Brain Food

"Brain Food" is the forty third episode of the first season in Teen Titans Go!, and the forty third overall episode of the series.

Synopsis[]

Tired of being the least intelligent of the Titans, Beast Boy attempts to make himself "smarterer". But when his methods prove useless, he resorts to Raven's Spellbook- not to make himself smarter, but to make the other Titans dumber, so as to come to his level of thought.

Plot[]

The episode begins with an asteroid hurtling towards earth, and the Titans performing calculations to try and stop it. Robin assigns each Titan a special job to help take the asteroid out of the sky. However, when Beast Boy awaits his assignment, Robin simply gives him a vial of water to hold, telling him it's "science juice." Beast Boy eagerly grabs the vial and begins dancing in excitement for his important job, but then he accidentally drops and breaks it. Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven congratulate him on at least trying, only to have Beast Boy confused as to why they're cheering him up. They try to politely explain that he is unintelligent, but Beast Boy is unable to understand their explanations until Robin bluntly states, "you're not smart." Beast Boy is angered by this ridiculous brand and declares he can help the others. Robin tells him the best help he could offer was to bathe Silkie in such a way he vomits.

Beast Boy is determined to prove the others wrong and tries various methods to make himself smarter. First, he tries the task of opening a door, all to no avail (he is pushing instead of pulling). Raven opens it from the other side and gives him a black eye. Another time he tries to open a book but again tries pushing the cover instead of pulling it over. After doing these foolish things, he decides that he'll use a spell to make himself smarter. So he asks Raven if her spellbook has a spell to make people smarter and if there are more words than pictures or vice-versa. She responds, and Beast Boy nonchalantly flies away with Silkie to find the book. He opens it and finds the right spell.

Walking out of his room, Beast Boy believes he has become smarter and tests himself with a toy to see if it works, but realizes the magic didn't work. He goes back to the spellbook and decides that if he can't be smarter, he will just make the Titans dumber. So he casts a spell and goes to see if the spell worked. He watches Robin and Cyborg try to catch a bird but run into the window. Amazed that the spell worked, Beast Boy and the other Titans start dancing while Silkie tries to work out how to stop the asteroid.

The next day, the other Titans can not figure out how to make cereal, but Beast Boy shows them how to do it; amazed at how he did it, they start to say that he is the smartest. Meanwhile, Silkie is still trying to build something to stop the asteroid with only twelve minutes left.

Later, Beast Boy was trying to help Raven with a toy, but Robin keeps saying that he can't find his shoe and that foot is in a bucket. Meanwhile, Silkie is trying to stop the asteroid. Later, Raven says she can't see as she's put her cloak on backwards, but Beast Boy fixes it, so when the asteroid is getting closer to Jump City, all the Titans depend on Beast Boy to fix it, and after he figures out that he can't do it, he regrets what he did. So he puts a banana in his ear to become smarter and then says that the asteroid is coming at them with a little thing called gravity, and gravity is controlled by the ocean, and that means if they kill the ocean, then the asteroid will go away. And then the Titans jump into the ocean.

In the ocean, they start randomly punching things; meanwhile, it is revealed that Silkie was building a robot that looks like him to fight the asteroid. When Silkie finally destroys the asteroid, the Titans think they have succeeded and hold Beast Boy in praise, as he apparently saved them all. Beast Boy remarks that he still regrets being smarter. He wishes to undo the spell and asks Raven where her spellbook is. However, she interprets that he wants her SPELL book, but she gives up.

Later that day, the Titans and Beast Boy still have difficulty making cereal, and Beast Boy reveals he cast the same spell he used on himself on the team. Robin asks him why he didn't just cast a spell to make them smarter, but Beast Boy says he doesn't know why. The Titans continue to blunder about the kitchen, then get captivated by a butterfly and try to catch it, but they just hit a window again.

Characters[]

Trivia[]

When Beast Boy opens Raven's spell book, you can see written in the left hand corner, "To Raven, from Dad"
In the montage where Beast Boy is doing "smart things," "Smartest" is spelled incorrectly (Smartist). This is probably intentional, though, as to advertise just how uneducated Beast Boy is.
When Silkie obtains knowledge, he appears with glasses, which is a stereotypical way to interpret smart people.
This is one of the episodes that has the most running gags (in one episode) in the series so far. It's tied with "Driver's Ed", and in third is the next episode, "In and Out".
This was the first episode that introduces the Silkiebot. The other episode is "Some of Their Parts".

"Guys, look! ... A birdie!"
The scene where Cyborg points to a Seagull and says, "Guys, look! A birdie!" has become an internet meme. The meme usually involves people editing the scene to replace the "birdie" and Cyborg's dialogue with something else, as well as adding funny music and/or sound effects to play over Cyborg and Robin running to the window. [1]
There is a level 2 Passport to Reading book that has the same name as this episode.

the book:

Continuity[]

This is the third time Beast Boy assumes leadership of the team. The first time was in "Gorilla" and the second was in "No Power".
This is the third time Beast Boy uses Raven's spell book. The first two times were in Meatball Party (to turn the couch into a burrito) and "Double Trouble" with Cyborg (to make clones of themselves).
- Curiously, this time Beast Boy doesn't even know how to open a book.
This is the third time Silkie has been shown with his eyes open. the first two times were "Starliar" and "Dreams".
This is the fifth time Raven is seen unhooded or without her cloak. The previous ones were "Laundry Day", "Meatball Party", "Power Moves" and "Legs".
- Also, when Beast Boy is trying to get into the library, you can see a picture of Raven unhooded.
The Riddler's (another enemy of Batman) question mark is seen yet again while Beast Boy is thinking.
This is the second time Beast Boy said "Titans, Go!", which he first did in "Gorilla".
The VS. image from the episodes "Laundry Day", "Parasite", and "Terra-ized" is used again for the first time in a while.
This is the first time Silkie is shown wearing glasses. The second time will be in "Some of Their Parts", with the Smart Silkie emoticlone.

References[]

In the "Science" backdrop at the start, Atom's head can be seen next to the words.
In the Titans library, there is a Batman poster saying "Swear to Read!", which is similar to a line from Batman Begins, "Swear to me!"
This episode is similar to an episode of The Fairly OddParents known as "Dumbbell Curve.", as both episodes involve a character magically making everyone else dumber than himself.
- Coincidentally, both involve a meteor heading toward the Earth and a character voiced by Tara Strong.
- In an episode of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius known as "Normal Boy", the show's main protagonist makes himself dumber, and this episode also features a meteor heading toward Earth.
In Raven's spell book, next to the brain enhancing spell that Beast Boy used on Silkie, there is a picture of Bane, an arch-enemy of Batman, under the influence of the strength enhancing toxin called Venom. This is likely a spell for making people super strong.
While Beast Boy looks at the readouts, Batman and the Dark Knight Rises variant of Bane can be seen on the screen.
The device Beast Boy is shown playing on resembles the Nintendo DSi.
This episode is barely similar to the Regular Show episode, "More Smarter" where both dumb protagonists make themselves smarter. However, "More Smarter" did not involve a meteor, and Rigby mainly wanted a high school diploma so he could get some food from a food truck, while Beast Boy didn't, and just wanted to be the smartest of the team. In both episodes, the character uses something to get smarter (Beast Boy uses Raven's Spellbook, and Rigby uses Brain Max).

Errors[]

Beast Boy doesn't know how to open a book, even though he could in "Books".
Beast Boy inserts fish inside his ear, even though he's a vegetarian.
- Though as he treated it as "brain food" and ate it by shoving it in his ear, he may have thought of it differently than normal food.
Beast Boy apparently doesn't know how to work the Titan's computer, even though he was able to in "Hey Pizza!"
Despite having a library, the Titans couldn't find any more books to read in "Books."
- Although it's possible that the Titans' love for books influenced the addition of a library.

Running Gags[]

Beast Boy being told to "Pull not push," but continuously forgetting.
Beast Boy shoving “brain food” in his ear.
The Titans seeing a flying animal they want to catch, and running into the window.
The Titans using cereal bowls upside down because of their decreased intelligence.
Beast Boy being an ignoramus.
Beast Boy doing his science dance.
Silkie trying to find a way to stop the asteroid while the other Titans do nothing.