The Space Cow-Bros

"The Space Cow-Bros" Season 2, Episode 37 Prod. Code: 219a Premiered: May 18, 2015 Credits Written by:   Jim Martin & Hugh Webber Storyboard by:   Ruolin Li & John O'Bryan Directed by:   Joshua Taback Episodes ← Previous Episode "Escape from Scrap City" Next Episode → "The Fresh Principal of Norrisville High"

"Space Cow-Bros" is the thirty-seventh episode from the second season (and eighty-ninth overall) of Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja. It premiered on May 18, 2015.

Synopsis

Randy accidentally launches Howard into space on a space shuttle with a killer robot aboard!

Plot

It's a normal morning where Randy is snoozing, until his slumber is being rudely interrupted by Howard, who comes just to make his best friend remember his birthday. Believing that Randy is finally able to remember his birthday, Howard keeps playing the guessing game with himself, while Randy enters the Nomicon.

Desperate, Randy begs the Nomicon for help as he feels terrible as a friend. The Nomicon then teaches him the lesson;

"Sometimes protecting someone is the most dangerous thing a Ninja can do"

However, Randy instead again misinterprets and thinks he should make white lies, which is enough to make the Nomicon facepalm. After vloomping out of the Nomicon, Randy surveys the objects in his bedroom, and fabricates a lie that he would like to take Howard to McFist's spaceship launching of Space-Fist One. He then implores Howard to leave his bunk bed as he hasn't been wearing pants the whole time.

As for McFist and Viceroy, who are actually using Spacefist One to launch a satellite to spy on the Ninja and attack him with a Raptor Bot, are trying to find a replacement astronaut, since Neil Apestrong has retired due to his wife's demands. Meanwhile, Randy, once again surveying the environment, makes his lie snowball by actually taking Howard to board on the space shuttle. But after Ninja takes Howard onboard, Howard begins feeling suspicious about him bluffing, so Ninja makes an even bigger lie about taking Howard to a birthday lunch at PJ McFlubbusters afterwards. Unfortunately, Ninja's word "lunch", which is similar to the pronunciation of "launch", activates the space shuttle launch and sends Howard to space.

Having to save his best friend, Ninja goes to find help from Neil Apestrong. As for Howard, he has some fun messing with gravity, but is unaware of the Raptor Bot in the spaceship. After some sincere pleas from Ninja, Neil finally decides to fly again with Apepollo 13, despite Mrs. Apestrong's protest. Meanwhile, McFist and Viceroy still aren't able to find the perfect Robo-Ape to be their astronaut, completely oblivious that their space shuttle has already been launched.

Howard is glad that his best friend has finally come to join him, after gobbling up his lone birthday space-cream. Ninja decides to come clean about forgetting Howard's birthday again, although he wants to stall the lie a little longer with the party being on the moon, until Nomicon reminds him of the lesson. But the moment Ninja proceeds apologizing, Howard gets riled up and slaps him, prompting the Raptor Bot to be released from its confinement. Ninja then has to engage in a fight with the Raptor Bot, and after some messing with the gravity from Howard again, Howard unintentionally activates the air lock and almost gets done for until Ninja saves him. However, Apepollo 13 gets damaged by the Raptor Bot, and Neil is dragged away into space.

As both friends mourn about Neil, Howard continues pestering Ninja about his birthday being ruined, until Ninja shuts him up for being so whiny when their lives and Neil's fate are on the line. But Howard still reassures Ninja, grateful for him bringing both of them into space as they can die together and there will be no more birthdays to worry about. Fortunately, Neil has survived, and after some hassles with figuring how to open the cockpit door, all three of them return to Earth safely with Neil's professional piloting skills. Howard declares he's planning his own party for next year, and Ninja jokes about forgetting Howard's birthday again. The bros and Neil then laugh it off anyway, as it is a great adventure for Howard's birthday this year regardless.

The same can't be said for McFist and Viceroy though, as their perfect Robo-Ape astronaut gets crushed moments before entering their space shuttle by the damaged Apepollo 13, much to their dismay.

Characters

Main characters

• Randy Cunningham
• Howard Weinerman
• Raptor Bot
• Neil Apestrong

Secondary Characters

• McFist
• Viceroy
• Robo-Apes
• Mrs. Apestrong

Series Continuity

• Neil Apestrong makes his second major appearance since "Rise of the Planet of the Robo-Apes"
• Randy's habit of sleeping without clothes on, which is first seen in "Randy Cunningham's Day Off", is again displayed in this episode.

Trivia

• This episode's title is a play on the film Space Cowboys.
• This is the second time a character celebrates their birthday. The first time is in "Julian's Birthday Surprise".
• Raptor Bot's design is similar to the Queen from the 1986 film Aliens.
• When Randy lies to Howard, it is shown that he had a pet fish in a fish bowl. It's unknown how long he had it.
• Howard's birthday is revealed in this episode.
  • This makes his Constellation Horoscope a Taurus.
    • Howard also implied in this episode that he previously had an even weirder event during one of his birthdays, although it remains unexplained what event it was.
• Randy's lying seems to have improved since "Fudge Factory", being able to convince Howard about a nonexistent "surprise birthday lunch", before he decides to come clean later in this episode.
• This is by far one of two instances when Howard calls Randy (as the Ninja) by real name, which is "Cunningham" instead of the usual "Ninja". The first time being "Shloomp! There It Is!".
• Running Gags:
  • Characters saying a command out-loud in the space shuttle, without realizing that's how they open the entrances and exits.
  • Characters messing with gravity.
  • It is also revealed in this episode that McFist and Howard don't know how to pronounce gravity properly.
  • Randy doing the hip-hip-hip and Howard joking around in response, after Randy makes his white lies.
  • McFist and Viceroy struggling to find the perfect Robo-Ape astronaut.
• An implied ADHD symptom of Randy is shown in this episode, which is him repeatedly forgetting Howard's birthday prior to this episode's events without knowing why, despite not wanting to forget so. (More symptoms can be found in his trivia)

Gallery

Click here to view the gallery.