Louie recruits Storkules for his professional monster extermination business, while Storkules faces his greatest challenge: being Donald's roommate.
Tropes:
- 555: Harp-B-Gone's business phone number is 555-0123.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Zigzagged. First off, although the harpies look very much like humanoid birds with functional wings on their backs, they act beastial throughout the episode. Second, Webby mentions training them to do tricks, like play dead and what appears to be fetch, although they highly resist the effort. Finally, in the final battle, Webby uses a spray bottle to shoo one of them off, a technique more commonly used on cats.
- An Aesop: There's more to a business than making money; you have to sustain it over the long run when finding a problem to solve. Also, pay your employees.
- Arc Words: "Turning problems into solutions". First said by Scrooge, Louie says one or both of these words several times throughout the episode.
- The Backwards Я: Most of Storkules' affections has a Greek letter used this way. In fact every time the word Greek appears it's spelled with two uppercase sigmas (Σ) instead of e's.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Louie convinces Huey to join Louie, Inc. by saying his new business will need charts, checklists, and "maybe checklists for those charts".
- Brick Joke:
- At the end of the opening, Storkules throws Donald up so high, he seemingly disappears into the sun. After the credits and first commercial break, Storkules catches Donald and sets him down.
- At the start of the episode, both Scrooge and Huey suggest starting up a lemonade stand. At the end of the episode, Scrooge is starting up a lemonade factory inspired by Louie begging for money.
- Call-Back:
- Donald once again gets stuck between the pecs of Storkules, like he did in "The Spear of Selene!".
- Louie co-opts Glomgold's company slogan, saying "Family is our greatest employees".
- Camera Abuse:
- First, the camera gets knocked over during the filming of Dewey Dew-Night after Storkules tackles Huey wearing a harpy mask, mistaking him for one of the beasts.
- At the end of the episode, after a harpy goes crazy over her lemonade, she crashes straight into Roxanne's camera, knocking it over and cracking it.
- The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: Webby's ideas as a Louie Inc. "employee" weren't any kind of helpful, except for finding out how to appease the harpies.
- Continuity Cavalcade: So far, this episode is the one with the most Continuity Nods. Beside the return of Storkules, the story centers around Louie's new business, the kids visit Funso's Fun Zone, appear on Dewey Dew-Night, and the people they rescue from the harpies include Officer Cabrera, Bigtime Beagle, Mark Beaks, Flintheart Glomgold, Ms. Quackfaster and Johnny from Ottoman Empire along with a number of nameless Recurring Extras. And when Huey checks the JWG's entry on harpies, it first opens at the page about Terra-firmians that he himself added.
- Cranky Landlord: Donald gives reasonable demands but he's completely unsympathetic, albeit only because he wasn't expecting Storkules to be his new tenant.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Louie puts zero thought into the long-term operation of his harpy-capturing business and thus when Storkules happily informs everyone that they've caught all the harpies in Duckburg, he not only has no clue what to do next, but he can't even pay his employees because he blew all the money on merchandise that is now useless.
- Louie, Webby, and Scrooge manage to tame the harpies, giving them lemonade to fly shipments of lemon to Cape Suzette. Roxanne Featherly asks what's to stop the harpies from taking all the lemonade, which they admit was a problem they hadn't figure out yet.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Zeus was the one who sent out the harpies and kicked Storkules out of Greece, simply because he was enraged by Storkules's lute-playing.
- Does Not Know His Own Strength: Storkules causes a lot of damage to Donald's houseboat because of his Super-Strength. He totals the bathroom just attempting to brush his teeth.
- Epic Fail: Glomgold accidentally suing himself after a harpy tried to kidnap him.
- Engineered Heroics: Louie attempts to do this once Storkules reveals they captured the last of the harpies in order to keep his business afloat.
- Failed a Spot Check: You'd expect that, even if he was a heavy enough sleeper to not be bothered by the harpies at night, Donald would notice what was going on after he woke up.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Storkules isn't too familiar with modern technology, believing that a stove is an evil entity filled with vipers because it hissed, so he throws it out of Donald's houseboat. On the other hand, he knows what a pressure cooker is and has no trouble operating it.
- A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted: This is a Running Gag as Louie continually blows all the money he has on whatever he thinks will help his business. First, he blew his entire budget on Funzo's skeeball, then spent the $500 for defeating the harpies at Funzo's on the commercial. Finally, despite making what has to be thousands of dollars, Louie blows it all on merchandise to sell before even giving anyone else their cut of the profit.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the montage, the article off to the side on the Spinning Paper reads that Glomgold, who a harpy tried to kidnap because he is his own most precious possession, has accidentally sued himself for said event.
- Funny Background Event: When fighting the harpies at Funso's, Huey accidentally wins a large number of tickets from a whack-a-mole type machine. A moment later, when Louie is presenting Funso with the invoice, Huey is now wearing sunglasses and a Funso hat. Presumably he stopped off at the prize counter while Storkules took out the harpies.
- Furry Reminder: Storkules refers to the harpies as "featherless-faced beasts", alluding to the fact that most people in this setting are anthropomorphic birds with feathered faces.
- Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Louie's Harp-B-Gone business is one on many levels.
- Glad I Thought of It: Louie constantly refuses to listen to Webby's thoughts on training the harpies, dismissing her as the Cloud Cuckoolander. When he later has the same idea, and asks why no one else asked what the harpies wanted, Webby punches him in justified frustration.
- Goo Goo Getup: Storkules dresses as a baby and (badly) acts as one for Louie's Harp-B-Gone commercial.
- Harping on About Harpies: Harpies sent by Zeus are what chased Storkules out of Greece, and they followed him to Duckburg. Here, harpies look like anthropomorphic vultures with human hair, pointy ears and a Winged Humanoid physique (i.e. they have both wings and arms with talons on their fingers), and are all about stealing what one loves most. They also love lemons.
- Heavy Sleeper: Donald can sleep through a flock of harpies shrieking at all hours in his bedroom closet.
- Heroic BSoD: Storkules suffers one when he realizes he can't pay rent after Louie uses up all the money they've earned and thus can't pay him.Storkules: I hath failed my heroic labor of responsibility. If I be not a hero, be I a zero?
- Humans Are Ugly: The thing Storkules mentions as the most terrifying feature of the harpies is their "featherless faces".
- Insistent Terminology: Storkules insists on using Louie's full name, Llewellyn, whenever referring to him.
- It Runs in the Family: Donald treats Storkules the same way Scrooge treats him: bossy, fussy about house rules and personal space, and insisting on payment on time.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- When Louie claims that Dewey would be a terrible employee, Dewey rises up on the bed as if to argue, but apparently realizes that Louie is right and flops back down again.
- Storkules eventually accepts Donald wanting rent money on time, since Donald wants a paying tenant.
- Kitschy Local Commercial: The advertisement Louie films for Harp-B-Gone. Includes horrible miscasting, with Webby as the husband, Huey as the wife, and Storkules as their baby child, and Bad "Bad Acting" from all three of them.Huey: Who wrote this?
- A Lesson Learned Too Well: Scrooge tells Louie if he wants to make money, he has to find a problem and sell a solution to it. However, when the harpies provide a problem Louie can take care of for money, he wants them to keep terrorizing the town so he'll stay in business. When he finds out Storkules caught all the harpies, Louie almost releases them—essentially getting a solution by making the problem himself.
- Missing Steps Plan: Louie's business proposal to Scrooge is just him asking to have lots of money with corporate buzzwords. Scrooge immediately deduces that Louie hasn't put any thought as to what Louie Inc. would actually do.
- Monster Protection Racket: Louie becomes concerned that Storkules has captured the last harpy, as that means Harpy-B-Gone is out of business. He actually attempts to free them to stay in business.
- Mythology Gag: The Duck family has encountered harpies (although slightly more human-like ones) in the Carl Barks comic "The Golden Fleecing" and the DuckTales (1987) episode based on said comic.
- Narcissist: When the harpies steal from everyone what they love the most (e.g. Huey's Junior Woodchuck Guidebook, Mark Beaks' cell phone, Ms. Quackfaster's library cards), they simply kidnap Glomgold, implying that he loves himself the most.
- Oblivious Guilt Slinging: When Louie is planning to release the Harpies so they can get paid to catch them again, Storkules walks in on him. Louie gives a terrible lie as to why he's there, which Storkules buys before praising Louie's moral character. Louie then fesses up, and decides to try to get the business going some other way (right before Donald lets the harpies out anyway).
- Obvious Rule Patch: When Donald tells Storkules he has to pay rent, Storkules says he could pay it in friendship. Donald immediately, on the notepad with the rules, writes down another rule that friendship doesn't count as payment.
- Oh, Crap!: Donald when he finally realizes that Storkules is the tenant who applied to live in his boat.
- On Patrol Montage: After discovering that they can use Storkules to get rid of the harpies he attracts via paying customers, Louie Inc. does this in a similar vein to the classic Ghostbusters montage, complete with a
Suspiciously Similar Song. - Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Storkules mentions his friendship with Donald is what he values most—in front of harpies that take whatever people value most. They then grab Donald's house boat with him in it, and Storkules admits he should not have said that.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Upon the discovery that Louie spent all the money they made capturing the harpies on now-useless merchandise without bothering to pay them first, Huey wordlessly yet angrily storms out of their bedroom in a huff to signify his resignation from his younger brother's business.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is a reference to the obscure comedy Hercules in New York (mostly known as the film debut of Arnold Schwarzenegger).
- Storkules flies after spinning Louie around, like how Thor can fly with Mjolnir.
- When feeling disappointed in himself, Storkules says "If I am not a hero, be I a zero?", in a reference to the song "Zero to Hero" from Disney's Hercules.
- The harpies look very much like the carpies from Adventures of the Gummi Bears.
- Tastes Like Friendship: Downplayed; the harpies are marginally tamed into working for Scrooge after being supplied with lemons.
- X Days Since: Huey keeps a "Days without an incident" sign by his bed. He resets it from seven to zero when the harpies escape with Donald's boat.
