King Jason And The Pony

King Jason and the Pony is the 13th episode of FruityTales.

This story is a retelling of David and Bathsheba from the Book of Second Samuel.

Plot
The show opens up on the countertop with Jimmy and Jerry Asparagus, who are disguised poorly as Rob and Harry. They say they've received a letter from a guy named Jimmy who lives somewhere near Texas (presumably in Kansas). He mentions of a friend of his named Jerry who is very selfish. Jerry (dressed as Harry) speaks up and says that Jerry is a very nice guy and the guy who is really selfish is called Hubert. Jimmy (dressed as Rob) is annoyed with Terry for messing up the letter. Jerry takes off his Harry costume and lashes out at Jimmy. All of a sudden, the real Rob and Harry appear and confront Jimmy and Jerry. Jimmy and Jerry say they figured Rob could use a break and they've wanted to host a show ever since Doug and the Giant Lemon. Rob at first isn't sure about letting the mango and pineapple host at first, but he lets them when they say that they have a story to tell. The story they have is a poorly acted play called "The British Dude Who went up a valley (and came down with all the Blackberries)."

In the play, Leek #1 is dressed as an British Dude who came down a valley and took a bunch of Blackberries and won't eat one without a fruit. On the other side of the stage, a russian (Jerry) has a bunch of Raspberries he had taken from a valley and won't eat one unless he has a Blackberries. Jimmy appears briefly and tries to correct him that he's not Russian. As soon as the music stops, Jerry Pssst. him, prompting him to move off the screen to the left and let the play resume. The two gentlemen see the fruit they have and they won't share their meals with each other.

After the story ends, Jimmy and Jerry head towards Quirky for a verse only to find that he is completely shut off. Jerry then shows a piece of cardboard with "Don't be selfish" scribbled on. As the pears attempt to wrap up the show, a fed up Rob comes out and discredits Jimmy and Jerry for their performance, plus he scolds them with their results. Rob then asks Harry if he remembers about a letter from Lucy Thompson from Bismarck, North Dakota, which reads that she won't share her toys with her little sister. The two then begin to play the story of "King Jason and the Pony."

In the story, there lived a king named Jason (Harry) who lived in a very big castle. While his kingdom is in the middle of a firecrackers war, all he ever does is hang out in his bathtub and play with his rubber pony. King Jason’s assistant Lucas (Rob) always urges him to stop fooling around and start taking part in leading his troops in the cheese war. But Jason always ignores Lucas and focuses on him and his rubber pony collection. One day, as Jason looks over his kingdom, he notices a poor boy named Michael (Timmy Strawberry) bathing outside and playing with his own rubber pony. Filled with envy, King Jason’s focus is all on Micheal’s pony and will do stop at nothing to get the pony. Meanwhile, Gaston (Leek #1), King Jason’s top general of his army, comes by to inform Jason that his army is desperate need of more soldiers. Seeing this as an opportunity to snatch Micheal’s pony, King Jason says that Michael will be willing to enlist and to send him to the front line alone. Jason and Lucas begin to prep for taking the pony.

Later that night, King Jason and Lucas head out to Micheal’s house to take the pony. They take the pony from Micheal’s house and head back to the castle. At the castle, Gaston comes in with Michael, who has won the battle all by himself but is suffering terrible PTSD from the battle. King Jason doesn't feel remorse and focuses on the pony. Lucas snaps at Jason for being selfish and focusing on what he cares about. Meanwhile, Alvin, (Pa Orange) a storyteller, comes in and tells a parable about a rich man who has a lot of sheep and a poor man who has only one sheep which he loves very deeply. When the rich man is visited by the guest, he goes to the poor man and steals his sheep to serve as dinner to his guest. Demanding who the horrible rich man is, Alvin points out that the rich man is King Jason himself. Alvin tells Jason that whether he's a king or kid, Ghost wants him to put others first. King Jason then heads to Michael and puts him in his bath and give back his pony to make up for his sins. King Jason, Lucas, and Michael then a song about it is always right about putting people first.

Back on the countertop, the bible verse of the day is Romans 12:10; Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. The show ends with Jimmy and Jerry coming out with the French Asparagus and Artichoke who are dressed as Rob and Harry and asks if they can host a show of their own.

Trivia

 * This was the last episode to be rendered entirely in Softimage.
 * "Break a leg" is showterms for saying "Good luck!".
 * Infidel is another way to someone who doesn't believe.
 * Boysenberry is a type of berry, which is a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry.
 * A cobbler is similar to a pie, but with a biscuit topping.
 * The "Very-Well, Lumpy!" message is a farewell for using the previous server (possibly SoftImage) for the shows.
 * This episode was the first for several things:
 * The first episode to use Softimage, as well the first appearance of Leek One without his new hairdo.
 * The first episode where someone else besides Rob and Harry try to take over the Countertop.
 * The first episode Tod Carter worked on.
 * The first episode not to have Madame Green Tomato since her debut appearance.
 * The first time Harry played the main antagonist of an episode. He turns nice at the end afterwards.
 * Speaking of which, some fans wrote letters saying they didn't like Harry being mean.
 * The first episode where someone else sings the What Have We Learned song in its entirety, as Rob cut off Harry before he finishes the song in Lawrence, Aiden and James.
 * The costumes Jimmy and Jerry wore were based on the ones Mark Nawrocki experienced when he went to be a spokesperson for a Vacation Bible School. The kids at who did VBS actually made cardboard cutouts of Rob and Harry.
 * This episode marks the return of letters received from a kid by Rob and Harry since John And The Big Wall! However, this episode would mark the last appearance of letters until The Ballad of Little Moe.
 * During the scenes of King Jason taking Micheal’s pony, there's a graffiti of King Jason and his castle on the viewer's right. It also has "Selfi," which probably means "Selfish." So the picture is probably drawn by someone who didn't like King Thomas.
 * Philippe said this was the riskiest episode they wrote, since the original Bible story it's based after is more "adult" themed. Sean Gaffney helped out when he wrote a ten page draft called "King Dave and the Bath Ducky", which is basically just the same Bible story but with a rubber duck. Phillippe then decided to tweak it (eg. names and locations) because he didn't want kids to know what Bible story it's based on.
 * According to Phillippe, Pa Orange's character was named Nathan, but then changed to Alvin in the final.
 * Mark Nawrocki read the interactive storybook version on Madame Green Tomato.
 * On the original VHS release, it contains the 3-2-1 Polar Bears! Promo.
 * One of the screenshots on the back of the cover have King Jason and Lucas smiling. Cedric is smiling with his teeth, whilst in the actual episode, he has his mouth opened.
 * If you watch the video on a computer, you'll notice some white behind in the scene where Jason and Lucas were down the castle.
 * The countertop scenes are in more of a yellow-ish look. Phillippe apologizes to anyone who notices it.
 * If the tall man was Jason as shown in the flannelgraph, his character doesn't have him tall at all.
 * All of King Jason’s other ponies are all just the same generic yellow, which pretty much removes the point of keeping multiple of the same in storage.
 * It's unknown how exactly Quirky turns on, having turned off in the beginning but turned on after the story.
 * Jimmy presses "Option" on Quirky, but there's no such key on a real keyboard.
 * It's unknown when the story of King Jason takes place, considering he uses a quarter to operate the binoculars.
 * Rob states he just had a break, probably referring to the previous episode.
 * The quote "Bye Bye, Birde!" is a reference to A Bug's Life.
 * In the teaser trailer from the second sing along, the narrator mentions King Arthur and Henry the 8th.
 * Jerry's line "Well, I Got Here First!" was a homage to the first The Curse of the Were-Rabbit film.
 * The first story's title is a spoof on "The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain" starring Hugh Grant.
 * The glasses King Jason wore while stealing Georges' fish are Groucho Marx glasses.
 * A prequel of the story would be made years later.
 * The glasses would become a running gag in later episodes, though in a slightly different variation.

Goofs

 * After the cheese hits Jean Claude, his right eye clips through the pie crust.
 * One shot shows King Jason in his king clothes, but in the next shot it turns back to his towel, and after that he has his king clothes back on.
 * Background mountain shots are shown at inconsistent angles. One shot shows in a lower position, but the shots after that show the mountains back to their normal position.