Business Time

Synopsis
Jake thaws mysterious zombie-like businessmen from an iceberg who practice the ways of efficiency while forcing him and Finn into a sedentary lifestyle.

Plot
Finn and Jake are melting icebergs in Iceberg Lake to find items to build their Gauntlet Dock, but they find an iceberg with four men frozen in it. When their iceberg is melted, they turn out to be Businessmen from the 21st century that they hire to do small chores for them, like finishing their Gauntlet Dock. Seeing how successful the dock bad once trying it out, Finn decides to keep them around.

As Finn and Jake return to the tree house, the Businessmen begin to improve on Finn and Jake's heroing skills through various minor additions, including cleaning Finn's sword and setting up a "hero monitor" to keep an eye on any evil in and around Ooo, allowing for the duo to take a breather to play video games and eat ice cream instead of always being on the alert. The first such evil disturbance discovered by the monitor is Hot Dog Princess crying for help when Battle Cubes attack her. At first, Finn feels the benefits of relaxation and becomes more excited to be going on the rescue mission. But while fighting the Battle Cubes, Finn and Jake get tired due to battling them for too long and leave it to the Businessmen. As the Businessmen battle the cubes, Finn realizes that they are helpful after all and accepts them. The quartet end up getting promoted for "taking one for the team" while Hot Dog Princess kisses her rescuers for saving her.

The Businessmen soon begin to do all the work for Finn and Jake as they eat ice cream and play games on BMO. Unfortunately, by becoming so sedentary, Finn and Jake begin to lose their edge: they become more tired while growing fatter from sitting around their tree house, to a point where they can make "gut images" of others such as Ice King and Princess Bubblegum. Not even Lumpy Space Princess's cries for help on the Hero Monitor are enough to force them back into action.

Eventually, the Businessmen turn into villains (who are narrowly thinking they are doing the right thing) and start vacuuming Fuzzy Friends into their giant Finn-bot's "Care Sac" to protect them. Finn fires them, and they fly into an uncontrollable rage, sucking in everything including Finn. Jake, using his fat to his advantage, gets stuck in the vacuum tube and keeps growing until the vacuum robot explodes. As Finn falls, he rehires the businessmen and tells them to refreeze themselves and float back into the lake. Jake instantly shrinks back into his normal size, reducing his fat. Finn tries to suck in his gut like Jake, but is still fat. It ends with a stark closeup on Finn's unhappy face with 'THE END' on it.

Major characters

 * Finn
 * Jake
 * Businessmen

Minor characters

 * Flambo
 * Hot Dog Princess
 * Battle Cubes
 * Lumpy Space Princess
 * Swamp Giant
 * Fuzzy Friends
 * BMO
 * Snail (cameo)

Trivia

 * The cover of Fantastic Story Magazine was the inspiration for the title card.
 * In the episode "Ocean of Fear", it is revealed that Finn is afraid of the ocean, even though he jumps in what looks like the ocean in this episode. When asked about this, Pendleton Ward stated that the body of water in this episode was just a lake. This fact was later established in the episode "Mortal Folly," when the same body of water appeared and was referred to as Iceberg Lake.
 * The businessmen write "Fin & Jake Adventuring Incorporated" on their briefcases, misspelling Finn's name.
 * Finn and Jake play an Abraham Lincoln game on BMO, a possible reference to the Animated Short.
 * As they are waving goodbye to the businessmen, one of the Fuzzy Friends says "Pancakes!"
 * In this episode, Finn and Jake ate about 48 tubs of ice cream.

Errors

 * When the business men were in the robot, they all had red ties but a later scene showed that only one had a red tie and the others wore blue.
 * When Finn notices the businessmen collecting the Fuzzy Friends, he suddenly appears wearing his backpack, even though he was not wearing it earlier in the scene.

Production notes

 * This episode was shown as a sneak peek on Cartoon Network on March 11, 2010.
 * This is the last episode to feature "Adventure Time with Finn & Jake Presents." All episodes title cards after "Buisness Time" use "Adventure Time Presents."

Storyline analysis

 * Due to the lack of knowledge about real businessmen in Ooo, it seems possible that the businessmen were frozen either before, during, or as a result of the Mushroom War.