"Lift! LIFT!"
"Dad, you get so weird about roller dancing."
—Courtney
Gene's friend Alex is stolen by Courtney Wheeler to be her rollerdancing partner. Back at the restaurant, Bob, Linda and Teddy deal with a stalker sitting in her car.
Troper? I Hardly Knew Her!:
- Bait-and-Switch: Teddy tells a story of how he thinks the woman's husband died. The Imagine Spot begins with the man walking towards a piano being hoisted up a building... only to then get mauled by a tiger out of nowhere.
- Bizarre Human Biology: Alex, according to his doctor, has "mostly calf muscles" in his arms.
- Blatant Lies: When Linda asks the kids about school, Louise claims they graduated and no longer have to attend school. Linda, being Linda, seems to buy it.
- Book Dumb: While spectating Robo-Wizard Quest, Tina struggles with basic addition.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Alex Papasian returns, having officially become friends with Gene.
- After being absent from Season 8, Courtney Wheeler returns. Her father Doug, who was absent for both Seasons 7 and 8, also returns.
- Call-Back: Alex calls Bob "Mr. Burger". When Bob tries to correct him, Teddy claims he answers to both. Bob disagrees.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Courtney calls Doug out on his selfishness, exclaiming she wants to skate with Gene and Alex and that she didn't even want to skate in the first place.
- Calvinball: Robo-Wizard Quest, the game Gene and Alex made up. It involves hopping on numbered circles without exceeding the number rolled, or else the wizard (a mop with a wizard hat) will curse you, causing you to melt.Louise: Circles and math. It's the perfect game.
- Curse Cut Short: Mrs. Papasian gets out, "YOU SON OF A —" before unleashing her inner Mama Bear on Doug.
- Epic Fail: Alex is bad at clapping: to demonstrate it to Gene, he pulls his arms all the way to his sides, slaps them together and somehow produces no sound whatsoever. Gene agrees and thinks it's weird.
- Everyone Has Standards: When the girls overhear Doug convincing Gene to trigger Alex’s sesame seed allergy, Louise is just as shocked as Tina is that Gene was willing to sabotage his friend like that.Louise: I can't believe you're gonna give Alex diarrhea. I mean, it's hilarious, but I thought you liked him.
- Feud Episode: For Gene and Alex.
- Friendly Tickle Torture: Bob briefly tickles Linda's feet after she asks him to rub them.
- Friend Versus Lover: Gene is upset that Alex is spending all his time with Courtney, especially when he learns he really does "like-like" her (although Alex admits he has crushes on every girl in his grade, not just Courtney).
- Hikikomori: The true reason Brenda is standing outside the restaurant is because she's trying to break out of her agoraphobia.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: Gene and Alex absolutely love the overly-complex, hopscotch-esque game of Robo-Wizard Quest, while Louise and even Tina think it's boring as hell. When Bob and Linda spectate a game in the ending, Bob seems to agree with his daughters, while Linda wants to try a round.Bob: So, uh, is this game fun?Louise: Once you get to know all the ins and outs, and the players and the rules, it is not.
- Innocently Insensitive: Bob does not seem to appreciate Brenda's comment about the restaurant's lack of business.
- Mama Bear: Alex's mom loses her shit when she learns Doug tried to make Gene give Alex an allergic reaction, and she starts chasing Doug around the roller rink.
- Plot Allergy: Alex's sesame allergy is mentioned early and becomes relevant later when Doug wants to trigger it to sabotage his performance.
- Potty Failure: Invoked by Doug, who wanted Gene to sneak some sesame in Alex's drink to make him get diarrhea in the middle of the routine.
- Rule of Three: The number of times Alex almost drinks the hummus-laced soda. The first two times, he pauses to give Gene heartfelt speeches about their friendship. The third time, he just coughs.
- Running Gag: Teddy keeps thinking and has partially convinced Linda that the agoraphobic woman sitting in her car outside the restaurant is a ghost, along with her car, which becomes their go-to-explanation for any of her weird behaviour in the episode.
- Secret Handshake: Gene and Alex have one, but it's just the two of them grabbing hands and whispering, "Secret."
- Serious Business: Doug and rollerdancing... and he's the only who really takes it seriously. Courtney is clearly only performing because her father wants her to.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Subverted. It seems like, for all her effort, Brenda has been scared off by Linda and Teddy... before she peeks her head in and tells Bob she'll be back tomorrow, revealing the aversion therapy has at least somewhat worked.
- Shout-Out:
- The Exterminator Van is "Sense & Sensi-kill-a-flea".
- The first Burger of the Day is the "Frankie Goes to Hollandaise Burger".
- The second Burger of the Day is the "Fifty Glaze to Eat Your Burger".
- Stage Mom: Doug is super gung ho about Courtney roller-dancing, and tries to guilt trip Gene into helping him give Alex diarrhea so Courtney can get a better partner and her performance will go perfectly.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Gene, Alex, and Courtney make up and perform together. They do surprisingly decent (well, decent for people as unathletic as Gene and Alex)... only to immediately get disqualified because they're breaking the rules of the competition.
- Takes a Third Option: Rather than either Alex or Gene performing with Courtney, they decide to perform together as friends. While this gets them disqualified (since they were in a couple's competition), they're glad to be friends again.
- That Came Out Wrong: Alex tells Gene he’s Courtney’s new roller dancing partner, then gets in the car with Doug Wheeler, who drives him away. In his anger, Gene wails, “THAT MAN TOOK MY FRIEND,” causing a passerby to think Alex is being kidnapped.
- There Should Be a Law: Parodied with the Store Next Door, a maritime legal service called "There Yacht-A Be A Law."
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Doug Wheeler goes from an overzealous, well-intentioned father to a guy willing to give a sixth grader an allergic reaction to fulfill his own desires.
- What You Are in the Dark: When Gene gives Alex the soda laced with hummus, he ultimately can’t bring himself to give his friend diarrhea so he knocks the soda out of his hand and confesses. Note that nobody, not even his sisters (who both disapproved of this) or Doug (who pressured Gene to do it in the first place) was watching this. Gene could've let it happen, and Alex wouldn't even know Gene did anything. But instead he stopped it by his own free will.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Brenda, the woman sitting in the car across from the restaurant, turns out to be agoraphobic; she's deathly afraid of being in public spaces, and her attempts to get in the restaurant are a form of aversion therapy. The reason she picked Bob's restaurant is because he gets hardly any traffic.
