The show opens up on the countertop with Jimmy and Jerry Gourd, who are disguised poorly as Bob and Larry. 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 Larry) speaks up and says that Jerry is a very nice guy and the guy who is really selfish is called Hubert. Jimmy (dressed as Bob) is annoyed with Jerry for messing up the letter. Jerry takes off his Larry costume and lashes out at Jimmy. All of a sudden, the real Bob and Larry appear and confront Jimmy and Jerry. Jimmy and Jerry say they figured Bob could use a break and they've wanted to host a show ever since Dave and the Giant Pickle. Bob at first isn't sure about letting the gourds 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 Englishman Who went up a hill (and came down with all the bananas)."
In the play, Scallion #1 is dressed as an Englishman who came down a hill and took a bunch of bananas and won't eat one without a strawberry. On the other side of the stage, a swede (Jerry) has a bunch of strawberries he had taken from a hill and won't eat one unless he has a banana. Jimmy appears briefly and tries to correct him that he's not Swedish. As soon as the music stops, Jerry hushes 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 fruit with each other.
After the story ends, Jimmy and Jerry head towards Qwerty 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 gourds attempt to wrap up the show, a fed up Bob comes out and discredits Jimmy and Jerry for their performance, plus he scolds them with their results. Bob then asks Larry if he remembers about a letter from Lucy Thomas from Bismarck, North Dakota, which reads that she won't share her toys with her little brother. The two then begin to play the story of "King George and the Ducky."
In the story, there lived a king named George (Larry) who lived in a very big castle. While his kingdom is in the middle of a pie war, all he ever does is hang out in his bathtub and play with his rubber ducky. King George's assistant Louis (Bob) always urges him to stop fooling around and start taking part in leading his troops in the pie war. But George always ignores Louis and focuses on him and his rubber duck collection. One day, as George looks over his kingdom, he notices a poor boy named Thomas (Junior Asparagus) bathing outside and playing with his own rubber duck. Filled with envy, King George's focus is all on Thomas' duck and will do stop at nothing to get the duck. Meanwhile, Cedric (Scallion #1), King George's top general of his army, comes by to inform George that his army is desperate need of more soldiers. Seeing this as an opportunity to snatch Thomas' duck, King George says that Thomas will be willing to enlist and to send him to the front line alone. George and Louis begin to prep for taking the duck.
Later that night, King George and Louis head out to Louis' house to take the duck. They take the duck from Thomas' house and head back to the castle. At the castle, Cedric comes in with Thomas, who has won the battle all by himself but is suffering terrible PTSD from the battle. King George doesn't feel remorse and focuses on the duck. Louis snaps at George for being selfish and focusing on what he cares about. Meanwhile, Melvin, (Pa Grape) 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, Melvin points out that the rich man is King George himself. Melvin tells George that whether he's a king or kid, God wants him to put others first. King George then heads to Thomas and puts him in his bath and give back his duck to make up for his sins. King George, Louis, and Thomas 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 with the French Peas who are dressed as Bob and Larry and coming out and ask if they can host a show of their own.
It was first released on March 28th, 2000 by Word Entertainment and on August 8th, 2000 by Lyrick Studios and on April 5th, 2001 again by Lyrick Studios. In 2002, Warner Home Video reprinted it. In 2003, Warner Home Video reprinted it again as part of the VeggieTales Classics line.
Fun Facts
Moral
Selfishness will not lead to happiness.
Explanations
"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 "Bye-bye, Lumpy!" message is a farewell for using the previous server (possibly SoftImage) for the shows.
Trivia
This episode was the first for several things:
The first episode to use Maya, as well the first appearance of Scallion One with his new hairdo.
The first episode where someone else besides Bob and Larry try to take over the Countertop.
The first episode not to have Madame Blueberry since her debut appearance.
The first time Larry 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 Larry being mean.
The first episode where someone else sings the What Have We Learned song in its entirety, as Bob cut off Larry before he finishes the song in Rack, Shack and Benny.
The first VeggieTales episode of the 2000's.
The costumes Jimmy and Jerry wore were based on the ones Mike 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 Bob and Larry.
This was the last episode to use the VeggieTales intro from 1998 to 2000.
This episode marks the return of letters received from a kid by Bob and Larry since Josh and the Big Wall! However, this episode would mark the last appearance of letters until The Ballad of Little Joe.
During the scenes of King George taking Thomas' duck, there's a graffiti of King George 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 George.
Phil 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. Phil 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 Phil, Pa Grape's character was named Nathan, but then changed to Melvin in the final.
One of the screenshots on the back of the cover have King George and Louis smiling. Louis 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 George and Louis were down the castle.
The countertop scenes are in more of a yellow-ish look. Phil apologizes to anyone who notices it.
If the tall man was Thomas as shown in the flannelgraph, his character doesn't have him tall at all.
All of King George's other ducks 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 Qwerty turns on, having turned off in the beginning but turned on after the story.
Jimmy presses "Option" on Qwerty, but there's no such key on a real keyboard.
It's unknown when the story of King George takes place, considering he uses a quarter to operate the binoculars.
The back of the DVD states there was a how-to-draw on Junior Asparagus.
Goofs
After the pie hits Jean Claude, his right eye clips through the pie crust.
One shot shows King George 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.
Inside References
Bob tells Jimmy and Jerry he just had a break, probably referring to the previous episode.
The quote "Ay ay, Skipper!" is a reference to Larry's Lagoon.
Real World References
In the teaser trailer from the second sing along, the narrator mentions King Arthur and Henry the 8th.
Jerry's line "You wanna piece of me?!" was a homage to the first Toy Story 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 George wore while stealing Thomas' duck are Groucho Marx glasses.
