Rolf is hiring for help around the farm, so Double D and Eddy send Ed into the workforce. With several pay deductions and the threat of firing on the first day, the Eds have their work cut out for them.
Examples:
- Artistic License – Law: Nazz cites a non-existent law stating that Eddy's right to protest "must be totally respected". Though right to protest does exist, there are always restrictions to protests. Most notably that you are not allowed to physically prevent people from crossing the picket line, which is what Eddy did to Kevin.
- Big "WHAT?!": Eddy lets one out when Rolf gives Ed his third pay deduction.
- Call-Back: Nazz mentions her babysitting experience from To Sir With Ed when she describes Eddy's right to protest.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Parodied. Eddy tries pulling this with a lie about Nazz on Kevin to steal his jawbreakers fresh from the candy store. Kevin falls for it... for about two seconds then realizes Eddy is lying and clobbers him as payback for both the lie and attempted mugging of his hard-earned confectionaries.Eddy: Is that NAZZ sky-diving in a bikini?!
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Ed and Edd get jawbreakers and easy jobs as farmhands that will net them more in the future, while Eddy—too lazy to work for even his favorite treat—gets chased around by an angry rooster.
- Hidden Depths: Nazz shows a surprising insight to work rights when Kevin harrasses Eddy while he's striking, stating that he's entitled to express his protest and must be respected. When Eddy, Edd and Kevin give her a curious look on how she knows this, she just replies: "babysitters gotta know this stuff."
- Its All A Bout Me: Despite Ed being the one with the job, Eddy gets enraged whenever Rolf deducts Ed's pay because he feels that Rolf is trying to rip Eddy off. When trying to confront Rolf over this at first Eddy even screams "I want my money!" even though any money Ed makes from the job is rightfully his, not Eddy's.
- Jerkass Ball: Rolf before he Took a Level in Kindness. See Mean Boss and Reasonable Authority Figure.
- Jerkass Has a Point:
- Rolf may be a Mean Boss, but he does have the right to be upset over the Eds turning his entire harvest of potatoes into julienne fries when he only wanted them peeled.
- Eddy is portrayed as going a bit too far by setting up a full on protest outside Rolf's house, but he does have a point that Rolf was being completely unreasonable towards Ed. Nazz even calls out Kevin for trying to disrupt Eddy on it.
- Kids Driving Cars: Ed first tries commandeering a car to get to work. Eddy laughs his ass off while Edd intervenes. Considering Rolf lived just down the street, it was also redundant.
- Lazy Bum: Eddy hates manual labor, and not even the promise of a jawbreaker as payment can motivate him.
- Lethal Chef: Downplayed with Edd's organic oatmeal. He somehow made it taste so bad that even Extreme Omnivore and Big Eater Ed would rather throw it away than eat more.
- Master-Apprentice Chain: Parodied with Rolf having taken in Ed and taught him all that is needed to be an effective Farmhand as a "Nincompoop", at the end of the episode Ed has been promoted into a "Turkey Eyes" Overseer as he watches over and trains Double-D and Eddy as his own "Nincompoops".
- Mean Boss: Rolf, at first. Throughout most of the episode, he constantly barks at Ed for the smallest actions in not doing enough, repeatedly deducting from his pay for arbitrary reasons, and at one point threatening to terminate him unless he peeled hundred of potatoes in a couple hours, all to Eddy's chagrin. As Reasonable Authority Figure shows, however, he eventually averts this by the end after negotiations with Double-D, and while he reprimands Eddy, he was being genuinely incompetent, and praises Ed for doing a good job at filling in a supervisor position.
- Never My Fault: Edd tells Eddy to let Ed "learn his lesson" after the latter's state of dress leads to a pay deduction, but Edd was the one who dressed him up in the first place.
- Noodle Implements: One of the tests Rolf gives Ed on his impromptu "job interview" revolves around balancing a pair of apples on Ed's bare foot.
- Peeling Potatoes: For his first assignment, Rolf has Ed peel every potato in his shed. To prevent Ed from being fired, Double D revolutionizes the process via assembly line. Unfortunately, Rolf gives Ed a pay deduction for having visitors during work hours. Then, when Rolf sees that Eddy used a tennis racket to julienne the potatoes, he's livid.Rolf: THIS CANNOT BE! The spud has been shamed.
- Race Against the Clock: Rolf (as Ed's Mean Boss) demanded that Ed peel a shed full of potatoes in an hour while promising termination should Ed not peel the potatoes on time.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Rolf starts out as a Mean Boss, but after some negotiations with Edd, he develops into this. He even offers Edd a jawbreaker for nothing, and hires him without hesitation when Edd says he'd rather earn it.
- Running Gag: Rolf keeps deducting from Ed's pay for every little mistake he does, much to Eddy's fury.
- So Proud of You: At the end of the episode when Rolf and Ed, who has been promoted to "Turkey Eyes", both reprimand Eddy at the same time in the same way, Rolf pats Ed on the shoulder and tells him he has learned well.
- Speak in Unison: As Eddy is being chased by a rooster, Rolf and Ed both say to him "Hey, Nincompoop!".
- Strike Episode: Part of the episode's second half acts as this. Tired of Rolf deducting Ed's pay and angered that he'll fire him should Ed do something Rolf doesn't approve of, Eddy starts a strike on Ed's behalf. Edd takes a more civil approach by serving as a mediator in order to find a compromise.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: One of the few later season episodes that alludes to the Eds actually coming out on top once Double D and Rolf meet an agreement, with no Yank the Dog's Chain at the last second. The worst thing that happens at the end is Eddy being chased by a chicken.
- There Was a Door: Enforced. When Ed arrives at Rolf's, instead of letting him come through the front door, Rolf makes Ed use the "Nincompoop entrance", which was a large hole in his side fence. Instead of crawling through it, however, Ed just walks through the fence, leaving the hole shaped like him.
- The Unreveal: We never find out exactly what the negotiations between Edd and Rolf entailed. We do hear bits and pieces of the negotiation, but they don't specify what Edd and Rolf are negotiating about with regards to his labor requirements, only the state of the negotations, which show that they start off with a degree of hostility on both sides before becoming more restrained and concilatory on both sides, and ending with an agreement that appears to placate both sides. We do see the end results though, with all three Eds working for Rolf, as Edd and Eddy do some manual work for Rolf, including organizing the chicken coop (of which, as is to be expected, the former does well, while the latter puts in a half baked effort that provokes a chicken into chasing him), and Ed acting as their supervisor with a decent level of competence.
