- When Peter displays a talent for copying art, crooked museum guards Duke and Chuche force him to copy Frans Hals' 'The Laughing Cavalier' and switch it with the real one. The Monkees mount Mission: Ridiculous to put the actual artwork back and take on the code names 'Manchester Marauder' (Davy), Conneticut Counterspy (Peter), Towering Texan (Mike) and the Los Angeles Leopard (Micky).—The TV Archaeologist
- Peter displays an unexpected passion for painting and he paints a perfect replica of one of the doors inside The Monkee's house. But it causes pain for Micky when he tries to open the "door" and instead whacks his head. Mike suggests Peter go to the art museum - so Peter does, and paints a replica of a door in the display room, and a crooked guard, Chuche, runs into the phony door and threatens Peter. Chuche's partner Duce stops him, and realizes Peter can be used for their scheme to steal a valuable painting, Franz Hals' The Laughing Cavalier.
The two guards have Peter do a copy of the painting, but Duce is aghast that Peter amends it by using Mike's pompom-topped wool hat instead of the original headgear. When the museum curator gets off the phone the two guards hustle Peter to the basement to correct the copy.
Mike, Micky, and Davy, meanwhile, have become concerned when they realize they're eating breakfast with Mr. Schneider instead of Peter. They go to the museum, where Micky finds a man painting with his fingers (and feet); Micky's innocent questioning leads the artist to grab and threaten Micky, with the caveat that he wants a hefty payment for his "painting" on Micky's now-smeared shirt. Meanwhile Mike walks in on a concert by flamboyant pianist Liberace, who takes a sledgehammer and does his imitation of Pete Townsend and Keith Moon in destroying his instrument, much to Mike's bemusement.
When the curator telephones the guards to report to their stations, Duce and Chuche tie up and gag Peter, then take his copy of the painting and switch it for the real Laughing Cavalier. Micky, Mike, and Davy finally free Peter and report the theft to the curator, but he haughtily blows them off by pointing to the security program erected for the Laughing Cavalier that includes invisible trip-beams and a metal cage - which works too well when his demonstration leads to his own tearful capture.
In the confusion the Monkees are allowed to go home, but they have the real painting and have to put it back, so they don the guise of a gang of cat burglers - though when they scale to the museum's roof Davy, Peter, and Micky all run into the same flagpole - with special glasses to see the trip-beams. Davy carefully navigates the beams and retrieves the phony painting, but Peter has to climb back to the roof to get the original - and now the boys have to dodge Duce and Chuche, leading to a lengthy chase amid the strains of Micky's pyschedelic tour guide of 1967 London "Randy Scouse Git."
Eventually all involved fall into the cage trap and are knocked unconscious, much to the dismay of the curator and a touring party the next morning. The Monkees eventually return home (the fate of the two crooked guards is never revealed) where Peter displays his new hobby - wood construction, which goes wrong for Micky right away. They perform "Daydream Believer" before Liberace completes his "concert" of killing his piano.
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