Jokey's Joke Book

Title Translation ofJokey's Joke Book
French	Le Livre du Schtroumpf Farceur
German	Jokeys Buch der Scherze
Italian	Il libro degli scherzi di Burlone
Dutch	Lolsmurfs lolboek

"Jokey's Joke Book" is a Season 7 episode from the Smurfs cartoon show.

Plot Summary

Out in the forest by the swamp, Gargamel has his cat Azrael sniffing the ground for Itchy Nut Fungus so that he could make flea powder to make Azrael's fleas scurry once and for all. Azrael soon detects a sample of the fungus and directs Gargamel to it, but when he picks up the fungus, it turns out to actually be a frog, which spooks Gargamel and sends him falling in a mud puddle. Gargamel curses his cat's failure while Azrael laughs at his master's mishap.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, the Smurfs are busy picking smurfberries as Handy is testing his smurfberry thresher. Greedy and Jokey are testing out a new invention called the boxed lunch, which suspiciously look like Jokey's standard "surprise" pranks. Brainy is rather reluctant to try one of them out, believing that it's just another one of Jokey's pranks, but when Greedy opens his and it surprisingly doesn't explode -- only to reveal that it contains cupcakes -- he and several other Smurfs each take a boxed lunch and open it, only for it to explode as usual. However, the combined sounds of the explosions attract Gargamel's attention, and soon after Brainy scolds Jokey for his prank, the evil wizard shows up to chase after the Smurfs. Handy shows up with his smurfberry thresher, which scares away Azrael as he climbs up on his master to flee, and ends up pulling on Gargamel's robe until it tears off him, leaving him both in his underwear and carrying Azrael's fleas.

Back in the village, Brainy speaks for every Smurf about how boring and how sick and tired they are of Jokey's usual "surprises". Jokey then finds himself looking through his chest stored away in his basement until he finds the Big Book Of Laughs, which he decides to use. Soon Smurfette gets a knock on her door, and she sees a big bouquet of water lilies that were left for her, but when she picks them up to smell, the flowers squirt water in her face. Jokey reveals that he has attached a hose to the flowers to make them squirt water at her. In Greedy's kitchen, Greedy sees that one of his cupcakes has gotten a case of the jumping beans as it jumps off the table and out the door, only for it to be Jokey controlling the cupcake by using a fishing reel. Then Jokey puts a bit of glue on the end of Painter's paintbrush, causing it to be stuck onto the canvas when Painter tries to apply a bit more color into his masteurpiesa until he rips a piece out of his work, causing him to curse Jokey.

In Gargamel's castle, the evil wizard is taking a bath with his cat to get rid of the fleas, saying that he hates bubbles, fleas, and Smurfs as he sneezes. He tells his cat that they need to look for more Itchy Nut Fungus, but as Gargamel steps out of the bathtub, he slips on a bar of soap and falls on his face, saying that he hates taking baths.

Back in the village, Jokey pulls a prank on Vanity, making him look through a kaleidoscope with the eyepiece rimmed with black shoe polish so that when Vanity removes it from his eye, he leaves him wearing a black eye ring. Soon Jokey finds himself chased by his fellow Smurfs who are all sick of Jokey's new pranks. He escapes them by hiding inside a giant present box, leaving his pursuers standing around demanding for Jokey to surrender. Papa Smurf comes around and finds out that Jokey's been springing all sorts of different surprises on his fellow Smurfs, and when Papa Smurf opens the giant present box, a pie comes out to hit him in the face.

Papa Smurf has a talk with Jokey about his new pranks, and with the other Smurfs listening in, he reveals that he has been using the Big Book Of Laughs. Papa Smurf tells Jokey that he has pulled enough jokes for one day, but as Jokey goes to put his prank items into the cellar, thinking of what pranks he could pull the next day, Brainy sneaks in to take Jokey's Big Book Of Laughs away. He doesn't get far with it when Jokey spots Brainy with the book, asking what he's doing with it. Brainy quickly leaps out with the book and plays monkey-in-the-middle with Jokey as the monkey, trying to keep the book away from him. Finally the book sails over Clumsy and gets shredded by Handy's smurfberry thresher, making Jokey so upset that he can't play anymore of his jokes. Brainy offers to replace the book with a copy of one of his Quotations Of Brainy Smurf, but Jokey refuses to accept it.

Sometime later, as the Smurfs sit down to a meal of Greedy's smurfberry pudding, Snappy brings Papa Smurf a note left by Jokey on his door, saying that without his Big Book Of Laughs, he's useless as a jokester, and so he's going out into the forest to live as a hermit. As the Smurfs go out to find Jokey, who is pulling along a cart with his prank items in it, Gargamel is out in the forest with his cat looking for more Itchy Nut Fungus when he runs into the Smurfs. As they make a run for it, Gargamel begins to chase after them, but trips and falls. However, his bucket manages to capture the Smurfs in it. Jokey sees the whole thing from the safety of some grasses and says that it's all his fault.

In Gargamel's castle, the evil wizard is preparing to make Smurf stew when he gets a knock on the door. He opens and sees that a bouquet of stinkweed was left for him, which Gargamel thinks is from his mother. When he picks up the bouquet and smells it, the stinkweed squirts water in his face. Jokey, who fooled Gargamel with his squirting bouquet trick, slips by unnoticed and paints the handle of the wizard's stirring spoon with glue. As Gargamel returns to preparing his stew, a Smurf appears below his feet. He tells Azrael to chase after him, and as the cat gives chase, it is revealed to be a Smurf on wheels being pulled by a fishing reel by Jokey. However, Gargamel then sees Jokey appear on the table to try freeing the Smurfs from their cage, and the Smurf hops his way out of the castle. Returning to his food preparation, Gargamel touches the spoon and gets his hand stuck on it until he pulls on the spoon so hard that it flies off and hits Azrael in the head.

Outside the castle, Jokey realizes that he has run out of his jokes, so he will need to come up with something else to rescue his fellow Smurfs. As Gargamel places the cage of Smurfs over the boiling cauldron, Jokey knocks on the door and says he will trade with Gargamel the Smurfs that he has for what's in the box. Jokey then jumps in the box, hoping that Gargamel would be foolish to try opening the box to find him inside it, only for Jokey to slip out from behind it and leave Gargamel opening the box to find an explosion that catapults him away from his castle. The evil wizard finds that he and his cat have now landed in a patch of poison ivy, causing them to scratch uncontrollably while ranting about hating the Smurfs.

Back in the village, after Jokey and the captured Smurfs have returned, the Smurfs cheer as Brainy presents Jokey with a special copy of Quotations Of Brainy Smurf. Jokey responds by giving Brainy a special gift of his own...which turns out to be one of his usual exploding "surprises". Jokey laughs and says that the old-fashioned jokes are still the best.

Background Information

• In the syndicated version of the episode, the entire soundtrack was in 2x higher than usual in pitch octave.