One of the Boys: When Lincoln wonders what his life would be like if he had ten brothers instead of ten sisters, Lisa offers him a peek at this alternate reality.
A Tattler's Tale: Lincoln and his sisters (minus Lola) have a "secrets club" where they confess to stuff that they're hiding from others (especially their parents) outside of each other. Because of her reputation as a tattletale, Lincoln and the rest of their sisters refuse to let Lola join—but when she somehow finds out their secrets anyway, she blackmails them into doing her bidding.
"One of the Boys" provides examples of:
- Abuse Discretion Shot: Downplayed, considering that nothing that happens is too intense for the show's age rating. The moment Luke shoves Lincoln's head in the toilet isn't explicitly seen, instead taking cues from background noise and how Lincoln appears in the aftermath, with a wet face and hair.
- All Just a Dream: In the end, it turns out that the events of the episode were just some really weird nightmare that Lincoln was having.
- All There in the Script: Lane (Luan's male counterpart) and Leif (Lana's male counterpart) are only named in the script. That said, Lane is name-dropped in the Latin American dub, and it is Luke (Luna's male counterpart) whose name isn't dropped.
- Alternate Self: There are two different realities shown:
- 1.) Lincoln goes to a dimension where he has ten brothers instead of ten sisters, making him the middle child of eleven sons.
- 2.) Lincoln goes to dimension where the sexes of himself and all ten of his sisters are the opposite...meaning that "Linka" Loud is the middle child and only daughter of the eleven Loud-kids.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Lana and Lola's male counterparts, Leif and Lexx, during the second half of the episode. They steal Lincoln's clean shirts for themselves because they don't have any clean shirts of their own. The latter really seems to have taken the cake, as he's the one who kickstarts the Keep Away game towards the end.
- Big Brother Bully: Not exactly the case with the Loud brothers, but they do become bigger jerks in ways the sisters wouldn't do to Lincoln during the second half of the episode.
- Big Brother Instinct: Much like Lincoln's sisters in his original dimension, the brothers prove to be this in the dimension where it's one girl and ten boys—seriously, other than the fact that sexes of Lincoln and his sisters are the exact opposite, the dimension with Linka Loud and her brothers is more or less exactly the same as Lincoln's original dimension. It's to the point where, if the brothers happen to hear their sister screaming in the middle of the night, all ten of them run to her room to see if she's okay—they even offer to stay with her until she falls asleep.
- Butt-Monkey: Lynn Sr. in the dimension when Lincoln has ten brothers instead of ten sisters, where the boys dogpile on him every chance they get.
- Casting Gag: The four eldest Loud brothers are voiced by the same men who voice the 2012 versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who are also owned by Nickelodeon.
- Close Up On Head: When Lincoln finally escapes the brother dimension and ends up in his room, we are treated to several shots of his face before it's revealed he ended up in another gender-swapped dimension where he's also genderbent, just before the reveal it was All Just a Dream.
- Crossdressing Voices:
- Though the four eldest Loud brothers are voiced by men, the other six are voiced by the same actresses who voice their female counterparts.
- Linka, just like Lincoln, is voiced by Collin Dean.
- Dream Within a Dream: Lincoln wakes up thinking he made it back to his universe in time, only to find out he's now in a dimension where he's a girl with ten brothers. Then he wakes up.
- Fartillery: The brothers unleash a Dutch oven-styled dogpile on Lincoln in a crude game of "Say Uncle".
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- When Lincoln escapes the all-boys dimension and supposedly ends up back home, he can be seen with longer hair as he hugs Bun-Bun.
- A photo of a female version of Clyde can be seen in Linka's room.
- Gender Bender: The sisters all become boys, while Lincoln himself becomes a girl later on...somehow.
- Gendered Outfit: Most of the genderbent Louds wear modified versions of the originals' outfits in accordance to gender. Even the counterparts to the sisters who don't wear relatively feminine clothing, including Lynn, Lana and Lisa, bear notable differences.
- Loki wears sneakers in contrast to Lori's slip-ons, his tank top is noticeably oversized to an extent, and his shorts appear to be of a looser type than Lori's cargo-like ones.
- Whereas Leni has a turquoise dress, Loni has a sweater with that color, alongside a dress shirt, formal pants and brown dress shoes that contrast Leni's sandals.
- Luna's skirt is replaced with pants for Luke, with a color change from light purple to black. Luke's T-shirt also has less cropped sleeves than Luna's, and he notably wears a jean vest, something not present in Luna's outfit.
- Luan's counterpart Lane changes her tank top and skirt to a short-sleeved dress shirt and shorts with suspenders.
- Lynn's equivalent, who shares her name (and is officially referred to as "Boy Lynn"), wears a different jersey with short sleeves in place of long ones and a zero number that replace's Lynn's one.
- Lucy's black dress, striped tank top and arm warmers get changed to a T-shirt over a striped long-sleeved shirt for Lars, with the addition of jeans and sneakers in contrast to Lucy's slip-ons.
- Lana's T-shirt is removed from Leif, and her Kiddy Coveralls' legs are shortened for him. Plus, Leif's backwards baseball cap has a wider hole than Lana's.
- Lola and Lexx have the most contrasting outfits overall. Whereas Lola dresses in a pink princess dress with opera gloves, a sash and tiara, Lexx has a crown, white shirt, greyish-blue pants and brown short gloves and boots, with the pink being relegated to just a cape. Lexx's concept design retained the pink color for his whole attire, though.
- Levi's white lab coat and green gloves take place of Lisa's green sweater.
- Averted with Lily and Leon, which is a given, since they wear nothing but diapers.
- In place of Lincoln's polo and jeans, Linka wears a blouse and skirt, and although she wasn't seen with footwear in the episode, concept art shows that she would wear slip-ons rather than Lincoln's sneakers.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Linka's bedroom has lots of stuffed animals, as opposed to the action figures Lincoln keeps in his room.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- In all the dimensions shown, the male version of Lynn remains pretty much the same—in the dimension where Lincoln has ten brothers, he's basically just a harsher version of the original female!Lynn, while in the world with Linka Loud, he's more or less exactly the same Jerk with a Heart of Gold as his female self.
- In the dimension where the Loud siblings' genders are reversed (i.e., one girl and ten boys), the brothers are just as caring and protective of their only sister as the sisters are of their only brother. During the episode, both groups even check up on Linka/Lincoln when they hear them scream in the middle of the night to make sure they're okay and comfort them from the nightmare that they had.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Lola and Lisa telling Lincoln not to eat peanut butter straight out of the jar using his booger picking finger. Double dipping a shared food container is unsanitary even without the booger picking finger.
- Keep Away: Referred to by name when Lincoln's "brothers" take his dimension-hopping watch.
- Luminescent Blush: Lincoln gets one when the Loud boys tease him about Ronnie Anne.
- Match Cut: When Lincoln screams after becoming a girl upon arriving in the wrong dimension, the camera zooms in on him, and the view dissolves to a similar shot of him in bed, as he wakes up realizing it was all a dream.
- Morality Chain: In the dimension where Lincoln's a girl named Linka, "she" appears to be this towards her brothers, as they're shown to be just as caring and protective towards their sister as the sisters are towards Lincoln in his original dimension.
- No Sympathy: When Lincoln injures himself, the loud brothers laugh instead with Loni saying to walk it off.
- Not Hyperbole: After Lincoln smashes her watch, assuming it was the watch from his dream, Lori tells him that he's going to pay. As in, with money.
- One of the Boys: Right there in the title —
- Girl!Lynn's status as this is lampshaded in how identical Boy!Lynn is to her, only missing the eyelashes and ponytail.
- Leon, Lily's male-counterpart, looks just like Lily but without the eyelashes.
- Palette Swap: The gender-bent Mom and Dad are basically just themselves with their outfit colors swapped.
- Pants-Pulling Prank: Lincoln gets pantsed by both the male and female versions of Lynn.
- Pet the Dog: The Loud brothers can be bigger jerks towards Lincoln than his sisters, but in the reality where Lincoln's a girl named "Linka", they are shown to be very protective and considerate towards her.
- Portal Door: The watch Lisa gives Lincoln can create portals to alternate universes.
- Race Against the Clock: Lincoln has to return to his original universe within 24 hours of activating the time watch, or he'll be stuck in the alternate universe forever.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Lane (male Luan) and Lexx (male Lola) have elements of pink on their attire, but they're just as roughhousing as the rest of their brothers.
- Rule 63: Lincoln's ten sisters are shown as ten brothers named Loki (Lori), Loni (Leni), Luke (Luna), Lane (Luan), Lynn (now a boy), Lars (Lucy), Leif (Lana), Lexx (Lola), Levi (Lisa) and Leon (Lily) in two different dimensions—the first dimension is where Lincoln's the middle child of eleven sons while the second dimension is where Lincoln (now a girl named "Linka") is the middle child and only daughter of eleven kids.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Lincoln, when he concludes that having ten brothers isn't as great as he thought it would be:Lincoln: Remember what I said about staying here forever? Yeah, that's not happening.
- The Smurfette Principle: As an inversion to her male-counterpart, Linka Loud's the middle child and only daughter of eleven kids.
- Sobriquet Sex Switch: Among the genderbent characters:
- Lori becomes "Loki", Leni becomes "Loni", Luna becomes "Luke", Luan becomes "Lane", Lucy becomes "Lars", Lana becomes "Leif", Lola becomes "Lexx", Lisa becomes "Levi", and Lily becomes "Leon". The only brother whose name remains the same from his correspondent sister is Lynn, due to her Gender-Blender Name (she's named after her father).
- Lincoln's female version is named "Linka".
- The script sheet shows that Bobby's female version (who's never seen nor mentioned at any point in the episode) is named "Bebe".
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Despite the Loud brothers in the first dimension being all boys, they all behave just as Girl!Lynn in how they treat Lincoln daily. It's even lampshaded by Lincoln at the end of the episode:Lincoln: I'm so glad my sisters are nothing like my brothers. (Lynn comes back and pulls down his pants) Except for Lynn.
- Swirlie: Lincoln receives one from Luke.
- Toilet Paper Trail: After receiving a swirlie from Luke, Lincoln walks down the hallway with an entire roll of toilet paper stuck to his foot. It even provides the page image for this trope.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: After spending a good day with his brothers, Lincoln decides that he wants to stay with them. However, this is also the point where they all start bullying and belittling him, convincing him otherwise.
- Vocal Evolution: Since Lincoln is now voiced by Collin Dean instead of Grant Palmer, his voice is back to the original high pitch it had been at the start of the series (albeit a little whinier).
- Warm Milk Helps You Sleep: When the brothers are checking up on Linka after they heard her scream in the middle of the night, Lexx asks if she wants some warm milk.
- Wham Line: When Lincoln initially tries getting back to his original dimension but sees that he still has ten brothers, he (at first) thinks that he's still in the dimension where he's the middle child of eleven sons. But when the brothers (who all have very concerned looks on their faces) start treating him nicely instead of bullying him, Lincoln gets confused and questions them on it. This causes Loni (Leni's male counterpart) to say this:Loni: Aww. Want us to stay here until you fall asleep, Linka?
"A Tattler's Tale" contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Lincoln tells his sisters Lola's secret, Lynn's response is "Man, this is juicy!" We then see that she was actually referring to the burger she is eating. She then adds, "And you got some really good dirt on Lola, too." Luan gives Lynn a thumbs-up at her pun.
- Big Blackout: Luna's big secret is that she caused a town-wide blackout due to overloading her amplifier.
- Blackmail: Lola blackmails her siblings into being her slaves by revealing their secrets, like having Lincoln be her butler, making Lisa do her homework for her, and having Luan as her personal court jester.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Besides Lincoln, Lola speaks to the audience at the end.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: Lincoln and Lindsey Sweetwater while they talk in the closet.
- Cactus Cushion: Lola puts a cactus outside her window which Lincoln ends up landing on, as a punishment for reading her diary.
- Captivity Harmonica: After getting grounded, Lola plays one whilst wearing a "Rosie the Riveter"-type outfit.
- Childish Pillow Fight: Lana and Lynn are seen having one at the beginning of the episode.
- Continuity Nod: A Loud sibling takes the blame for something they didn't do once again.
- Crazy-Prepared: Lola hides a warning note to any potential snooper under her mattress, warning them to get out. She hides another one taped to the bottom of her trash bin. Finally, she hides a third one attached to the cactus standing under her bedroom window, which Lincoln lands on after fleeing through the window.
- A Day in the Limelight: This is the first episode to focus on Lola.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: When Lynn says, "Clearly, we've got a rat!", Leni thinks she means an actual rat.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Lincoln goes to a beauty pageant in order to get some dirt on Lola when Mr. Grouse sarcastically asks him if he's going to one after seeing him wear one of Lola's pageant-tiaras (but then genuinely wishes him good luck when he thinks that Lincoln's actually going to compete in one).
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Lindsey Sweetwater, Lola's biggest pageant-rival. Judging by her win in the Little Miss Cutie Pie Pageant back in "Making the Case", as well as her descriptions to Lincoln, it's possible she was the girl all the way to the right.
- Hidden Wire: Lola hides a microphone in her tiara, which she left in the room where her siblings are holding their secret meeting, allowing her to discover their secrets.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: After Lola goes to their parents to take the blame for all the stuff her siblings did, she confesses to Lincoln and the rest of their sisters that all she really wanted was to be to part of their group and spend time with them. When Lincoln (speaking for himself and the rest of their sisters) questions why Lola blackmailed them in the first place if all she wanted to do was spend time with them, Lola admits that she initially figured blackmailing was the only way to make it happen, but after the other siblings found out her secret, she realizes she's going about it the wrong way.
- Loophole Abuse: After being let into the secret club at the end, Lola proceeds to tell the secrets she learned to her stuffed animals. After all, they won't be talking.
- Noodle Incident:
- It isn't revealed what secrets Leni, Luan, Lynn, Lisa and Lily have for Lola to blackmail them in the first place.
- Whatever Lola did to the other pageant girls to make them so terrified of her.
- Whatever dirt Lincoln manages to get from Lindsay to use against Lola.
- Pain to the Ass: Lincoln sits on a tiara with a microphone attached, leading him to realize that Lola has been eavesdropping. He later ends up landing on a cactus that Lola has placed outside her window.
- Plot Hole:
- It's strange that Lola didn't know her siblings found out she was eavesdropping, if her microphone was on the whole time.
- Lola couldn't have known everyone's secrets, because she threw down her microphone after the others already discussed their secrets.
- However, after throwing down her tiara (which had the mic hidden in it), Lincoln summarized all the secrets his sisters revealed.
- Reveal Shot: While Lincoln is in Lola's room and he hears her coming, he rushes to find a hiding place only for Lola to appear and shout out, "BUSTED!"...then the camera zooms out to show she's actually scolding her teddy bear.
- Ripped from the Headlines: One of the Freeze-Frame Bonus when Lola asked Luna to give her the middle seat is Mr. Loud's paper with the article "Savino Trial Takes A Turn".
- Secret-Keeper: The whole point of the secrets club is that the siblings share things they hide from their parents with each other to get it off their chests, with everyone keeping the secrets they hear the others tell safe.
- Step Servant: Lola listens in on her siblings sharing their secrets, and threatens to rat them out to their parents. She blackmails them by making them do many things (like take the marshmallows out of her cereal so she can only eat them, and making them sing Old McDonald.)
- Take Our Word for It: Combined with The Unreveal—we never find what Lola's big secret is. All we can gather is that, judging from the reactions of Lincoln and his sisters (including Lola herself), Lola's secret is very bad.
- Taking the Heat: Though she does do this as a way to earn her siblings' trust, but Lola's secret is apparently so bad that she'd rather take the blame for all the stuff Lincoln and the rest of their sisters did and get grounded for it than risk having anyone else (particularly their parents) find out about it.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: With help from Lola's pageant rival, Lindsay Sweetwater, Lincoln and the other sisters find out a dirty secret about her and threaten to tell their parents said secret if she tells them theirs.
- Unconventional Wedding Dress: Lucy's big secret is that she dyed their Mom's wedding dress black in a pretend wedding to her vampire bust, Edwin.
- Watch the Paint Job: Lori’s secret she hides from Dad is that she accidentally scratched Vanzilla with her jewel-embedded purse.
- You Are Grounded!: When Lola takes the blame for the stuff her siblings did, she gets grounded for a month.
