Steve and Roger decide to capitalize on their intelligence by running away to New York City. Meanwhile, a family of squirrels move into Steve's treehouse.
Tropes:
- Adapted Out: The What's Eating Gilbert Grape? subplot cuts out Gilbert's sisters for simplicity.
- All Just a Dream: The episode opens with Stan, Hayley, Steve, and Roger getting killed by assailants. Klaus leads Francine to safety and reveals his name is Professor Max Hammer. They escape Mexican vampires and discover the lost city of Atlantis. Then it's revealed to be Klaus's daydream.
- Bait-and-Switch: Stan reminds Francine that they have Steve's college money. It then cuts to what is implied to be Steve's funeral, before showing the rest of the family living it up with a boat.
- Bystander Syndrome: After seeing a guy get run over on the street, Roger nonchalantly asks Steve if he wants lunch.
- Chair Reveal: Roger does this when Steve returns from school after getting an F on his paper. He even has Klaus dressed up as a cat.Klaus: It's fun to play dress-up. Not all the time, but sometimes. Not this time.
- Don't Explain the Joke: Steve's script is rejected by Jon Stewart because the jokes are offensive and also require far too much explanation.
- Embarrassing Middle Name: After knocking out Beauregard LaFontaine and stealing from his wallet for a bus ride back to Virginia, Steve sees on his license that his middle name is Laurence and laughs.
- Eskimos Aren't Real: Roger thought the New York Stock Exchange was Hollywood make-believe.
- Five-Token Band: Referenced. When Steve clarifies that they're at the New York Stock Exchange, Roger likens it to the film Wall Street and says he thought it was Hollywood make-believe, like "children of every color eating at the same McDonald's."
- Gilligan Cut: Roger attempts to sweet-talk a hotel employee by saying that he and Steve will be staying indefinitely without paying. They're promptly thrown out.
- Hope Spot: After Steve's career as a comedy writer meets a premature end, Roger says he's put everything into the stock SJP, which he describes as a "sure thing." The stock takes a tumble, then rises, and then collapses, leaving the two with nothing.
- Idiot Ball: Roger claims he was going to make a fortune in silver on the stock market, and assures Steve that they're gonna hit it big with the stock SJP. However, when the stock tanks and leaves the two with nothing, it's revealed that he thought this was the Hollywood Stock Exchange. He thought the stock SJP was for Sarah Jessica Parker and the silver he was supposedly trading was actually Ron Silver.
- In-Universe Camera: After Steve and Roger arrive in New York, the camera does a number of sweeping establishing shots over the city. Then while panning on the ground, a bus comes right at the camera and it cuts to Roger telling Steve that someone was just run over.
- Take That!: Steve proclaims that there are no dumb people in New York, because they all moved to New Jersey.Roger: Finally, someone brave enough to take a swipe at New Jersey.
- Tempting Fate: When a thunderstorm rolls in, Stan refuses to let Steve and Roger, who they still think are hiding in the treehouse, back inside. He says a little rain never hurt anyone. Then a lightning bolt hits the treehouse and destroys it.
- Whole-Plot Reference:
- The subplot with the squirrels is taken from What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
- Roger and Steve's plot also takes a number of elements from Midnight Cowboy.
