The Trouble with Truffles is the twentieth episode in the second season of Chowder, the fifty-sixth episode overall.
Synopsis[]
After Mung tells Truffles that her ear-splittingly loud voice drives customers away, she gets a new voice. However, with her new voice, Truffles isn't taken seriously by her coworkers.
Plot[]
The episode begins with Chowder stretching out his own tongue, as he calls it, "Tongue Conditioning". Despite that he says all of the greatest chefs do it, Mung suggests for it to stop, though Chowder insists. Before the conversation could continue, Truffles enters the kitchen, and, with her unbearably loud voice, barking orders in the kitchen (Mung Daal had to chop Palmagranates, Shnitzel mopped the floor, and Chowder was to dream of being a real chef). Just then, a small line of customers arrives, though all customers were driven away accidentally by Truffles. First, twin babies are struck with strong fear due to Truffles's loud voice (and obviously cry as they are taken away by their mother), the second customer being a blue-skinned, bespectacled man who screams back at Truffles, the third being a tall pig-man whose glasses broke to Truffles's voice, and a green-skinned man with a pointy hat who immediately walks out of the kitchen, not by her voice, but by her looks (though she thinks it's because of her hygiene).
When Mung Daal walks into the lobby and suggests that people are fearing Truffles because of her voice, and says that it is way too loud. Shnitzel then observes to her that as she gets older, her voice simply gets louder, a process known as "The Shift". Truffles then bursts into tears and flies out of the building through a wall. Chowder feels bad for her because of the fact that she missed the door, which Mung Daal agrees with, saying that "sometimes it's hard being the pixie-sprite". Shnitzel tries to get sympathy that HE also has a hard life, but Mung points out that this episode is not about him.
Meanwhile, Truffles flies down the road, sobbing very loudly, admitting that her voice is too loud, and her crying even bursts part of the background. However, she finds a sign saying about giving voice lessons in just two simple steps. This convinces Truffles much since "that's one less than three" steps. She enters the building, with an unknown character speaking to her from a distance. He asks for Truffles's name (which is the first step), and then tells her the the second and last step is to put a voice-changing knob on her forehead. She is unsure about this, but tries it on anyway. It turns out that the voice-changer does work, and she changes her voice to test it out, until she finds the perfect voice for people to not fear her, but to be attracted and unafraid of her: the voice of a Southern belle.
Back in the kitchen, Chowder continues his tongue-conditioning, until he and the others hear the new voice of Truffles, not knowing that it's her at first. However, when they found out that it was Truffles, they are stunned by her change of voice. Chowder notices the knob and tries to touch it, but Truffles slaps his hand away, saying that the new voice was for giving out commands only, causing the trio to fall in love. The new voice also attracts over 3,000 customers, bringing the Mung Daal Catering company very high popularity. Later, a sailor orders Meet-and-Greet Balls, and as Mung Daal is about to deliver the order, he points out that ever since Truffles changed her voice, things have been calm.
At one point, Shnitzel was so calm that he was able to speak English, but he then falls over, bringing back his other voice. What he says is: "Yeah! I'm so calm! Now the audience can finally understand me! Yo!! My name's Shnitzel!! Alright!!" Chowder also claims that he is so calm that he falls asleep. The others fall asleep as well, but as Mung is relaxing, he, without him even knowing, throws a Meet-and-Greet Ball at the ceiling, spreading grease everywhere. Mung then comes to his senses, and just in time for an angry-looking Truffles to enter the kitchen. Although it seems that she is about to bark an order, she instead tells Mung to clean up the mess in a calm manner, and returns to the lobby. Chowder, Mung, and Shnitzel are in shock that that is all Truffles had said as opposed to yelling out a command. This convinces them that they can do whatever they wish to do, such as spilling an enormous barrel of Clatter Flatter Batter, or bringing up a Meet-and-Greet Ball fight.
Just then, Truffles enters the kitchen again, wondering what is making all the noise from the area. She gets her answer when she is pelted by Chowder with the Meet-and-Greet Balls, which seemingly angers her. As she pulls the ground plug, which drains all of the flooded batter, she says "Stop clownin'", which causes the trio to burst into hysterical and wild laughter. Truffles then says that she is getting angry, but the trio continue laughing anyway. This REALLY convinces the trio that they can do whatever they want without order, and they all grow their hair out, and Shnitzel even removes his apron, revealing a leopard-pattern underwear, which leads to him to holler like Tarzan.
Truffles quickly and frantically flies back into the lobby, concluding that she has officially lost all control and command of the trio. To ease out the panic, she tries to think that all that is happening is just a nightmare, and also believes that Mung is actually cooking up an order. However, when she returns to the kitchen, she finds that the trio have turned into wild and prehistoric cavemen, who begin to tear the kitchen apart. Truffles screams in horror and flies back into the lobby again. Right after she concludes that the trio has gone untamable and feral, her puppet-like conscience appears in the 'Now Serving:' sign, claiming that Truffles needs to return to her original voice to retrieve control of them. However, she loves her new voice to much, and therefore cannot turn the knob on her head that changes her voice. Her conscience then convinces her real self to change her voice by showing the money box in the hands of the imminent doom that is Mung. Unfortunately, right when she was about to turn the knob, Chowder takes the knob away, leaving Truffles with the voice of an Indian man.
Chowder leaps through the kitchen, and eventually tries to scrunch his face up by twisting the knob against it, sending it flying to Mung, who mistakes the knob for a frying pan. He places the knob over the fire, causing it to begin to melt as Truffles screams in despair that the knob will be gone. Luckily, the heat of the fire is too much for Mung, and he flings it to Shnitzel, who yells at the knob, though his new rock girlfriend thinks it is her who he's yelling at, and she dumps him. This angers him so much that he starts beating at the knob with his giant wooden club, though it does no major damage to it.
The trio then run back into their new prehistoric tent, playing catch with a tally mark every time a catch is made, with the knob, dancing in wild cheer. Truffles then disguises herself as a cavewoman, causing Mung Daal to fall in love with her. He gives her the knob and some yellow flowers. She then leaves and returns as the old Truffles, who angrily shouts at the trio, who also turn back to their own selves, to clean up the kitchen. Shnitzel does so by washing the screen with a sponge, thus satisfying Truffles and bringing the kitchen back to the way it was.
Later, Mung Daal says that it is good to have the old Truffles back with her original voice, though Shnitzel disagrees as he frustratingly mops the kitchen floors. To alleviate the loudness of Truffles's voice, new soundproof earmuffs were made in the kitchen for the customers to wear as they are ordering, though the earmuffs completely block out all types of external noise. It is revealed that even the trio are wearing earmuffs, and the episode ends with Chowder and Mung Daal trying to understand each other with their earmuffs.
Credits[]
In the credits, Chowder accidentally enters Truffles's dream, which is a vacation with her surfboarding. Truffles orders Chowder to leave her dream, but Chowder ignores her and explains to her that in his dreams, there are more living candies and chocolate bars. He also tells her that he once had a dream of Mung's head being ridiculously tall, and asks Truffles if she knows what that means. However, his question goes unanswered, as Truffles decides to wake up, as she is replaced with a living chocolate bar.
Trivia[]
- This is one of the very few episodes where Shnitzel speaks English.
- The man who screams back at Truffles is the same man who screams 3 times for $1 from the episode "Grubble Gum"
- Truffles's puppet, who is seen sometimes at the end credits, is Truffles's conscience.
- This episode uses the crying sound of Baby Kate from Arthur.
- This episode's title may be based off of the Star Trek episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles."
- The fourth wall is broken four times. The first being Mung saying to Schnitzel "Yes. I know it's hard being a rock monster, too. But this episode's not about you, is it? The second being Truffles screaming so loud the background breaks indicating that there's a background. The third time being Schnitzel saying: "Yeah, I'm so calm. Now the audience can finally understand me. Yo! My name's Schnitzel. Alright!", and the fourth one being when Schnitzel cleans the kitchen by washing the screen with a sponge,
- Truffles' calm voice is similar to Twilight Sparkle with a southern accent.
- Noted Truffles' voice actor Tara Strong is known for for voicing Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- She would later voice Miss Minutes in Loki.
- One of Truffles’ voices was an Indian accent. Mung Daal was supposed to have an Indian accent during the show’s production.