Roll the Dice
Roll the Dice is the fifth episode of The Cuphead Show! As the fifth episode, it takes place after Handle with Care! and its successor is Ghosts Ain't Real! King Dice is first seen here, where he hosts a show called Roll the Dice. During this episode, King Dice rigged the show's prize room to help his boss get souls, but Cuphead makes his way onstage in his attempts to pursue a runaway tire that he was playing around with and ends up hampering him.
Synopsis
All bets are off when Cuphead takes over Inkwell Isle's No. 1 game show, much to the annoyance of its devious host King Dice and his devilish boss.
Plot
Cuphead and Mugman are playing around with Elder Kettle's "lucky" tire, when Elder Kettle arrives to tells the boys that their favorite radio show is on. They deny playing with the tire, but after Elder Kettle leaves to listen to their show, the tire rolls away to Inkwell City. Cuphead and Mugman chase the tire as the game show Roll the Dice begins.
As people tune into the show, the band cues the host King Dice to begin the show and looks for the first contestant to "Roll the Dice?" The spotlight points to Telephone, making him the first contestant of the night. Upon entering the stage, King Dice explains that Telephone has to get through three rounds in order to enter into the "mystery prize room," with them being the Tune round, the Trivia round, and the Dice round. Telephone makes it through the rounds with ease, with the final round having to roll any number to win. King Dice lets Telephone enter the room as they enter break. Inside the room, Telephone finds it was all a trap, as it only contained a menacing furnace, which sucks out his soul and sends it straight into Inkwell Hell, leaving his body greyed out. A trap door drops the now deadpanned Telephone's body into an alley with a sign that says, "Thanks for Playing!"
During break, King Dice is getting prepped and polished for the next segment. After flattering himself with his own reflection, he goes back on stage, passing a wanted poster for Cuphead by the Devil. Just as King Dice is about to pick another "contestant," Cuphead and Mugman burst in, still pursuing the runaway tire. The spotlight happens to shine down on Cuphead and he is picked as the next contestant. An excited Cuphead runs on stage and hugs King Dice's leg, much to the latter's annoyance. As King Dice asks Cuphead to introduce himself, Cuphead grabs the microphone from Dice and excitably introduces himself, along with a list of things he likes. King Dice tries to grab back the microphone, but Cuphead continues to hog it, inadvertently criticizing his height, blowing a raspberry to a supposed enemy named "Jimmy", and trying to remember a joke. During this, King Dice realizes that Cuphead is wanted by the Devil, so he commences a break so he can speak to the Devil himself.
The Devil is taking a bath somewhere in his domain when a Fat Demon known as the Devil's Henchman tells him that King Dice is calling him. Annoyed with the intrusion, the Devil answers the call and King Dice informs him that he has Cuphead. The Devil is happy for his "Number One" finding his debtor and firmly warns King Dice that he hates disappointment. King Dice goes back on the stage to begin the game, choosing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" as the song. However, Cuphead shows himself unable to remember the song, mistaking it for "Sprinkle, Sprinkle, Mr. Car," much to Elder Kettle's annoyance. Cuphead decides to use his helpline and asks Mugman for help, only to have the latter freeze up from stage fright. Accepting defeat, Cuphead declares that he lost. However, before he can walk out, King Dice convinces the audience since his helpline was frozen in terror, he should get another chance. King Dice secretly asks for Cuphead's favorite song, and he orders the band to play it. Cuphead is confused why they are playing the song, but King Dice gets him to say the name of the song, "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze," letting Cuphead win the round.
As the audience applauded, the Trivia Round begins, with Cuphead getting into King Dice's nerves by constantly snagging the microphone. King Dice asks Cuphead what cave the "dreaded Poodoo Cave Monster" lives in. As Cuphead once again does not know the answer, King Dice gets Cuphead to think out loud and say "Poodoo" as his answer, getting it right once again. Mugman is still frozen in terror as Cuphead makes it into the final round to Roll any number, which is impossible to loose. As Cuphead prepares to roll the dice, he remembers the joke and tells it to the audience, then declaring they will "be right back." However, King Dice, visibly losing it, announces that they are not on break and yells at Cuphead to roll the dice. As the audience grows anticipated with excitement, Cuphead finally rolls the dice. However, Cuphead rolls too hard at a speed more than it can handle, and the dice breaks free from its restraints and shattered on the floor. King Dice is surprised at the outcome of events and Cuphead announces that he lost. Still needing Cuphead to win for his boss to collect the souls, King Dice makes up that breaking the dice also means that Cuphead wins and tries to shove Cuphead into the mystery surprise room. The audience begins to see that the show is rigged and starts booing at King Dice. Upon hearing this, Cuphead decides to leave with Mugman (still frozen in terror) with their dignities still intact. King Dice, now beyond mad that his target managed to escape, breaks a piece of the set, determined to get Cuphead into the room for his boss to collect Cuphead's soul and charges at the two, only for the tire to bounce and knock over King Dice. The tire also runs over Cuphead and Mugman and rolls them out the door. Henchmen arrives via elevator and says that the Devil wants to see King Dice. Defeated, and with his game show ruined, King Dice sighs.
As Cuphead and Mugman roll to their cottage, a still annoyed Elder Kettle opens the door and yells at Cuphead the answer to the Tune round ("It's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!!").
Meanwhile in the elevator, Henchman asks for King Dice's autograph, to which King Dice indignantly declines, presumably due to his show being ruined. Upon arriving at Inkwell Hell. The Devil admonishes King Dice for disappointing him and letting Cuphead get away. The Devil announces that King Dice is no longer his Number One and demotes King Dice from hosting his show. Instead, Henchman now hosts Roll the Dice, although during the introduction, he trips over himself and gets stuck in a band member's tuba as the episode ends.
Cast of Episode
- Cuphead
- Mugman
- King Dice (debut)
- The Devil
- Henchman
- Telephone
- Elephant
- Elephant Grandma
- Porkrind (Cameo)
- Pip and Dot (Cameo)
Transcript
Gallery
Songs
Trivia
- Pip and Dot appeared in the audience as a cameo.
- According to Cuphead, King Dice is "way shorter in-person." This could be a slight nod to his in-game counterpart, where he is depicted as being quite giant during his boss fight.
- An Oswald the Lucky Rabbit look-alike appeared in the audience as a cameo.
- In The Brazilian Portuguese dub, during Trivia Quest , King Dice, instead of asking "what cave the dreaded Poodoo Cave Monster lives in", asks "What's the color of Napoleon's white horse" to which Cuphead correctly answers "white".
- If one listens close enough, during King Dice and the Devil's phone call, an alternate version of the Devil's song can be heard playing in the background.
- Also in the Finnish dub, King Dice screamed like a little girl.
- The song that Telephone has to guess in his "Name that Tune" segment is "Little Brown Jug", a song written in 1869 by Joseph Eastburn Winner about having fun by drinking alcohol. The song that Cuphead has to guess is “The Daring Young Man on a Flying Trapeze”, published in 1867.
- The Telephone previously owed his soul to the Devil after losing Soul Ball, but got it back after the events of Carn-Evil. It is assumed that he was chosen as a contestant in order for his soul to return to the Devil.
- It is possible that the Bee character was supposed to be chosen next, as he also somehow owed his soul in the Carn-Evil and got it back. As Cuphead was in front of the spotlight, he was chosen instead.