Wishbones

Wishbones
Series	The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
Season	4
Production code	424
Writer	C. Scott Morse Shaun Cashman Alex Almaguer C. H. Greenblatt Mike Diederich Maxwell Atoms Ian Wasseluk Paul McEvoy Thurop Van Orman
Broadcast information
Cartoon Network US Premiere	June 10, 2005
Chronological information
Previous The Problem with Billy	Next Dream Mutt

Wishbones is the 39th episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.

Synopsis

A skull contains nine wishes, and needs someone to make a wish in order to be free. However the wishes always backfire on the wisher.

Plot

As Billy is watching his favorite show "Laundry Day", which is actually just a laundry machine in a laundromat, Mandy and Grim find an old skull named Thromnambular in the laundry machine, who can grant 9 wishes, and then be freed from his skull prison. When Mandy asks Grim why he hasn't wished for his freedom back, he responds he never used the wishes because wishing is too dangerous and corrupted. Billy starts it off and a weird, chaotic journey happens to whoever gets it next. Billy wants to go on a Jonny Quest-type adventure with mom, dad, Saliva, and Irwin. But at the end, Irwin and Saliva are eaten, and Billy didn't like the dream.

Next, Harold wants to go back to his high school days. He claims them to be the best days of his life, but everyone throws him in the garbage can. Then the skull falls into the possession of Skarr, who wants supreme power, and a statue of him rises out of the ground. The statue rises into space, where Skarr loses air and explodes. The skull then falls into a blow-up pool with Irwin, and he wants Mandy while performing in a hip-hop video. Mandy pops the pool, and Irwin is sent flying into a trash can.

The skull is then found by Pud'n, who wants a loving pet rabbit. However, the rabbit just tries to kill Pud'n, saying that "love hurts". Next, Nergal Jr. gets Thromnambular, and he wants to know what he wishes for. After beating up Nergal Junior and getting the skull, Sperg wishes that he could go into the ladies room to steal the money of some girl. However, he is turned into a girl, and runs off while crying after being teased by all the other girls.

Then, Mindy finds the skull and wishes to be a star. But she is instead tied onto a rocket, is shot into space, and blows up like a normal star. One wish left until Thromnambular is freed. So, who else should get the last wish but Mandy? Instead of making the last wish, Mandy intends to sell the skull. As everyone tries to buy it, Grim wishes Billy and Mandy never got the skull in the first place. Grim accidentally grabs hold of Thromnambular, and uses the last wish, wishing that the skull was never found in the first place. The skull has 9 more wishes again, and they go back in time to the beginning of the episode. Mandy pushes Billy into the laundry machine, ending the episode.

In the post-credits scene, it shown what would happen if Grim used any of the wishes. He wishes that both he and Thromnambular would be free of their enslavements. Thromnambular grants his wish by switching their positions: Thromnabular is now the Grim Reaper and Grim is now the wishing skull.

Credits

• Story and Storyboard by:
  • C. Scott Morse (Intro and Mandy segment)

• • Shaun Cashman (Billy segment)

• • Alex Almaguer (Harold segment)

• • C. H. Greenblatt (Skarr segment)

• • Mike Diederich (Irwin segment)

• • Maxwell Atoms (Pud'n segment)

• • Ian Wasseluk (Junior segment)

• • Paul McEvoy & Thurop Van Orman (Sperg segment)

• • Paul McEvoy (Mindy segment)
• Art direction: Rae McCarson
• Directed by: Juli Hashiguchi & Brian Sheesley

Trivia

• List of all the wishes:
  • Billy: He wishes that he would go on a quest with his friends and family and that Thromnambular was the ancient treasure, only for it to backfire and get them chased by monsters.
  • Harold: He wishes that he would relive his high school days. But when he tries to talk to the people there, he gets beat up and stuffed into some trash cans.
  • General Skarr: He wishes that he would be the ruler of Endsville. But the statue growing out of the ground that he was standing on was too big, and Skarr suffocates and dies in space as a result.
  • Irwin: He wishes that he would be in a Hip-Hop video and Mandy would be there. When he rips one in order to create the illusion that they're in a hot tub, Irwin finds himself assaulted by Mandy. As a result, having lost his swim trunks, Irwin walks home while covering himself with a newspaper.
  • Pud'n: He wishes for a bunny that will love him. The bunny loves him so much he tries to kill him using what he refers to as "tough love".
  • Nergal Jr.: He accidentally wishes that he knew what to wish for. As a result, he wasted a wish.
  • Sperg: He wishes that he could get into the girl's room. He turned into a lady, but the girls insult him/her, making him cry.
  • Mindy: She wishes that she would be a big star. Her wish was taken literally, so Mindy was launched into space, killing her and making a star.
  • Grim: He wishes that Billy and Mandy never found the skull in the first place. This reverses the episode back to where it started. In the end credits, it is shown what would happen if he used any of the wishes before that. If he wished for his freedom back and for Thromnabular to never grant wishes again, Thromnabular would've become the Grim Reaper and Grim would've had Thromnabular's job.
• Billy's wish is a parody of Jonny Quest, a popular cartoon from the 60's. During Billy and his parents' escape from the tomb, music from said show is reused, composed by Hoyt Curtin.
• The truck Pud'n goes in parodies Optimus Prime, even going as far as to include a face insignia on the side that parodies the Autobot logo.
• The truck chase between Pud'n and the pink bunny parodies the truck chase between John Connor the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
• When Nergal Jr. tries to wish that he was the smartest kid in the world, it is a reference to Jimmy Neutron, whom Debi Derryberry also voices.
• When Nergal Jr. holds Thromnambular, he has a white shirt with short sleeves. But, when he wishes he knew what to wish for, his shirt has long sleeves with a dark-blueish stripe in the middle.

Quotes

Skarr: (laughs evilly while standing on the statue of him as it rises into the air) Yes, cower, you fools! Cower at the sight of my awesome visage! Kneel before me! Kneel and bow! And, with your chins in the dirt, look up! Look up and say, “Who in all the heavens is mightier than General Ska-” (suddenly chokes) No air! (Skarr and Thromnambular start to float up into space before Skarr explodes)

---

Nergal Jr.: I could wish I was a super hero. I could do anything. But... wait! Then I'd have to save the world all the time. And do dangerous things like fight giant monsters, I'm tired just thinking about it. What if I wished I was rich and famous? I'd get all the ladies. But then I'd be harassed by the paparazzi all the time. I could wish I was the smartest kid in the world. I'd even get awards for just for being smart. And I'd just get smarter and smarter and smarter and... AAAAHHHH! I wish I knew what to wish for.

Gallery

The image gallery for Wishbones may be viewed here.