"Your children's essays were a little 'creative'. Too creative."
—Mr. Frond
Bob and Linda ask Mr. Frond why the works of their children aren't in the school's essay exposition. Mr. Frond shows them the stories the kids wrote, which were accused of being "too creative".
Louise writes a version of The Terminator in which Mr. Frond sends a robot in his image back in time to kill her for pranking him.
Gene writes a story about the kids taking back his keyboard from Mr. Frond in a 80's musical school.
Tina writes about a zombie outbreak in the school when the basketball team takes contaminated vaccines.
The Trope Files:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Bob and Linda have to stifle laughter when they see that Louise actually pranked Frond with the brownie chair surprise.
- Ambiguous Ending: Discussed; Bob claims that the end of Gene's story was left open-ended for the reader to decide if his fart song destroyed the school. Mr. Frond isn't convinced.
- Art Evolution: Starting with this episode, Mr. Frond's design is noticeably altered.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In a sense, Louise's story. While the Robo-Fronds fail to kill Louise as instructed, they manage to derail the timeline to the point that Louise and her siblings have to spend their lives in hiding, ensuring that the real Frond will never fall victim to the brownie chair surprise at eighth-grade graduation—accomplishing exactly what future Frond wanted, just with fewer casualties.
- By "No", I Mean "Yes": At the end, Bob tells Mr. Frond he needs to find a way to better relate to students. When Mr. Frond decides he should do this by spending even more time with the Belcher kids, Bob says, "Yeah, or the opposite."
- Call-Back: Tina's erotic friendfiction from "Bad Tina" is brought back.
- Comically Missing the Point: Gene and Tina don't really understand what the "brownie surprise" prank actually is, and Louise has to explain it to them. Then Tina reveals she still doesn't get it.
- Creepy Crossdresser: Mr. Frond is shown dressed up as the feminine Principal Togar in Gene's story yet is referred to as a male.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Despite having the ability to send robots back in time, Frond doesn't consider using the robots to simply warn his past self about the brownie surprise prank, instead deciding use them to kill Louise.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Tina's story is shot in black and white to evoke a classic horror movie vibe. The world becomes filled with color once she discovers how to tame the zombie basketball players.
- Demoted to Extra: In-universe; while Frond is the Big Bad of Louise and Gene's stories, he has a relatively minor role in Tina's story.
- Department of Redundancy Department: The beginning of Tina's story.Something felt off that morning. I could feel it in my bones. My arm bones, my leg bones. All the bones.
- Designated Villain: In-universe; Mr. Frond is this in all the stories, that's the real reason why he took the stories out of the exposition. It's deconstructed when Frond realizes that there is a reason he's the villain—the kids simply don't like him—and he actually starts crying because of it.
- Didn't Think This Through: In Louise's story, Darryl travels back in time to warn her about the Robo-Frond sent to kill her to stop the "Brownie Chair Surprise" from happening. Louise immediately asks Darryl if he wanted to help her, why didn't he bring anything back with him that could actually stop Robo-Frond? Instead of admitting she has a point, Darryl simply views her as an Ungrateful Bastard.
- Dirty Coward: Mr. Frond is one in Tina's story, willing to let the kids be killed in order to save himself. That's the portrayal the real Mr. Frond feels the most offended by, even more than his villainous roles in the other stories.
- Disproportionate Retribution: In Louise's story, Mr. Frond decides the best way to react to a Toilet Humor prank is to send a robot back in time to assassinate a child.
- Foreshadowing: Louise's story started because of her "brownie chair surprise". In the end of the episode, the prank really works.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The Robo-Frond disguised as Mort has gray hair and a toupee, just like Mort himself.
- Fun-Hating Confiscating Adult: Gene's story portrays Mr. Frond as an uptight jackass who steals Gene's keyboard to prevent him from rebelling with his music. It then turns out that the real Frond actually did confiscate Gene's keyboard, for unspecified reasons.
- Gasshole: Gene has dedicated an entire song to farts.
- Good Parents: Bob and Linda are genuinely impressed with their children's creativity (Bob's distaste for Tina's zombie fetish aside). Even after being told the stories, they have no idea why Frond is upset, and are annoyed to find that it's just due to Frond's fragile ego.Linda: (reading the end of Louise's story) Well, I loved it.
Bob: Yeah, it was good. - Hate Sink: Discussed; while Frond is the clear-cut Big Bad of Louise and Gene's stories, Bob points out that he wasn't so much a villain in Tina's story. Frond instead points out that he was portrayed as a Dirty Coward, which he almost seems to consider worse.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Mr. Frond after explaining why he pulled the Belcher kids' stories. See below.
- It's All About Me: The real reason Mr. Frond took the Belcher kids' stories wasn't because they were "too creative" or offensive (though Tina's sexual obsession with zombies and butts may be the exception). It's because all three make him a villain and he breaks into tears realizing they don't like him.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Subverted. Mr. Frond has a tiny point in confiscating Tina's sexually-charged story, but it's rendered moot when he admits he really only confiscated the reports because they portrayed him as a Hate Sink.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: In-universe, Frond is hurt that he's the villain of Louise and Gene's tales but it's his portrayal in Tina's story, as a coward leaving children to die at the hands of zombies, that brings him to tears
- Mandatory Line: The real Louise, Gene, and Tina only appear in one scene at the end of the episode, when Louise senses that her brownie surprise prank has worked.
- Mistaken for Flatulence: During Gene's story, he plays a farting sound effect on his keyboard, and the students mistakenly think Mr. Frond was the one who cut it.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Tina, who strikes up a relationship with 15 zombies in the end of her story.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: In Louise's story—Mr. Frond didn't send one Robo-Frond back in time, he sent six, clearly anticipating Louise to try and take down at least one or two of them.
- Polyamory: Tina's story ends with her starting a relationship with 15 zombies.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "Hey, Frond. Let's do lunch."
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "I SAID! I LOCKED! MYSELF! IN A ROOM! WHILE CHILDREN WERE EATEN!"
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: While Mr. Frond comes up with excuses on why he can't let the students come inside his office to hide, a zombie nurse appears from behind to attack him. Gene and Louise simply say nothing and allow him to be devoured.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Frond lets out a good scream at the end of Gene's story.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: In Louise's story; after all the effort it took for the Belcher kids to bring down one Robo-Frond, they're immediately confronted with five more. The ending indicates that they couldn't destroy them, and had to go into hiding.
- Shout-Out:
- The Store Next Door is "North By North Vest".
- The exterminator van is "Termite-mare on Elm Street".
- During her story, Tina is wearing sheriff clothes similar to the initial attire of Rick Grimes.
- During Gene's story, Tina, Louise and Gene hide themselves by pretending to be reading books, all of which are shout outs to books:
- Tina: "Are You There God? It's Me, Fart"
- Louise: "Fahrenheit Fart 51"
- Gene: The Adventures of Huckleberry Fart by Fart Twain
- Gene escaping Robo-Frond in the kitchen is based on the same scene from Jurassic Park.
- Spider-Sense: Louise gets a feeling that her "brownie chair surprise" worked.
- Squick: In-universe, Bob is clearly disgusted by Tina's relationship with the zombies.
- Super-Scream: Gene gets the power to destroy a lock with only his voice in his story.
- Take That!: There's a small one to The Terminator in Louise's story, who lampshades Future Darryl traveling to the past for no reason than to drop exposition instead of bringing something capable of stopping Robo-Frond as completely stupid and the total opposite of helping.note
- Tastes Like Purple: When the zombie nurse mauls Mr. Frond, Gene asks if it can taste his sadness.
- Tempting Fate: Louise cockily remarks "Kids: 1, Future Frond: 0." As she finds out soon after, in the game of Frond versus the kids, the kids need to score 6 to win.
- Toilet Humor: Gene's song at the end revolves around farts.
- True Companions: In all three stories, one thing remains consistent (besides Frond being the villain)—the Belcher kids remain close allies.
- Uncertain Doom: In Louise's story, Future Darryl is last seen in the scene where the kids are cornered by five Robo-Fronds. He's noticeably absent when the Belchers are hiding out in Mexico, implying that the Robo-Fronds managed to kill him, but his fate is never actually revealed. The five Robo-Fronds also arrive wearing the clothes of some of the show's supporting characters (Aunt Gayle, Mr. Fischoeder, Teddy, Mort, and Marshmallow), implying that they were all killed or at the very least assaulted/injured in the Robo-Fronds' pursuit. It's worth noting that when the first Robo-Frond attacks the real Frond, he only spares him because he recognizes him as his eventual creator.
- Relatedly; Speedo Guy is last seen getting attacked by the first Robo-Frond for his attire. It's not shown what happened to him, as well as the Cranwinkles (who would have witnessed the attack).
- Unconventional Food Usage:
- Louise's "brownie surprise", where she puts a brownie on a chair so the victim would sit on it and make it look like they soiled themselves.
- In Louise's story, Robo-Frond is defeated by dunking it into a vat of creamed corn.
- The Un-Reveal: While we see what eleventh-grade Darryl and the eighth-grade Pesto twins look like, we never see a glimpse of eighth-grade Louise despite her actions instigating the plot.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Robo-Frond's kryptonite is creamed corn. The kids defeat the bot by dunking him into a vat of it, Terminator 2: Judgment Day-style.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Three zombies—the school nurse, Tammy, and Mr. Frond—completely vanish from Tina's story with no explanation.
- Whole-Plot Reference:
- The entirety of Louise's story is based on The Terminator, with some elements from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
- Gene's story is based on Rock 'n' Roll High School.
- Tina's story is based on The Walking Dead.
- Would Hurt a Child: Besides the obvious fact that he's been sent to kill Louise (and eventually her siblings and Future Darryl), Robo-Frond attacks numerous students walking through the halls in order to clear a path.
