"Oh, poop."
"I thought I knew you! Public poopers are just... urgh, I mean, this is a society! There are rules! [...] Murder is bad too, but at least it's not pooping outside like some kind of psycho."
—Bosco
Linda's new routine of diet and exercise gives her gastrointestinal trouble on the day of parent-teacher-student conferences; when she gets arrested for public defecation, Bob and the kids scramble to get money for her bail.
Sheshank Trope-dumption:
- All for Nothing: Desperate for money to pay Linda’s bail, Bob promises to go to Teddy’s improv show and suggest underpants for his routine. Teddy ends up choosing someone else’s suggestion of chicken wings, infuriating Bob.
- Ascended to Carnivorism: Discussed; Gene believes Linda will hire a gorilla to eat him and his siblings for getting detention. He knows that gorillas are primarily herbivores (aside from insects), but believes that even they have their price.
- Asshole Victim: It's hard to feel bad for Tammy when you learn that Tina got detention by pulling her hair.
- Berserk Button: Tina got detention because Tammy called horses “boring stripe-less zebras” and Tina responded by trying to rip Tammy's ponytail off.
- Comically Missing the Point: Teddy tries to prepare for improv, defeating the entire point.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Teddy asks Linda if he could try her new fitness routine, Bob doesn't seem to believe he could, perhaps remembering his last attempt at getting in shape.
- Linda mentions in the station that she almost always poops in toilets. In "Poops!... I Didn't Do It Again", Bob mentions a time where Linda very much did not.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: At the end of the episode, Linda tells the kids that she will throw the Belchers' television into the ocean if they (or Bob) ever tell anybody that she was fined for public defecation. The threat is enough for all three kids (even Louise) to promise to never mention it to anybody.
- Deadpan Snarker: The cop who detains Linda is absolutely dripping with sarcasm.
- Diet Episode: Linda is doing a new health regimen with Ginger, taking power walks and eating salad and diuretic smoothies. When she has to go in the middle of her run, she blames it on her body not being used to healthy food.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Linda's cellmate, who was arrested for trying to sell drugs to a state trooper, has a similar reaction to Linda's confession as Group W did to Arlo littering.
- Everybody Has Standards: Linda was thinking about punishing Tina, Gene, and Louise for all getting detention. However when they revealed that they were afraid Linda wouldn’t allow them to watch TV, Linda claims she would never do that because she’s not a monster and it’s like “almost her favorite child”.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Everyone but Linda considers public defecation to be a horrendous crime. Sergeant Bosco calls it worse than murder.Bosco: Murder is bad, too, but at least it's not pooping in public like some kind of psycho!
- Humiliation Conga: Both Linda and Bob are really put through the wringer on this episode.
- Linda is out power walking in the park when she suddenly has the uncontrollable urge to poop. Since she's too far from home, she goes to the nearest restroom, but both are closed for repairs. She tries to find a discrete spot where she can do her business, but everywhere she goes there are people present, and she finally has to duck inside a bush to poop, where she's caught by a police officer sitting in his police car right in front of the bush. Things get worse at the station, where her arresting officer refuses to accept that it was an accident and that she was a serial "public pooper." She digs herself deeper by insisting on going back home to get the money for the ticket and promising to return, which gets her put in a holding cell, and even when she manages to catch Sergeant Bosco's attention while in the cell, he's unsympathetic to her situation, as described above.
- Bob has to get money from his account to pay Linda's fine, but the bank is closed and his ATM card has been rendered useless thanks to Louise using it to open doors. He goes to the supermarket and buys a pack of gum, then tries to pay for it with a check and get change, but the place doesn't accept checks (and the cashier informs him that no one cashes checks anymore, making him feel old and out of touch on top of everything). He finally has to ask Teddy for the remaining money, but Teddy will only do it if he goes to his improv show and calls out "underpants" as an audience suggestion, despite Bob's insistence that that's not how improv works. Bob finally agrees, but to put the cherry on top of the humiliation sundae, Teddy chooses someone else's suggestion of "chicken wings". Teddy then acts like Bob's the crazy one when Bob gets understandably annoyed at this.
- Idiot Ball: Even though the cop keeps telling Linda that she'll have to put her in a holding cell if she tries to just leave the station, Linda still keeps insisting that it won't be a problem as she walks closer to the door. Cut to her in the cell.
- Improv Comedy Is Inane: Teddy joins an improv group and gets very invested. However, he insists before the show that Bob give "underpants" as a suggestion, indicating he isn't actually willing to improvise. Even more oddly, he ends up choosing a different suggestion at the show.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Linda invokes this near the end of the episode by threatening to throw the T.V. into the ocean if the kids or Bob ever tells anybody about the incident.
- The Lopsided Arm of the Law: Police Are Useless pretty much every time the Belchers need them throughout the series, but when Linda poops in public they're immediately on her case. To be fair, though, Linda did that right in front of a cop car, so she was kind of asking for it.
- Not So Above It All: Gene gets detention for putting a hot dog in a pencil sharpener to make a spiral. Bob tells him he gets it and has thought about doing the same thing.
- Pooping Where You Shouldn't: The episode is about Linda getting detained for public defecation after a cop catches her pooping in a bush at the park because the bathrooms were closed and she really had to go. Bob then has to find enough cash to pay off the $100 fine.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The episode title is a reference to The Shawshank Redemption.
- Potty Emergency: Linda has been on a health kick lately, taking power walks and drinking cayenne pepper and flaxseed smoothies. When the smoothie starts taking effect while walking in the middle of the park, she finds the nearest restrooms closed for repairs, so she has no other option but to go in the nearest bush... right next to a parked police car.
- Serious Business: Teddy treats his improv class/show like this. He spends most of the episode preparing a bit ahead of time for it.
- Script Swap: Louise got detention for replacing the morning announcements with the lyrics to “Baby Got Back”. Ms. LaBonz actually read the first line before realizing she'd been had.
- Shout-Out:
- The Store Next Door is "How the West Was Spun: Woolen Western Wear".
- The Burger of the Day is the "The Graters of the Sauced Havart(i) Burger".
- Louise assumes that Linda was kidnapped for ransom, and asks if they need to get Liam Neeson involved.
- Skeleton Key Card: Bob goes to the ATM but discovers that his bank card is all scratched up and useless. A flashback reveals that Louise was using it to teach her siblings how to open a door with it as part of a "life seminar".
- Swapped Roles: Bob is more lenient on the kids getting detention (even partially agreeing with Gene on putting a hot dog in the pencil sharpener), while Linda is the one mad at them.
- Two Decades Behind:
- Bob tries to cash a check at the supermarket to get money for Linda's fine, only to be told by the cashier that they don't accept checks and that the practice has stopped decades ago.
- He then tries getting the money from a pawnshop by selling his incredibly outdated CD player.
