- I know this town like the back of my hand,
But I’m not such a fan of the back of my hand,
Cause if you look real close at those little hairs and veins,
You're like hands are sorta gross, it's hard to explain.
Written by Rene Gube, directed by Joanna Kerns. Original airdate 11/16/2015.
"Rebecca scores an invite to the Chan family Thanksgiving festivities, where Josh's parents fall in love with her much to Valencia's dismay. Meanwhile, Greg struggles with taking care of his dad and wanting to pursue his dreams."
Songs:
"I Give Good Parent (Explicit)" (sung by Rachel Bloom and Amy Hill)
- Affectionate Parody: Of Nicki Minaj.
- Curse Cut Short: In the broadcast version: "'Til I have 'em eatin' out this hand like they're eatin' this (WHAT?)"
- Lampshaded Double Entendre: In the sanitised version, Rebecca follows up a long row of extremely obvious Double Entendres with, "To be clear, your parents want to have sex with me."
- Shout-Out:
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: In the broadcast version, Rebecca raps, "Boss-ass bitch, no one’s above me, / End of the night, they line up to hug me. / 'Oh my gosh, this was so lovely.' / To be clear, your parents wanna have sex with me." In the Explicit version, however, she makes it more clear by saying, "Yep, your folks pretty much want to fuck me."
"What'll It Be (Hey, West Covina)" (sung by Santino Fontana)
- Air Guitar: When it comes to the big drum break, Greg stops playing the piano and plays the break on Air Drums, complete with mouth noises.
- Contemplating Your Hands:I know this town like the back of my hand,
But I’m not such a fan of the back of my hand,
'Cause if you look real close at those little hairs and veins,
You're like hands are sorta gross, it’s hard to explain. - Pastiche: The song doesn't have exactly the same intro as Billy Joel's "Piano Man", but probably only trained musicians can tell the difference.
- Lonely Piano Piece
- Stop and Go: After Greg sings the lines "Is my purpose in life to slice limes with a knife / or to serve Deb a vodka and cranberry juice?", the music drops out, he looks over at the solitary woman sitting at the bar and says "Hey, Deb, I'll be right with you."
- Suddenly Always Knew That:Greg: I've never played piano before. [plays piano expertly] Not bad.
Tropes in the episode:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Valencia's "The Reason You Suck" Speech is centered around this, that no matter how much Rebecca endears herself to Josh's family, he won't like a girl like Rebecca who is all nice and squeaky-clean.
- Asian and Nerdy: The supposed reason Josh's family doesn't like Valencia? "Asians don't like dumb people."Greg: So mildly racist!
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Rebecca takes it up a level here, brown-nosing to a ridiculous degree for darker motives than she lets on. Valencia calls her on it, but no one listens.
- Crappy Holidays: Valencia hates Thanksgiving because because she has to spend it with Josh's family, whom she does not get along with.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Josh asking Valencia to move in is framed like a marriage proposal, complete with Valencia's response being "I Do."
- Informed Attribute: We never actually hear Paula's "racist uncle" say anything racist.
- Little "No": Both Rebecca and Josh's mother utter a low no when Josh proposes moving in with Valencia.
- Obnoxious In-Laws:
- To Valencia, Josh's mother is a pain in the butt and they do not get along. Even worse, she likes Rebecca.
- Paula hates her extended family. She makes no attempt to hide this fact, telling one of them that everyone hates him.
- Potty Emergency: Eating a lot of Filipino cuisine leads to Rebecca desperately needing to use the toilet. The combination of that and Josh moving in with Valencia causes her to flee Thanksgiving very abruptly.
- Take This Job and Shove It: Greg is eagerly anticipating quitting in a giant storm of yelling and pent-up anger. Unfortunately, his boss is both very polite, expected him to go eventually, and has Seen It All to the point that it undermines Greg's entire spiel.
- Thanksgiving Episode: In case the title wasn't an indication, the episode takes place primarily over Thanksgiving dinner.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Almost completely subverted. When Rebecca goes on about how much parents love her, savvy viewers had to be expecting something to go disastrously wrong. In the end, things worked exactly like Rebecca planned. Josh's family went crazy over Rebecca, Valencia was enraged and jealous, and she and Josh got into a big fight over it. The only flaw was that the fight ended with make-up sex, which resulted in Josh asking Valencia to move in with him.
