Adam passes a placement test, getting him transferred to the advanced class.
- Animal Stereotypes: The Advanced Class is composed of animals known for their high intelligence: a dolphin, a pig, a squid, a parrot, and an elephant.
- Driven to Madness: A rare Mr. Blowhole example, where Jake manages to make him scream in rage.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Henry Armadillo makes a non-speaking cameo as a member of Team Sloth.
- Extreme Omnivore: Adam eats chalk while trying to get himself kicked out of the advanced class. Jake eats some moments later.
- Hidden Depths: Jake is actually really good at spelling, being able to spell very obscure, aphonetic, complicated words. However, it only works, if he's swinging while doing it.
- Hypocrite: Jake critiqued Adam's stupidity for eating chalk, and then instantly proceeded to do so, himself.
- Literally Laughable Question: Adam asking his friends if they studied for the placement test.
- Nose Shove: Jake sticks a pencil up his nostril to sharpen it and it works.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Adam pretends to be an idiot to get kicked out of the advanced class, but he stops shortly after. He does it again during the spelling bee after realizing he's not a "spiffy" and throws it when asked to spell peppercorn.
- As Adam learns the hard way, everyone in the class does this to avoid being placed with the Spiffies.
- Obligatory Joke: Since there's a spelling bee taking place at an all animal school, it was urgent, they needed to joke about a honey bee student getting involved, no matter how overplayed that joke is.
- Overly Long Gag: Duke Sloth joined the spelling bee and, being a sloth, took an extremely long time to spell a simple word.
- Running Gag: Horribly misspelling words as "Derf".
- Spelling Bee: Charles Darwin Middle School held a spelling bee, which was one of the main plot devices for this episode.
- Stealth Insult: Adam "accidentally" insults his friends, and instantly tries to patch it up. However, his insult was so subtle, that it wasn't even noticeably an insult, until after he tried to hide it.Adam: Do you guys have any ideas on how to get me out of The Spiffy class?[Slips, Windsor, and Lupe stare at him blankly and silently; A stupid voice saying "Duuuh", is heard in the background]Adam: That's it! I'll just act like you guys. Uh, ... I mean, I'll put on a "dumb" act.
- Suddenly Voiced: Slips has his first speaking role in this episode.
- What Have I Become?: Adam realized that he became one of The Spiffies, which struck him with horror.
