"Every great crew in history has followed that basic dynamic, right? Looks, brains, wildcard."
— Mac
Mac, Dennis, and Charlie become door-to-door gasoline salespeople to combat the high prices at the pump. Meanwhile, Dee and Frank plot to brand Bruce Mathis as a terrorist after learning that Barbara's inheritance money is going to be donated to a Muslim community center.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- 2 + Torture = 5: Parodied; see Torture Always Works.
- Abusive Parent: Frank waterboards Dee.
- Accidental Innuendo: Mac talks about the guys "pulling up their bootstraps, oiling up a couple of asses and doing some plowing of their own", then has to clarify that he doesn't mean gay sex.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment:Mac: You're the looks, I'm the brains, Charlie's the wildcard.
Charlie: Whoa! ...That's awesome! - Breath Weapon: Mac uses the gasoline to blow fireballs in an attempt to attract customers. Then Charlie does it and ends up burning Mac's face.
- Butt-Monkey: The random guy who Frank mistakes for Bruce Mathis, whose car the gang end up destroying when they crash a van loaded with gasoline into it.
- Call-Back: Dennis once again displays his talent for drawing large-breasted women.
- Chaotic Stupid: Charlie takes being called the "wildcard" as his cue to go completely insane, culminating in him cutting the brakes of the Gang's van and jumping out of it.
- Continuity Nod: The Frank and Dee subplot involves Barbara's inheritance money.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Charlie telling the elderly woman they try to sell gasoline to that he "wants to fill her up" and "won't take no for an answer" mostly makes him come across as a rapist. She calls the cops on them.
- Door-to-Door Episode: Mac, Dennis and Charlie attempt to sell gasoline door-to-door.
- Five-Man Band: Discussed and lampshaded as the gang spend most of the episode debating what their respective roles should be. The line-up they finally agree on (using their terminology):
- The Looks: Dennis
- The Wild Card: Charlie
- The Brains: Mac
- The Muscle: Frank
- The Useless Chick: Dee
- Frame-Up: Dee wants to do this to Bruce by hiding bomb-making equipment in his apartment and then calling the cops.
- Incredibly Obvious Bug: Frank uses a baby monitor to bug "Bruce's" apartment.Frank: A lot of people are bugging their babies these days. I guess babies can't be trusted.
- Indy Ploy: Deconstructively Parodied. Charlie is the "Wild Card" of the team, who has this as his role. Sadly, Charlie is an idiot, so all his "improvised plans" are awful, culminating in him impulsively cutting the brakes of their van for absolutely no reason.
- Inheritance Murder: Dee lets slip that she was planning to murder both Dennis and Frank so that she would be Barbara's only remaining heir to get her hands on the inheritance money.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: After designating himself the brains of the operation, Mac spends most of the episode rambling on about business models and the free market despite it being obvious that he has no idea what he's talking about. Lampshaded when Dennis states that they must've mistaken his bossiness for braininess.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": On the gang's handmade gas prices list, Charlie misspells "unleaded" as "unled'd", "premium" as "premiem" and "diesel" as "deasel".
- Magic Brakes: Charlie cuts the brakes on Frank's van, causing it to go careening out of control and forcing the gang to bail out before it crashes.
- Mistaken for Terrorist: Frank sees Mac with a towel taped to his head stealing the van and mistakes him for a "Muslim terrorist".
- Miles Gloriosus: Subverted. Dennis is convinced that there's no way Mac can actually blow fireballs to attract customers, but he turns out to be quite skilled at it.
- Politically Incorrect Villain:
- Frank and Dee read that Bruce is donating the inheritance money to a Muslim community center and immediately decide that he's funding terrorists.
- Mac, Dennis, and Charlie assume the loan officer will be a man, so Dennis draws erotic pictures on their presentation in order to entice the loan officer. After the officer, who is a woman, asks what the point of the erotic pictures is, they inform her that they expected a man. The three then ask to speak to her boss, assuming he will be a man, but she informs them that her boss is a woman.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The gas crisis, waterboarding, bugging, Muslims being mistaken for terrorists, the episode basically sums up most of the Bush Administration.
- Running Gag: The Gang keeps damaging the same guy's car, culminating in the car exploding.
- Sex for Services: Dennis tries to seduce the loan officer into giving them a loan in exchange for sex. It does not work.
- Shirtless Scene: Dennis, Mac and Charlie all take their shirts off in the bank in an attempt to seduce the loan officer.
- Shout-Out:
- Mac compares the gang's dynamic to that of The A-Team, Scooby-Doo, and the Ghostbusters. The latter's theme song also plays during the gang's final attempt at pulling off their plan, and over the end credits.
- Dennis states that Charlie's southern accent makes him sound like Foghorn Leghorn.
- Show Some Leg: Dennis attempts to seduce the loan officer when she initially rejects their request, though it's quickly derailed by Charlie.
- Skewed Priorities: Played for laughs; Dee can't get her head around why Dennis and Frank are so fixated on the fact that she was planning to murder them when it's just one small facet of her current plan.Dennis: You were planning to kill me!
Dee: I feel like you are really focused on one tiny part of what I'm trying to talk about here! - Southern Gentleman: Charlie insists on dressing this way and speaking with a southern accent when the gang start selling door-to-door, reasoning that they're oil men, so they should be from the south.
- Spies In a Van: Frank buys a "spy van" with ridiculously tinted windows so that he and Dee can spy on Bruce.
- Torture Always Works: Parodied when Frank waterboards Dee to get her to admit that she's working with Bruce. She's blatantly just telling him whatever he wants to hear, but he interprets this as a sign that the torture is effective.Mac: Does that waterboard really work?
Frank: You bet your ass! I got Dee to admit to things she never did! - Wild Card: Charlie is described as this In-Universe.
- Worst Aid: Charlie treats Mac's burns by duct-taping a towel to his head.
