The ghost of Duke Ellington takes Nick and friends on a journey back in time to 1913: the year he lost his virginity and found his true calling.
Episode Tropes:
- And You Were There: Coach Steve (as President Theodore Roosevelt), Elliot (As Lee Daniel's The Butler), and Jessi's ancestors appear in the flashback.
- Call-Back: Maury and Duke do the same handshake they do when they reunite in "Pillow Talk." Duke even reminds Maury that he still owes him seven dollars.
- A Day in the Limelight: The Ghost of Duke Ellington, as he tells his story.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: The episode goes to some lengths to illustrate the differences between the present day and over a century ago.
- Duke's father being a butler to a doctor is about as "high-society" as a black person could be at the time, and Duke's mother looks down on the pool hall people.
- Teenage boys are allowed to go from New York to Atlantic City to find summer jobs without their parents.
- Duke tries to get a job as a bellhop. But that job is reserved for whites and he ends up washing dishes.
- Maury and Duke marvel at the "revealing" nature of full-body women's swimsuits, which admittedly did show more than the layered dresses that were the norm for the period.
- Famous Ancestor: It's implied that Coach Steve is a descendant of Theodore Roosevelt.
- Grand Theft Me: Duke possesses Andrew and makes him punch himself in the chode for interrupting him one too many times and being so annoying about it.
- Groin Attack: Duke possesses Andrew after the Know-Nothing Know-It-All interrupts one too many times and makes him punch himself in the chode.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Andrew acts like an Insufferable Genius regarding Duke's relationship with Jazz as well as race relations back in the 1910s, but Duke is clearly annoyed with Andrew's snootiness.
- Shown Their Work: Many of the details in Duke's story actually happened to the real Duke Ellington, particularly President Teddy Roosevelt coming by on horse to watch him and his friends play baseball.
- Special Edition Title: The theme song for this episode is rearranged into a rag time style, and the scenes are black and white to give it the authentic feel.
- Neon musical note graphics are added to the end credits while Ellington's "Haupe" from the film version of Anatomy of a Murder plays.
- Whole Episode Flashback: While there are scenes during the present, they're only used as a Framing Device for Duke's story about growing up in the 1910's.
