After a failed bubble gum stunt, Mikey's hair is covered in bubble gum, and T.J.'s attempts to get the gum out leave Mikey's hair even worse. T.J.'s attempts to put a positive spin on Mikey's awful haircut end up creating a trend on the playground.
This episode provides examples of:
- Bubblegum Popping: What kicks off the plot; the episode opens with Mikey trying to blow the biggest bubblegum bubble ever, only for the attempt to backfire when a kindergartner pops it mid-attempt.
- Chased Off into the Sunset: T.J. and Vince at the end of the episode by the now-irate kids whose hair they've ruined.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Mikey reacts to his rather bad haircut with a horrified "AUGHHH!", TJ wonders if it's a 'good' "auggh" or a bad "auggh".
- Covered in Gunge: Mikey is completely covered in bubblegum gunk when the bubble pops, including his hair.
- Gag Haircut: Mikey's hair following T.J.'s haircut. T.J. tries to make Mikey feel better by saying it's how the music group Dog's Pajamas hair looks. Word spreads around the playground and soon everybody is getting their hair cut like Mikey's.
- Gum In Hair: Mikey suffers from this, leading to the Gag Haircut described above.
- Kick the Dog: After Vince and TJ have been outed and are chased off by the playground, Gretchen asks Mikey if they should try to help them.Mikey: Sure! As soon as my hair grows back.
- Never My Fault: Mikey is at his worst in this episode. He throws a fit at T.J. "ruining" his hair, completely forgetting that he himself ruined his hair in the first place by trying to blow a bubble — something his parents had already told him not to do again. T.J.'s haircut is pretty terrible, but he's only nine and he's trying his best to fix a mess that Mikey created. Not only that, but T.J. goes above and beyond and gets half the playground to get the same haircut as Mikey, so even though his haircut might be awful, he's far from the only one. Mikey repays T.J. by making no effort to stop the mob from going after T.J. and Vince when the jig is up.
- Oh, Crap!: Mikey when seeing his haircut after T.J.'s attempt to get the gum out.Mikey: AUGHHHH!!
T.J.: Is that a good "augh" or a bad "augh"?- The Ashleys later all scream in horror when Spinelli reveals that Dog's Pajamas don't have hair like Mikey's bad haircut.
- Out of Focus: Gretchen and Spinelli briefly appear at the start, then spend most of the episode absent from attending the Young Inventor's Fair. But they show back up at the end just in time to accidentally ruin the boys' scheme.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Gus hastily exits once the jig is up for T.J.'s haircut business. T.J. and Vince follow suit a short time later.
- Traumatic Haircut: Mikey does NOT react well to his hair when he sees T.J.'s handiwork. It quickly becomes this for everybody on the playground when they learn their haircuts are not the cool trend they believed it was. The Ashleys in particular are horrified at this revelation.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- Captain Sticky kick-starts the episode's plot by popping Mikey's bubblegum balloon, resulting in Mikey's hair to become covered in gum, which leads to T.J. cutting his hair.
- Shortly afterwards, Randall becomes this after he's bribed with a Señor Fusion comic by T.J. to say the haircut he give Mikey was good. Randall then compliments Mikey's haircut by saying the famous rock band called Dog's Pajamas got the same haircut, leading to the Diggers wanting the same haircut after hearing him say so, which then leads to the rest of the kids on the playground want the same haircut as well.
- Finally, there's Gretchen and Spinelli spilling the beans to the whole school regarding the haircuts of Dog's Pajamas!, leading to everyone who got "The Mikey" forming a lynch mob against T.J. and Vince.
- Wham Line: When the girls laugh at everybody's ridiculous haircuts.Digger Dave: No no no, you're wrong. See we look like that band Dog's Pajamas!Spinelli: ARE YOU KIDDING?! I just saw those guys on TV! They have hair down to their butts! (Laughs hysterically)
