http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SamAndMaxFreelancePoliceEpisode101CultureShock
A group of former child stars, known as the Soda Poppers, are found causing trouble in Sam and Max's neighborhood to promote a really crazy former child star and ocular fitness guru named Brady Culture, and it's up to the Freelance Police to get to the bottom of it.
Tropes:
- All Psychology Is Freudian: Sybil's approach to psychotherapy. Then again, she's only been a licensed psychotherapist for a few weeks, so her interpretations may not be entirely accurate.
- Brain Bleach: Sam is disturbed by how Jimmy Two-Teeth literally coughs up their phone.
Sam: For the love of... I wish I could un-see that!
- Brainwashed: The Soda Poppers and Jimmy Two-Teeth (and Sam, briefly) end up under Brady Culture's hypnotic sway.
- Catchphrase: The Soda Poppers have four, one for each member and one collective.
- Double Meaning: In this case, the word "patronize".
Sam: We'd like to patronize your fine establishment.
Max: By "patronize," he means we wanna buy stuff from you, not mock you. We probably will mock you, but that's not what he meant.
Bosco: I know what he meant, don't patronize me!
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: The final Puzzle Boss fight ends this way; Sam defeats Brady Culture by tricking him into ordering the Soda Poppers to "Attack Me!"
- Expository Theme Tune: "More than Jerks", the in-universe theme song to the Soda Poppers TV show which you can get Whizzer to sing if you bug him enough.
- Former Child Star: Four of them: The three Soda Poppers, and Brady Culture of the short-lived Culture's Clubhouse. And all of them are as washed-up and poorly-aged as the stereotype would have you believe.
Bosco: (regarding Whizzer) He's a former child star?! Oh, just lock him up and throw away the jail!
- Heroic Willpower: Downplayed. Of everyone hypnotised, Sam is the only one able to even try to vocally indicate something is wrong but can't stop himself delivering videos. He has to find a loophole in the instructions to escape. By grabbing something while delivering videos he triggers Bosco's anti-shoplift mechanisms, knocking himself unconscious.
- Homemade Inventions: Bosco's "Tear Gas Grenade Launcher," AKA a salad shooter filled with raw onions.
- Hypno Ray: Brady Culture owns a pair of goggles that fire hypnotizing beams.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Sybil is apparently under the impression that Max is Sam's imaginary friend, despite her being able to see him.
- Inkblot Test: Sybil can give Sam one of these, as part of her latest job as a licensed psychotherapist.
- It's All About Me: Brady Culture has a massive ego. An ego which proves to be his downfall.
Sam: (to the brainwashed Soda Poppers) Worship me!
Brady: No, no, no! Worship me! You're my minions, mine!
- Monster of the Week: Brady Culture.
- New Job as the Plot Demands: Sybil has a long history of suddenly switching professions. She was previously a tattoo artist and is currently a "licensed psychotherapist".
- Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Each of the Soda Poppers randomly says their catch phrase after the Freelance Police knock them out.
- Ominous Pipe Organ: Courtesy of Brady Culture. He plays it during his Motive Rant and while he keeps Max captive. It is implied, however, that his skill with the instrument is minimal.
Max: Sam! Boy, am I glad to see you! Johann Sebastian here only knows how to play one song.
- Pop the Tires: How Sam and Max take down the van driven by Specs or Whizzer (depending on who Sam de-hypnotizes first).
- Potty Emergency: Whizzer's shtick on the show was his weak bladder, and it seems to be a problem his real-world self has as well, as he's always having to take bathroom breaks while delivering packages to Bosco's shop. Sam and Max exploit this to distract him.
- Super-Speed: Due to their excessive consumption of caffeinated beverages, the Soda Poppers all run much quicker than average humans.
- Tap on the Head: Snapping a person out of hypnosis apparently requires them to be knocked unconscious. As such, you are tasked with finding ways to do this to the Soda Poppers and later to Sam.
- The Three Trials: The Freelance police first have to de-brainwash the three Soda Poppers. Then Sam has to get himself diagnosed with the three symptoms of Artificial Personality Disorder so he can infiltrate Brady Culture's "clinic".
- Un Evil Laugh: While spying on Sam and Max's attempts to thwart the Soda Poppers, Brady Culture has a few false starts working on his evil laugh.
- Unhand Them, Villain!: During the interrogation scene, Max dangles Jimmy out the window in order to make him cough up the phone. After Sam answers it, we hear Jimmy yelling as if he's been dropped, before presumably hitting the ground outside:
