A Three Job, No Income Family is an episode from Season 3 of Married... with Children.
To bring more income in the house, Peg looks for second jobs that Al can take, but when she stumbles upon a position for salesladies for the Patty Bright cosmetics company, Peg decides to take the job for herself and begins earning more than Al.
You didn't make the tropes, Bundy!
- Burger Fool: Al takes a job at Burger Trek. Peg is later forced to take it to make up for the money she lost "selling" cosmetics.
- Improbable Age: Al's boss co-workers think he's 60 years old.
- Buffy Speak: The beginning of the episode has Al, Bud and Kelly all talking like cavemen. The beginning has Al come home from work in a bad mood, and Kelly and Bud are sitting in the middle of the couch.Al: NEH! (grunts at Bud to get off his spot) PEG! DINNER!
Bud: Peg no home.
Kelly: She go shop. We no eat. - Earn Your Happy Ending: Things go better than usual for Al in the end since he is able to force Peg to clean up her own mess by taking his crappy job at the disgusting, unsanitary burger joint. Plus he proves he's the better salesman than Peggy thus earning his self respect back.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Since his kids hate him for making so little money they can't eat on a daily basis since Peg keeps splashing all his shoe salesman checks on non-essential luxuries none of which are food, Al decides to win back Kelly and Bud's respect by working at Burger Trek.
- Have a Gay Old Time: Al's boss at Burger Trek calls Al's mistake a "Burger boner". That term would turn a lot of heads if you said that in a workplace nowadays. A boner can also mean "a foolish or careless mistake".
- Henpecked Husband: Al and Steve both sit on the table to discuss just how miserable their lives are because of how selfish their wives can be. Peg for forcing Al to find a second job, and Marcy for forcing Steve to cook dinner or only offering him frozen fish sticks. Steve mentioned his mother worked full-time and she always made dinner every day.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Kelly admonishes Al for starving and that if he's hungry, he should do what she does which is getting a date to buy her dinner (and, according to Bud, "slit[ting] her skirt up to her chin"). In less than 3 minutes later, Kelly begs Al for some money to go out to eat.
- Peg complains that Al is lazy for watching TV all the time when he's home rather than looking for a second job.
- Irony: The Burger Trek boss saying "I'm not a bad guy".
- Insane Troll Logic: Al asks Kelly to make him dinner. Kelly responds, "I'm practically a woman, I don't cook!"
- It's All About Me: Peg thinks she shouldn't have to get a job and spends all of Al's meagre paycheck on herself. She leaves the kids to starve, and says Al should get a second job to pay for her shopping while she sits on her behind all day.
- Kick the Dog: Steve tells Al, "Your life is pathetic" and "I made more money as a kid losing a tooth than you making shoes" as while Al tries to figure out how to increase his finances and become the primary breadwinner again in the household so as to escape Peg's bullying that she makes more money now.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In a rare case for Peg, who gets her comeuppance for nearly getting Al bankrupt (for the 9,000th time) when Al forces her to Work Off the Debt she accrued from her cosmetics pyramid-scheme by taking his place at Burger Trek.
- Lethal Eatery: Burger Trek.
- Mean Boss: The Burger Trek manager is a total Jerkass to Al. The Burger Trek manager forces his employees in addition to their fry cooking and maintenance duties also make them emit "WHOOSH!" sounds on the intercom whenever a burger is completed, and he complains about a burger that is made even with the right ingredients if it's assembled in the wrong order such as "You put our special sauce first" as he insists it should go last. He even mentions that he fired his own father from Burger Trek.
- Money Dumb: Peg is so bad at this she doesn't see the problem of sending the cosmetics company bigger checks than the ones she receives back in commission, since "that's how she makes her money." Al looks like he's about to have an aneurysm from trying to explain the difference between spending and making money to Peg but then decides to force Peg to take his job at Burger Trek.
- Ms. Red Ink: Peg is in rare form this episode, as she loses more than $600 by writing her own checks to the cosmetics company. The only consolation for Al is that he finally gets some payback by forcing Peg to Work Off the Debt.
- No OSHA Compliance: Burger Trek uses shoves and paddles to handle and stir their food and use trash cans to prepare the condiments. They also let Peg smoke in the kitchen.
- Poverty Food: Al is so broke and hasn't eaten in days that he tries eating a toothpaste sandwich, but Steve steals it from him.
- Ponzi: Peg was played for a fool by the women's cosmetics company in that they give her commission checks so long as she sells the cosmetics to other women. However, the cosmetics weren't very good, so to keep the commission checks coming, Peg just wrote bigger checks to the company, leaving her into more than $600 in debt. Al is fed up with having to pay for her mistakes and forces Peg to go work at the burger joint to Work Off the Debt.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: The meat is made out of kangaroos, the tomatoes are artificially colored (or the "special sauce" is so acidic that it drains color from tomatoes), and the ketchup and cheese aren't freshly-made but rather instant powder-mixes that solidify through added water.
- Shout-Out: Burger Trek is a hardly disguised take on Star Trek: The Original Series.
- Work Off the Debt: Al makes Peg take his shitty job at Burger Trek to pay off the $600 she lost to the cosmetics company.
- Would Rather Suffer:Peg: [to Al] What's wrong with you getting a second job?
Al: Peg, let me state this as clearly as I can. I would rather rip off my nose with a can opener. I would rather bob for apples in a sewer. I would rather have a catheter the size of a garden hose, before I get another job to pay for your shopping.
