"Do me a favor, make sure no-one is in the bar today. I cannot have these guys in here making a mess."
— Charlie
Charlie sets about preparing the bar after receiving word of a surprise health inspection, but the gang's decidedly unhygienic scam involving chickens, steaks and airline miles threatens to jeopardize the entire operation.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- 30-Second Blackout: The vacuum sealer being used to seal steaks keeps tripping the bar's fuse box, causing a blackout. Charlie exploits this during the inspection, cranking a blender while the sealer's being used in order to spin the blackout as being caused by the blender.
- Affectionate Pickpocket: Charlie lifts the health inspector's keys while standing too close to her so that Mac and Dennis can move her car, and then slips them back into her pocket by hugging her at the end of the episode.
- Almighty Janitor: Charlie is proven to be one, as he manages to secure the highest grade for the bar in the inspection and successfully pulls off the gang's chicken/steaks/airline miles scam almost singlehandedly.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: With only a few context clues (the chickens themselves, the mention of airline miles, the significance of vacuum sealing some steaks, and the delivery driver), Charlie manages to piece together the entirety of both the Gang's scam (to use airline miles to purchase steaks that the Gang will secretly contaminate with chickens and then return for a massive cash refund) and how it fell apart (Dee mistyping the amount of steaks they were ordering).
- Bittersweet Ending: Downplayed: Charlie managed to both fix the Gang's airline miles scam and pass the bar's inspection. However, Dee failing to move the dumpster prevented Paddy's from getting a perfect score, and after Charlie's prank with the bar stool occurs, the rest of the Gang assume one of them was behind it instead of Charlie, clearly bumming him out, on top of them not appreciating the massive amount of work he put into being able to pass the inspection to begin with despite all the additional shit he had to deal with thanks to their scam, considering the fact that they pass the inspections a Foregone Conclusion.
- Body Paint: Frank covers himself in black paint after flushing his shirt and shoes down the toilet.
- Briar Patching: When the inspector heads behind the bar counter, Charlie mentions the drainage pipes, explicitly stating he doesn't want her to check them. Obviously, she does... giving Charlie the opening to have Mac and Dennis move some of the chickens around without her noticing.
- Brick Joke: The "joke stool". Dee's initial idea was to have a standard bar stool with a nail sticking out of it sitting out in the open for someone to sit on, which Charlie quickly points out is better fodder for a lawsuit than a practical joke, and the stool in question is promptly thrown into the keg room and forgotten in the chaos of the rest of the episode. During the health inspector's visit, Charlie winds up picking up a random stool and slamming it to the ground every time he passes it ostensibly due to the stress of the situation that's been forced upon him. At the end of the episode, it's revealed that he did that on purpose when Dee sits on the stool and it promptly collapses from under her.Charlie: That's how you make a joke stool, okay?
- Frank's aforementioned Body Paint. Initially introduced as a half-assed attempt to pass off his lack of shoes and a shirt, this later becomes a crucial element to fool the health inspector into giving the bar a passing grade.
- Charlie demands the 'Talk American' sign be taken down, insisting that the health inspector isn't racist. When he sees the new inspector taking over for their previous one, she turns out to be a black woman.
- Continuity Nod:
- Charlie insists on covering the glory hole for the inspection.
- Charlie's musical genius is demonstrated once again when he's able to identify the note made by the carbon monoxide detector as a G# by ear, suggesting that he has perfect pitch.
- Mac can't look Dennis in the eye when they're talking to each other.
- Chekhov's Gag: See Brick Joke above.
- Chekhov's Gun: At one point during the inspection, Charlie badgers Dee into moving the dumpster away from the back door, as he's noticed it's a few inches too close. At the end of the inspection, the inspector points this out to Charlie (which prevents Paddy's from getting a perfect score), which quietly pisses him off (as Dee clearly blew him off).
- Chekhov's Skill: Charlie's musical ability comes back into play when he determines the pitch of the carbon monoxide detector's beeps.
- Crazy-Prepared: Charlie anticipated a health inspection prior to being tipped off, so he made sure all the toilets were in working order, covered up the glory hole, and blocked the vents to get rid of the rats long before his discovery of the gang's chicken/steak/airline miles scam; everything else after that was just him improvising on the fly.
- Bonus points have to be given for his ability to tell which stool Dee would sit on later in the episode for his variation of the joke stool.
- Cutting the Knot: Instead of going through the process of contaminating 4000 steaks with chicken feathers, Charlie opts to instead contaminate a couple dozen, and then put those steaks and the chickens themselves back onto the truck.
- Dare to Be Badass: After Charlie rattles off what he determined what the Gang's scheme was with the chickens and how Dee fucked it up, he makes it clear that he couldn't care less about the situation, given how the bar's inspection is happening that day:Charlie: But none of this matters to me, okay? Because today is inspection day. A day that I pride myself on, a day that I've never failed on and I don't plan to begin failing now, so listen to me and listen close, like you've never done before. We are going to pull this thing off, so help me God.
- Deadly Gas: Charlie blocked the vents to the furnace in order to drive the rats away for the inspection due to the buildup of carbon monoxide in the basement.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Dennis scratching Mac's face and screaming at him to "look at me when you're talking to me!" is disturbingly reminiscent of the behavior of a domestic abuser.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Invoked by Charlie after the gang starts lording "the plan" over his head. When asked why they should listen to him and move the chickens from the front of the bar into the air ducts, he quickly points out that it's not a very good idea to let a city official see that a scam is going down. The gang quickly acknowledges this and begins to move the chickens.
- Exact Words:
- After the delivery driver refers to the bar as a restaurant in front of the inspector while leaving, Charlie explains away that remark by commenting "Well, yeah, if you count a bowl of peanuts, you know?"
- Frank tells Charlie that when he said he lost his shoes, Frank didn't mean that he didn't know where they are. He lost them down the toilet by flushing them.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Inverted: After Charlie plugs a battery into the basement's carbon monoxide detector, Dee asks why it's spontaneously beeping. Without missing a beat, Charlie explains that it's working as intended:Dee: Is it broken? It won't shut the hell up.
Charlie: No, it's doing exactly what it's supposed to do, and that's the problem. There's, like, a ton of carbon monoxide down here, so I don't want it doing that.
Dee: (panicked) What?! Why?!
Charlie: Uh, well, I... actually, what I do is I block the vents to the furnace and that fills the basement with dangerous gases. Drives the rodents away. I always do it leading up to an inspection.
Dee: Is that safe?
Charlie: No, no. It's incredibly unsafe. We can't be down here too long, so just get the battery and we gotta roll. - The Face: Invoked by Charlie, who tells Dennis to be the face of the bar.
- Failed a Spot Check: At the very end the Health Inspector doesn't catch the truck driving away was where her car was parked, and Charlie managed to distract her long enough while Dee returned the car to the proper place right behind her.
- Hidden Depths: Charlie manages to both ace the inspection and deduce the gang's scheme (without anybody explaining it to him) at the same time.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Despite being relegated to Charlie Work and being the second lowest ranking member of the Gang, after Dee, when it comes to the hierarchy at Paddy's, Charlie proves himself to be the only competent member of the Gang at keeping the bar open by single-handedly passing its health inspections.
- Hypocritical Humor:Mac: You just don't know what it's like to be overlooked.
Charlie: Oh my God. That's exactly what's happening to me, right now! - Indy Ploy: Everything Charlie does during the health inspection.
- Insistent Terminology: Charlie insists that the alley outside the bar is a "patio" and the back office is a "VIP lounge" in an attempt to convince the truck driver that they're actually a restaurant.
- Insult Backfire: After the driver states that "Carmen's" is the worst restaurant he's ever been to, Charlie is pleased, since that means he still thinks Paddy's is a restaurant.
- The Inspector Is Coming: The episode's plot is kicked off when Charlie learns that Paddy's is about to have a surprise inspection.
- It's All About Me: Mac spends several minutes whining to Charlie about how Dennis won't give him credit for the scam while Charlie is frantically trying to get the bar ready for the inspection.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After being The Load for both the Gang's steaks scheme and the health inspection, as well as dismissing everything Charlie did to ensure the bar passed, Dee ultimately falls victim to Charlie's joke barstool and embarrasses herself when it collapses under her.
- Leave the Camera Running: Combined with some minor Cringe Comedy: With the inspector done with the bar's inspection earlier than expected, and Charlie needing to stall in order for the truck driver to leave and for the others to put her car back where it was, Dennis calls out to her... and takes a moment to properly respond.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Most days Charlie seems to be easily distracted and relegated to the work no one else wants to do, but this episode shows that he is fully aware of what is needed for Paddy's to pass a health inspection. He rallies the group and kicks everyone in the ass in order to get things in motion, and over the course of a Ten Minute unbroken shot was able to both pass the health inspection AND pull off the Zany Scheme the others were in the middle of.
- The Load: Dee is this throughout the episode. She messed up the steak scam by mistyping the amount of steaks they needed, screws up several of the instructions Charlie gives her to help the bar pass the inspection and complete the scheme, and ultimately causes Paddy's to earn a less than perfect score because she blew off Charlie's request to move the dumpster further from the bar.
- Loophole Abuse: The gang's latest scheme involves exploiting some kind of loophole in the airmiles system to generate cash.
- Lost in Character:
- Downplayed: After the delivery driver states he wants something to eat before getting back on the road, Charlie has Dee be his waitress in order to keep up the facade that Paddy's is a restaurant. So naturally, he's a little annoyed when Dee offers him a turkey burger instead of a steak, and makes her act like she got the order wrong.
- Similarly, after Charlie makes the driver drink his beer in the "private lounge" (in reality the bar's office room), Dennis does his "Alright, alright, alright" schtick, confusing Charlie:Charlie: Why are you doing that to me?
Dennis: I don't know.
- Multitasked Conversation: Once Charlie and the inspector enter the basement, Charlie (pointedly referring to Frank, who's off to the side) states his hope that everything's "properly painted and put where it's supposed to be".
- Never My Fault: Dennis, Dee, Mac and Frank all start blaming each other for the airmiles scam when it starts to go wrong, despite them all previously fighting to claim the credit.Mac: Dee, we should have never done your stupid plan!
Dee: My plan?! No way, this was Frank's idea.
Frank: Wasn't my idea. Dennis was all over it.
Dennis: Me? No, this was Mac's stupid plan. - No-Respect Guy: The gang completely fail to acknowledge the amount of work that Charlie puts into ensuring they pass the inspection and refuse to give him credit for either the successful scheme or the stool prank that he pulls on Dee.Mac: (To Dennis) Did you do that?
Dennis: You know what, I think I did!
Charlie: Are you kidding me?! - Oh, Crap!: Charlie's reaction when he walks into the bar and sees chickens everywhere and Dennis hand-painting a new sign.
- The Oner: The second half of the episode, focusing on dealing with the truck driver and the health inspection, is edited together to appear like this since the main bar, street pavilion, back alley and basement of the pub are separate sets. This was accomplished through the use of green screens, Jitter Cam and Whip Pans to hide transitions.
- Only Sane Employee: Charlie is the only member of the gang who actually understands that to pass the inspection, the bar needs to appear clean.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The very premise of the episode is that Charlie is the Only Sane Man when it comes to health inspections.
- Pastiche: The percussion-led soundtrack and supposed one-shot in the second-act are very reminiscent of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Lampshaded when Charlie tells Frank to take the "Talk American" sign from behind the bar down.Frank: Are you sure? Maybe he's a racist too.
Charlie: The health inspector's not a racist, Frank. - Reverse Psychology: Charlie does this to distract the health inspector by asking her to not check the drainage pipes so Mac and Dennis can move around the bar with chickens while she's checking the pipes.
- Serious Business: Charlie treats the inspection as such, since he's never failed it before and isn't going to do so now.
- Shirtless Scene: Frank spends most of the episode wandering around without a shirt after he flushes his down the toilet.
- Shout-Out: Dennis's "alright, alright, alright" every time he greets the health inspector is a reference to Matthew McConaughey.
- Spanner in the Works: Zig-zagged: The only thing that really trips Charlie up once the inspection gets underway is the fact that the usual inspector, Alan, was replaced by a less lenient one without him knowing beforehand.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When Charlie is in a panic over the health inspector coming over Dennis tries explaining their whole scheme involving chickens, a truckload of steaks and airline miles is all about. Charlie cuts him off by explaining this insane combination of items step by step, as though it was obvious from the outset.
- Trademark Favorite Food: The inspector asks if she can smell cheese when Charlie is standing close behind her.
- Zany Scheme: The gang's scheme involving chickens, steaks and airmiles.
