The Take Over

The Take Over is the sixth episode of the first season of Code Monkeys. It is preceded by Just one of the Gamers and followed by Larrity's Got Back.

Plot

In the Break Room, Mr. Larrity brings in a group of Japanese people from the Protendo corporation. With the possibility of Japan taking over the gaming business in a matter of weeks, Larrity announces that the two companies are planning a merger.

Later, after Dave impresses Protendo with some games he made, he takes the Japanese programmers to a local strip club. After he drunkenly insults one of Protendos games, a Protendo employee named Kobatashi challenges Dave to an eating contest. Dave loses miserably, but is approached afterwards by a Japanese elder named Hugetsu. He offers to train Dave to improve his eating habits by having him eat car wax, paint, and even sawdust. Despite this unorthodox regimen, Dave is able to train his stomach.

Meanwhile, back at GameAVision, Jerry overhears one Japanese person talking on the phone (interestingly, in English) about how they planned to only keep Jerry to make it technically a merger, and the rest are liquidated. Jerry takes this grievance to Larrity, only to realize that Larrity actually made the deal in the first place, thinking that there was no longer a market for American games. Determined, Jerry rounds up the staff in the Break Room and motivates them to help him block the merger but realizes they need Dave's help as he's "the one who comes up with all the evil plans". He and Black Steve go find Dave, who is now a champion in the underground eating championship. They eventually find Dave claiming victory in his rematch against Kobatashi and convince him to return and help stop the merger.

Back at GameAVision, Dave plans to scare the Japanese away with various pranks. They try multiple stunts, which includes a pig stampede and dressing up as "Dave-zilla", all of which fail miserably, but do manage to reawaken Larrity's passion for the company. Larrity explains to them that the best way to get rid of the Japanese is to break their one day efficiency record. They do this by working around the clock, making at least an entire crate full of games. The Protendo group are shocked and impressed by GameAVision beating them, but are also shamed and end up killing themselves via Seppuku. Larrity soon reveals that he never intended to merge the companies after all; instead, he only did this to encourage the staff to work harder. Jerry explains his patriotism to a dying Protendo employee before realizing that the scene looks awkward.

A few days later history repeats itself when Larrity announces another merger, this time with a German game company. When Todd tries to suck up to the Germans, they announce they will "make an example of him", to which Todd frightened at them as the episode ends.

References

• Protendo is a play on the real Japanese company, Nintendo.
• Kobatashi is a play on the worl famous competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi
• Every time Dave ate one of the items that his mentor gave him, he grew a little bit. This was a parody of when Mario would eat mushrooms and become "Super Mario." The scenes even had the famous "growth" sound.
• Protendo managers are seen killing employees that they fire. This is a reference to the fact that, in Japan, at-will employment is technically legal, but they rarely fire without good reason due to honor and integrity.
• After the 1983 video game crash, the dominance in the market shifted from North America to Japan. It wouldn't be until the release of the Xbox in late 2001 would a Non-Japanese company release a successful console.
• Kitchen Arena's appearance is similar to the appearance of the Kitchen in the Japanese cooking show Iron Chef that was eventually aired on Food Network. Unlike Kitchen Arena, the chefs in Iron Chef cook food in an hour using a key ingredient rather than eating food.
• The training scenes with Dave and Hugetsu are references to Daniel and Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid. The training chores are even the same; Paint the Fence (Drink the Paint), Wax on, Wax off (Eat the Wax), and Sand the Deck (Eat the Deck DO NOT BE SILLY! Eat the Sawdust!).
• At the underground eating competition the Peter Pepper from the Artari 2600 game Burger Time, comes out to take away the hamburgers.
• The Protendo staff all commit Seppuku, a ritual sacrifice originally reserved only for Samurai to die with honer rather than dying at the hands of their enemies and for reasons that shamed him. Both reasons fit into the episode's plot, but the latter is much more likely unless you accept the former reason as figurative rather than literal. A planned Seppuku is much more detailed in how the executions are carried out, and is done in front of spectators.
• The Sentence "Sake to me" is a play on the catchphrase "Sock it to me!” from the late 1960s-early 1970s sketch comedy show Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.
• The "Stuffed China Person" is dressed as Raiden from the Mortal Kombat series.

Notes

• One Protendo employee doesn't commit Seppuku, and instead nonchalantly walks off after everyone dies.