A Plot: Beverly learns Adam is failing Spanish and intervenes.
B Plot: Barry gets a job in hope of impressing Murray; Erica wants credit for being a responsible teenager.
- Double Standard: Erica's role is focused entirely on this, as Murray sees Barry's employment at (and subsequent firing from) a pizza place as rites of passage that are deserving of bonding opportunities, while Erica's been employed at a clothing store for some time. The trope is even name-dropped by her when Barry gets his own La-Z-Boy chair.Erica: That is such a double standard!
Barry: Not it's not. It just means I win because I'm a boy and you're not.
Erica: That is the very definition of a double standard, idiot! - Dude, Where's My Respect?: Erica demands respect when Barry's lie is revealed but Murray sees it as another bonding opportunity, citing all of the jobs she's worked and successfully maintained for absolutely no praise.
- Irony: Beverly is finally convinced Adam belongs in Remedial Spanish when he's unable to understand the question "what is your favorite movie", the topic Adam would be most knowledgeable about in English.
- Maintain the Lie: Barry's fired after his first day on the job, but continues to successfully deny it to Murray...until Erica gets the ex-boss to come to their door and demand payment.
- Moment Killer: An otherwise happy conclusion for Erica, bonding with her father over a beer, is denied when Beverly interrupts and grounds her for possessing alcohol (and Murray passes the buck to avoid his wife's wrath).
- Private Tutor: Beverly convinces Adam's Spanish teacher to become his, though it's less "educational" and more "just telling him the answers". The deal falls apart when other students notice the sudden change in Adam's grade despite his lack of knowledge and try to get in on it.
- Rite of Passage: Murray spends a few scenes trying to have one with Barry. He realizes at the end that Erica's the child truly deserving of one, but thanks to Beverly, it doesn't pan out.
- The Scapegoat: Narrator-Adam considers Beverly's ability to find fault in anyone other than her children when they fail a true talent. She's shown blaming a Driver's Ed teacher to get Barry a licence, and tempted the Spanish teacher into giving Adam private tutoring lessons after blaming her for Adam's grades.
- Serious Business: Dave, the manager of the Domino's Pizza where Barry works, takes delivering pizzas very seriously. He even talks about the Noid (the Peeve Goblin character used in Domino's advertising in the Eighties) as if it were evil incarnate.
- Shockingly Expensive Bill: Barry gets fired from a pizza delivery job for failing to deliver (and then eating) $300 of food.
- Terrible Interviewees Montage: Inverted, in that the episode begins and ends with Barry being the terrible interviewee at a variety of establishments.What's my biggest weakness? I have to say I'm honest and I'm lazy. What's your biggest weakness?
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Who would win in a fight against a tiger and a bear? An excellent question that you didn't ask, but that I'm willing to discuss at length.
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Minimum wage? No, what's maximum wage? - Title Drop: "La biblioteca es libros?" ("The library is books?") is the only response Adam can come up with when asked, in Spanish, what his favorite film is.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Erica spends the entire episode wanting Murray's respect. Just when it seems like she'll get it, she ends up being punished by Beverly for holding a beer Murray gave her, while Murray claims he caught her with it.
