubber do appear.1
- “Gosh, Cheese hardly seems the factory type.” Another appearance by the mysterious Gosh. It’s been a while since the last time!
- “Uh, catch up? I mean, it has been a while.” Notice that the last time Cheese Sandwich interacted with Pinkie on screen would have to be My Little Pony Movie, and not the episode that introduces him: He participated in setting up the Festival of Friendship and got sung at by Pinkie.
- “All of you have found your thing. You’re gonna rule all of Equestria, Rainbow Dash is a Wonderbolt, Fluttershy has her animal sanctuary, Rarity has her boutiques…” See above for chronology markers. Notice also that Pinkie excludes herself and the rest of the Mane 5 from rulership duties entirely.
“Anypony with a smile like that is exactly the kind of pony I want helping me!”
- Notice the walls around the factory, as well as the uniformed security guards. What exactly is the rationale behind those?
- The security booths each contain a console with a button and possibly other controls on it, most likely electrical. The button triggers spinning lights over the gate, as well as controls the gate itself.
- The gates sport a relatively uncommon example of an obvious keyhole. The security booths do not have doors, so if the guards are absent, the button that opens the gate cannot be made inaccessible. So why the keyhole, then?…
- One of the two guards, the purple one, appears to be a very masculine looking mare, once again a rarity.
- “Nopony ever comes out, and nopony ever goes in.” Pretty sure this is an exaggeration, but once again, what exactly brought this on?
“Ooh! Desolate-y!”
- The factory itself has a whopping four chimneys. Purpose unknown: None of the operations actually seen performed on the factory floor would require them. The only remaining purpose I can imagine is power generation.
- Beyond the gate, we can see what appears to be two symmetrical loading docks on the sides, though no sign of carts or other transport.
- “This should have gotten a big laugh.” Ponies have the apparent technology – rather than magic – permitting them to make masks realistic enough that Pinkie does not immediately recognize it as such.
“Sans Smirk, vice-president of amusement integration.”
- This is apparently the name of his department, rather than anything else.
- Sans Smirk is a rare example of a balding pony that is otherwise youthful. Notice that the mane-less part of his head still has the normal layer of base coat, implying that it exists everywhere underneath the mane in other ponies.
“Maybe the fun is behind all this boring-looking factory stuff.” Notable things about the factory floor:
- None of the ponies working on the factory floor – the yellow hard hats – are unicorns. All of them are earth ponies.
- Factory production involves conveyor belts, though the order of objects on the belts would preclude the belts actually being useful. Which is strange. Maybe a little funny.
- One other notable feature of the factory floor is a mass of ventilation ducts and chutes which appear to spit products out, implying another hall dedicated to other operations, and possibly at least some automation.
- Lights on the factory floor appear to be electric.
- In later scenes, next to the doors to R&D one can see a big-ass knife switch.
- There’s an alcove containing what appears to be a vending machine which seems to serve as a rest area.
- “The squirting flower’s a classic.” The idea of a squirting flower is not new.
- “I think it’s a whoopee cushion.” Yes, ponies poop. Just going to write this down just in case.
- “I sit on it, but the sound comes from you…” A technology to produce such a whoopee cushion, whether it currently exists or not, seems feasible to ponies. It does not seem to be very feasible to me, by the way, but that’s why I’m not running a gag factory.
- “Our super-slip banana peel. Still in development, but we think it’s pretty special.” No rational explanation for how could something like this work comes to mind, we just know it does: The banana peel, beyond leaving a long trail of slippery residue, seems to have its own source of energy.
“Pinkie, I’m… I’m glad you came.” Cheese Sandwich’s office, among stuff I cannot identify, contains:
- A plushie of Pinkie. It’s right there by the door, you can’t miss it.
- A bubblegum machine.
- Really huge fireworks.
- A cardboard Cheese Sandwich.
- A toy octopus.
- A cartoon-style time bomb consisting of three sticks of dynamite and an alarm clock.
- A baseball bat.
- A guitar.
- A fire extinguisher. Unlike the previously seen fire extinguishers, this one is actually red.
- An empty glass jar with a mushroom on the label.
- A toaster.
- A plunger.
Many of these objects are probably gags, so aren’t what they appear to be, but the objects they imitate should otherwise be known to pony culture for this to work. Many of them likewise reappear in his workshop in the flashback.
- “Why don’t we continue this discussion over some delicious canned peanut brittle, hmm?” This is actually the first time ever ponies call anything “canned,” though canned food and empty cans have appeared before. The shape of the can seems strange for brittle, at that, since “brittle” is the word used for high-sugar candy that requires being spread into a sheet as part of of the cooking process.
- “Sorry to interrupt, but it occurs to me that a seven percent tighter wind on the snake springs would yield a twelve percent increase in giggle output.” Wait, so how exactly does Sans Smirk measure giggle output? The methodology of that measurement is key here if he wants to do any kind of fine-tuning and testing, which does seem to be what he’s good at.
“I spread my party cheer wherever it was needed.”
- Cheese Sandwich’s flashback is suspect, at least as far as it can be considered to depict a specific event, if only because, beyond the ubiquitous Ponyvillains and Canterlot ponies, it contains Kettle Corn, first appearing in Marks and Recreation – and I’m pretty sure she’s otherwise unique. You’d expect Pinkie to be present, unless Kettle Corn belongs to the subset of hypothesized semi-permanent Ponyville population which otherwise lives in Canterlot and only turns up on weekends and holidays, in which case this is likely her birthday.
- That said, it’s very notable that Cheese explicitly gets paid as part of the activity even before it is completed, in full view of the children. It’s also important how exactly this is done: Attendees directly line up to present money to Cheese himself.
- Cheese manufactures an actual electric joy buzzer himself without assistance of any obvious magic. Notice that our joy buzzers are purely mechanical and do not use electricity. Notice also how tiny this device is. This is not the first time it turns up on screen.
- One of the objects on the belt is an 8-ball. Have we actually seen ponies play billiards before?…
- Another object is a spray can of silly string. See chemical industry: This is impossible to manufacture without a technology to produce synthetic polymers, and in our world, was originally patented in 1972. Not to mention, invented accidentally.
- “I haven’t left the factory since.” What, really? Not even to go sleep at home?…
“It’s where we figure out the science of funny.” Notable items seen in R&D:
- The only two unicorns in the factory.
- The only apparent pegasus in the factory, with wings sticking out of the holes in the lab coat.
A device with a CRT which looks like an engineering oscilloscope or an early-1980s personal computer, seen most notably behind the unicorn and the pegasus weight-testing whoopee cushions. No sign of a keyboard or any input device at all, while shots in which it would have to be visible do exist, so I don’t think this can be a computer. In any case, the existence of computers of this kind would change the off-screen world way too much, while unambiguous oscilloscopes have been seen before. Another device with a similar screen appears on a shelf behind glass.
I don’t see how their research activities would be helped by either kind of device, though: All bookkeeping is done with clipboards, no obvious calculations are performed outside Sans Smirk’s head, not enough data is being collected to justify automated data collection, (which would be the primary use of a computer of this kind in a research setting) and nothing seems to contain anything sufficiently complicated electrically or electronically to make good use of an oscilloscope.
Was the show crew just tired of using test tubes to portray science?…
“At this point, we’ll need to give anything a try.”
- I have no clue why Pinkie’s planning involves a blueprint of the factory floor.
- One of the gags Pinkie tries out is a very obvious fountain pen with a golden nib. How exactly does it produce spots on Sans Smirk while she sprays it at Cheese Sandwich remains unknown.
- “We’ve tried everything! Stand-up, classic gag, physical humor, prop comedy, vaudeville, surrealist alt-scene character pieces – nothing’s worked!” All of these are things in Equestria, including surrealism.
“I’m afraid Mr. Sandwich is right. You are the funniest pony in Equestria.”
- Notice the use of “Sandwich” as we would use a last name. Not common, but happens.
- Cheese considers Pinkie the funniest pony in Equestria.
- “Well, there will always be a place for you here if you change your mind.” Pinkie casually offends physics by doing a 180° turn mid-jump.
- “Rubber chickens my expertise” Cheese punctuates this line by demonstrating a diploma – a landscape orientation sheet meant for display in a frame. Not all the diplomas in the world follow this convention, but apparently Equestrian ones do.
- “Some Commedia dell’arte / To get the laughter flowing” Commedia dell’arte is a thing in Equestria. How exactly did ponies come by this form of professional theater – with strong formal traditions of presentation despite its improvisational nature – as well as the name itself, remains entirely unclear.
- “Whoopee cushions and Dungarees” Another word ponies have no obvious source for, because it originates in the Marathi language.
So why wasn’t this a Cutie Map mission?…
One other interesting observation is that Sans Smirk is unambiguously the originator of the idea of the factory itself. However, Cheese is unquestionably the boss, and yet, is clearly not suited for the role of an entrepreneur. Sans Smirk is doing R&D and manufacturing design, and is extremely deferential to Cheese, he does not appear to be doing executive decisions. So who’s the actual entrepreneur in this crew? For that matter, how was the investment secured, considering that, since Sans Smirk turns up on Cheese’s doorstep with a blueprint of the factory floor, the building itself had to have been constructed specially for this purpose?
In any case, first time we see actual industry, and what do they make there? Gags.
Good to be back.
Which implies that Pinkie thinks Twilight alone will rule Equestria, rather than the 6 of them doing it together, right?
Also props to AJ for achieving her hat.
That's a good question. I feel this section of the episode is supposed to invoke Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, which did have lots of security, but I can't think of a good Watsonian reason. Here's what I can think of: The whole installation used to be a prison. After Luna came back and they decided to start dumping all prisoners in Tartarus around Season 6, the facility was no longer needed. The walls, the dark grey, the giant empty yard around the walls... And Cheese and Sans keep the two gate guards on because they won't be able to find any other jobs.
We certainly didn't see any power lines. Either all the industrial equipment is magic-powered, and lasts forever without the unicorns around, or it's powered by whatever they burn in those factories. Also, if this used to be a prison, they'd probably need to heat the building at night with those chimneys.
Which is good in a prison, but not in a factory. Where do the 50+ workers actually live?
The fact that large industrial factories with moving assembly lines exist has been hotly debated in the past.
Rainbow Dash used a whoopee cushion a few seasons ago.
Ok, at this point I think there have to be some unicorns around, they're just not shown because they are in the R&D Lab, not production. There are like 5 or more gags that can only work with magic, and Pinkie doesn't seem to be causing any of it.
His whole special talent seems to be mathematically quantifying laughter. I could see him having created a giggle scale with percentages.
True, however I'm not sure Cheese was being paid for the party planning, or because the parents were trying to pay him to create a second toy for their child.
Of course, if this facility use to be something where people slept and they still had lots of sleeping quarters...
That's one of the gags I think was enchanted by a unicorn. The big question is, can they create magic industrial equipment, i.e. enchanted equipment that enchants other objects?
My guess is the Clown/Comedy School that Ponyacci started in the comics is Cheese's alma mater.
Why are Dungarees considered inherently funny?
I've got a guess for that! No one is actually lacking friendship here. Sans Smirk and Cheese actually seem to be pretty good friends and care for each other, the other workers get along, etc. Cheese's problem is one of those rare Equestrian problems that aren't caused by lack of friendship.
Thinking about it, I can't think of a single Friendship Mission where at least one of the targets of the mission doesn't feel friendless and isolated.
That question makes me realize something else: Why doesn't the Friendship Map constantly light up over places like Kludgetown? There have to be people there who feel friendless and isolated.
I'm not sure about that. Sans Smirk seeks Pinkie's input on product ideas and then declares they will create new products without getting Cheese's permission. I think Sans is fairly entrprenurial, he's just deferential to Cheese because Cheese is the "talent." He's well aware that he needs a constant stream of input from a party pony to make the business work, and he'd rather be the VP of a sucessful company than the CEO of a struggling one. Plus I think the Equestrian government sold him the land at fire-sale prices, former prisons are usually pretty cheap.
Apparently I watched this one out of order, I remember seeing it awhile ago.
Because everyone knows factories have chimneys, obviously.
Huh, I never thought about that. I knew about the stock gag, but I never thought about how you get peanut brittle into a can -- maybe it's broken up into little pieces? If peanut brittle is usually sold in boxes instead, then I actually think the gag is a little better, since 'canned' peanut brittle doesn't exist. If someone hands you a bottle of headlight fluid, you know to expect shenanigans.
I wonder if expressions like Pete's sake and what not are a form of translation convention?
5099025
Yep. A sure mark of an episode written in parallel with the season opener without knowing the full details.
Cheese’s costume for most of the song, too.
I hesitate to embrace this theory, if only because of the factory floor plan that Sans Smirk shows up with, but it is valid, I suppose.
With normal factories, usually elsewhere.
Yes, but at least we now have more grounds to say that party planning is a proper paying job.
We can’t tell, but such an assumption would make some things easier to explain.
Are you sure? Because the conflict of the episode gets solved once:
I.e. it involves a concession made in a friendly relationship that ultimately improves it. That would normally count as a friendship problem, wouldn’t it?
They bombed this hive of scum and villainy into dust immediately after the movie as part of the Storm King mop-up operations?
5099116
I have never seen a product called “peanut brittle,” I had to look it up. But I have seen and eaten products that Wikipedia calls nearly identical, and they are typically sold as chocolate-style flat bars – wrapped, boxed, or bagged depending on manufacturer. A can would be really odd.
Might be.
Sure, that would explain them, but I have expressed my position on the existence of a translation convention before: We already have to assume cartoon resolution, for the simple reason that this is a cartoon. If we also start dismissing textual evidence based on the idea of a translation convention, we might as well throw the whole thing out and go watch something else.
5099444
Sure. But what I mean is, the factory is surrounded by gentle grassy hills, and there don't seem to be any other buildings around. Pinkie even calls the place "desolate-y." A factory is either built near an existing population, i.e. near a bunch of homes for workers, or if it needs to be near a critical resource/trade route, worker homes are usually built right next to the factory. Of course if it was a prison there might be some converted spaces for people to live... but even that would be weird, the factory workers would surely prefer their own homes.
Honestly, I kind of struggling with the Doylist reason they put in the effort of making this factory all hyper-secure and away from everything else. It doesn't add anything to the story, and it makes the whole thing very confusing. Why not just have this thing in Manehatten?
True. And it suggests Pinkie gets paid for parties as well (probably not the surprise ones she throws for new residents, but others).
You know what was conspicuously missing from Pinkie's list of everyone's purpose? Teaching at the School of Friendship. I would think that teaching friendship and harmony to the future leaders of the Harmonious World would at least get a mention before AJ's hat.
I dunno. I don't think Cheese and Sans' relationship really improved at the end of the episode. It seems like they already had a really strong friendship based on Sans' admiration of Cheese's comedy skills, and Cheese's admiration of Sans business skills. I guess what you're saying is that Sans was not previously aware that Cheese held him in high enough regard to run the business all on his own, and thus their friendship was improved by the end of the episode?
I just don't think there were closer at the end of the episode than the beginning, and I had assumed that the purpose of those friendship missions was to bring the targets more closely together with their friends. Have to think about this.
I think you mean the harmonized Kludge Town... to dust.
5099502
Doylist reason was probably just to make a Willy Wonka reference and nothing else.
You know how they say that the first hit is free, right? Pinkie probably writes it off as advertising budget.
Probably means it’s summer break.
And Cheese was not previously aware that Sans actually does laugh at his jokes, he just doesn’t show it.
It’s a more subtle kind of friendship problem, but I’m sure it’s there. Might be, though, that ultimately, it could not have had significant consequences or would inevitably be solved by the parties themselves, so the Cutie Map didn’t consider it a priority.
Very harmonious dust.
5099502
To be fair, Applejack fails the Lance Morrow Test pretty spectacularly. (To wit: never wear a hat that has more character than you do)
5099828
That probably is why they did it. Which is all the more frustrating because Willy Wonka's factory was in the center of London!
it helps that the biggest marginal expense of her style of parties, baked goods, she's probably making herself on her own time and getting an employee discount on the raw materials.
I once imagined a story called "Contract Negotiations" which is just the Cakes doing Pinkie's annual review, and ends with them offering her a huge raise, more vacation, all the perks... if she'd just accept a smaller employee discount!
That could be. In the song he describes Sans as having a very dry sense of humor, so to my mind Cheese already understands Sans. On the other hand, it seems like once Cheese became depressed he only talked to Sans and no one else, since otherwise he probably would caused a normal person to laugh before Pinkie showed up. And that suggests he didn't really consider Sans as an audience for humor directly.
I think on balance you're right. Cheese and Sans had mutual respect and even admiration, but the fact that Cheese never considered trying to make Sans laugh, and Sans never considered Cheese needs to make others laugh, suggests they didn't know each other as well as they should have. Certainly Sans is shocked that Cheese would trust him to run the business on his own. Also yeah, sooner or later Cheese, who lives in a gag factory, would have accidentally made someone else laugh and they would have figured this out on their own.
5099903 But that hat is one of a closetfull!
The Joker from the various Batman franchise shows and comics was always taking over novelty-gag warehouses, old funhouses, and shuttered toy manufacturies. Maybe in Equestria they traditionally turn the captured lairs of supervillains into toy and novelty-gag factories? Earnest Glowfield's evil plot to turn the fillies of Equestria into his assassin-assistants was defeated by a roving band of friends, and his fortress of instruction was sold off to Cheese Sandwich et al.