"Linda, there are animal anuses all over our walls!"
"No one tells Gayle anything she can't handle. That's your mom's rule, alright? You treat her like a mental patient."
—Bob
Linda has forced Bob to allow her sister Gayle to hang her series of animal anus paintings in Bob's Burgers for the annual art crawl, much to the ire of art crawl chairperson Edith. Meanwhile, Louise tries to make money during the art crawl by forcing the neighborhood kids to make paintings she can sell.
Trope Crawl:
- Artistic License: In-universe; Tina says she exercised some creative liberties when painting a nude Dr. Yap (given she hasn't actually seen him nude before).
- Bad Boss: When Louise assumes her management position, she falls into this immediately, crossing over with Drill Sergeant Nasty.
- Big "OMG!": Bob lets out a horrified "OH MY GOD" when he sees Aunt Gayle's animal-anus paintings.
- Blatant Lies: Bob took off all of Gayle's paintings to place Gene and Tina's paintings. Gayle lampshades this and says that it's the same when she tells herself that everything will be fine.
- Bowdlerise: In-universe; someone paints underwear over Gayle's animal butt paintings. It turns out to be Linda.
- Butt-Monkey: Technically not the actual trope, but the episode deserves mention for having a literal butt monkey (namely, a monkey that has an anus in place of its head and neck).
- Can't Take Criticism: Gayle, to the point that the Belchers acknowledge that although she needs to hear criticism of her work she wouldn't be able to mentally handle it.
- Comically Small Bribe: However much money Louise gave to appease Edith, it was almost certainly nowhere near the thousand dollars Edith claimed the defaced merchandise was worth (especially because Louise doesn't even give her the entire stack of cash).
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: As Bob points out, the entire mess could have been avoided had Linda just told Gayle she didn't like her paintings.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Louise's actions and words towards the Pesto twins and Devon Michin make it looks like she is their pimp.
- Doing It for the Art: In-universe; Tina and Gene refuse to paint things that will sell well—they'd rather paint what they feel and the truth, respectively. Gene is up to go as far as cutting off his own ear.
- Ear Ache: Gene and Louise plan to invoke it by cutting off the former's ear so he can be a real artist. If not for Bob walking outside mid-countdown, they might have actually gone through with it.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The Belchers' dentist Dr. Yap, who would later properly debut in Season 2, is first shown here as a drawing Tina made.
- Edible Theme Clothing: When citing strange things their Aunt Gayle has done, the kids mention that she once wore a dress made of cocktail shrimp to church.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Before she even makes her proper debut, one look at Gayle's paintings makes it very clear what kind of person she is.
- In terms of actual physical character moments, Gayle getting afraid and clearly disturbed by a fork falling on the floor.
- Edith being bossy.
- Before she even makes her proper debut, one look at Gayle's paintings makes it very clear what kind of person she is.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Mort admits he actually likes Gayle's paintings, but he wouldn't dare hang them up in his funeral home.
- Edith isn't a fan of the Belcher kids but she still accepts Tina and Gene into her art class because according to her "the store is open to anyone who respects art."
- Forced Creativity: Louise does this twice to make money from the Art Crawl, without having to put any effort in herself. First with her siblings but when they fail to reach her standards, she gets the Pesto Twins and another classmate named Devon Michin as her artists. She treats them like slaves while pocketing all the money.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Literally—honesty is the best policy, but some people are just too sensitive for the truth.
- Honor Before Reason:
- Even though Harold really needs water and Bob is willing to give him some, Edith refuses to accept it and slaps it away.
- Bob will keep Gayle's paintings hanging up just to spite Edith no matter how much business it drives away.
- Hypocrite:
- Harold insults Bob's weight. Harold himself isn't fat, but he looks skinny to the point of malnourishment, so he's not one to talk about physical appearances.
- Bob hated Gayle's paintings when they were bad for business and wanted them taken down, but when Edith has the nerve to try and tell Bob what he can and can't hang in his own restaurant, he'll tell Gayle to make more of them.
- Linda's the one who lectured Bob and the kids about supporting Gayle's art, until it turns out she's the one who altered the paintings and lied about it because all those animal anuses were giving her nightmares.
- Ignored Aesop: After realizing they should all tell the truth to people, everybody chicken outs when it comes the time to tell Gayle to step down from painting, and the Aesop goes to "some people are just too fragile for the truth".
- Malicious Slander: There are rumors about Gayle, including she ate lipstick, shaved her cat and made a shrimp dress, all pointing out she is insane. As Bob and the kids talk it over, they come to the conclusion all those rumors are likely to be true knowing what Gayle's like.
- Not Me This Time: Edith reveals she has nothing to do with painting underwear in Gayle's paintings, it was Linda.
- No, You: Louise gets into an argument with Harold that devolves into the two shouting "You smell like ointment and pee!" at each other.
- Papa Wolf: When Tina reveals her nude drawing of Dr. Yap, Bob's first question is asking if he's been naked with Tina. Even after Tina clarifies that he hasn't, Bob plans on switching dentists.
- The Reveal: Linda was the one who painted the underwear on Gayle's paintings.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: The elderly Cranwinkles, especially Edith, are stuck-up and obnoxious.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- One customer tries to enter the restaurant, only to immediately, wordlessly leave after seeing Gayle's paintings.
- Implied with Devon Michin, the red-headed kid who Louise forces to make paintings alongside Andy and Ollie; unlike the twins, Devon is nowhere to be seen during the ending, implying he eventually got tired of painting and went home.
- Shared Family Quirks: Discussed; Louise concludes over the course of the episode that her scheming nature comes from Bob.
- Shout-Out:
- Linda's vision of the dancing animal butts is a reference to the "Pink Elephants On Parade" sequence from Dumbo.
- Ollie tells Andy to cut him open and crawl inside him, referring to how Luke survived the snow by doing the same in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
- Gene saying that he's willing to cut off his own ear to be an artist references Vincent van Gogh.
- Something We Forgot: Louise forces Andy and Ollie to make paintings and completely forgets about them until the ending, where they're still making paintings during the night.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Linda doesn't confess to the vandalism until after Bob is facing arrest for retaliating against Edith, who he thought was the culprit. Had she said something sooner, the entire second act could've been avoided.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Devon Michin, the third kid Louise gets to make paintings for her, completely vanishes during the ending with no in-story explanation.
- You Do Not Want To Know: Louise offers to help settle her father's debt with some of the money she made selling Andy and Ollie's paintings. When Bob asks her where she got all that money, Louise just tells him he doesn't want to know.
