Tina and Darryl pretend to be a couple so Darryl can woo another girl. But Tina soon finds the fake relationship feels real. Meanwhile, Bob and Linda fumble through a Valentine's day advent calendar.
Can't Buy Me Tropes:
- Becoming the Mask: Tina has Darryl pretend to be her boyfriend, only to genuinely develop feelings for him along the way.
- Birds of a Feather: Darryl and Rosa are both super skilled at playing arcade games.
- Darryl attempts to exploit it to win Cupid's Couple, noting that both him and Tina being nerds would help play up their adorableness. However, besides the whole "nerd with glasses" angle, neither of them have anything in common.
- Bittersweet Ending: Tina fails her math test and is sent to remedial math. However, she manages to salvage Darryl and Rosa's relationship, and she finds that remedial math isn't so bad when she sees Jimmy Jr. there.
- Brutal Honesty: Darryl admits without hesitation that he didn't actually fall for Tina during their fake-dating stint.
- Cringe Comedy: Bob's striptease is a perfect mix of cringy and hilarious (and oddly endearing).
- Cutaway Gag: Rare for Bob's Burgers. While lamenting her bad test scores, Tina asks what she's going to tell her future grandchildren. Cut to a flash-forward of an elderly Tina telling her grandchildren, "I used to be bad at math."
- Epic Fail: While it's been established that Bob isn't very good at making Grand Romantic Gestures, here we see that Linda's attempts at being romantic for Valentine's Day(s) are Awesome, but Impractical, leading to them falling just as flat.
- Fake Relationship: What Tina and Darryl do as part of an elaborate plan for Darryl to woo Rosa Bautista. Tina then develops a real crush on Darryl and sabotages his relationship with Rosa.
- Food as Bribe: Tina bribes Louise and Gene to help hide the fake relationship by offering them the $50 frozen yogurt gift card if they win Cupid's Couple.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Darryl is first seen staring at Rosa in the cafeteria, the book he's holding is called You, Robot.
- Gilligan Cut: Tina vows to ace the next math test, even without Darryl's tutoring. Cut to her getting another D.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Darryl takes the stage at the school dance to sing a song he made up about Tina. It's implied that this what makes Tina develop a crush on him for real.
- Incest Yay Shipping: In-universe; Jocelyn apparently thinks Mario and Luigi are a couple. This by itself is moreso out of stupidity (as in she genuinely doesn't realize they're brothers), but the fact that she thinks they're a cute couple definitely pushes it over the line of this trope.
- Interrupted Intimacy: Linda and Bob's sexy bubble bath is interrupted by Gene and Louise having to use the bathroom.
- Lampshade Hanging: Louise lampshades that despite Darryl's prominence in the series, this is the first time Tina has ever even hinted at liking him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: A multi-episode one. Way back in "Midday Run", Edith stripped nude and forced Bob to look so he could paint her. Here, Bob pays her back by performing a striptease for Linda while Edith is eating across the street at Jimmy Pesto's, causing her to witness the entire thing.
- Loving a Shadow: Darryl points out that the only reason Tina fell for him was because he was playing the part of a loving boyfriend.
- Never My Fault: Tina's reasoning for getting a D and needing a tutor is for them to teach her what her teacher could not.
- Noodle Incident:
- Darryl peed down the slide in second grade.
- Bob and Linda mention an actual fire occurring during their attempts at doing the advent calendar. The fire itself isn't seen, but considering a few patties could be seen unattended to on the grill during the "sexy cooking" event, it's easy to infer where the fire came from.
- Opposites Attract: Defied. Darryl and Tina have next to nothing in common. An irate Darryl points this out when Tina blows their cover.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Jimmy Jr. bails when Tina reveals the fake-dating scheme while out bowling with her friends. They reunite at the end of the episode.
- Shipper on Deck: Almost everyone supports Darryl and Tina as "cupid's couple".
- Shout-Out:
- To Magic Mike as Linda encourages Bob to give her a show.
- Zeke paraphrases Walter Scott's Marmion with, "What a tangled-ass web we weave" when Tina reveals their plot.
- Jocelyn thinks Darryl and Rosa make a cute couple, "like Mario and Luigi!"
- Strong Family Resemblance: Tina's hypothetical grandchildren (seen in her Imagine Spot) look and even sound just like her, down to the glasses.
- Toilet Humor: Louise and Gene apparently use the bathtub as a secondary toilet, and Louise outright tells Bob and Linda to get out so she can use it. Bob is understandably disturbed.
- You Can Leave Your Hat On: Bob performs a striptease for Linda... and some patrons of Jimmy Pesto's since their curtains were open. Bob realizes he can't close the curtains... and continues to striptease to make Linda happy, taking off his final article of clothing in front of a disturbed Edith Cranwinkle.Edith: ASS!
- Whole-Plot Reference: This episode is a rework of the 1987 film, Can't Buy Me Love. It even references the movie in the title.
