A Brief Case of Popularity

A Brief Case of Popularity is the twenty-fourth episode in Season 2 of Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn. It first aired on July 23, 2016 to 1.35 million viewers.

Summary
Nicky, Dicky and Dawn try to get in with the "Staircase Kids", the coolest kids in school who hang out by the staircase, but they must stop Ricky from making himself, and them by association, look uncool in order to get in and avoid getting nicknamed.

Full Plot
In Edgewood School, there is a group of popular kids called "The Staircase Kids" because they usually hang out by the stairs. They include Derek Moses, Trey and Brianna among others. Most of the kids want to be invited to the staircase but it's not that easy. Dawn, Dicky and Nicky admire the staircase kids and decide that they must act cool from now on until they get invited to the staircase.

Unfortunately, Ricky missed that discussion and he's not on-board with the plan. He tells his siblings that he has decided to become an even more serious student. He shows off his new dorky outfit which includes suspenders, a visor and a briefcase. His siblings are worried that if they let him go to school like that, they will never be invited to the staircase. So, they wait until Ricky is asleep and sneak into the room to hide his dorky clothes so that he doesn't wear them to school. While searching for the items, Dawn learns that Ricky sleep-rhymes. They wait until he starts rhyming in his sleep before taking away his stuff. They then give Dicky to hide the clothes.

The next day, Ricky comes downstairs freaking out about losing his new cool outfit and briefcase. His siblings just laugh at him, happy that their plan was successful. Ricky suspects that they hid it. He confronts them to tell him. Dawn and Nicky hold very well but Dicky accidentally and quickly tells Ricky everything including where he hid the visor, the suspenders and the briefcase. So, Ricky wears them to school.

At school, Dawn, Dicky and Nicky create a wall in front of Ricky to hide him from being seen by the staircase kids. Mae sees Ricky's outfit and agrees that Ricky needs an even bigger wall. She tells them that if the staircase kids see Ricky like that, they will give him a bad nickname. She tells them the story of how Duck Sock Boy got his nickname. His real name is Marshall. He came to school once wearing a pair of socks with ducks drawn on it. Derek Moses saw the socks and nicknamed him "Duck Sock Boy" and ever since, nobody even remembers that his name is Marshall. Ricky refuses to cave in. He tells them that being popular doesn't mean much to him.

To show Ricky how ridiculous he looks, Dawn grabs and puts on Ricky's suspenders; Nicky puts on the visor and Dicky takes Nicky's briefcase. Nicky then puts on Dicky's unplugged headphones and adjusts his outfit to look cool like Dicky. He starts mocking their style while they are making fun of his style as well. While this is still going on, Derek Moses comes over and starts laughing at them. He instantly gives them nicknames:
 * Dawn - Suspender Girl
 * Nicky - Visor Boy
 * Dicky - Briefcase Man

Since Ricky is dressed up cool to make fun of Dicky and Dawn's style, Derek Moses is impressed by Ricky. He even compliments Ricky for putting on headphones that aren't plugged to anything. He says Ricky is cool and invites him to the staircase. Ricky gets the cool nickname, "R-Man." Dawn, Dicky and Nicky are shocked that everything backfired on them. Mae tells them not to worry; a nickname only sticks if more than two people say it. Just then, another one of the cool kids calls them Suspender Girl, Visor Boy and Briefcase Man. The nicknames are official. Dawn asks Mae to defend them because she knows their cool. When Mae tries to stand up for them, Cool Moses calls her "Suspender Defender." At that point, Mae fakes a call to the principal's office before someone else calls her that and the name sticks. Dawn, Nicky and Dicky are left hopeless.

Now that Nicky, Dicky and Dawn are officially among the uncool kids, they are ashamed to go to class through the main hallway. So, they go through the "other way" used by the other uncool kids. The experience is so bad that they decide to prove that they are cool again. Meanwhile, Ricky loves his new popularity. The cool kids praise him for wearing pants with very low crotches. This gives him credit to keep climbing up the stairs of popularity. The lower the crotch, the more popular he gets. He influences the other staircase kids to start dressing up like him too. Ricky's siblings ask him why their UN-coolness didn't affect him the way it would have affected them. Ricky reveals that being related has nothing to do with popularity. So, they were actually worried for nothing.

Tired of the new status quo, Dawn leads Nicky and Dicky to prove to the staircase kids that Ricky is not as cool as they think. She challenges Ricky to a rap battle. Ricky tries to get out of it by giving excuses but his fellow staircase kids pressure him to participate. During the contest, Dawn reveals that Ricky sleep rhymes and thinks homework is cool. She tells them about all the nerdy things that Ricky does. Ricky is unable to deny them and even exposes how uncool he is through his rap. This causes Derek Moses and the other cool kids to kick Ricky out of the staircase group.

To Ricky's surprise, his siblings stand by his side and support him against the staircase kids. Together, the Harper Quads confront the staircase kids and the desperation to be popular. Everybody should be who they want to be. They should not feel pressured to become something they are not just for the sake of becoming popular.

Main Cast

 * Lizzy Greene as Dawn Harper
 * Casey Simpson as Ricky Harper
 * Mace Coronel as Dicky Harper
 * Aidan Gallagher as Nicky Harper
 * Allison Munn as Anne Harper

Recurring Cast

 * Kyla Drew Simmons as Mae Valentine
 * Isaak Presley as Derek Moses
 * Molly Jackson as Brianna
 * Spencer Tomich as Trey
 * Matthew Gordillo as Arman

Absent Cast

Brian Stepanek as Tom Harper

Continuity

 * This was the first episode where Ricky becomes popular by pretending to be cooler than he actually is, causing other students to imitate him and his style. This happened again in the Season 4 episodes, It's a Hard Knocks Life. And once again in Quadbusters.

Trivia

 * This is Moses second appearance.
 * This marks the 2nd episode where a main character is absent, this is also Tom’s first absence, and the beginning of his three episode consecutive absence.