When Tina fails to get the position of anchor for the school news, she decides to prove herself by investigating a "Mad Pooper" running around the school. Meanwhile, Gene realizes that he looks a lot like Bob did as a kid, and undergoes a makeover to look like Bob does now.
Tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: Tina's "confession" is so poorly done that even a toddler could tell something's off. Naturally, all the adults take it at face value.
- Alpha Bitch: While the green blazer already doesn't help Tina's chances when it shows up in front of the greenscreen, Tammy further sabotages Tina's audition for the coveted anchor position by making her talk too slow.
- Blatant Lies: Zeke doesn't disappear from the series despite him saying that his family moves around a lot. On the contrary, he becomes a recurring character mostly next to Jimmy Jr.
- Born Lucky: Tammy claims to be this, but not because of any actual luck—she just claims it's because she's not Tina.
- Brick Joke:
- Tina's audition is partially ruined by her wearing a green blazer in front of a greenscreen, making her head appear disembodied. When she gets her own segment at the end, it happens again, and her family comments on it.
- At the start of the episode, Tina mock-interviews Bob and asks if he knows how to make something other than burgers. Bob mentions paella, but confesses he doesn't actually know how to make it. At the end of the episode, Bob says he just remembered how to make paella.
- Blackmail: Louise blackmailed Principal Spoors into giving Tina airtime by drawing incriminating photos of him.
- The Butler Did It: Invoked by Linda who insists on naming the Mad Pooper "the Butt-ler."
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Gene calls his mother 'Lin' as part of his Bob persona.Gene (as Bob): Lin! Get in here and settle this.
- Call-Back:
- While not an exact requoting, Gene uses Bob's line from the first episode.Gene: "You're my family and I love you, but you're terrible. You're all terrible."
- When she's accused of being the Mad Pooper, Louise comments that she's dabbled in the area.
- While not an exact requoting, Gene uses Bob's line from the first episode.
- Censor Box: One of Jimmy Jr.'s "dance moves" necessitates the use of this.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Zeke, who's briefly shown in scenes with the news team, turns out to be the Mad Pooper.
- Convicted by Public Opinion: The Wagstaff News Team invokes this to get Tina out of the picture, doing an "Investigative special" about how Tina might be the Mad Pooper along with phony reenactments of her supposed crimes. It's pretty clear had Zeke not been exposed as the real culprit the school was going to punish Tina even though there was no actual evidence.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Zeke frames his final attack at the assembly as if he's giving birth.
- Do Not Do This Cool Thing: In-Universe; the anti-smoking assembly seems to have the opposite effect, thanks to the juggling act.Bob: This is kind of a weird message.Linda: I really want a cigarette.Bob: I really wanna juggle.
- Dude, Not Funny!: When Gene makes himself look like Bob, this is the latter's reaction.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Tina is disappointed in the school news station's gimmicky broadcasts including a segment of Jimmy Jr. performing several inappropriate dance moves that were banned from the school dance. Tina admits she "loves it, but it's not news."
- Even though he's on the school news team, Zeke clearly thinks that trying to take Tina's news channel down by framing her for his own crime is too much, and strikes in an open area knowing he's likely to get caught to help out Tina one last time.
- Foreshadowing: During the Mad Pooper montage, one scene pans across students watching Tina's news report in awe. The scene ends on Zeke and holds there for a couple seconds, hinting that he's the culprit.
- Freudian Excuse: Parodied; Zeke avoids getting in trouble because his family moves around a lot.
- Friendly Rivalry: Tina, in relation to Tammy, is still cordial, nice and hopes for the success of the other as well as her own. This is one sided, as Tammy is still mean to her.
- Groin Attack: Zeke's sports segment devolves into people getting hit in the groin during gym class. One of the clips is of Gene as mini-Bob getting hit with a dodgeball.Bob!Gene: It's okay, I've had my kids.
- I Have No Son!: Gene says "I have no daughter!" when Tina is framed for being the Mad Pooper. Linda is aghast, but Bob points out that Gene should say it because it's literally true.
- Informed Attribute: Linda mentions that Tina inherited her "strong chin". Because of the show's art style, no one really has a chin. Tina even asks where her chin is.
- Innocently Insensitive: Tina asks if Bob's Burgers is a stepping stone to "a real restaurant". Bob is understandably offended.
- As Gene realizes he'll look like Bob, everyone devolves into passively insulting Bob's looks. Once again, Bob is understandably offended.
- Insane Troll Logic: When Tina's brought to the front office saying she's not the Mad Pooper, Ms. Schnur asks if she's not the Mad Pooper then how did the Wagstaff News Team do a reenactment of her crimes. Unfortunately, Tina's too confused to answer.
- Insistent Terminology: Linda insists on calling the Mad Pooper "the Butt-ler". Tina even makes special note during her news program that Linda's the only one who uses that name.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Tina and Mr. Branca.Branca: I ever tell you you're like my best friend?
- Jerkass: Mr. Grant, the teacher in charge of the school news, doesn't seem to like Tina very much. He constantly shoots down her genuinely interesting news suggestions in favor of Tammy's much more trivial news suggestions for no real reason.
- During the assembly, Mr. Grant and Tammy all but admit that they framed Tina without genuinely thinking she was the Mad Pooper—they seem genuinely surprised at the possibility that she could be.
- Karma Houdini:
- Zeke doesn't get punished because "His family moves around a lot." Even though the school was totally prepared to punish Tina back when they didn't have any evidence to prove she was the Mad Pooper.
- The News Team's never held accountable or called out on how they almost got Tina suspended just because her reports were more popular. The most they give Tina's a quick apology on-air, and while Tina is given a segment on the broadcast, it vanishes after this episode.
- Like Father, Like Son: Gene faces the fact that he looks a lot like Bob in his age, so he attempts to make himself look like what Bob looks now.
- Not Me This Time: Louise is the first person Tina accuses of being the Mad Pooper, but Louise quickly makes it clear she's innocent.
- Oh, Crap!: Tina has one when Ms. Schnur mentions that Principal Spoors is at the anti-smoking assembly, as she realizes the assembly is a likely target for the Mad Pooper.
- Overly Long Gag: The Pesto twins' audition for the school news basically amounts to the following two phrases repeated for a solid ten seconds:Ollie: "Back to you, Andy!"Andy: "Back to you, Ollie!"
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Jocelyn disguises herself as Tina as a made-up reenactment of Tina pooping. Everyone in school buys the lie and Tina is sent to the principal's office.
- Pooping Where You Shouldn't: The episode focuses on a "Mad Pooper" going around Wagstaff, and Tina trying to figure out who it is. Tammy disguises herself as Tina and defecates in the library to make it look like Tina is the Mad Pooper—however, it turns out to be Zeke, who did the first ones by accident or just for fun but kept deliberately doing it to help out with Tina's investigative journalism.
- Potty Failure: Zeke admits that his first stint as the Mad Pooper was a genuine accident.
- The Prankster: Louise gets sent to the principal's office for hiding inside Mr. Frond's desk with a Hannibal Lecter mask on. She's apparently been there enough to look out the window and know exactly which car is Ms. Schnur's.
- Quote Mine: This is how Tammy frames Tina as the "Mad Pooper". It's very clearly multiple clips edited together and not even grammatically correct, yet everybody (even the adults) somehow believes it.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Tina asks if anywhere could be better for the Mad Pooper to strike than the anti-smoking assembly:Louise: The Super Bowl, American Idol, Westminster Dog Show, upside-down roller coaster, International Space Station, yoga retreat, inside a T-shirt gun...
- Shout-Out:
- The title is a reference to the movie Broadcast News
- When seeing an old photo of Bob, Gene thought that it was him going through a Judd Nelson phase.
- When Mr. Branca tells Tina about the poop tracked into the library reference section, Tina replies, “Talk about Encyclopedia Brown.”
- When Tina is smeared as being the Mad Pooper, she tells people to "follow the money."
- Linda calls Gene her “Muppet Baby Bobby.”
- Start My Own: When the school news ignores the "Mad Pooper" story in favor of fluffy gossip pieces, Louise encourages Tina to start her own underground news program to cover the story.
- Strong Family Resemblance: As it turns out, Bob looked uncannily like Gene as a kid, to the point that Gene mistakes a photo of Bob for himself. Gene then realizes he'll probably look like Bob as an adult, sparking the subplot.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: The ending shows that Louise ended up on Tammy's segment of the news, where Tammy thanks Louise for pushing her out of the way of a falling turd. Louise, who had really tried to push Tammy directly under the turd and simply miscalculated, says nothing to correct her.
- Twitchy Eye: Gene when he’s trying to deny that the Mad Pooper is funny, right before he decides he wants to be a kid again.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Surprisingly averted. The fact that Gene now looks like his mid-40's father is commented on a lot, from Zeke showing a clip of him getting hit in the groin to Tammy proposing an entire segment talking about the mustached kid now in school. Nobody, however, seems to realize it's Gene.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Louise's failure to edit out Tina's jab at Tammy during their first airing leads Tammy to bear a personal grudge, giving her a personal reason to frame Tina as the Mad Pooper.
- Walk of Shame: Tina is falsely accused of being the Mad Pooper. She slowly goes to the principal's office as various students come out of their classrooms and watch her.
