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"As winner of the speed texting competition, Butler and I will also get an invitation to meet the Vice President near the White House."
Sharon Torso explaining Sam why she wants her son to win the competition

#TextingCompetition
Season 1, Episode 5
Butler talking to Sam and Cat in TextingCompetition
General information
Air date

July 13, 2013[1]

Prod. code

108

Writer(s)

Dan Schneider & Warren Bell

Director(s)

Russ Reinsel

Viewership

3.378 million[2]

Episode guide
Previous

#NewGoat

Next

#BabysitterWar

Gallery (images · videos)

#TextingCompetition is the 5th episode of Sam & Cat.

Plot[]

Sam and Cat babysit a kid named Butler Torso, a texting competition champion. After Sam teaches him a texting trick called the "thumb roll", Cat later on makes Butler practice texting words Cat says along with Sam. They discover Sam is a fast texter as well and Cat convinces her to enter the texting competition with Butler. Butler's mom, Mrs. Torso, arrives at the house, asking Sam and Cat if they made Butler practice texting. Butler than tells his mom that Sam is as fast as her and might enter the competition. She gets mad and tells him to go outside and sit on her bike. Mrs. Torso then tells Sam not to enter the competition and distract Butler. 

Sam and Cat then go with Dice to the Speed Texting Championship area to sign Sam up. Dice then sees his old acquaintance, BJ Malloy, at the competition. He asks Sam and Cat to help hide from him, but Sam decides to show BJ that Dice is there. BJ is always eating eggs and always echos everything a person says. It's quite evident that Dice loathes him since he was annoyed with BJ. After all the contenders texting, the host announces that Sam will be competing with Butler in the finals.

Before the finals, Dice tells BJ that Sam and Cat went to go eat some corn dogs, which made them very drowsy, resulting in them sleeping in some room in the Speed Texting Championship building. BJ then tells Dice that that's why he eats eggs. To shut BJ up, Dice tells him that eating eggs gives you butt warts.  

Later, Mrs. Torso goes to the room Sam and Cat are sleeping in, and glues Sam's hand to Cat's foot with industrial strength Grizzly Glue, to prevent her from texting so she could make Butler win the competition and meet the vice president of the United States. Sam and Cat wake up and go to the texting competition area, and Sam then has to text one-handed with the other hand still stuck on Cat's foot. Then, when Sam and Cat went to the studio, the host said that she can't compete with her hand glued and she had to forfeit! But, Sam said that she was going to compete with one hand; they were forced to check even the rules to confirm that she could compete. During the competition, Butler purposely drops his phone to get back at his mother for gluing Sam's hand to Cat's foot. Butler makes it second place, and wins the second prize, which is a bike which he wanted, and bikes away with freedom from his mother. Sam and Cat ask for their speedboat, which turns out to be a toy. In the end, Sam and Cat are in their apartment, trying doing the list of things Cat wanted to do earlier (minus looking for SpongeBob's pineapple). Sam then says it isn't fun, with Cat saying it is. Then the Vice President calls them again, with Sam telling Cat to ignore it.

Quotes[]

Sam: Sorry, no heart in here. Just a dark, empty space.
Mrs. Torso: If she doesn't know her own name, then she should probably be disqualified. Disqualify her! Disqualify her! Disqualify...!
BJ: Sit down lady!
Mrs. Torso: Oh, shut up!
Butler: Freedom!
Mrs. Torso: Butler! Stop enjoying your childhood!
Mrs. Torso: I thought I told you not to come here and distract Butler!
Sam: Oh you did!
Mrs. Torso: Well then why are you here?
Sam: 'Cause we don't care what you say!
Cat: [laughs and puts her arm around Sam] She's so disrespectful!
Mrs. Torso: You're not entering this competition, aren't you?
Sam: [sarcastically] Oh no...
Mrs. Torso: Good.
Sam: Oh wait, I am.
Mrs. Torso: What?!
Cat: [laughs] She faked you out!
Mrs. Torso: You know we've won this competition in the last three years.
Cat: No, Butler won!
Mrs. Torso: That's what I said.
Sam: No, you said "we've".
Mrs. Torso: I can say "we've" if I want to say "we've".
Cat: In school, we learned that ancient Indians weaved rugs.
Mrs. Torso: What are you, dumb?
Sam: Hey, "weave" her alone.
Cat: [laughs] She's all up in your business!
Butler: [laughs]
Mrs. Torso: Stop laughing!
Cat: Look, Mrs. Torso, don't be upset! If Sam wins the competition, you can use our speedboat anytime you want!
Mrs. Torso: We don't care about the stupid speedboat! We want to meet the Vice President! [leaves the room with Butler]
Cat: Vice President of what?!
Sam: I think she means the Vice President of America.
Cat: Oh, do we know his name?
Sam: Nah, we're just high school students.
Cat: Right.
Cat: Hi, I'm Cat, the girl with the foot!
Cat: What is this, a speedboat for ants?
Host: I'm not proud of it.
Sam: What are we supposed to do with it? [scene goes to Apartment 22 where Sam and Cat are watching the boat ride in a kiddy pool]
Sam: This is not so fun.
Cat: Yes it is! [phone rings and Cat holds it up] It's the Vice President again.
Sam: [sighs] Ignore it.
Sam: This is not so fun.
Cat: Yes, it is. [phone rings] It's Jerry Trainor again.
Sam: Ignore it.
Mrs. Torso: Well, I'm Butler's manager.
Sam: I thought you were his mom.
Mrs. Torso: I'm his mom and his manager. I'm a momager.
Cat: Gross.
Mrs. Torso: Excuse me?
Cat: Hi.
Mrs. Torso: As winner of the speed texting competition, Butler and I will also get an invitation to meet the Vice President near the White House.
Sam: Shouldn't they just invite Butler?
Mrs. Torso: No! My life was nothing before Butler became successful! And now that good things are happening for him, I get to participate in everything! [leaves]
Cat: There's something about that lady I don't like.
Sam: Is it that she's the worst person ever?
Cat: That's it.
Mrs. Torso: Did you practice the texting exercises with Butler?
Cat: Yup.
Mrs. Torso: [more angry and demanding] Did you?
Cat: [offended] Yes! I even massaged his thumbs, like you asked.
Sam: [holds up lotion] With lotion.
Mrs. Torso: Thank you, Cat. Sometimes Butler doesn't take his texting as seriously as he should.
Sam: How seriously should he take his texting?
Mrs. Torso: Very. You know, we've won the speed texting competition for the last 3 years in a row.
Mrs. Torso: Now put your thumbs in your pockets to protect them.
Butler: [puts his thumbs in his pockets] But why can't I have my own bike?
Mrs. Torso: Because I take you wherever you need to go!
Butler: But I'm almost 10!
Mrs. Torso: I'm in charge of us! [she and Butler ride away from Sam and Cat's apartment]


Trivia[]

  • This episode began production on April 1, 2013 with the table read.[3][4]
  • When Cat mentions the Vice President at the end, Joe Biden (incumbent President 2021-) was the Vice President of the United States along with Obama from 2009-2017; serving two terms.
  • Jack De Sena (from All That and Avatar: The Last Airbender) appeared as one of the judges.
  • This is the first episode of the series to not feature Nona or the Elderly Acres. This is also the first episode which doesn't mention Cat going to or coming back from school.
  • Cat mentioned Jerry Trainor, who portrayed Spencer in iCarly and Crazy Steve in Drake & Josh in the credits because he was calling again.
  • A short part of the episode was taken out. Cat is asking questions about the contest to a judge and the judge only shows the paneling. It can be seen here.
  • This is the second episode where Cat did not say "Ding dong" when the doorbell rang. The first was #Pilot. Instead of "Ding dong" or "Boop" she said "Hop."
  • This is the second time that someone called Cat dumb in this series. The first time was Sam in #TheBritBrats, except then she called Cat and Dice dumb.
  • Some of the things Cat wanted to do on boat were: Wear boat hats, make friends with a dolphin, find SpongeBob's pineapple, and go water sledding.
  • The texting competition was sponsored by Sampong (a parody of Samsung) and TEKMATE, as previously seen in the Zoey 101 episode, "Spring Break-Up".
  • The podiums behind Sam and Butler in the finals are re-used from the Victorious episode, Brain Squeezers.
  • Jake Brennan who played Butler Torso appeared in 'Criminal Minds' Episode 8 season 10.
  • The "unedited version" of this episode aired January 7, 2014 at 7 A.M. (EST) as part of the "Wake Up With Sam & Cat" week on Nickelodeon.
  • The music heard during the alternate ending is "The Stars and Stripes Forever".
  • The way how Sam and Cat got unglued to each other is unknown.
  • BJ was seen again in TheKillerTunaJump it may be possible that Dice accepted him as a friend.
  • Jake Brennan who portrayed Butler would later star as the main protagonist and star as, Richie Rich.
  • Before the scene cuts to inside the texting competition area, it's shown that the competition is being held at a hotel called Double Bush, the Double Bush Hotel is likely a parody of the real life Hilton hotel DoubleTree.

Allusions[]

  • Throughout the episode Cat made references to: Jack and the Bean Stalk, The Three Little Pigs, The Beatles, E.T., Star Trek, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Zoolander.
  • Butler's phone features a DanWarp application.
  • One of the contestants is named "Trisha Kirby", who was also a one-time character in Zoey 101, portrayed by Jennette McCurdy.

Character revelations[]

  • Sam is a fast texter.

Goofs[]

  • Butler said setting a TV to mirror phone will let you see his phone screen on the TV. But when he was texting, the keyboard wasn't shown on the TV, similar to how all the updates on Victorious never show the keyboard. The same happens with the other competitors' phones.
  • When Sam picks up Butler's backpack to give it to Debbie, she is holding the backpack with her right hand and a banana with her left, but when Sam gives Debbie the backpack, the backpack is in Sam's left hand and the banana's in her right.
  • When Sam asks the host if there is a rule against texting one-handed, her hand is clearly not glued to Cat's foot.
  • Everybody kept saying that Sam hand is glued onto Cat's foot but it was actually glued to her ankle. 
  • Sam should have got eliminated, or at least warned, for bumping into Morris, which bothers him, thus affecting his typing.
  • Sam and Cat have different clothes in the final scene, while they are still glued to each other, so it is impossible.
  • Jerry Trainor was mentioned by Cat, but he was Spencer Shay in iCarly and Crazy Steve in Drake & Josh.
    • However, since this was the ending credits, it was probably non-canon.

Running gags[]

BJ yelling "SIT DOWN LADY!"

Series continuity[]

International premieres[]

  • October 17, 2013 (Australia & New Zealand)
  • November 2, 2013 (Germany, Netherlands, Poland)
  • November 8, 2013 (Italy)
  • November 11, 2013 (UK & Ireland)
  • November 14, 2013 (Portugal)
  • November 16, 2013 (Latin America)
  • November 27, 2013 (France)
  • December 2, 2013 (Spain)
  • February 28, 2014 (Greece)
  • April 6, 2014 (Hungary)

Reception[]

References[]

vedEpisodes
#Pilot#FavoriteShow#TheBritBrats#NewGoat#TextingCompetition#BabysitterWar#GoomerSitting#ToddlerClimbing#MommaGoomer#BabysittingCommercial#RevengeOfTheBritBrats#MotorcycleMystery#SecretSafe#OscarTheOuch#DollSitting#PeezyB#SalmonCat#Twinfection#MyPoober#MadAboutShoe#MagicATM#Lumpatious#TheKillerTunaJump#YayDay#BrainCrush#BlueDogSoda#BlooperEpisode#FresnoGirl#StuckInABox#SuperPsycho#DroneBabyDrone#FirstClassProblems#KnockOut#WeStealARockStar#GettinWiggy
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