HBO Max release date: 7/29/2021
Cartoon Network air date: 9/25/2021
Must Be Jelly:
- The Cameo:
- Fred Flintstone is depicted with Wilma on the cover of the romance novel Cindy was supposed to read for her book club.
- Ranger Smith briefly appears at the beginning of the episode, revealing that he's the head of the hospital Yogi, Cindy, and Boo Boo work at.
- Cat Up a Tree: One of the tasks Cindy does in the montage is taking Benny out of a tree in the Doggies' yard. Later on, Benny is back, with the rest of Top Cat's gang.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The King appears as a jelly statue and being bonked in the head by El Kabong.
- Giant Medical Syringe: During the Montage at the beginning of the episode, Cindy prepares to give Peter Potamus an injection with a regular-sized syringe. She then inexplicably switches it out for one that is so big, she needs both hands to hold it.
- Go-Getter Girl: Cindy tries to be this archetype by taking on endless tasks and completing them, but even she has her limits.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: When Mr. Jinks gets turned into gelatin, he is leaning over the edge of a couch and he splits in half at the waist. He is still in this state when he is restored to normal, but he just shrugs it off.Jinks: Hey, nice butt!
- Mythology Gag: Cindy wears her original outfit when holding the car wash.
- Never My Fault: Once again, Cindy denies causing any problems.
- Noodle Incident: Winnie mentions that she was once part of the "Loofah Lovers Anonymous" club and vowed never to go back.
- Sanity Slippage: Being overworked and forgetting to read a book for her book club, she goes to extreme lengths to buy time to read by turning all the people of Jellystone into gelatin.
Cats Do Dance:
- Banana Peel: TC's gang tries to make The King's crew slip on banana peels, but to no avail.
- Brick Joke: At the beginning of the episode, Choo-Choo suggests adding a conversation pit. At the end of the episode, a crater formed in the alley becomes a conversation pit.
- Chekhov's Gag: The alley cats eliminate The King's gang by incorporating all three of their previous failed attempts into one final plan: Choo Choo sneaks away and bribes Grape Ape (using the remaining bananas from the Banana Peel trick) to lift her up to the top floor of a tech institute, sneaks into the laser satellite control room (busting the door down with leftover band equipment), and hacks it to target the cats' DNA in the alley (which they left behind after licking everything).
- Dance-Off: Top Cat's alley is taken over by The King, who challenges him and his gang to a dance off for it. King's crew is so good their dance moves cause shockwaves that knock aside the cats. After TC's schemes to get the alley back fail, they concede to a dance off. Their dance moves are underwhelming, but it was all a distraction for TC's final scheme, which is for Choo-Choo to hack a laser satellite and blast the King's gang to ashes.
- Everyone Has Standards: When he's changing drawings to fit his gang's preferences, Top Cat refuses to let Fancy just copy Benny's idea, telling him he has to come up with one on his own. He's also reluctant to draw Spooky with a laser gun, feeling it isn't their style. And when he does agree he makes it clear that it's for holding, not for shooting.
- Finger Gun: Spooky does a finger gun while requesting a blaster.
- Furry Confusion: In-Universe. Choo-Choo is put off by Peter's Cat Girl body pillow.
- Furry Reminder: Top Cat's gang has a cardboard "sitting box" in their alley, uses a pile of kitty litter as a bathroom and a telephone pole as a scratching post, and tries to reclaim their turf by licking everything.
- I'm a Humanitarian: After the laser reduces the King's gang to piles of ashes, Spooky picks up the King and puts him on the fajita grill. When the cats reunite at the end, Spooky is holding an empty plate, implying she ate the King.
- Kill Sat: Choo-Choo uses a satellite to fry The King's gang.
- Malicious Misnaming: The King keeps calling Top Cat "Bottom Cat".
- Manchild: Fancy-Fancy whines about not having a cool cowboy hat like Benny.
- Mustache Vandalism: The King's crew is briefly shown drawing mustaches on Top Cat's wanted posters.
- Otaku: The episode reveals that Peter is an Occidental Otaku. He's got anime figures, OVAs, and a dakimakura.
- Running Gag: The King's crew blowing away TC's gang, causing them to crash into Peter's house.
- Sanity Slippage: Top Cat goes crazy after his schemes keep failing. He even gets bloodshot eyes and starts Laughing Mad.
- Shaking the Rump: When enacting the first scheme, TC shakes his butt at The King.
- Shame If Something Happened: "Pretty nice alley you got here. It would be a shame if someone...STOLE IT."
- Shout-Out:
- When Top Cat and his gang see Peter Potamus' collection of anime memorabilia, K.K. Slider can be heard in the background.
- The title of the episode is one to Cats Don't Dance (which was created by Turner Feature Animation, a semi-spinoff of Hanna-Barbera).
- The uniforms the gang wear is identical to the one seen in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Band Geeks".
- Peter Potamus practices "ninjutsu" in an orange gi with blue accents. He even does the series' infamous Ninja Run.
- Suddenly Obvious Fakery: Top Cat reveals to the King that his gang's poor dancing was really a distraction while Choo-Choo left to hack a Kill Sat to zap the King's gang. When King notes that Choo-Choo is right there with the others, "Choo-Choo" takes off her mask to reveal that she was Fancy-Fancy in disguise, and reveals that the other Fancy-Fancy was just a mop with his face drawn on it. And the fake Fancy-Fancy, who until this point looked just like the original, is suddenly a mop that falls over.
- Time for Plan B: After the Banana Peel scheme fails, the gang's Plan B is a noisy parade.
