| “ | Well, now I'm back, baby... back ribs. | ” |
— Fetal Pig to Tina Belcher
| ||
"Pig Trouble in Little Tina" is the fourth episode in Season 10, being the one-hundred-and-seventy-sixth episode overall. It is the eighth Halloween-themed episode.
Plot[]
Tina dissects a fetal pig in science class and things get spooky. Also, Bob and Linda do battle with a giant ball of ear wax.
Full story[]
In the Belcher kitchen at breakfast, Gene is telling an an inaccurate version of the origins of Halloween when Linda asks Bob is he heard it. Bob doesn’t notice until she repeats louder; his hearing is messed up and speculates they are still clogged from a cold, while Louise says he is just going deaf due to old age. Linda asks Tina if it is the day her class is dissecting fetal pigs, which Tina is not happy about, while Louise tells her it’s the one cool activity she has going on. Tina switches topics to ask if she looks like someone who would be fun on a haunted hayride, as Tammy invited other eighth graders but just went "Shh-shh-sh" and walked away when Tina asked if she could go along. While the others think hayrides are more for people like kids and farmers, Tina says that Tammy’s cousin in high school went on it the previous year and everyone got to kissing. She hopes that with Jimmy Jr. there, sitting together all night, “pumpkins bumping together” and yells it at Bob when Louise says he didn’t hear it.
Later in the restaurant, Teddy tells a boring story about buying new tissues Bob does not hear it. Bob also does not hear Linda tell him an order, and tells him a trick she learned from her uncle Donny (who in turn heard it in prison) to clear ears: Bob is to hold his nose and move his mouth up and gargle. Linda does too, and soon Teddy as well. As it seems to not be working, a big piece of wax flies out of Bob’s left ear and hits Linda in the face before falling on the floor. All three look at it, utterly perplexed at what they saw before Linda decides to keep it.
At Wagstaff, the eighth graders are preparing to dissect fetal pigs. Tammy and Jocelyn discuss who to kiss on the hayride, while Tina asks if there is still room on the hayride. Ms. Jacobsen prepares to hand out the fetal pigs, but first tells Tina that Angela, her lab partner, is out sick, so she will have no partner in the dissection, while Zeke makes a nervous joke about swine flu. Jocelyn and Tammy try to get out of dissecting, but Jacobsen tells them they are all going to be dissecting pigs and that there will be a test on fetal pig anatomy the next day. Jocelyn and Tammy get their pig, which Jocelyn thinks is cute and sleeping, while Tina gets an "ugly" fetal pig with spots, jutting teeth, chin hair, and so on. Tammy, Jocelyn, Zeke and Jimmy Jr. all make fun of her fetal pig, whileTina says that while the pig is dead, it’s still not very nice. but when Tammy says her energy would not be right for the hay ride, Tina hesitantly makes some insults at the pig to their laughs before Jacobsen tells them to start. Tina grabs her scalpel, but for a second sees the pig’s eye open and is startled.
In the hallway lockers after class, Jimmy Jr. compliments Tina’s jokes about the pig while she is hiding guilt, and suggests she come on the hayride with them. He asks Tammy if Tina can come along, and Tammy reluctantly accepts since another person had to drop out due to being allergic to hay. Tina is excited, and at the restaurant announces it to her parents. Lidna is proud of her, while Tina explains that all she had to do was impress the others by naming fun of her fetal pig. Bob thinks that teenagers are odd at hearing this, and Tina tries to say she feels fine about it, but is not. Linda shows them the ball of ear wax in a small jar, amazing them. She thinks there is still some in his right ear, which he confirms, but Bob is afraid of the bulbous syringe used to go deeper into his ear.
That night, Linda tries to ambush a sleeping Bob with the syringe, but he wakes up in time. Tina is asleep in her room when she hears a voice calling her. She senses a pig-snout impression coming out of her wall, but sees nothing. Then she sees the fetal pig crawl up her sheets and talking to her, scaring her to where she fallout of bed and wakes up. Linda hears her and goes to check, and tells her to go back to bed. Tina however goes to use the bathroom first, but sees the pig’s head pop out of the toilet. She wakes up in her bed startled, feeling she is going crazy.
Tina wakes up Louise in her bed to talk, who tells her to go back to her room. Gene then enters, carrying a midnight charcuterie tray. Tina explains that she had a nightmare about the fetal pig she dissected trying to get her. Louise notes that it sounds like Tina is being haunted, and notes that it is familiar, and goes to get a manga off her shelf; in Aku No Kuriketto volume ten, Louse notes the seishin dobutsu, a demon spirit, that can possess dead animals to attack people who wronged them. Tina is worried if this is because she made fun of the pig, and fears she cannot go back to sleep due to the dreams being so real. When she worries if she is dreaming right now, Louise slaps her noting that it means she is awake. Just then Linda comes in and tells them to all go to bed, as it is not one of their Friday night family slumber parties (but helps herself to some of Gene’s cheese).
The next morning, Tina is wide awake, having huddled into a ball and rocking back and forth all night when Linda calls for breakfast. An exhausted Tina goes to the breakfast table, with Linda asking if it is due to the pig demon haunting her dreams (as Louise had told their parents). Bob says he didn’t sleep well either, worrying about Linda trying to use the ear syringe again enough that he tied a t-shirt around his head, while an unrepentant Linda says she will get him.
At school, Tina is in class taking the fetal pig anatomy test, trying to stay awake while looking at Jimmy Jr’s rear when he picks up a pencil. However, he picks up a pig tail, and soon she finds herself in a dream world alone in the classroom with the fetal pig, now floating. The pig soon spews out a sea of organs and entrails, which wakes up Tina screaming in the middle of the test. In the school library, the Belcher kids look up ways to get rid of the pig dreams on a computer, when Lousie finds info on a seishin dobutsu appeasement ritual. First they have to get the whole animal intact, which will be tough as the class activity involved taking out all of the organs. Then they will have to put a drop of Tina’s blood inside the animal as an offering for her "wrongdoing", and finally they have to bind it with the strongest twine they can and bury it in the woods. Louise suggests hey do it after school so Tina can sleep soundly, while Mr. Ambrose passes by and casually notes the haunting info reminds him of his twenties.
In the restaurant, Mort arrives with an otoscope (usually he uses it to find any "surprises" in cadavers) so Linda can look in Bob’s right ear. Bob doesn’t want anything in his ear but agrees to let Linda look in his ear. He is nervous, and soon Mort and Teddy look to at the "beast", with Teddy screaming at the wax to go back to Hell. Bob wants to see it, so Linda takes a photo using her phone aimed at the otoscope lens. Bob is horrified at the photo and wants it out, but later in the apartment, not in the restaurant (to the mild relief of a customer eating a burger who overhead all of it).
In the school parking lot, the kids find the dumpsters where the fetal pigs and their organs were thrown in, while Tina is unsure since the organs would be mixed around but Louise tells her to make a best effort, but also to do it right. Tina goes into the dumpster to scrounge for the pig and the organs, to her disgust. Later in the woods the kids have the fetal pig and Tina puts the last organs in when Louise tells her it is time to prick her finger for the blood so they can go trick-or-treating, or to the hayride as an exhausted Tina barely stays awake. Tina holds out her finger, but Louise, nervous about actually pricking the finger with a thumbtack, and keeps failing to break the skin. Tina takes the tack and pokes her finger to get a blood drop in the pig’s belly. She then binds the pig up with twine before laying it in the hole they have dug, when she falls asleep again and enters another dream. The pig asks why it is wrapped up in the twine and argues with Tina about who is being a "turd" as Tina shovels dirt (while in the real world, Tina is nearly asleep and her siblings watch her telling no one visible they are being a turd). Tina buries the pig and wakes up, saying she is free, before heading back home.
That night in the Belcher living room, the kids show Linda and Bob their costumes: Louise is going as "the Bjorn Identity", while Gene is going as "Fiona Applesauce", and Tina is just in her jacket for the hayride while ready to pass out from exhaustion, but she refuses to lie down. The kids leave as Linda says she has "Something special" planned for Bob’s ear.
At the haunted hayride, a sleepy Tina tries to talk to Jimmy Jr., who laughs with Zeke about a skeleton on a tractor nearby as not spooky before the farmer asks them to not do so as he put in a lot of work into the hayride. Tina again tries to get Jimmy’s attention, but he just mocks another skeleton while Tammy and Jocelyn are bored and start making out with random guys next to the them on the ride. Tina suggests kissing Jimmy Jr., who agrees, but then notices that he has more whiskers and nostrils than before, and opens her eyes to see the fetal pig next to her as she enters another dream with a purple sky. The fetal pig scares off all the kids from the wagon on the ride, and Tina runs off. In the real world, she has fallen asleep and is snoring loudly next to Jimmy Jr.
At the apartment, Bob enters the master bedroom to find Linda in her nightgown and candles to create a "relaxing" mood, with Linda saying she left a bowl of candy outside for trick-or-treaters so they won’t be disturbed. Linda keeps talking in a breathy voice and tells Bob to lay down on the bed, which he does. She puts some drops in his ear, then says to wait 15 minutes before they flush the wax out with the syringe. Bob notices her voice and asks her if she is turned on, which she admits to a little.
In the dream world, Tina hides behind a tree before seeing Louise and Gene. Louise slaps her, and nothing happens as she doesn’t feel it, meaning Tina is in a dream. She tells her dream siblings they didn’t get rid of the pig, to Louise’s shock that the internet was inaccurate, before realizing they are in Tina’s dream. In addition to horses running by, Tina gives Louise nine arms and two for legs, and making Gene’s body applesauce when they ask. Louise asks why Tina cannot dream the pig away, with Tina yelling that she would if she could. Louise thinks and suggests trapping him. Tina wonders what they could use as a trap when they notice a coffin with a pop-up skeleton playing a banjo for the hayride nearby. Tina dreams up a shirt, glasses and wig matching her look (as well as a Kangol hat at Gene’s suggestion) for Lousie to use to disguise the skeleton.
Linda has Bob sit up and lean his right ear onto a towel, but few pieces of the ear wax come out. Linda looks in the ear again with the otoscope, thinking the wax "outwitted" the oil and feels it is laughing at her, yelling that she’s coming for the "wax bastard", scaring Bob.
In the dream, Tina, Gene and Louise hide behind a tree looking at the skeleton, now made up to look like Tina, before Tina sees the pig floating on the farm road looking for her. It sees the skeleton and rushes over to the coffin, getting caught in before the lid closes. The kids run over and sit on the coffin lid, so the pig is now trapped forever. However, Tina suggests putting a big rock on top to be safe, before the pig manages to snatch her and drag her into the coffin.
Bob screams as Linda obsessively tries to flush the ear wax out.
Tina finds herself in the coffin, with the skeleton and the fetal pig ghost. The pig mocks Tina, who asks why the pig will not leave her alone. The pig is caught off-guard, asking if Tina thinks he is doing this to her, when in fact it is herself doing this; the pig explains that she gave into peer pressure and made fun of him, and now she feels really guilty, so this is all her own brain’s doing. Tina admits that it sound like something her brain would do and apologizes to the pig and asks to make it up to the pig, offering to hang out. The pig trolls her by suggesting they date, but wants the hat from the skeleton and say goodbye to Tina.
Tina wakes up on the hayride tractor wagon, with Tammy saying that Tina was farting and ti was not Tammy doing so and blaming Tina. The farmer reaches the end, and does a bit with a fake skeleton hand. Tammy is about to call it embarrassing before Tina interrupts her and says it was all great to the farmer, before saying that her fetal pig was great too, saying she was wrong to make fun of it, and kisses Jimmy Jr. at the end of her speech.
At the apartment, Louise and Gene are enjoying their candy haul in the living room, while Linda asks Tina about her night. Tina says she learned a little about life and a lot about herself, before falling asleep on the couch and snoring loudly. Louise asks about Bob’s ear, which Linda admits they could not flush; Bob says it brought them closer before he sneezes. The sneeze forces the ear wax out, and it lands on the candy pile on the coffee table. Bob and Linda cheer, until they see Gene picked up the ear wax and mistook it for candy, prompting them to stop him from eating it.
Videos[]
External links[]
- "Pig Trouble in Little Tina" on IMDb
- "Pig Trouble in Little Tina" press release via The Futon Critic
- "Pig Trouble in Little Tina" script via Springfield! Springfield!
- "Pig Trouble in Little Tina" at the US Copyright Database
| Season 10 Episode Navigation | v • t • e | |
|---|---|---|
| The Ring (But Not Scary) • Boys Just Wanna Have Fungus • Motor, She Boat • Pig Trouble in Little Tina • Legends of the Mall • The Hawkening: Look Who's Hawking Now! • Land of the Loft • Now We're Not Cooking with Gas • All That Gene • Have Yourself a Maily Linda Christmas • Drumforgiven • A Fish Called Tina • Three Girls and a Little Wharfy • Wag the Song • Yurty Rotten Scoundrels • Flat-Top o' the Morning to Ya • Just the Trip • Tappy Tappy Tappy Tap Tap Tap • The Handyman Can • Poops!… I Didn't Do It Again • Local She-ro • Prank You for Being a Friend | ||
| ← Season 9 | See also: Episode Guide | Season 11 → |