"I'm Sweet Dee and the joke's on me."
— Dee
When Dee becomes severely depressed due to the gang's constant mistreatment of her, Mac, Charlie, and Frank encourage her to pursue her dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian and her self-depreciating jokes turn her into an overnight sensation. Meanwhile, Dennis is disturbed by his sister's newfound success, believing it will inevitably blow up in her face, and sets about trying to find her a man to take her off his hands for good.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Dennis gives one to Dee when she's about to get on a plane to LA. She rejects him.
- Answer Cut: In the opening scene.Mac: [as Dee is leaving] What the hell was that all about?
Dennis: I'll tell you exactly what that was:
[cut to title card] - Asshole Victim: While faking Dee's successful comedy career may be one of the cruelest things the Gang has done to Dee, her entitled jerkassery due to her perceived fame doesn't make it feel entirely undeserved.
- Brutal Honesty: Dennis tells Dee point-blank that her stand-up set was terrible when the rest of the gang are gushing over her performance, and seems to genuinely believe that it's for her own good.
- Butt-Monkey: Deconstructed throughout the episode, as Dee has become severely depressed over the gang's treatment of her.Dee: What's the point? The joke's always on me, alright? I get it.
- Casting Couch: In-universe example; Dee has sex with both of her "agents" in order to further her career.
- Catchphrase: Dee starts using "I'm Sweet Dee and the joke's on me" during her short-lived stand-up career.
- Control Freak: Dennis is unsettled by Dee's newfound success because he no longer has control over her, and his actions throughout the episode become increasingly desperate the less control he has.Dennis: After she bombs tonight, I'll put them together, thereby controlling the situation, and her, as I always have and always will.
- Damned by Faint Praise:
- The best Dennis can say about the guys he tries to set Dee up with is that they're "men".
- This exchange after he finds out she slept with Snyder:Dennis: Describe the ways in which you find him attractive.
Dee: He's got... he's got all of his... skin, still.
Dennis: Well, I'd hope so.
Dee: He has plenty of... teeth.
Dennis: But not all of them?
Dee: No, not all of them.
- Despair Event Horizon: Dee seems to have passed it thanks to the rest of the gang constantly putting her down. The episode opens with her eating "trash cake" while smoking and drinking hard liquor, anticipating the guys' insults before they have a chance to make them.
- Fan Disservice: Snyder, the overweight, middle-aged talent scout, is shown hanging around Dee's apartment eating noodles in his underwear.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Dee keeps interrupting the rest of the Gang by doing this at the start of the episode, much to their collective annoyance. Only Frank admits that Dee said what he started to say.
- Food Slap: Dee throws her drink in the face of one of the guys Dennis tries to set her up with.
- Foreshadowing:
- Dennis (who is later shown to not be in on the scheme) mentions he's never heard of Landslide, who turns out to not be a real comedian and is actually Dee's garbage man.
- Dee is seemingly greeted by paparazzi at the airport and at the Conan O'Brien show studio. Why would paparazzi care about a minor comedian filling in as a last-minute replacement on Conan? It makes perfect sense after The Reveal. The paparazzi are there to feed Dee's ego as part of the Gang's scheme.
- Giftedly Bad: Dee's stand-up routine consists of breathing heavily into the microphone, awkward sound effects and references to her vagina and lack of personal hygiene. Seemingly subverted when the audience laughs at her set anyway, and then Double Subverted at the end of the episode when it's revealed they were all actors hired by the gang to fool her into thinking she could be a successful comedienne.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Dennis does not take it well when he learns that Frank, Charlie, and Mac Out-Gambitted him and played him for a sucker equally with Dee.
- He's Back!: Mac and Charlie say this about Dee when she flies into a rage after realizing she's been tricked at the end of the episode.
- Humor Dissonance: The episode dances all around this trope. Dee had reached a point of Creator's Apathy; previously she had so much stage fright she was just dry heaving into the mic but as the guys said she reached an equilibrium between self-loathing and suicidal, which most comics thrive in. Her new routine starts out as being passable self-deprecation, but quickly degrades into shouting "VAGINA" and making random sound effects. Given there is an audience for both Toilet Humor and Surreal Humor it's almost passable to see how the audience is finding her amusing. Dennis on the other hand has at least a small inkling of the practice and effort needed to be a comic and is befuddled at her growing success because it's the same basic joke repeated for a few minutes before a Catchphrase of "I'm Sweet Dee and the Jokes On Me." It then turns out her entire success was fabricated by the others and Dennis was also left in the dark; the various agents, comics and entire audience members were plants to make her think she was making it work.
- Hypocritical Humor: Mac reveals that they tricked Dee because they didn't want her joking about her depression, only to happily laugh off Dennis' rage and confusion by saying "he might go kill himself!"
- Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: Dee's utter talentlessness is a major reason that she doesn't realize the audience shouldn't be laughing at her set.
- Incest Subtext: Dennis spends the entire episode searching for the perfect guy to take Dee off his hands, only to conclude that the perfect guy is him. He arguably takes it past subtext with his speech to her when she's about to leave:Dennis: The perfect guy has been under my nose the entire time... It's me, Dee. I'm the perfect select. I know I've spent my entire life shitting all over your dreams and not supporting you, but I was wrong, Dee, I see that now. You can succeed. You will be a star. You have to take me. I'm your twin brother... I love you, Dee.
- I Think You Broke Him: The gang come to the conclusion that they've "broken" Dee when she starts acting genuinely depressed. Mac also states at the end of the episode that they might've broken Dennis too, as it's revealed that he wasn't in on the plan to humiliate Dee.
- Liquid Courage: Dee is shown drinking several glasses of scotch on the private jet in preparation for her appearance on Conan.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Other than Dee herself, Dennis is the only member of the gang who isn't in on the plan to trick her into thinking she's become a successful comic. He doesn't take the news well when he finds out.
- The Matchmaker: Dennis thinks that the key to fixing Dee's depression is to find her a man, and spends most of the episode attempting to do just that.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Landslide's name and Lavell Crawford's performance as him seem to be inspired by fellow black comedian Nathaniel Stroman, a.k.a. "Earthquake", just with a lot more shit jokes.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: At the beginning of the episode, the guys try mocking Dee like they always do—but she preempts all of their insults and dejectedly accepts them. Everyone's immediately put off, and they tell Dee that she has to fight back, as it's no fun if she rolls over and takes it.
- Not on the List: Dennis is prevented from seeing Dee backstage at her performances as he's not on the list.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: All over the place, both played straight and subverted.
- The rest of the gang are disturbed when Dee stops fighting back and instead accepts their insults with casual resignation.
- Mac, Charlie and Frank really support Dee's newfound success, and spend the episode encouraging her. Turns out that they've been pulling a prank on her to teach her that it can always get worse.
- Played straight with Dennis on the plane, as this usually unapologetic monster breaks down and tells Dee he's sorry and he loves her.
- Performance Anxiety: Averted at first; Dee is so depressed that she stops being nervous and as a result, she can perform without dry-heaving. However, she starts gagging again once she gets her confidence back.
- Pet the Dog: Out of everybody in the gang, Dennis does seem to be concerned for Dee in his own warped way, and it's implied that at least some of his speech to her is genuine. Subverted with the rest of the gang, however, who appear to support Dee in her newfound success and then reveal that they were actually playing her the entire time.
- The Prima Donna: Dee becomes one as she gets more successful, at one point insisting that she has her own microphone because she doesn't want to use one that "other so-called comedians have spit into".
- Sad Clown: Dee seemingly becomes a successful comic on the basis of her depression and extremely self-deprecating jokes. However, the moment she gets actual encouragement, her set degrades badly. The trope itself is also lampshaded by Charlie.Charlie: You're right in that sweet spot between, like, suicidal and actually dead, where most comedians, they thrive there.
- Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Dee does this as part of her routine.
- Toilet Humor: One of the "comics" who Dee opens for is called Landslide, and his jokes are mostly diarrhea related.Dennis: Butts, vaginas and diarrhea. Great. This is what the world's come to.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: After hitting her lowest point, Dee is led to believe that she's about to become a star, only to find out that the entire thing was an elaborate ruse orchestrated by Frank, Mac and Charlie in order to teach her that things can always get worse.
- Your Door Was Open: Lampshaded when the gang walk right into Dee's apartment and Dennis immediately chastises her for leaving her door unlocked. He then complains after she seemingly takes his advice and starts locking it the next time he pays her a visit.
