Recap / Maried With Children S 2 E 11 You Better Watch Out

• Accidental Misnaming: Possibly crossing over with Recognition Failure: Al apparently thinks that Santa has reindeer named Donald, Goofy, Dondi, Dumbo and Silver.
• Book Ends: Al gets a snowball thrown at him both when he humors the neighborhood children about Santa's fate and when he (dressed as Santa) leaves after they tell them what they want and cheer over him being okay.
• Break the Cutie: Marcy over seeing the skydiving Santa die.
• Christmas Episode: The first of several such examples, and it really sets the tone for the others.
• Deadpan Snarker: The coroner panics in the face of kids wanting to see Santa and slams the door.
  Coroner: Uh-oh.
  Al: What's wrong now? The Easter Bunny hang himself in my front yard?
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After losing his bonus, a bribe, and being pushed around by his family and kids, Al still gets a great Christmas after finding the dead Santa's bag of mall coupons.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • The lead coroner would lift jewelry off a dead body, but he refuses to take a dead body dressed as Santa out of the house when so many kids are gathered and watching. Furthermore, he tries to reassure 13-year-old Bud that he's still alive and will visit their home, only for him to quip back, "It shouldn't be too hard; just follow the buzzards."
  • This extends to the other characters: even greedy and ungrateful Peg doesn't want Al to traumatize the neighborhood children when he angrily tries to take the body out in front of them:
    Peg: Al, they're children!"
    Al: Well this will grow them up!
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: "Why is he flapping his arms like that?"
• Harmful to Minors: Al has to play Santa because the coroners refuse to traumatize a gathering of kids by carrying out the dead body.
• Inappropriate Hunger: While the coroners investigate the site of of the accident, Steve tries to control a hysterical Marcy, who just saw a man fall to his death, all the while the Bundy's calmly eat a pizza.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: After witnessing the Santa die, Steve nervously pours himself a drink of brandy as Marcy repeatedly mumbles "Oh my God" to herself.
• Kick the Dog: Peg shops at the popular Lakeside Mall, a rival mall of Al's, due to how much closer and better it is. She then claims that she wasn't buying shoes there, only for Bud to pull out a pair of purple pumps.
• Mall Santa: A skydiving example gets the plot rolling by having a malfunctioning parachute, being blown off course, and landing face-first in the Bundys' backyard.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Subverted. Al pretending to be Santa for the kids in the neighborhood is seen as a good deed, but as he did it before the Lakeside mall official got to the house, he loses out on a chance for a hefty sum of money and thus can't afford to buy any presents. However, shortly afterwards, Al finds the bag of coupons.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: While dressed as Santa, Al take the opportunity to get back at some neighbors who have mistreated him.
  • One kid's mother makes pies for everyone in the neighborhood but the Bundys, so "Santa" promises to leave a horse under the tree and says it not being there means the kid's mother killed it.
  • Another kid said his mother told him that Al sprouts a tail. It's known that this woman has been having an affair with the mailman, so Al suggests the kid tell his father to come home during lunch so that the guy will learn what's happening.
• Shout-Out: One of the neighborhood children that Santa Al talks to is named Nestor.
• Tempting Fate:
  • The TV reporter says they've lost the skydiving Santa and have no idea where he is. All of a sudden, the characters and the audience hear a rustling noise from the tree in the backyard.
  • The Lakeside mall official says there's no reason to give Al a bribe for something he already did and leaves satisfied over saving some money. Soon afterwards, Al finds a bag of mall coupons and fully intends to bust the Lakeside Mall.