Boyz Crazy

"Boyz Crazy" is the 17th episode in the first season of Gravity Falls. It premiered on April 19, 2013.

Official overview
When Mabel discovers that her favorite boy band is actually a bunch of imprisoned clones, she sets them free, only to decide on keeping them for herself. Meanwhile, Dipper is convinced that Robbie plans to brainwash Wendy with a secret message hidden inside one of his songs.

Synopsis
As Dipper and Wendy improvise funny dialogue over the security tape of Stan and some customers, Mabel suddenly appears (while happily dancing), ecstatically delivering the news that her favorite band, Sev'ral Timez, will be having a concert in Gravity Falls at the Gravity Falls Civic Center and Buffet. Dipper and Wendy then start to laugh and tease Mabel about her extreme love for the musicians, saying that they are "fake" and nothing more than a "product of the bloated corporate music industry," upsetting Mabel until Candy and Grenda arrive to prepare for the concert.

Up in Dipper and Mabel's bedroom, Mabel and her friends gossip and fawn over their favorite band, while Dipper and Wendy continue to enjoy their security footage improv. Robbie soon enters to invite Wendy to Lookout Point with him, which disgusts Wendy and causes her to express concerns that she does not think their relationship is going smoothly. Dipper leaves the room, but he is still watching and listening though the door, and when Wendy says that she might want to see other people, he initially rejoices over this, but becomes suspicious when Wendy changes her mind immediately after hearing a song Robbie made for her as a gift. When Dipper inquires Robbie as to what happened, he simply teases to Dipper saying that he doesn't understand romance and walks off with Wendy. Dipper talks to Mabel and her friends about his concerns, but they dismiss it, saying girls just like musicians, and that girls mature faster.

Meanwhile, Mabel and her friends find that the Sev'ral Timez concert is sold out and become highly disappointed, though Mabel takes charge, saying that they will meet the band, even if it means breaking in. Back at the Mystery Shack, Dipper talks to Stan about his suspicions. His uncle replies that he has witnessed a similar situation in the past when a hippie musician stole his girlfriend many years ago, and he agrees to help, right after he finished eating his canned meat.

Over at the concert, Mabel and company make their way toward Sev'ral Timez's dressing room, thinking that they will be in for a great treat, but are shocked to find that the band is merely a bunch of caged clones. Just before the boys' horrible producer, Ergman Bratsman, walks in, the girls hide and witness the man threaten the group to shape up or else they will be replaced by other clones. After they reveal their situation and aspirations for freedom to the girls, Mabel unlocks the cage and takes them back to the Shack.

As Dipper and Stan unsuccessfully try to decode the alleged secret messages within Robbie's CD, Mabel, Candy, and Grenda come back--hiding the boy band in a large bag--and take them up to the attic. After a brief conversation, the members of Sev'ral Timez are forced to hide when Ergman arrives in search of them, interrogating Soos along the way. This causes Mabel to tell the boys that they aren't safe and that they have to stay with her, and Candy and Grenda warn Mabel not to get too attached to the boys. Ergman departs angrily, without noticing that Gompers has taken his license plate, leading to his arrest later, and the girls deduce that Sev'ral Timez must stay with where they are for the time being. While Candy and Grenda decide that they should not get too attached, Mabel goes crazy for them, and the three proceed to play with the boys and teach them how to function like normal human beings. And, Mabel begins to become possessive of the group.

In the meantime, Dipper and Stan continue their search for hidden messages in Robbie's music by turning it in to a record, and are confronted and teased by Robbie himself. Though initially discouraged by their fruitless attempts, they uncover the hypnotic message after playing the song in reverse and set out to save Wendy. Over in the kitchen, Mabel expresses her relief that she finally got the boys to sleep, and they learn of Ergman's arrest and opt to tell their refugees that they are free to go. However, Mabel tries to stop them, having gone completely insane due to her crush on the band, and convinces the boys not to trust Candy and Grenda, and remove them from the premises. She progressively gets bossier and bossier.

Dipper and Stan rush to look-out point to expose Robbie's hypnotic attempts to Wendy. After they show it to her, Robbie insists on having no knowledge of the message, instead confessing he stole it from someone else. Nonetheless, he'd lied about writing the song for her, which leaves her furious. Wendy breaks up with him on the spot, and Dipper sees this as an opportunity to ask Wendy to hang out, a request she angrily declines, accusing him (and guys in general) of selfishness, while she was in emotional pain, then storms off. Dipper is ashamed of himself and Robbie is upset, though Stan tries to cheer him up by saying that he thinks the apocalypse is on its way.

After Sev'ral Timez performs a song to express their thanks to Mabel for caring for them, she comes to regret her actions and comes to her senses. She meets Candy and Grenda outside, and make up with them. She then sends the boys off into the forest. Mabel begins to cry as they leave, with Candy expressing doubt that they are fit for life on their own. Having some soda, Dipper has a feeling that Wendy hates him for being a meddler, Stan then talks to Dipper, reassuring him that he was trying to do the right thing despite the catastrophic consequences and is sure Wendy will forgive him. Until then, he says that he is willing to spend time with Dipper in the meantime. Stan soon encounters Leggy P. rummaging through the trash and shoos him away, and the band comes to enjoy nature, despite not having a clue of how to function in it.

Credits

 * Written by:
 * Matt Chapman
 * Alex Hirsch
 * Directed by:
 * John Aoshima


 * Storyboards by:
 * Erik Fountain
 * David Gemmill
 * Vaughn Tada


 * With the Voice Talents of:
 * Kristen Schaal as Mabel Pines
 * Jason Ritter as Dipper Pines
 * Alex Hirsch as Stan Pines and Soos
 * Ken Campbell as Ergman Bratsman
 * Linda Cardellini as Wendy
 * Lance Bass, Matt Chapman, Alex Hirsch as Sev'ral Timez
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Sheriff Blubs
 * Kari Wahlgren as Shandra Jimenez
 * Carl Faruolo as Grenda
 * Will Forte as Tyler Cutebiker
 * T.J. Miller as Robbie
 * Niki Yang as Candy Chiu


 * Additional Voices:
 * Alex Hirsch as Old Man McGucket
 * Ariel Hirsch as One of Pacifica's friends
 * Kari Wahlgren


 * Casting by:
 * Sara Goldberg

Character Revelations

 * Dipper knows how to convert a CD into a record.
 * Tyler and Old Man McGucket are fans of the boy band Sev'ral Timez.
 * Gompers is male.

Series continuity

 * Dipper mentions Mabel getting into the Smile Dip, as she did in "The Inconveniencing."
 * Sev'ral Timez's movie, Boyz World, appeared in the previous episode, "Carpet Diem."
 * Stan is seen stockpiling meat for the apocalypse, foreshadowing future events. He mentions the apocalypse being imminent a second time later when he's talking to Robbie.
 * Clones are featured again, previously appearing in "Double Dipper."
 * The cryptogram from the episode "The Hand That Rocks the Mabel" is "CARLA, WHY WON'T YOU CALL ME?" Carla is also referenced in the ending "credits" for the Tent of Telepathy's TV ad as, "Carla, I've always loved you but I never had the guts to say it." In this episode, it is revealed that Stan had a girlfriend named Carla.
 * Throughout the episode, one of the Sev'ral Timez band members yells out "2013!", despite the series taking place in 2012. It appears to be done only in an exclamation of pleasure, and possibly as a reference to the year of the episode's airing for the viewers to enjoy. Ergman's license plate also reads 2013, which would mean the expiration date has been paid up to 2013, something reasonable for a rich man to do. However, the close-up of Gompers chewing on the plate changes the number to 2012.
 * Mabel claims every boy she has loved during the summer left her, referencing events from "Tourist Trapped" and "The Deep End."
 * Wendy and Robbie break up, having first started dating in "The Time Traveler's Pig."
 * As of this episode, Mabel's side of the room has a Sev'ral Timez poster hanging up on the wall.

Songs featured

 * Cray Cray
 * Wendy's Song
 * Meat for the Apocalypse
 * It'll Be This Way Forever
 * Mabel Girl

Trivia

 * Viewership: This episode was watched by 3.162 million viewers on its premiere night.
 * Lance Bass guest starring was a gift from Alex Hirsch to his sister, Ariel Hirsch, who was obsessed with Lance Bass at Mabel's age. She jokingly suggested that he voice one of the characters. Alex told her, "We'll get Lance Bass to do a voice and you can meet him" and ultimately kept his word.
 * The working title for this episode was "Only the Clonely."
 * With "Carpet Diem's" title and description, this episode was accidentally released on iTunes early.
 * During the fight scene amongst the crowd (during the performance) McGucket can be seen in the background crowd-surfing.
 * When Stan and Dipper were talking about how songs have hidden messages in them if you slow them down and play them backwards, it was likely a reference to how the Gravity Falls opening has hidden messages in it.
 * The members of Sev'ral Timez are the first Gravity Falls characters known to have irises. However, Shmipper and Smabble were shown to have colored eyes in "The Legend of the Gobblewonker."
 * The cover of Robbie's CD case resembles the cover of the book Necronomicon Ex-Mortis from the movie The Evil Dead.
 * The scene where Mabel says "Today is the greatest day of my life!" was changed in the Subway Fresh Fit For Kids commercial featured on Disney Channel.
 * In the Disney Asia release of this episode, during the opening scene, in which Dipper and Wendy were making fun of Stan over the CCTV Camera, the words "My Butt" were omitted causing part of the clip to go completely silent for a few seconds.

Cryptogram

 * During the end credits of this episode, there is a cryptogram that reads "8-1-16-16-25 14-15-23, 1-18-9-5-12?" Once decoded, it reads "HAPPY NOW, ARIEL?", a reference to Alex Hirsch's sister, Ariel Hirsch.
 * Ariel later made a post on Tumblr stating that she was.

Chicoz Locos