The Great Recession is the eleventh episode of Code Monkeys. It is preceded by Benny's Birthday and followed by Dave's Day Off.
Plot[]
GameAVision celebrates their newly acquired credit and purchases stuff from the Sunnyvale Mall. Clare has a new massager for her v... shoulders, Todd has new shorts, Dave has new shoes, Mary has a new scooter, and Jerry has a TV watch. They then hear the news that the video game industry has hit an all-time slump because of the decrease in console sales due to low-quality games. Developers' worst fears are realized as, due to the crash that follows, most of them are now out of the job.
Expressing their concerns to Mr. Larrity, he assures them that their jobs are safe, and swears to "Goat". Mary is the first and perhaps only person to feel that those words are a red flag. The very next day, the staff returns and notice the building inaccessible, realizing that GameAVision has closed down behind their backs. With no foresight, most of them lack the savings to hold off during the crash. They seek out new jobs from more thriving companies, but fail miserably. Meeting at the mall, they find that there is a chance to make some coin. Jerry and Mary work at a pretzel stall, Black Steve works at a tax firm, Clare as an information booth, and Davd wosrk at an arca to pay off a drinking tabde. Dave then tries to scam kids out of their money with a game he created, but is ganged up. Todd meanwhile, who was unable to find a job anywhere, serves and worships a child prodigy named Steve Weibe, but is eventually mistaken for a pervert (and revealed to have a past incident at a renaissance fair), leading to his arrest.
Larrity returns to his own novelty company in hopes of retaking it by force, but learns that he still owns it after one of this wives died. Unfortunately, his perverted and chauvinistic attitude drives everyone away and fails a mandatory sexual harassment seminar. Missing the mischief of Dave and the rest of GameAVision, he and Dean burn down his company and makes his way back with insurance money.
Later that day, Dave rallies his co-workers and decide that jobs at the mall won't work out for them, inspiring to take back GameAVision for themselves (Jerry was comfortable at his job, but quits when he learns that a co-worker he was having a relationship with is underaged). However, when Larrity returns to buy back the company, Dave throws everyone under the bus.
After siccing Dean on them all, Larrity celebrates GameAVision's return to business, with Dave offering him his "special brownies".
References[]
- The episode is a direct reference to the Great Video Game Crash of 1983, where the American game industry suffered a massive market drop due to a bloat of low-quality games, including the infamous E.T. adaptation. Many companies close down due to this. It would be two years before the Japanese company Nintendo would help save the industry with the Nintendo Entertainment System.