With Miss Grotke out for bunion surgery, a substitute teacher comes in, and he turns out to be a no-nonsense kind of guy.
Tropes:
- Cool Teacher: Mr. E. He won't tolerate bullying, but he will teach victims how to defend themselves through martial arts.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Mr. E. makes the fourth graders to push-ups and jumping jacks during recess. TJ lampshades it by complaining that Mr. E. is treating them like Marines."The rest of you, jump those jacks! You'll be proud to know you're doing the same exercises the Army Rangers do!"
- Exact Words: Mr. E. decides to take TJ's statement that recess is a time for some exercise literally.
- He Knows Too Much: Implied when Phil asks Mr. E. what his real name is:Mr. E.: That information comes at a terrible price. Are you willing to pay it?
Phil: (shrinks back into his seat) - Hidden Depths: Spinelli likes to do metallurgy, and, thanks to Mr. E. Gus is a budding karate student.
- Hot Teacher: The Ashleys think Mr. E. is dreamy.
- Living Legend: According to the kids, Mr. E. tore down the Berlin Wall brick by brick and made a fifth grader repeat the fifth grade for stammering during a book report.
- Noodle Incident:Gretchen: Mr. E. seems to have affected everyone.
TJ: Yeah, just like that flu bug last year! - Only One Finds It Fun: While the other students are miserable and exhausted from doing push-ups and jumping jacks during recess, Vince, being the gang's jock, is the only one who enjoys them, saying that if they exercised as often as he did, they would be in better shape and he wouldn't have to carry them all in kickball. Mr. E even praises Vince for doing such a good job exercising.
- Poor Communication Kills: T.J. takes offense at how Mr. E. tries to run the classroom his way, and the students start to admire Mr. E for being a Cool Teacher. Mr. E. in the meantime thinks that T.J. is deliberately undermining his authority by questioning him at every move. They finally come to an agreement when T.J. reveals he's been worried that the kids have forgotten Ms. Grotke who is getting surgery and actually did his schoolwork. Mr. E. can respect a student's loyalty to a teacher.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Mr. E eventually reveals himself to be this. Yeah, making the kids do recess his way was a Jerkass thing to do, but he protects Gus from bullying while teaching him karate, allows Gretchen to ace her report after government agents confiscate it, and praises all the students after they earn their way. Most of his and T.J.'s animosity stems from T.J. worrying that Mr. E is trying to replace Ms. Grotke, who is his cool teacher. Mr. E. applauds T.J. on seeing that he actually did his independent study project out of loyalty to Ms. Grotke, and signs her Get-Well card with a smile.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: Subverted; government agents confiscate Gretchen's invention in the middle of her report. She apologizes to Mr. E. for that.
- Shout-Out: Mr. E. quite resembles Clint Eastwood.
- Stern Teacher: Mr. E. starts out as this. He mellows towards the end on seeing that T.J. was disliking him out of respect for Ms. Grotke.
- Teasing the Substitute Teacher: Double Subverted when the class has the substitute teacher Mr. E, whose nonchalant dodge of the first prank of the day convinces the kids not to try anything further, setting up the Sadist Teacher angle. Subverted when he turns out to assign independent study and helps the kids with their own independent interests, leaving only TJ to be unimpressed, though TJ's entire project was reminding the class that Miss Grotke was still in the hospital and that he hadn't forgotten about that over Mr. E's impressive credentials as a teacher.
- The Triple: Prickley introduces Mr. E by saying he has had successful stints in Southeast Asia, the former Yugoslavia, and the Bronx in New York City.
- Undying Loyalty: TJ's independent study is a "Get Well" card for Miss Grotke.
- The Unreveal: The final dialogue of the episode:TJ: Say, Mr. E., there's something that's been bugging me: could you tell me what the E stands for?
Mr. E.: No.
TJ: You are so cool!
