"Think Positive" is the fourteenth episode in Season 3 (and fifty-fourth episode overall) of Regular Show. It first aired on January 30, 2012.
Synopsis
Benson must find a way to manage his anger, or face being fired by Pops.
Plot
Pops is trying to satisfy his childish mind by catching butterflies, drawing, and playing with civil war action figures, but is constantly being disturbed by Benson's yelling at Mordecai and Rigby. Pops decides that he has had enough of Benson's yelling, so he brings Benson into his office and asks him that he has to stop yelling, much to Benson's dismay.
Without Benson's yelling, Mordecai and Rigby are on a streak of shenanigans and mischief, which Benson is forbidden to stop. He repeatedly tries to control his temper, but to no avail. When he yells at the duo the first strike, Pops reminds him to calm down his temper. When he yells the second time, Pops writes him up for demotion. Now he is on the verge of being fired, so he tries getting help from the internet, anger-management tapes, and other suggestions, but none work very well. While listening to a tape, Benson remembers the reason why he yells all the time: he was encouraged to by his family as a child. (When he experiences the memory, it also mixes in with a nightmare of a Gigantic Pops tearing off the roof of the house and firing him). After experiencing this, Benson has another tantrum and trashes his own apartment. When Benson reaches his breaking point (the duo smashing one of the carts into a tree), he enters a very powerful and fearful meltdown, in which he is surrounded by a fiery orange sphere that sucks in the things around it, until his anger gets released.
After Skips realizes that Benson is bottling up his anger, Pops comes clean and admits he tried to make him stop yelling. As bits and chunks of The Park are engulfed by Benson's inferno of containment, Skips tells Mordecai and Rigby to stop it by mocking Benson, but it only makes it worse. So Pops, after some explaining by Skips and Mordecai, is persuaded to release his rule on Benson, threatening to fire him if he doesn't yell at Mordecai and Rigby ("IF YOU DON'T YELL AT MORDECAI AND RIGBY RIGHT NOW, YOU'RE FIRED!"). With Benson's restriction eliminated, he unleashes a torrent of yelling, anger, and insults aimed at the duo, which manifests itself in a fiery beam, coming from his mouth at Mordecai and Rigby while Pops and Skips are blown away in the process. This results in a huge explosion, and Mordecai and Rigby are in a deep crater in the center of the park. Benson returns to normal as Pops and Skips comfort him: he tells Mordecai and Rigby to clean up the park, as usual except in a calm way, before he, Pops and Skips laugh. Unfortunately, Mordecai and Rigby are temporarily tone deaf due to Benson's anger, and the episode ends.
Characters
- Benson
- Pops
- Mordecai
- Rigby
- Skips
- Benson's Family (flashback only)
- Park Thugs
- Fitch Munderson and Kimmy
- Muscle Man (cameo)
- Mr. Maellard (mentioned)
Trivia
- At the 2012 Comic Con it was revealed that following the episode, Sam Marin developed a migraine and lost his voice after Benson's tirade.
- There is a plothole during the beginning of the episode; Benson tells Pops that Mordecai and Rigby won't do anything unless he yells at them, which is ironic because in "House Rules", one of the rules Benson makes is "Rule #47: No Yelling". It's made even more ironic since Benson yells constantly throughout the series.
Episode Connections
- During his rant, Benson references the episodes House Rules, Temp Check, Just Set Up the Chairs and Cool Bikes.
Goofs
- When Benson is talking to Pops in his office, the red top of his head is colored purple like the gumballs in it at one point.