Jake watches the 411th rerun special of Middle School Musical, and wishes his school had spontaneous musical numbers, with perfectly choreographed dancing and well-lit lightning.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Jake wishes to live in a musical world. He enjoys it at first, ... and second, ... and third, ... but after around 35-40 minutes into the special, he finally grows weary of everything and wants things to go back to the way they were.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: A self-referential joke, gets canned laughter to come out of nowhere.Adam: I can't stand musical numbers. All that singing and dancing for no reason. It's totally unrealistic.Jake: Kind of like talking zoo animals?[canned laughter happens; Adam and Jake look at the camera in confusion]
- Brick Joke: When the ancillary characters sing about waiting in the wings to take their places, Henry is angling for Adam's part. During a later number when Ingrid pursues him for a kiss, Adam gets Henry to fill in.
- Callback: Animal School Musical has many callbacks to the series. The most important is the callback to "The Magic Fish", where Jake is finally given a second chance at saving David Coppertrout and earning a magical wish.
- Adam is seen on the Jungle Squad, wearing his cheerleading uniform again, following "Cheer Pressure".
- Mr. Mandrill wears the same ballerina costume from "My Feral Lyon" again.
- Nurse Gazelle brings up how she's not a certified nurse, calling back to the events of "Lyon's Anatomy".
- Lola Llama from "Save the Drama for Your Llama" comes back.
- A possible reason for Adam's absence, as mentioned by the understudies, was for him to get sick, cutting to a picture of Adam sick in bed, just like he was in "Sick Day".
- A picture of Lupe looking extremely ugly, appears during Ingrid's song. This same picture was shown in "Save the Drama for Your Llama".
- Lupe's crush on Jake from "Up All Night" is mentioned again.
- Windsor's crystal collection from "Mandrill of the House" is referenced again.
- Ingrid remembers that Adam is lactose intolerant, which hadn't been dwelt upon, since "Yesterday's Funny Monkey".
- During Jake's show-stopping finale number, "I Love My Butt", the reflection of Jake's butt is shown in a glorious shimmering glass doorknob from "Shiny Thing".
- Classically-Trained Extra: Parodied with the ancillary characters, who lament that their talents go unnoticed because they're always stuck in the background of scenes.
- A Day in the Limelight: The song "Waiting in the Wings" dedicates itself to giving just a bit of glory to underdogged extras like Henry Armadillo, Dickie Sugarjumper, James Ant, Bear Ted, Eddie Panther, and Lola Llama.
- Gratuitous German: Jake tried to rhyme "Doo" with "Kugelscheiber", which, in German, means "Pen".
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Jake's song acknowledges he doesn't wear pants because of his obsession with his butt.
- Hope Spot: Halfway in, Jack agrees to take back the wish like everyone wants since he can't rhyme, anyway. Then it turns out the wish won't end, until he learns to rhyme.
- I Am Not Weasel: When singing about his lack of rhyming skills, Jake mistakes David Coppertrout for a dog and gets corrected.
- I Just Want to Be You: The ancillary characters, wish they would have the luxury of being main cast members. They would all kill to be in the shoes of Jake or Windsor, or even Adam. So, they've become their understudies and anticipate the day, where one of the actors breaks a leg, catches the flu, or gets fired, so they can steal their spotlight.
- I Owe You My Life: Just life before, since Jake saved David's life, he's allowed one wish.
- Lampshade Hanging: Adam's opening narration points out how no authority figure has bothered to correct or care about the longstanding clerical error that landed him in an all-animal school.
- Limited Wardrobe: Adam looks through his closet for a new outfit, and everything in there is mustard-yellow shirts and cargo shorts.
- Misplaced Retribution: Adam notes he's ensured there will be no Sequel Episode by swallowing David Coppertrout whole. An annoyed David lampshades how he was just doing his job granting the wish and that he wasn't the one who thought up said wish.
- Musical Episode: Jake turns the entire school into a musical paradise. Every few minutes, a rousing musical number breaks out and whoever's present at the time, is forced to sing a full-blown Broadway-worthy song.
- Obvious Stunt Double: Henry to Adam. Adam traded himself out for Henry, to avoid getting kissed to death by Ingrid.
- Parody Episode: The special had the underlying tone of a High School Musical parody.
- Ship Tease: The relationship of Jake and Lupe is referenced, when Lupe sings to Jake during Ingrid's love song, in a thinly-veiled metaphor for something she's saying to him.Lupe: Maybe try singing 'bout someone or other. Someone you'd like to take home to your mother.
- Silly Love Songs: Ingrid's love song for Adam, "Sunshine and Tulips".
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: A whole song is about this. Various background and side characters are jealous of the main cast getting all the fame and glory. This includes Henry, Dickie, and James. Three characters who were supposed to be lovable, recurring characters, but their on-screen prominence just sort of diminished overtime.
- Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: Jake's song, "I Got No Rhyme" plays off of this.
- Sudden Anatomy: Slips grows a hand, while singing about how he'd rather eat crickets than sing.
- Suddenly Voiced: Horace Ferret talks for the first time, when he sings in "We'd Rather Do Anything Than Sing".Coach Gills: But, sweating won't shut even Horace's yap!Horace: I don't ever talk, but now I don't have a choice./It's really quite awful, cuz I don't like my voice.
- Take That!: When Jake says he doesn't know how to end the song, David Coppertrout appears to tell him that he had the answer all along and tells him to click his heels together three times. Jake says he never mentioned that before and accuses him of making things up as they go. David concedes that's quite possible.
- This Is Gonna Suck: The Pack, upon learning they'll be stuck in this musical, until Jake can successfully rhyme.
- Tragic Dream: Jake loves musicals, but he lacks rhyme and rhythm skills, leaving him frequently out of step when others are singing. As the chorus observes, "It's very tragic and really quite sad." This becomes a major plot-point, as the only way to reverse the wish is for Jake to learn how to rhyme.
- Vocal Dissonance: James sounds completely different here, than in previous episodes. We're all familiar with his mildly gargled, high-pitched, near-chipmunk-leveled voice. Well, now, he has a strong, deep voice, that bellows in his throat and echoes through the halls.
- We Are Not Going Through That Again: To ensure there isn't another musical adventure, Adam swallows David Coppertrout whole.
