The Retro Nicktoons Talent Show Chapter 6

As the day went on, the Nicktoons characters were rehearsing for the play: Helga was going to recite one of her poems on the show, Jimmy was building equipment for the show, and Dil and Tucker were on social media websites promoting Tommy’s play. Rudy, however, was having trouble with the posters. Tommy came over and asked what the problem was.
“What’s the problem?” Tommy asked Rudy.

“I don’t know what date the show will premiere.” Answered Rudy.

“It will be on June 10th.” Said Tommy. “We will have over a month to practice the show. The secretary said that IF the show sells 800,000 dollars on opening day, they will call it a success and let us do a tour across the country.”
“Wow!” Said Rudy. “What acts will be on the show? That way I’ll be able to draw whoever will be on the show.”
“Cat and Dog, Helga Pataki, Eliza Thornberry, Jimmy Neutron, and when she comes back, Kimi, will be performing on the show.” Answered Tommy. As if it were magic, he got a message from his best friend since childhood, Charles Grandle Finster, or as everyone else called him, Chuckie.
‘There’s someone here who’d like to see you.’ The text said. Tommy ran to the entrance of the theater and saw a familiar face beside Chuckie, his adopted sister Kimi Watanabe-Finster.
“Good morning, Tommy.” She said, as Tommy blushed. “I’m back from my trip. I heard that you are putting on a talent show. Could I sing on your show? I did karaoke while in Japan.”
“Definitely!” Said Tommy. “Sorry, but I have to go now. Since I am going to be directing this play, I have lots of responsibilities to attend to.” Tommy went back inside to speak to the Chameleon Brothers, Chuck and Leon, to see if they could find some extra Nicktoons. Susie Carmichael, another one of Tommy’s childhood friends, was reluctantly conducting the show. She was helping the band, made up of animal characters, practice their instruments.
“What are you doing here, Tommy?” She asked.
“I am looking for those dinosaur brothers.” He answered.

“Actually, we’re chameleons.” Said Chuck.

“Great!” Said Tommy. “I need your help. I need you too to find these seven cartoon characters.” He then gave out seven posters featuring six different Nicktoons characters. “We need Squidward to serve as our art director, as well as a clarinet player, while the remaining six will be dunked in dunk tanks. Do you think you can do that?”

“What’s in it for us?” Asked Leon.

“How about 50 Somalians?” Asked Tommy, holding out dollar bills.

“Deal!” Said the Chameleons, and they grabbed the dollar bills and ran off to find the missing characters. Suddenly, Tommy heard arguing in the distance. He walked over to where the costume designers, Rhonda Lloyd and Randolph Grant, were working, and they were fighting over how the costumes should be designed.

“Thank goodness you’re here, Thomas!” Said Rhonda, grabbing him by the shirt. “There is no way I’m working with someone who licks his own butt!”

“For your information, human,” Said Randolph. “I had surgery over the years, so I licked several butts!”

“Guys, calm down!” Said Tommy. “Rhonda, why don’t you create costumes for the human characters? Randolph, why don’t you make costumes for the animal characters?”

“Deal!” Said Rhonda.

“And for the record,” Said Tommy. “My name is Tommy, not Thomas.”

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Meanwhile, the Chameleon Brothers rode a Drone-O-Rama brand Hover Couch to the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn, New York. This is where the SpongeBob characters lived, thanks to their immense popularity, and some characters even had their own tanks! The only character who wasn’t there was Sandy Cheeks, who lived in the Mouse House at the Bronx Zoo. When Chuck and Leon entered the building, they asked a curator where Squidward was.

“Do you know where you keep the cartoon squid?” Asked Leon.

“You mean Squidward Tentacles?” Replied the curator. “We’re normally not allowed to show this to the public, but since you’re toons, I can show you our secret exhibit: The SpongeBob SquarePants exhibit!” The curator walked the Chameleon Brothers over to a secret room, and they saw a huge tank featuring many SpongeBob characters. They saw Squidward in a tank with a tiki head for a house, and he was sunbathing under a lamp.

“May we take your squid?” Asked Chuck.

“Technically, he’s an octopus.” Said the curator. “And no, you can’t have him. Squidward, along with all the other SpongeBob characters, are owned by Viacom.”

“How about a trade?” Asked Leon. “We could trade you Muddy Mudskipper!”

“But he’s freshwater!” Said Chuck.

“Actually, toon fish are brackish.” Said the curator. “But I’ll take him! How long do you need Squidward?”

“Until after June 10th.” Said Leon.

“Deal!” Said the curator. “But you don’t have any pockets or bags, so you don’t have the fish on you.”

“We could always get him and bring him to you.” Said Chuck. “Back to the Hover Couch!” The Chameleon Brothers went back to the Hover Couch to find Muddy Mudskipper to trade for Squidward.

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It was now 4 PM, and Tommy was talking to Helga about her poem.

”Are you sure that I should recite this poem I wrote years ago?” She asked. “What if they all laugh at me? The audience, that is?”

“Helga, you can do this!” Said Tommy. “You were able to do this all the time on ‘Hey Arnold’, so you should, no, WILL be able to read your poem in front of a live audience!” Suddenly, the door opened, and it was Rocko and Filbert.

“Did you get the animals and Sokka?” Asked Tommy.

“Did we ever!” Said Filbert, and he brought in a Disney-esque horse and a cartoony-looking dog.

“Great!” Said Tommy. “Bring those to Eliza Thornberry, please. Her dressing room is over there, but we’re going back to Toontown New York at 6.” Rocko and Filburt went to Eliza’s dressing room to drop off the animals. Suddenly, the Chameleons dropped off a plastic water bottle containing Squidward. Tommy picked up the bottle and poured Squidward into a glass of water.

“Is this what you call first class flight?” The cephalopod asked sarcastically.

“Sorry.” Said Tommy. “They were the best we could afford.”

“Why did you bring me here?” Asked Squidward.

“We want you to be an art director and conductor for our play.” Answered Tommy. “We’ll give you a good amount of sand dollars if you help us out!” Squidward’s eyes then lit up.

“Dollars?” He asked. “As in money?”

“Close.” Answered Tommy. “Since it’s getting late, we’ll start tomorrow. You can bunk with my brother in a tank.”

“How do you know you won’t eat me or turn me into a souvenir?” Asked Squidward.

“I don’t eat seafood.” Replied Tommy. “Also, when I was a baby, me and my friends saved a turkey from being Thanksgiving dinner, and we also freed a bowl of sea monkeys back to the sea.”

“Deal!” Said Squidward, and he shook hands with Tommy.

Author's Notes: Somolians were a type of currency that toons would use in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Before he died, Stephen Hillenburg admitted that Squidward was an octopus, not a squid.
Chuck and Leon were chameleon brothers who appeared on Rocko's Modern Life. They spoke with Scandinavian accents and ran many jobs on the show. In 'Static Cling', they pitched a CGI reboot of The Fatheads, Rocko's favorite show, which was literally made by a bunch of worms.

Before we move on, the Chameleons' reboot of The Fatheads would've looked like this.


The sea monkey incident Tommy mentions in this chapter is a reference to the Rugrats episode 'Beach Blanket Babies'. In that episode, Chuckie gets his first pet: sea monkeys. However, Tommy feels that the sea monkeys (which they call sea moneys) would be happier if they were in their natural habitat, the ocean. So when they visit the beach, Tommy and Chuckie dump the sea monkeys in the cooler and try to dump the cooler's contents into the ocean so the sea monkeys can be free.
Tommy dumping the 'sea moneys' into the cooler.

Muddy Mudskipper was a character on Ren & Stimpy who, from what I've been told, was basically Krusty the Clown from The Simpsons as a fish.