Cranky's Tickle Tonic

Cranky's Tickle Tonic is the ninth episode of the Donkey Kong Country television series. It was the tenth episode to air in North America. In this episode, Cranky Kong tries to stop Eddie the Mean Old Yeti's annoying and constant groaning and pounds.

Plot synopsis
The episode begins with Cranky Kong angrily being awoken from sleep due to the yelling of Eddie the Mean Old Yeti from the White Mountains. Cranky decides to create a potion to quiet him down, so he checks a large book with the recipe for it. As he puts together the ingredients, he grabs the secret ingredient, which he reads should not be put into the potion until it is ready to use. Cranky puts the ingredient in and drinks it to test the potion.

Meanwhile, Donkey, Diddy Kong, and Funky Kong lay outside of Funky's Flights completely tired; the three, like Cranky, could not fall asleep from the sound coming from Eddie the Yeti. The Kongs wonder what is making the yeti so cranky, and they soon conclude that, the older Eddie gets, the meaner he gets. The meaner he gets, the noisier he gets, which makes everyone else crankier. A hologram of Cranky Kong from the Crystal Coconut interrupts their conversation, showing Cranky laughing hysterically. Cranky tells them to get to his cabin before he can explain what he is doing. The Kongs obey and head over.

Eddie the Mean Old Yeti has even kept the Kremlings awake, when they are shown in the hideout completely tired and annoyed. King K. Rool wakes General Klump from his sleep and asks what is causing the loud noise that is keeping the whole island awake. Klump explains that he and the troops have found that the disturbance is coming from the White Mountains, but they do not know exactly where in the mountains it is. The crocodile king commands his minion to search for its location. Before Klump leaves, he falls asleep again, which greatly angers King K. Rool, causing him to shout out his name.

The Kongs soon arrive in Cranky's Cabin, where Cranky announces that he has found something to put Eddie the Yeti in a better mood: the "Tickle Tonic." Donkey Kong offers to take it to Eddie, but Cranky explains that only he can do it, telling them about the secret ingredient that must be added right before the potion is used. Cranky quickly leaves to catch Funky's plane ride, to the Kongs' surprise, to make the short trip before Donkey and Diddy mess something up. Cranky commands them to watch the Crystal Coconut while he is gone, but the Kongs immediately have the urge to sleep again when he exits the cabin. Diddy decides to find a mega-vitamin drink and quickly scurries over to the old ape's potions to find something to keep themselves awake. Though Donkey Kong does not feel to sure about this, he and Diddy check for a recipe in Cranky's book. After the ape reads the recipe, he begins to sing the names of the ingredients in song, and Diddy joins in. The words from their song, "then say coconut and it should float," cause the Crystal Coconut to float out of the cabin, and the Kongs, realizing that it was a spell instead of a recipe, begin to chase it.

Meanwhile, Cranky flies with Funky in his plane, trying not to worry about Donkey and Diddy Kong. These two primates chase the Crystal Coconut across the jungle as they swing along vines. Cranky Kong cannot take Funky's crazy flying and tells him to put the plane down and land it. Funky misinterprets this as "upside-down," and flips the plane over. Cranky loses his grip on the Tickle Tonic when he does this, and the potion falls towards the ground. Fortunately, Funky flies his plane under the falling vial and Cranky catches it, advising him to never flip over like that again. Funky misinterprets what he says again and continues to fly upside-down.

King K. Rool, in his hideout, is trying to fall asleep, but is still being woken up by Eddie. He uses a monitor of his to view the whereabouts of Klump, only to find him and Krusha sleeping in the jungle. When General Klump is awoken, he reports that the disruption is coming from Eddie the Mean Old Yeti. King K. Rool commands them to quiet him down, suddenly noticing the Crystal Coconut hovering behind them. He tells them to get the Coconut while he heads to the White Mountains to quiet down Eddie.

The Kongs follow the Crystal Coconut to Bluster Barrelworks, where they spot Bluster Kong's barrel-copter. They use the copter to chase the Coconut. Eventually, the two succeed in grabbing the item, but the Kremlings below notice them with the Crystal Coconut. Klump orders the Kritter troops to shoot them down with their Klaptrap-blasters. The Klaptraps jump onto the barrel-copter and eat it away, causing the apes to crash onto the jungle floor. They drop the Coconut, which floats back over the Kremlings, who begin chasing it again.

Cranky and Funky arrive at the White Mountains. Cranky says that he has spotted Eddie, but Funky cannot hear him. Funky turns off the plane's engine so they can communicate, but this causes the plane to crash into the ground. Meanwhile, Donkey and Diddy converse by Bluster's destroyed copter. Diddy realizes that the Klaptraps that destroyed it were probably from the Kremlings, who have the Crystal Coconut. Donkey Kong admits that he thinks he shouldn't be future ruler of the island, but Diddy encourages him and tells him that "no one said it was ever going to be easy to be ruler, and no one ever said you weren't going to make some mistakes." Donkey Kong quickly gets back on his feet and the two head to get back the Crystal Coconut.

Cranky and Funky finally land, and they almost immediately run into Eddie the Mean Old Yeti. Funky tells the ape that he is stressing everybody out, but Eddie replies that he is cranky. The three start fighting about who is the crankiest out of them, and Eddie begins to go on a rampage with his club. Funky and Cranky lose track of Eddie the Yeti. Cranky announces that his tonic is about to freeze, so Funky comes up with the plan of hitting the yeti with a snowball containing the tonic to throw at him. Cranky is amazed that the ape has finally come up with a good idea, and tells him to prepare the snowballs.

Meanwhile, Donkey and Diddy sneak into the Kremling hideout without much of a plan. There, General Klump tells Krusha to guard the Crystal Coconut with his life while King K. Rool is gone. After Klump leaves in his mine cart, Donkey and Diddy are seen behind a stationary mine cart. Diddy wonders how they will ever get the Coconut off of Krusha without him noticing, but Donkey Kong announces that he has a plan. The Kremlings almost immediately fall asleep, so the Kongs ride in front of Krusha in their mine cart. Donkey Kong then tells Diddy to grab the Crystal Coconut without waking Krusha up. However, the monkey is not too comfortable with doing this.

Funky and Cranky Kong are soon ready to start their plan. Funky is about to throw a snowball, when King K. Rool and Klump ride up to them in mine carts. Klump apprises the crocodile king that they have stolen the Crystal Coconut, so King K. Rool begins to celebrate, with Cranky losing confidence. Suddenly, Eddie the Yeti jumps out at the group and frightens them. Funky immediately throws a snowball at the ape, but he uses his wooden club to hit it back. The snowball flies into King K. Rool's mouth, and he begins to laugh uncontrollably. The Kremling's laughter causes Eddie to laugh as well. The other Kremling troops, not understanding what is causing the laughter, begin to laugh with them, followed by the laughter of the Kongs. The group suddenly causes an avalanche, so Funky and Cranky run into the mines. The Kremlings are unaware of the avalanche and continue to laugh.

In the Kremlings' hideout, the Kritter troops and Krusha are still sleeping. Diddy tries to grab the Crystal Coconut out of Krusha's hand, but he cannot reach it. The avalanche outside of the hideout causes the ground to rumble, waking up Krusha. When he wakes up, he notices Diddy with the Crystal Coconut. Diddy tries to tell him to go back to sleep, but Krusha commands the Kritter troops to attack. Before they can even wake up, Donkey and Diddy race out of the hideout in their mine cart with the Crystal Coconut. Meanwhile in the White Mountains, King K. Rool and his minions are trapped under a pile of snow, while Cranky and Funky fly home in the plane.

Later at Cranky's Cabin, Cranky says a spell that keeps the Crystal Coconut from floating. The Kongs are relieved that it is now safe, and Donkey and Diddy try to apologize, even though Cranky simply wants to go to sleep. The Kongs leave his cabin to go to sleep themselves, but when Cranky tries to sleep, he hears the constant laughter of Eddie the Mean Old Yeti from the White Mountains and is kept awake.

Trivia

 * According to an interview with Richard Yearwood (voice of Donkey Kong), this was the first episode to be recorded, as well as the only time he sang on the show.