When Dale gets too sick to exterminate, he finds himself working a monotonous cubicle job. But he soon finds a fun soundalike: Firing people.
Tropes:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ms. Pittman is very passive aggressive.
- Dirty Coward: Ms. Pittman gives Dale the task of firing someone because she's too anxious to do it herself, despite being so passive aggressive and subtly nasty.
- Expy: Ms. Pittman is something of one for Bill Lumbergh (somewhat unsurprisingly, given they share a creator), though unlike Lumbergh she can't bring herself to fire people (whereas Lumbergh was fine with doing so).
- Drunk with Power: The ability to fire anyone he wants naturally goes to Dale's head, to the point he even threatens to fire Nancy and Joseph from the family.
- Kick the Morality Pet: You can tell Dale's gone too far when he threatens to fire his own wife and son, the two people he holds closer to him more than anyone else.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: Nancy doesn't want to have sex with Dale after she sees him fire somebody, despite him trying to "help."
- No Sympathy: Dale doesn’t care who fires, whether they deserve it or not, and even fires people with upwards of eight children.
- Out of Focus: This is the only episode where Bobby has no lines, although he briefly appears when Dale is taking the legs off of the Bugabago.
- Soul-Crushing Desk Job: Not surprisingly, the life of a cubicle jockey is akin to torture for a guy like Dale.
- Special Guest: Lisa Kudrow as Amy Pittman.
- Status Quo Is God: Dale returns to the exterminator business after killing all the cockroaches without having to use poison, at which point everyone realizes he's better suited for it.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Once Dale gets his new job, he becomes stressed with working others and lashes out at Joseph, Nancy, and Bobby. Once he gets promoted to an assistant vice president, he becomes downright unsympathetic towards others, firing people left and right, and even “firing” Joesph from the family.
