EP245

Will the Real Oak Please Stand Up? (Japanese: にせオーキド！？ ポケモンせんりゅうたいけつ！！ Fake !? Pokémon Confrontation!!) is the 245th episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on April 25, 2002 and in the United States on September 27, 2002.

Blurb
''Hearing of the posh reception prepared for the host and guest of a radio show to be recorded before a live audience, Jessie and James of Team Rocket quickly announce that they are in fact the long-awaited celebrities. Their mastery of disguise is soon put to the test, as it turns out that the guest in question is to be none other than Professor Oak. James quickly rises to the occasion, creatively answering arcane Pokémon questions from excited fans. When the real Oak arrives, the children find his answers inconsistent with those received from James the day before, and ironically finger the real Oak as a fraud. When the two Oaks finally face off, the real Oak slips up in a Pokémon trivia challenge, leaving onlookers to conclude that James is the real deal. In the final test, it is decided that each of the two professors must compose a poem in the style for which Oak is renowned. Professor Oak is confident that poetry—his second love after Pokémon—will secure him victory, but little does he know that James has a hidden knack for verse as well.''

Plot
,, and are sitting in a restaurant eating hamburgers when, over the radio, DJ Mary announces that 's radio show is beginning. In this installment of the program, he explains how it is possible that 's blinking crystal is somehow being used to communicate with beings from outer space. He ends with a poem about Starmie.

Ash and Misty comment on how they think that the poem was not very good. Unsure about what to think, Brock adds that people say that you have to think about Pokémon poetry for a while to truly understand the deeper meaning. Over the radio, DJ Mary announces that she and Professor Oak will be doing a live recording of the show tomorrow at 1:00pm at the Maroon Town fairgrounds with a follow-up, question-and-answer session. Admission will be free! Brock becomes excited that Mary will be there as well and rapidly flips through his guide book in order to find where Maroon Town is. It is right on the way to Blackthorn City and is only one town away! Excited, they head off towards Maroon Town.

Jessie, James, and are walking into Maroon Town at that moment and comment on how hungry and tired they are. They collapse from exhaustion when Meowth notices one of many posters on the buildings around them. Meowth explains that they are advertising a free public recording of Professor Oak's talk show, and after the taping, there is a free lunch buffet for the stars of the show. The three of them become excited and state that all they have to do is become the stars of the show. They quickly disguise themselves as DJ Mary, Professor Oak, and the "big-mouthed, overbearing producer that every show has to have". Hearing lots of talking, Nurse Joy walks over to greet the disguised. She wonders why they are here when they said over the radio that they wouldn't be in town until the following day. They create a story that because of all the loyal Pokémon fans in Maroon Town, they couldn't wait to make it there to meet them all as soon as they could. Impressed, Nurse Joy takes them over to the stage at that moment.

At the stage, the three of them hungrily eat all of the food for tomorrow's luncheon. Before she goes off to get more food, Nurse Joy asks if James could answer some questions for the children. James worries about not knowing the answers, so Meowth sits behind him with many books in order to find the answers. One child asks "What exactly is that leek thing that is always carrying around?" Meowth can not find the answer quickly enough so James says that it is a hockey stick. Amazed, the children ask him more questions. Another boy asks why attacks do not work on Pokémon like  even though it is a Water type. James, after getting the answer from Meowth, explains that it is both a Water type and Ground type so electricity does not affect it because of its characteristics. The children begin to ask too many questions too quickly when a group of people carrying cameras appear in front of Jessie. Because they are the DJ Mary Fan Club, they happily welcome DJ Mary to town and ask if they can all take her picture. Team Rocket becomes caught up in all of the excitement. Later, in a hotel's hot spring, they all relax and scheme about all the other freebies that could come their way.

The following morning, the real Professor Oak and DJ Mary wonder why Nurse Joy says that they already came, and she shows Team Rocket, disguised as the two of them, eating at the breakfast table. The children from the day before come to the real Professor and say that they don't believe Farfetch'd carries around a hockey stick, it must carry around some sort of root. He explains that it is not a root or a hockey stick, but the stem from a plant. The children become angry because the Professor must be lying to them because they are kids. Ash and walk up and say hello to the Professor. Brock becomes infatuated with Mary until Misty pulls him away by the ear. Nurse Joy asks if they can tell who those people at the breakfast table are and Team Rocket becomes worried if they are caught. Jessie tells James that their only shot is to play the bluff for all it is worth. Misty then suggests a contest in order to prove which Professor is real. This contest becomes the radio show.

The contest will consist of three questions. The first Professor to answer two of the three correctly will be deemed the winner. Nurse Joy begins reading the first question. "What is the evolved form of that-" she says when Professor A, the real Professor Oak, says that the correct answer is. Although this is correct, there was more to the question. The rest of the question asks what the name of the attack that said Pokémon learns upon reaching level 46. James, disguised as Professor B, does not have a clue; upon the buzzer, he says that he has. Amnesia, luckily, is the correct answer. The second question consists of a silhouette that must be identified. James thinks it is the hand of a while Professor Oak believes it is an 's tail, which is the correct answer. Worried about losing, Meowth comes onstage dressed as the producer and suggest that the last question should be a poetry contest. Concerned, Jessie confronts James who then explains that he was the champion stand-up poet in grade-school for three years and even won the Golden Tongue Award. DJ Mary says they need a theme when, from under Meowth's coat, something says "!" Everyone agrees and James begins with his poem.

Everyone is puzzled when he explains that the poem applies to one small element of Wobbuffet's life as well as the struggles of all people to understand their own lives. Nurse Joy announces that Professor A is the one and only Professor Oak. James contradicts her on how she can think that his "pompous dribble" is superior to his poem. She then explains that James's poem had no understanding of Pokémon poetry, which she knows because she is a fifth level master of Pokémon poetry! She then goes on explaining how all of Professor Oak's poems have one thing in common: the power to reassure and relax people. Joy then states that James is the fake Oak and an amateur at Pokémon poetry when falls out from under Meowth's coat. Upon being found out, Team Rocket says their and uses  in order to escape in their balloon, along with all the catered lunch. Ash begins to send out one of his Pokémon when Professor Oak sends out a that he caught along the way. Pidgey uses to cut the rope carrying. Unsuspecting of Pidgey's power, Team Rocket is blown away by its attack. After Pidgey comes back, the children from before run up to Professor Oak and apologize for believing he was fake. He does not mind and only wants to talk about Pokémon with the children.

Later, hanging from a limb on the side of a cliff, Team Rocket yells for help. James thinks of another poem.

Major events

 * is revealed to have caught a.

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Nurse Joy
 * DJ Mary
 * Children
 * DJ Mary fanclub
 * Town residents
 * DJ Mary
 * Children
 * DJ Mary fanclub
 * Town residents

Pokémon
Who's That Pokémon?: (US and international),  (Japan)
 * ('s; newly caught)
 * (child's)
 * (poem)
 * (poem)
 * ('s; newly caught)
 * (child's)
 * (poem)
 * (poem)
 * (poem)

Trivia

 * The test:
 * What is the evolved form of 's move learned at level 46?
 * Answer:
 * Identify the silhouette.
 * Answer: an 's tail.
 * Create a poem about Wobbuffet.
 * James: It inflates its psychic self / But light will put it on the shelf / Wobbuffet
 * Professor Oak: Wobbuffet / When life is a mystery / It's your answer
 * Jessie: Wobbuffet / Has a hair barrette


 * The dub title is commonly interpreted by fans to reference 's hit song ""; however, the line used in that song and in the dub title actually originated from the well-known game show .
 * The plot of this episode may have been inspired by the card from the Pokémon Trading Card Game.
 * This is the third time a member of has addressed  or one of  by name. This time, while disguised as DJ Mary, Jessie refers to  by name. The first time was in Electric Shock Showdown, and the second time was in Fire and Ice.
 * As with most level-up learnsets, 's has changed since Generation II, when this episode was created and aired, making the first answer no longer correct: Slowbro only learns Amnesia at level 46 during Generation II or in.
 * This is the first episode in which James disguised himself as ; the second time was in A Faux Oak Finish!.
 * 's song from The Power of One can be heard during Professor Oak's poem.
 * This episode does not have a Pokémon Lecture.

Errors

 * When the silhouette of an 's tail appears onscreen, Misty says it is similar to the test in The Ultimate Test, where they saw a seen from below. In actuality, the Jigglypuff was seen from above.
 * In one scene, Jessie and DJ Mary appear to be the same height, when Jessie should be taller.

Dub edits

 * The scene where DJ Mary and Professor Oak confront Jessie and James in their disguises was cut short for the broadcast version of the dub and the first US home video release. After DJ Mary says to Jessie that she is the real Mary, Jessie starts shouting at Mary and Professor Oak that she is the real Mary; DJ Mary is terrified of Jessie's behavior, and she holds on to Professor Oak, jumping up and down with her eyes closed in terror while holding onto him. This was cut from the dub because it looked like a sex act. With this cut, DJ Mary holds onto Professor Oak in fear of Team Rocket for no reason at all. However, the version streamed on Pokémon TV and the second US home video release leaves this scene intact.
 * While this scene is cut as well in the Latin American dub, DJ Mary's voice fades out in the middle of a sentence, as does Brock's, all while Jessie's screaming can be heard for only half a second.

In other languages
Der Poké-Reim-Battle EP247 EP245 無印編第245話 精灵宝可梦 第246集