"This is America, damn it!"
"God, I love when you're debaty."
—Henry, to Tina
The most beige romance in history occurs when Henry Haber tries schmoozing new debate team member Tina. Meanwhile, Louise makes a stop-motion movie using unuseable beef.
Ain't Trope-Debatin':
- Amateur Film-Making Plot: Louise decides to make a stop-motion film with a "meatman" molded out of unuseable ground meat.
- Brick Joke: When he agrees to let the Belchers explode Meat Man, Hugo demands special thanks in the credits. When the final product airs over the episode's credits, Hugo does in fact get a "grateful acknowledgement".
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: Wagstaff has lost so much at just about everything that their unused trophy case has been converted into a turtle tank. The end of the episode sees them triumph over King's Head Island in the debate finals, finally breaking what appears to be a years-long losing streak.
- The Bus Came Back: Todd reappears for the first time since "Gene It On", having joined the debate team.
- Continuity Nod: Tina mentions that her grandmother lives in Florida.
- Curse Cut Short: Mr. DeSanto (the Wagstaff debate coach) comes this close to dropping the F-bomb when Jocelyn annoys him one time too many.Jocelyn: But where will the turtles live?Mr. DeSanto: I don't f— I don't know. I don't know. Just don't make it about the turtles, Jocelyn.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Sasha exploits Tina's weakness for this to try and win the debate. It works... for a while.
- Dumb Blonde:
- Duncan isn't exactly smart. When Wagstaff wins the debate, he think his side won, much to Sasha's annoyance (more so when Duncan mentions he moved to King's Head Island).
- Jocelyn thinks debating is like gymnastics.
- Emotions vs. Stoicism: The big debate in the climax is whether a robot can be president, which becomes a discussion of this trope.
- Expy: In-Universe. Subtle, but Meat Man is one for Bob, and his girlfriend Lorna is one for Linda.Louise: Meat Man's a survivor. No, he's not fancy, he's just a proud, independent, hamburger man. And when he talks, people listen. Especially his kids. ... Let's talk about the steamy girlfriend, Lorna. She's the brains. She's also the wild card. Her singing voice shatters diamonds!
- Funny Foreigner: Duncan, Sasha's airheaded teammate from New Zealand: he does things like calling his chest hairs "twisties", pulling them off and gifting them to people and claims that a crab "bit him on the clacker".
- Gibberish of Love: Tina has a terrible time trying not to fall for Duncan, resulting in her tripping over her words about a dozen times.
- Gilligan Cut: Tina says she's going to do her best to avoid "mixing" with Duncan. The next cut is to a sign for a Debate Team mixer.
- Has a Type: Discussed by Tina after she starts crushing on Duncan.Tina: I'm just pre-wired for long-necked boys with thick accents and/or speech impediments.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Sasha breaking up Tina and Henry eventually costs him the debate when Tina uses the breakup to strengthen her argument.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Linda claims that she broke up with Hugo as gently as she could. Bob immediately retorts that she left a breakup song (actually a rap) on his answering machine.
- Irony: Doubling as a Casting Gag. Gene, whose voice actor was born in Russianote , is the only one not to speak up when Louise asks who can perform a Russian accent.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Hugo has a valid argument when he tries to say that blowing up rotten meat all over the restaurant is a horrible idea.
- Mathematician's Answer:Sasha: If you can figure out a way to take your shirt off during the debate, then do it.Duncan: Just use my arms, right?
- Movie-Making Mess: Louise's movie about Meat Man ends with a literal example of this trope, thanks to the magic of firecrackers.
- Noodle Incident: Linda dumped Hugo by leaving a rap on his answering machine.
- Not So Above It All: Even nitpicky, dickish Hugo (with Ron in tow, as usual) gets into the final destruction of Meatman when Bob convinces him that it's the only fitting end for the film and promises to give Hugo special thanks at the end of it.
- Overly Long Gag: Tina makes Mr. DeSanto repeatedly replay a clip of Duncan saying "buttle rubbies" (much to Mr. DeSanto's confusion).
- Overly Narrow Superlative:
- Bob describes Louise's initial footage of Meat Man as the "best movie of meat dancing and then its head falling off" he's ever seen.
- In reference to her new crush on Duncan, Tina claims to have a thing for people with odd speech patterns. Prior to Duncan's debut, this basically included Jimmy Jr. and nobody else.
- Pun: Tina says she likes the metric system and gives it a ten out of ten. She then tries to explain it.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Hugo ultimately lets the Belchers explode Meat Man so long as they do a thoroughly deep cleaning of the restaurant afterwards.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is one to the jazz standard song "Ain't Misbehavin'".
- Henry gets mad when he thinks about the cancellation of Firefly.
- Louise has Meat Man and Lorna re-enact the famous upside-down kiss from Spider-Man.
- The Smurfette Principle: Invoked; the Wagstaff debate team is required to have at least one girl on the team. When that position is left vacant, Tina winds up filling the role.
- Stood Up: Tina is shocked when Henry assures her he will show up for their date, because many of her dates have ended in this manner. Though not stated, it's implied she's referring to Jimmy Jr. given his habit of hardly paying attention to Tina.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Tina kisses Duncan while still dating Henry (she was planning to dump Henry, but at that time they were still together). However, she is depicted as no less sympathetic for it, and nobody really acknowledges it after Tina mentions it when dumping Henry; the break-up itself is more focused on since it nearly sabotages Wagstaff's chances at winning the final debate, and even after that Henry doesn't seem to hold any hard feelings over having technically been cheated on.
- Unconventional Food Usage: Louise sculpts a Meat Man out of unuseable burger meat and makes a Stop Motion movie with it.
