A Ding from Down Under

A Ding from Down Under is the 44th episode of 6teen and the 18th episode of the second season. It aired in Canada on May 22, 2005, and in the United States on November 24, 2008.

When Jude hears a pay phone ring, he picks up and finds a girl from Australia on the other end. He becomes friends with her, and soon becomes obsessed with being there when she calls. Meanwhile, Jen deals with Coach Halder and his son practicing for a paintball tournament by using her for target practice at work, and Wyatt gets a job at Burger McFlipster's after Wayne fires him from Underground Video.

Main Plot
Jude, who is always willing to pick up spare change, is checking the pay phone bank at the mall for forgotten quarters when a phone rings. When he picks it up, the person on the line is asking for a "Jara." Unfortunately, no Jaras seem to be around, as when Jude calls out for one nobody comes to take the call. As a result, the voice on the phone starts crying, but Jude starts talking to the person on the other end, and soon makes her laugh.

Later that day, half of the gang has gathered around the Big Squeeze to chat and hang out. Jen is one of the people there, and she is covered in paint. When asked about it, she reveals that apparently Coach Halder and his son Cory are prepping for a paintball tournament and using her for target practice. After she vents about her job, she realizes that her break is over and returns to work. At that point, Wyatt shows up with a giant wet spot on his shirt and, when questioned about what happened, reveals that he has had the worst day of his life: he slept in, broke his guitar, had his bike stolen, and spilled his coffee on a rare VHS of Wayne's–the last of which he got fired for, so now he needs new employment.

Meanwhile, Jude is still talking to Callie, who is apparently a surfer from Australia whose boyfriend Jara just moved to Canada. When their conversation finishes, Jude heads over to the Big Squeeze to see his friends, and when they ask him where he's been, he reveals that he's found a new girlfriend. His friends are duly impressed, and ask to meet her, so Jude obliges and leads them to the pay phones. They're surprised by this new friend of Jude's, but the more pressing matter is brought up by Caitlin: pay phones are not supposed to accept incoming calls. Nikki confirms this, and adds that if the mall officials find out, they'll likely shut down the pay phone. This shocks Jude, but he accepts Caitlin's advice to not draw attention to the broken phone, and decides to protect the phone and his new girlfriend.

As Jude spends more and more time on the phone, however, his life starts to suffer for it. He begins to lose sleep in order to make sure he's there whenever she might call, as the time difference between Canada and Australia is throwing him off. Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that he must set up a tent by the pay phones in order to make sure that he never misses a call.

The next day, he is there when she calls, but he's so sleep-deprived that he nods off in the middle of the call and she hangs up on him. To make matters worse, even though his friends visit him in his tent over the next couple of days, they think he's going a bit crazy in there. When Nikki tells him, he laughs it off, but soon enough he makes sock puppets of his friends to keep himself company in the tent. That night, however, his life is turned upside down when the arm of Ron the Rent-a-Cop reaches into his tent, pulls him out, and evicts him from the mall.

The next day, Nikki helps Jude out by letting him take a bathroom break. Unfortunately for Jude, as soon as he runs off to use the facilities, the phone rings and Nikki gets to have a conversation with Callie. To make things worse, this conversation is Callie's goodbye conversation, as her boyfriend is apparently moving back to Australia. Depressed by this news, Nikki accepts it and hangs up while contemplating how to break the news to Jude.

When Jude comes back, however, Ron is removing the faulty phone from the wall. This sends Jude into a tizzy, but Nikki intervenes and tells him that Callie did call, in order to say that she was going into the Australian astronaut program but as a result would not be able to talk to Jude anymore. Jude is happy to hear this, and he and Nikki walk off to have lemonades.

Sub-Plot One: Paintball at the Penalty Box
At the Penalty Box, Jen is put under fire by Coach Halder and his son. No matter what she's doing, from manning the register to helping customers, she's always a target for the duo. Eventually, though, the barrage ceases, and Coach Halder comes forward to thank her for being a good sport. When this happens, Jen happily accepts–until Cory Halder nails her from a hiding spot with more shots and her boss mocks her for letting her guard down.

This angers Jen immensely, and she gears up for war. Painting her face in camouflage colors and wearing a military helmet, she grabs a paintball gun and proceeds to get revenge on Cory and his father by shooting them while rollerblading through the store. She soon downs both of them with a barrage of paint pellets and proclaims victory.

Sub-Plot Two: Burger Songs
Wyatt, meanwhile, goes off to interview at Burger McFlipster's and, after an odd interview with Tim, gets the job. Part of the job involves singing to the meat in order to make it taste better, and luckily for Wyatt, this is right up his alley. In addition, when Wyatt makes up songs to sing to the meat, both Tim and the customers appreciate them, and soon enough he is attracting girls to the store and has been made assistant manager for increasing sales.

Seeing this, Jonesy tries to wrangle a job from Wyatt. At first Wyatt resists, but when Jonesy turns the puppy-dog eyes on him, he can do nothing but ask Tim to give Jonesy a job. Soon, Jonesy has a job mopping the floors of Burger McFlipster's, even though he really wants to work behind the grill and attract girls like Wyatt. However, Tim believes that Jonesy needs more experience before he's ready to serve customers.

After a couple days on the job, Jonesy is given his shot behind the grill. Unfortunately, his singing voice is terrible, and he drives away the customers. The end result is that Tim sends Wyatt to fire him. However, since Jonesy has seen the writing on the wall, he asks for the opportunity to do something he's always wanted to try, and then quits on the spot. He then reassures Wyatt that they're cool, since he's been fired before, and he's glad that Wyatt is doing a good job at the burger joint.

Quotes
Wyatt: Hi Tim! Tim: Did I tell you that you could call me Tim? Wyatt: Well, that was how you introduced your– Tim: You can call me sir. Wyatt, there are three ways to do things here: the right way, the wrong way, and my way. Wyatt: Is your way the right way? Tim: Absolutely. Wyatt: So...wouldn't there just be two ways to do things then? Tim: (standing up) Oh, I'm sorry. Are you interviewing me today? Because I thought I was interviewing you. (calling to the employees) I don't hear any singing! Employees: (singing) My burger lies over the ocean/My burger lies over the sea/And if I could send you my burger/How yummy and tasty it'd be! Tim: Do you like music, Wyatt? Wyatt: Actually I sing, play guitar, and write my own songs. Tim: Are you going to answer my question or just waste my time? Wyatt: I like music. Tim: Good. Some people think it's silly to sing for the customers. Do you think it's silly to sing for the customers? Wyatt: Uh...no. Tim: I do. I think it's silly to sing for the customers. That's why we don't. Wyatt: You don't? Tim: No. We don't. We sing for the meat. You talk to a houseplant and it grows faster–fact! You sing to meat, it tastes better. Also fact. This is the Burger Bible, it has all of our songs in it. Learn them. (calling to the employees) Let's get that singing 8% louder, people! (to Wyatt) You start tomorrow. Jonesy: They would if I was a pilot! Tim: Are you a pilot, Jonesy? Jude: But I have a girlfriend in Australia! Wyatt: So we're cool? Jonesy: Totally! It wasn't my scene. You go get those burger-eating girls, Wyatt. You go get em.
 * Jude: (checking pay phones for quarters) C'mon, big money, big money... (finding one) Alright, free scratch! Sooweet!
 * Wayne: (in Wyatt's memory) This movie meant more to me than your life!
 * Nikki: What are you laughing at? You're Caitlin Cooke, Lemonhead!
 * Tim: (interviewing Wyatt) Hi Wyatt, I'm Tim.
 * Tim: You've got a brain, Wyatt. I like that in a person.
 * Tim: If you got a job at the airport, they wouldn't let you fly a plane.
 * Jude: You guys don't get it. She's gorgeous, easy to talk to, and her accent is really cool.
 * Ron: Okay, that's it. The mall's closed, and you're going home.
 * Coach Halder: That Masterson, she's snapped! Be on your toes. Stay sharp, Cory, stay sharp.
 * Jonsey: I QUIT!! Wow, that felt good

Trivia
Reason for firing: Tim told Wyatt to fire him, but instead gave Jonesy the option to quit or be fired. Jonesy, however, selected the former option, as he always wanted to quit instead of being fired. Reason for firing: He tripped over something and made his coffee fly into the air. The coffee then landed on one of Wayne's favorite movies, leaving him irate.
 * Jonesy's job: Burger McFlipster's employee
 * Wyatt's job: Underground Video employee

Errors

 * When Jen goes back to the Penalty Box following her break, she has a blue paintball stain on her uniform. However, as she passes by Nikki and Jonesy, said stain is gone.
 * Nikki claims she only worked at the Khaki Barn, but in the episode "Welcome to the Darth Side", she had several other jobs, one of which was Stereo Shack, following her (temporary) termination.
 * Wyatt mentions needing money to fix his guitar, but in episodes earlier than "A Ding from Down Under", he is shown to have two guitars: one acoustic and one electric, the latter being based on a Gibson Les Paul guitar.

Episode connections

 * Cory Halder, Coach Halder's son who originated in the episode "Breaking Up with the Boss' Son", makes his third and final appearance in this episode.
 * During his interview with Tim, Wyatt calls back to the episode "Going Underground" when he mentions being fired from Spin This.
 * According to Caitlin and Jen, the Galleria Mall opens at 6 AM. This played a minor role in the episode "Waiting to Ex-Sale", where the girls are at the mall waiting on a sale.
 * Jonesy's inability to sing is mentioned in the later episode "Quit It."
 * Jonesy declares his love for Burger McFlipster's and wouldn't make fun of it. Though, in the pilot episode "Take This Job and Squeeze It", he said the same thing to Julie about Wonder Taco despite insulting the store in front of her.
 * Tara Johansen appears in this episode as one of Jonesy's customers. She would later appear in the episode "Over Exposed" as part of Liza Lomen's entourage. Her biggest role was in the episode "Snow Job."

Cultural references

 * Some of the songs in The Burger Bible are sung to the tune of popular children's songs:
 * The first song is sung to the melody of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.
 * The third, fourth, and fifth songs are sung to the tune of Row, Row, Row Your Boat.
 * Jonesy states that, in their world, Samurai Space Warriors was the first film to take place in space. However, in reality, Georges Méliès's 1902 film A Trip to the Moon is commonly believed to be the first film to take place in space.