Tylor tries to get on Mike's good books by signing himself and MIFT up for a bowling contest, only to discover his colleagues are far from professional at the sport.
Tropes in this episode:
- Actor Allusion: Sulley is the one to come up with the team name of "The Big Wazowksis". His actor, John Goodman, previously appeared in the episode’s namesake. This also is his sole line in the episode.
- An Aesop: Have faith in your team, whether you win or lose.
- At Least I Admit It: Played with. When the other MIFTers find out that he lied to them, Tylor admits to Mike that he was trying to impress him. He doesn't however, for some reason, admit to his fellow MIFTers that Duncan set him up.
- Bittersweet Ending: Played for Laughs. With the final round ending in a tie, this means that Mike doesn't have to do Gary's paperwork or be his butler. However, he has to have the dinner for two at Harryhausen's with Gary instead of Celia.
- Bowling for Ratings: The plot revolves around the Monsters Inc. Bowl-a-Thon bowling tournament.
- The Bus Came Back: The slug student from Monsters University now works at Monsters Inc, and takes a whole day to complete his approach.
- Chekhov's Skill: The MIFT team's unorthodox playing ends up getting their team tied with the Garys in the finals.
- The Dreaded: The players Duncan gets for Tylor are "triple shifters", described as "the monsters other monsters are afraid of." When they enter the alley, they are indeed intimidating, but they don't get to show how good they are at bowling because they quit after learning Tylor betrayed his teammates.
- Disqualification-Induced Victory: Happens twice in favor of the Big Wazowskis. The first one is when the slug fails to throw the ball within a reasonable amount of time. The second is when Fritz throws the ball and knocks out/down the opponents. Also doubles as a Call-Back to Monsters University, where the absolutely abysmal Oozma Kappa avoids getting narrowly eliminated because another frat gets disqualified for violating the rules.
- Easily Forgiven: The easy-going Fritz and the rest of the MIFT team do this with Tylor after Tylor owns up to his actions and apologizes for lying to them about the Bowl-Off-A-Thon finals.
- Egocentric Team Naming: Both Mike Wazowski and Gary Gibbs name their bowling teams after their own names, with Mike's team named after his last name and Gary's team named after his first name.
- Epic Fail: The slug took the entire day and night to reach the bowl line, which causes the Sliding Slugs to automatically forfeit to the Big Wazowskis, who are composed of the worst bowling players. The cherry on top of this failure is that the slug actually got a full strike when he lets go of the ball, meaning that the Big Wazowskis were spared of a humiliating defeat.
- Everyone Has Standards: Tylor's replacement team refuses to play for him after learning he betrayed the players they're supposed to replace.
- Exact Words: Tylor instructs Fritz to "let go of the ball". Fritz does so but, instead of directing the ball to the pins he's supposed to knock down, he hits the opposing team.
- Failed a Spot Check: Just because Mike's new position spares him of filing his paperwork doesn't mean he doesn't have to approve it.
- Foreshadowing: One of the teams at the Bowl-Off-A-Thon is made of players that look like bowling pins. They end up being knocked down by Fritz's bowling ball.
- Funny Background Event: The first player of the Sliding Slugs (the slug monster who took the whole year to get to his first day of class) spends the entire night just making his approach to bowl, causing victory to forfeit to the Big Wazowskis. After this happens, the monster finally throws the ball, and we see in the background that he got a full strike.
- The Heckler: The Stinger has Mike discussing hecklers to his comedy class and how to deal with them. As he does this though, Gary heckles his teaching skills to the entire class.
- Hypocritical Humor: Mike mocks Gary for naming his team "The Garys", despite naming his own team "The Big Wazowskis".
- In the Style of: The Monsters, Inc. theme in the credits is played in a rock style on a guitar.
- It's All About Me: Gary possesses a huge ego, and even names his bowling team after himself.
- Liar Revealed: At the climax of the episode, Tylor gets his professional replacement team to beat Gary's team in the finals, only to then see his MIFT team standing in the bowling alley shocked and betrayed because Tylor lied to them about the final game being cancelled and that he only wanted a bowling team to win Mike's favor. While the MIFT team is willing to forgive Tylor after he apologizes, his replacement team ironically quits on him for being a poor sport, reinstating the MIFT team back in the game.
- Loophole Abuse: Mike was excited about the prospect of the prize of dinner for two at Harryhausen's, despite the fact that he said it himself in the first episode that he and Sulley had been banned from there for life. But when Gary points this obvious problem, Mike then reveals he's managed to lift the ban due to now being in charge of Monsters, Inc.
- Noodle Incident: During his speech before the final game, Fritz states that you must always stand by your teammates, unless they do something illegal that makes you an accomplice to a crime, which he claims he’s learned the hard way. This incident is not further elaborated on.
- Overly Long Gag: One of the slug team members being so slow to make it to the lane to even throw a ball that game time passes and everyone has to go back to work.
- Pass the Popcorn: Duncan spends most of the time eating nachos (the only reason he attends the bowling tournament, since he doesn't bowl) while watching Tylor humiliate himself.
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: To "The Big Lebowski". See Actor Allusion and Shout-Out for more details.
- Pyrrhic Victory:
- For both Mike and Gary when MIFT scores a draw against Gary’s team. Mike gets to go to Harryhausen’s and does not become Gary’s butler, but since his team didn’t win either he ends up going to the restaurant with Gary rather than Celia. Gary meanwhile gets to go to Harryhausen’s whilst also avoiding becoming a butler, but is clearly upset over still technically losing (really not WINNING).
- Also for Duncan. He gets Tylor to sign a contract stating that he will never attempt to take Fritz's position as head of MIFT, which Tylor had no intention of doing in the first place. But he did this to set Tylor up for humiliation, which is ruined when he ties the bowling tournament with Gary.
- Remember the New Guy?: Gary is introduced in this episode, with it being shown that he and Mike apparently have a long established rivalry between them. Justified in that this series expands on Mike's work-life, something that the film showed only a bit of.
- The Rival: The episode introduces Gary Gibbs and the intense animosity between him and Mike. It’s mentioned that the two have competed for years at the annual Bowl-Off-A-Thon, with Gary implying that he always wins, and with Mike’s absence this year the two end up making a bet where the loser has to become a butler for the winner. This carries into the Mike's Comedy Class segment, where Gary purposefully heckles Mike during a lesson on heckling.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: Duncan's secret room (really the janitor's closet) has a sign that says "SECERT ROOM" on the door. Tylor, Smitty, and Needleman are all quick to point out the typo.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Mike reveals that Harryhausen's lifted his and Sully's lifetime ban due to their new status as SCPOMICE-VDADOCREM of Monsters, Inc (and thus in charge of the power source the restaurant needs). And it's not something Mike made up since at the end of the episode, he and Gary are at the restaurant ordering food at the table.
- Shout-Out:
- The title of the episode, as well as the bowling plotline, are a reference to The Big Lebowski, a film heavily focused on bowling. John Goodman and Steve Buscemi were also in that film before being cast as Sulley and Randall respectively.
- An image of the Loch Ness Monster from the Disney short "The Ballad of Nessie" is seen on the front page of Roze's newspaper.
- Needleman reminds Smitty what the first rule of Fright Club is.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: Gary is introduced as one to Mike. The two characters even look completely identical, with Gary being blue with a brown eye while Mike is green with a blue eye.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: When Tylor suggests forming a team for the Bowl-off-a-thon to Fritz, Tylor is afraid Fritz figured out that his motivation is to make a good impression with Mike and become a Jokester. Fritz then says that he realizes that Tylor is falling in love with the MIFT team. Tylor chuckles lightly and plays along.
- Tempting Apple: Implied. Duncan implores Tylor into signing a contract that would ensure he gets better bowlers than the other MIFTers. He actually had tricked Tylor into lying to his fellow MIFTers in the hopes that they would kick him out of MIFT.
- Title Drop: The Big Wazowskis is the name of Tylor's bowling team, sponsored by Mike.
- Vocal Dissonance: The tough bowling monsters, which Duncan claims even other monsters are afraid of, speak with high pitched, dignified voices.
