A Plot: Murray and Pop-Pop (Murray's dad) have a message war after getting their first-ever answering machines. Erica attempts to intervene, which only escalates things.
B Plot: Beverly (and the guidance counselor) worries about Adam's social standing when he starts spending his lunch time with some geeks in the computer room.
- Arc Words: Another mention of the other Adam Goldberg is mentioned when Adam is trying to determine where he fits in at school, which ties to events later in the season.
- Be Yourself:
- In the A Plot, while Erica was against the insulting phone messages to the point of trying to just delete them to end the argument, she ends up admitting that they at least helped Murray and Pop-Pop interact more than they had before, and she accepts that they're better off communicating the way they want to rather than how she would like them to.
- In the B Plot, Adam wants to be himself and hang with the nerds, but it takes the whole episode for his mom to let him do so at the cost of his potential popularity.
- Brick Joke: In the pre-opening scene, while trying to find a clique to associate with in the cafeteria, David Kim ends up panicking and going with the skateboarders. Later, while Mr. Glascott tries to set up a special cafeteria table for Adam as an alternative to hanging with nerds, David's now dressed in full grunge gear with the skaters. And even later, he's seen with his arm in a sling and wearing his regular outfit.
- The Cameo: The two nerds both named "Mike Levy" from Adam's childhood play the roles of the computer lab teachers.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Erica's first attempt to end the feud between Murray and Pop-Pop is to delete all the answering machine messages and lie that Pop-Pop simply gave up. However, instead of "taking the win", Murray ends up hogging the phone entirely while waiting for a call that already came.
- Hypocritical Humor: Mr. Glascott referring to himself as "super-cool" and wanting Adam to be more popular than the nerds, in denial that he's actually a nerd himself.
- I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Johnny Atkins ends up on Beverly's bad side after bullying Adam, and claims that her "random locker search" is unfair because he's been singled out as the guy most likely to keep a doobie hidden behind his trapper keeper...and then realizes what he just said.
- Pun: Beverly, upon sabotaging the computer lab by inserting Kraft-brand cheese into a floppy drive, calls herself crafty and tells the computer to say cheese.
- Twisting the Words: When Murray and Pop-Pop are brought to a sporting event together to try and get them to communicate without insulting phone messages, they refuse to talk directly to each other, and relay their messages through the rest of the family. Barry's interpretations are all incredibly rude, Erica's are overly polite, and Pops' are straight-to-the-point. Comically, they're all sitting in a straight line and only passing their version to the person next to them, meaning that only Barry and Pops get the overly polite versions.
- Voicemail Confusion: In The Tag, Erica tries to call home to get an emergency ride, and hears Barry's voice. Said voice alternates between claiming it's the real Barry, and that it's just a long answering machine message, leading to Erica's frustration.
