"These are city scum. They can't hack it out here."
— Frank, about Mac and Dennis
Mac and Dennis decide to move out of Dee's apartment and take advantage of the lower rent prices in the suburbs, but quickly discover that they're much more suited to life in the city.
This episode provides examples of:
- Answer Cut:Dee: Where are you guys gonna find a place that fits all of your needs for under 1,500 bucks a month?
Title: Mac and Dennis Move to the Suburbs - Apathetic Citizens: Mac and Dennis don't know how to handle Wally approaching them with small talk; because they're from the city, they're accustomed to people who are either apathetic or trying to mug them.
- The Bet: Frank bets Mac and Dennis that they won't be able to last a full month in the suburbs; if they win, he has to pay their rent for a year, and if they lose they have to share a bed with an old man for a year. Things are complicated further when Dee takes some "side action" so that if Mac and Dennis win, Frank will buy her a king-size bed for herself, but if they lose she has to join them in sleeping with the old man.
- Black Comedy Animal Cruelty: The Sanity Slippage montage frequently cuts to Dennis [the dog] scratching at his food bowl while Mac is too spaced out to notice. The montage ends with him patting down a freshly-dug grave for Dennis, who starved to death because nobody ever fed him.
- Call-Back: Dee accuses Mac and Dennis of infesting her apartment with ringworm.
- City Mouse: Mac and Dennis grew up in Philly and apparently don't know what a chirping smoke alarm is or how to fix one.
- Comically Missing the Point: Mac completely fails to pick up on Dennis's hints when the latter is trying to surprise him with the dog, until Dennis has to spell it out for him.
- Continuity Nod:
- Dennis states that he and Mac probably shouldn't have burned down their rent-controlled apartment.
- Mac says that he doesn't have a dog anymore since Poppins ran away.
- Covert Distress Code: Parodied when Mac wants to speak to Dennis in private after they invite the rest of the gang over for dinner.Mac: I have to piss... out of my penis.
(he leaves the table, gesturing for Dennis to follow)
Dennis: Okay, well clearly Mac wants to speak to me in secret, so excuse me. - Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Dennis' "storm of fists" speech to Wally during his fantasy.
- Daydream Surprise: When Wally shows up to greet Dennis and Mac again, the former, eerily calm, slowly starts stripping his clothes off while giving a very thinly-veiled threat towards Wally, promising to punch him repeatedly and hard enough to kill him, and then unleashes an absolutely terrifying roar that sounds like it's been dredged from the bowels of hell right in poor Wally's face. It's when Mac calls out to Dennis twice that it's revealed to be an elaborate daydream he was having and that Wally isn't even here.Wally: Hey, buddy. Haven't seen you for a bit. You've probably been staying inside to avoid this, uh, heat wave, huh? Boy, it's been hot.
Dennis: It's hot, huh? Yeah. (throws his keys and coffee mug on the ground) It is super hot. Yeah. (unbuttons his shirt) It's getting real hot around here. So hot, Wally. But you don't really know what hot is, do you? (rips his shirt off; Wally appears utterly confused, mouthing "what?") Hot's a storm. (Dennis starts taking his pants off) You ever been in a storm, Wally? I mean, a real storm? Not a thunderstorm, but a storm of fists raining down on your head. Blasting you in the face.... (walks towards Wally, now bare naked) Pummeling you in the stomach. Hitting you in the chest so hard you think your heart's gonna stop. You ever been in a storm like that, Wally?
(beat; Wally is now terrified)
Dennis: (demonic, rage-filled scream) - Does This Remind You of Anything?: Mac and Dennis assume the roles of a stereotypical married couple while living in the suburbs, with Dennis as the breadwinner husband and Mac as the stay-at-home housewife. Made even more apparent when Mac states that he's going to raise the dog "like their own son".
- Extremely Short Timespan: Dennis and Mac lose their minds in a month.
- Fan Disservice: Dennis stripping down to nothing in his fantasy while experiencing a psychotic break with reality.
- Full-Frontal Assault: Dennis fantasizes about stripping nude and attacking Wally, their irritating neighbor.
- Gilligan Cut:Dennis: I'll feel Frank out about this bet, which in retrospect is completely ridiculous.
Mac: How are they gonna find an old man that's gonna go along with it.
Dennis: Right, exactly.
(cut to the rest of the gang stood on their doorstep with an elderly gentleman in tow)
Frank: Mac and Dennis, Old Man. Old Man, Mac and Dennis. - Got Me Doing It: Said by Dennis when Mac's habit of calling the old man "black man" starts to rub off on him.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- When Charlie laughs at the idea of Mac and Dennis having to share a bed with an old man for a year, Dennis points out that Charlie already shares a bed with an old man, and for no real reason other than that he seems to enjoy it.
- Dennis's road rage seems rather indiscriminate. First he yells at a car on his street to speed up, then, upon leaving the car and being a pedestrian, he yells at a different car to slow down. He uses the same insult for both.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Dennis's horrified reaction when Mac reveals that the "hunks of meat" he's added to the mac and cheese are in fact pieces of the dead dog.
- Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Dennis strips naked and threatens to kill Wally before emitting a bloodcurlding scream... then Mac says his name and we cut back to Dennis still fully-clothed in the front yard, with Wally nowhere in sight.
- Insomnia Episode: Both Mac and Dennis are unable to sleep in the suburbs due to various strange noises.
- Insult Backfire:Dee: You're like a couple of locusts!
Mac: Ooh, I take that as a compliment.
Dee: It's not a compliment.
Mac: Well, it's Biblical, so it's a compliment. - Kick the Dog: In a rather literal example, Mac neglects the dog that Dennis buys to keep him company until it starves to death, and then feeds its remains to Dennis in their evening meal.
- Kubrick Stare: Dennis ends up sporting an absolutely terrifying one by the end of everything as a result of how much life in the suburbs has exacerbated his sociopathy.
- Laughing Mad: Mac lets out a particularly disturbing maniacal laugh that goes on for about ten seconds after he reveals that Dennis is eating the dog.
- Love Martyr: Discussed; Mac claims that everything he does, he does for Dennis. Doubles as Waxing Lyrical, as Dennis exclusively listens to Bryan Adams on his commute.
- Madness Shared by Two: Dennis and Mac spiral into insanity together over their shared hatred of suburban life. Unusually for this trope, they take out their frustrations on each other.
- Men Can't Keep House: The episode opens with Dee complaining that Mac and Dennis have trashed her aparment since they've been living there. They also completely fail to maintain their house in the suburbs, as by the end of the episode there are trash bags in all the rooms and air fresheners stuck all over the walls to keep the smell at bay.
- Messy Hair: Mac's hair gets increasingly wilder throughout the episode as he slides further into depression and apathy.
- Misophonia Gag: Mac is irritated by a smoke detector that occasionally chirps, which Dennis says he can't hear. During their huge fight at the end it happens again and it turns out...Dennis: NEWSFLASH ASSHOLE! I'VE BEEN HEARING IT THE ENTIRE GODDAMNED TIME!!
Mac: Then why didn't you say something?!
Dennis: BECAUSE I HATE YOOUUUU!!! - Noodle Incident: Frank and Charlie are apparently doing some kind of scheme involving Russian hats, which takes place almost entirely offscreen. Lampshaded when Dennis attempts to get them to explain, but gets brushed off.
- Oh, Crap!:
- When Dennis decides to get his suitcase out of a nearby closet, Mac immediately tries to stop him from doing so (since said closet was where he was hiding mac and cheese boxes).
- At the end of the episode, when Mac and Dennis realize that they're about to win the bet and Frank has written them a check for a year's rent on the house that drove them both insane. They end up forfeiting with one second left on the clock and move back in with Dee.
- One-Note Cook: "Mac's Famous Mac & Cheese" is the only thing Mac knows how to make, serving it at every meal. Dennis eventually finds out that it not only isn't Mac's recipe, it's also prepackaged.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Mac keeps referring to the old man as "Black Man", which Dennis finds racist.
- Precision F-Strike: Dennis does this at least twice.
- The Reveal:
- There's nothing special about "Mac's Famous Mac and Cheese"; it's just store-bought.
- Dennis has been hearing the fire alarm chirping, he was just ignoring it out of spite for Mac.
- Sanity Slippage: Both Mac and Dennis grow steadily more unhinged over the course of the episode, due to a combination of sleep deprivation, loneliness (Mac), a frustrating daily commute (Dennis) and their own toxic relationship, culminating in Mac feeding Dennis the dog out of spite and Dennis almost murdering their neighbor.
- Shout-Out:
- Much of the episode is a comedic homage to The Shining.
- Mac feeding Dennis (the dog) to Dennis (which he refers to as their "son") is likely a reference to both The War of the Roses (yet another reference to a previous Danny Devito work), and Titus Andronicus.
- Stepford Suburbia: Played with; Mac and Dennis perceive what's probably a perfectly normal suburban neighborhood this way due to the fact that they're both severely maladjusted human beings.
- Tranquil Fury:Dennis: Tell me again about Mac's Famous Mac and Cheese.
- Wham Line:
- After Dennis aggressively points out to Mac that he did notice he changed up the mac and cheese (by adding "meat hunks"), and begins eating it in an overacted manner:Mac: (manic) Well, of course Dennis would like Dennis.
Dennis: (abruptly stops eating) What?
Mac: It's Dennis!
Dennis: (annoyed and genuinely confused) What are you talking about?
Mac: YOU'RE EATING THE DOG! (manic laughter) - "NEWSFLASH, ASSHOLE! I'VE BEEN HEARING IT THE ENTIRE GODDAMN TIME!"
- After Dennis aggressively points out to Mac that he did notice he changed up the mac and cheese (by adding "meat hunks"), and begins eating it in an overacted manner:
- Wham Shot: Dennis, finally having enough, decides to go to a hotel, and beelines to a closet for his suitcase... only for a giant pile of mac and cheese boxes to spill out when he opens it.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Mac and Dennis seem to believe they're in a Kitchen Sink Drama after moving to the suburbs; they're actually in a psychological horror story that mirrors The Shining.
