Charlie: We were all victims of a terrible ordeal which caused each and every one of us a great deal of physical and emotional trauma.
Judge: And what is this ordeal?
Dennis: The Philadelphia Phillies winning the World Series, Your Honor.
Judge: And what is this ordeal?
Dennis: The Philadelphia Phillies winning the World Series, Your Honor.
The gang explains to a judge the troubles they went through during Game 5 of the 2008 World Series in the hopes that it will clear them of a parking violation that took place during the event.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Dee reads out Mac's fan letter to Chase Utley to the court, there's a shot of one of the bailiffs snickering at it.
- Ambiguously Gay: Mac agrees with Dee when she says that Chase Utley is hot, and seems to be overly invested in getting her to kiss him.
- Blood Is the New Black: The gang all end up covered in blood and looking like they've "been in a terrible fight" from the various injuries they amass in trying to get into the game. Though as Dee points out, the same could be said of most of the Phillies fans present.
- Call-Back:
- Greenman makes another appearance.
- The same two guys who attacked Mac for punching Carmen in the face here beat up Charlie for assaulting the Philly Phrenetic, once again asking whether it can be considered a hate crime. They conclude that it isn't, but decide to "hammer his ass" anyway.
- Celeb Crush: Mac apparently has one on Chase Utley, to the point of writing him love letters. Though he insists they're platonic.
- Competition Freak: During the day of the game, Mac and Dennis get into an argument over which of them can do the most push-ups, and then try to settle it with an impromptu contest in the parking lot. The scene then cuts back to them still trying to settle it in the middle of the courtroom.
- Courtroom Episode: The present day portion of the episode takes place in a courtroom with Dennis contesting the parking tickets he was issued during the World Series.
- Deadly Gas: Mac, Dee and Frank attempt to retrieve the gang's tickets from Frank and Charlie's apartment while their building is being fumigated, and end up breathing in copious amounts of insecticide gas.
- Epic Fail: Not only does the gang not get into the game, but they get locked in a linen closet for six days and miss the after game celebrations and parade.
- Football Hooligans: The show acknowledges the reputation Philadelphia sports fans have for violence by depicting several of them getting into fights. The Gang claims it's a result of them being "passionate fans".
- Gross-Up Close-Up: We are treated to a very detailed close-up of Mac, Dee and Frank choking on poison gas.
- Imagine Spot: Shortly after the gang gets locked inside the linen closet, Charlie finds a small door and upon entering it, they find a room full of Phillies fan corpses, at which point they all start screaming and are still screaming when the scene cuts back to the courtroom. The judge asks them if they're seriously claiming they found a dungeon inside the linen closet, and Charlie admits that he just made it up because he thought she was starting to lose her interest in their story.
- Incest Subtext: Dennis calls Dee "babygirl" at the beginning of the episode.
- It's Always Spring: One of the most egregious examples in the show. The episode depicts Game 5 taking place on a sunny day with temperatures warm enough for the characters to not wear jackets. In reality, the weather in Philadelphia that day was cold and rainy, to the extent that the game had to be suspended in the middle and completed two days later. The episode acknowledges this by having Mac claim it looks like it's going to rain, and Dennis later mentions the rain delay in court, but the characters are still not appropriately dressed for late October.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: Played for laughs. When Mac and Dee find Frank in the fumigated apartment, Frank tells them to leave him there to die, for no apparent reason.
- Kangaroo Court: The gang seem to think that you can call kangaroo court, and attempt to do so when the judge orders Dennis to pay his fines.
- Know When to Fold Them: By the time the Gang gets into the hotel to find the secret tunnel to the ballpark, Dennis and Mac are ready to just give up and settle for watching the game at the hotel bar before joining in the post game celebrations afterwards. Unfortunately, they got locked inside a linen closet before they can do this.
- Lampshade Hanging: In the final scene, Charlie complains about how ridiculous it is that the Gang had to keep referring to the Philly Phanatic as the "Philly Phrenetic" just so they wouldn't get sued by Major League Baseball.
- Locked in a Room: The gang end up locked in a linen closet in the Holiday Inn for six days while attempting to find a secret route into the stadium.
- Loony Fan: Mac has sent letters to Chase Utley's lawyer, manager, and mother. He is convinced that Chase hasn't seen Mac's letters or he would've responded to them, and Chase would want a brother-like relationship with Mac. The letter is reminiscent of "Stan" by Eminem.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Phillies mascot is repeatedly referred to as the Philly Phrenetic in the gang's story, despite being called the Philly Phanatic in real life. Lampshaded at the end of the episode, when Charlie states that they were doing this deliberately so as not to get sued by Major League Baseball.
- Overly Long Gag: A more literal example than most, with a full twenty seconds of Mac, Dee and Frank gagging and retching on the toxic gas inside Frank and Charlie's apartment building.
- Paper Tiger:
- Dennis calls out Mac on only working out his "glamour muscles" and having no core strength.
Dennis: You're all bis and tris, and everything else is just fat and ribs.- Mac decides to climb the tented apartment building to let air out of the top, so they can retrieve the tickets when enough poisonous gas escapes. Dee suggests Mac doesn't have enough upper body strength to accomplish this, prompting Mac to get in Dee's face in an aggressive posture. He immediately backs down when Dee takes the same stance.
- Serious Business: The episode is about contesting parking tickets, but the gang acts as though they're on trial for murder.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The gang never get to see the game and Dennis ends up having to pay his parking fines after all.
- Shirtless Scene: Dennis rips open his shirt at the beginning of the episode to reveal that he's written "GO PHILS!" on his chest in red paint.
- Shout-Out:Dennis: Could we not base our decisions on what does and doesn't happen in episodes of Scooby-Doo?!
- Staged Pedestrian Accident: Dennis and Charlie attempt to pull one of these in order to scam some free tickets, but fail when Charlie chickens out and just blatantly pushes Dennis in front of a car instead.
- Stock Legal Phrases: Mac keeps prefacing everything he says with "let the record show..." until the judge exasperatedly points out that everything is recorded and he doesn't have to keep saying it.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Charlie and Dee insist that there's a secret tunnel connecting the Holiday Inn to Citizens Bank Park so that the away teams can travel between the two without getting attacked by Phillies fans.
- Take That!:
- No one checks the linen closet at the "Oliday Inn" for six days, prompting the Gang to question the hotel's cleanliness.
- The episode ends with a rant by Charlie about how Major League Baseball forced the show to use an altered version of the Philly Phanatic.
- Tears of Blood: Dennis asks Mac, Dee and Frank why their eyes are all "filled with blood" after their encounter with the toxic gas.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Gang pass a fistfight in the hotel lobby and barely take note of it except to point out that no one will notice them because Philly is a tough city and everyone looks as roughed up as they do.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Aside from the courtroom scenes, the whole episode takes place one year prior to the show's current timeline.
- Writing Around Trademarks: In-Universe, the Philly Phanatic keeps being referred to as the Philly Phrenetic to avoid being sued by the Phillies.
- The Holiday Inn keeps being referred to as the Oliday Inn, in this case because the company wouldn't allow their name to be used on the show.
- Younger Than They Look: Discussed; Mac is surprised when Dee informs him that Chase Utley is actually younger than he is.
