L is for Love: A love letter addressed to "L" Loud appears in the house, and the family must find out who the letter is addressed to.
"Potty Mouth"
- Accidental Misnaming: Mr. Loud mistakenly calls Dr. Shuttleworth "Scuttlebutt."
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Something would distract Lily when the other Louds try to get her not to swear.
- Baby See, Baby Do: Subverted; when Lily's older siblings believe Lily to be saying the "D" word after hearing them say it, they try to get her to copy better behavior. Near the end of the episode, it is revealed that Lily just wanted a donut.
- Chekhov's Gag: Lisa being bald comes in handy when Lincoln and the rest of his sisters disguise her as Lily and swap her with the real Lily so that Dr. Shuttleworth won't suspect Lily's newfound profanity.
- Continuity Nod:
- At one point, Lisa raps a song that Blarney the Dinosaur sang at Lola and Lana's first concert as shown in "For Bros About to Rock".
- This isn't the first time Lori and Leni have argued over an article of clothing.
- After several long operation names, Lincoln finally thinks of a shorter name for this one.
- Dramatic Drop: Not by any of the siblings, but a picture frame would drop as they hear Lily curse or sound like cursing.
- Extra Digits: Lisa has an extra toe one of her feet thanks to the nuclear experiment that made her bald.
- Foreshadowing: Very easy to miss, but the first time Lily supposedly said the D word, it was after Lynn changed the channel to a cooking show, Operation Dessert Storm, where one of the objects featured on the screen is a donut.
- Gasp!: Several times, Lily's "swearing" is reacted to by a sudden gasp and Dramatic Drop above.
- Goo Goo Getup: As part of their plan to prevent Dr. Shuttleworth from hearing Lily saying the "D" word, Lincoln and his sisters disguise Lisa as Lily and swap them out. Unfortunately, this doesn't go as planned, as Lisa ends up displaying her Child Prodigy talents, and when Luna tells her to act like a one-year-old, Lisa decides to poop her diaper.
- Hairstyle Malfunction: While trying to get Lily not to say the "D" word, Lisa drops her microphone onto her chemicals, causing an explosion that blows her hair off. It's then revealed that Lisa's hair is actually a wig, and a failed nuclear experiment caused her to lose her hair.
- Here We Go Again!: This episode ends with Lily cursing for real after Charles takes her donut.
- Hidden Depths: Lisa, of all people, is revealed to like rapping and dancing.
- High-Pressure Emotion: Whenever someone is about to say the "D" word, their face turns partially red and a steaming teakettle sound is heard.
- It's a Long Story: Lisa's explanation for why she has to wear dentures.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Whenever one of the Louds is close to saying the "D" wordnote , they either start singing "Jingle Bells" or swap the word entirely to say a compound sentence.
- Literal-Minded: When told to act like a 1-year-old, Lisa decides to poop her diaper.
- Little Brother Is Watching: After hearing Lily say what they think is "the D-word," Lincoln and the rest of the girls worry that they could be a bad influence on their youngest sister (especially with how impressionable babies can be).
- Lost Food Grievance: When Charles steals Lily's donut in the last few seconds in the episode, her High-Pressure Emotion shows before she swears for real.
- Mondegreen Gag: "Damn it", "donut", and the series' Share Phrase "dang it" all sound pretty similar to each other to an untrained ear. Lily's siblings believe that she said the "damn it" when she was actually trying to say "donut" (though the entirety of "damn it" itself is never audibly phrased in the episode). Said phrase is otherwise only ever said once by Lincoln in the entire episode.
- Music/Age Dissonance: It is revealed in this episode that Lisa likes rapping and dancing to songs not suitable for 4-year-old children, and because she and Lily (who's still just a baby) share a room, Lisa worries she might have been a bad influence on Lily. She attempts to be a good influence on Lily by rapping a Blarney the Dinosaur song.
- Nose Nuggets: Lily sneezes into Lincoln's shirt, causing it to get drenched with snot.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Lisa (somewhat unwillingly) disguises herself as Lily for the interview, but despite being bigger than Lily, bald, and having dots for eyes, Dr. Shuttleworth doesn't see through it.
- Precision F-Strike: Although also subjected to Sound-Effect Bleep, it is significantly implied that Lily ends up saying something much worse than the "D" word at the very end of the episode after Charles takes her donut.
- Rage Breaking Point: Rita, after the kids, still worried for Lily’s use of words, cause one too many disruptions. Her face turns red, and she orders them out of the living room and away from Lily.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: It turned out Lily was trying to say "donut", meaning her siblings' effort to keep her from swearing were unnecessary...until Charles steals her donut, leading her to swear for real.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: The Louds' flashbacks to them saying the "D" word have the swear censored by a noise. Subverted at the end, when Lily's swear is covered with an actual bleep.
- Sudden Downer Ending: Played for laughs: As the episode is closing out, it seems all is well when Lily finally has a donut until Charles steals it. Lily becomes so angry that she blurts out an actual bad word, causing the family to gasp in horror.
- Swear Word Plot: Lincoln and his sisters believe that Lily is swearing when she says "Dannit!", so they try to get her not to say it when Dr. Shuttleworth visits to interview her.
- Symbol Swearing: Seen on the title card.
- Tear-Apart Tug-of-War: Lori and Leni fight over a sweater, which then tears down the middle, causing them both to swear (censored by the washing machine beeping).
- Truth in Television: Babies really can be as impressionable as this episode implies, as they will often learn new words from what they hear around them, including swear words. After Dr. Shuttleworth teaches Lily to say “donut” (the actual “D” word she was trying to say the entire time) more clearly, she notes how the baby is a fast learner.
- T-Word Euphemism: Lily is actually trying to say "donut", but her siblings think she is saying what they refer to as "the 'D' word".
- Very Special Episode: About swearing and profanity.
"L is for Love"
- Bait-and-Switch: Double-layered: at first, it seems like Luna is the one who's been receiving love letters. It's actually Mrs. Loud recreating something she did for Mr. Loud 20 years ago. And the audience was led to believe that Luna's crush, Sam, was a guy.
- Banned in China: This episode was banned in Greece, Poland, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey and Sri Lanka due to Luna and Sam's relationship.
- Cargo Ship: Invoked. Lily's crush is her big teddy bear. This is justified since she is still a baby.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Leni sees the mailman deliver another love letter to the house, she immediately concludes that he is the secret admirer.
- Continuity Nod:
- Mrs. Loud tells the kids the story about how she first met Mr. Loud when she was a crossing guard, something that was previously mentioned in "Cover Girls". She also mentions that Mr. Loud studied in England for a semester. And we already knew that Mr. Loud was a fan of music, especially rock.
- Remember when Luna said that Lincoln’s female teacher was hot?
- Credits Gag: For an odd reason, the names of Mom and Dad's younger selves are listed beside their usual listings in the closing credits.
- A Day in the Limelight: While not obvious at first, the episode focuses more and more on Luna as it goes on, due to it setting up a huge Wham Shot of who her crush turned out to be.
- Distaff Counterpart: All of the Loud sisters (sans Lori, since she was already revealed to be dating Bobby, and Luna, since her crush is female) are revealed to have an opposite-sex love interest who have similar personalities to them.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end of the episode, Luna finally gets up the courage to confess her feelings for Sam in a love letter she sneaks into her locker. As she secretly observes Sam reading the letter and happily smiling in response, Luna also smiles at realizing she has a chance with her after all.
- Foreshadowing: There are some unnoticeable hints that Luna's crush is actually female:
- "Sam" is technically a unisex name.
- Luna never uses male pronouns to refer to Sam whenever mentioned.
- The first time Luna is seen with the rocker trio, she has her eyes fully open and her mouth showing her teeth; the male member's facial expression doesn't match hers, but the blond female's does. Also, some other visual clues are that Sam is always in the middle of the screen while her friends are off to the side, and Sam also wears much brighter colors then her bandmates meaning your eyes are naturally drawn to her.
- When Luna is watching the rocker trio pass her on the bus, her eyes appear to follow the blonde female in the middle.
- Luna's guitar pick (her "token") is purple with a pink heart, colors usually associated with females.
- Luna expresses a lot of doubt that Sam would return her feelings. While that's a reasonable fear for anybody who has a crush, since Sam is also female it's very likely that Luna was scared that Sam might not be attracted to females and would be unable to reciprocate Luna's romantic feelings.
- When learning the truth behind the love letters, Leni asks in confusion "Sam likes Dad?". Of course, this is Leni we're talking about.
- The male brunette and the blond female are seen together for most of the episode.
- Gayngst: Played with. While Luna is by far the most nervous around her crush, and feels like it's impossible for them to like her, it's not really clear if Luna is feeling this way because her crush is a girl and was afraid of Incompatible Orientation or if she just has low self-esteem when it comes to love in general.
- Hold Up Your Score: Lola remembers her crush Winston holding up a "10" card during one of her pageants. She later tries to impress him by holding up a "10" after he falls on his face while doing down a slide.
- Improbable Age: Winston, a boy around Lola's age, is a member of the jury during one of her pageants.
- Locker Mail: Luna puts her love letter in Sam's locker.
- Love Letter Lunacy: The plot centers on finding who is the "L. Loud" an admirer is sending letters to. It turns out that Mrs. Loud wrote it for her husband, a throwback to when she first did it to get his attention 20 years ago.
- Luminescent Blush:
- Lola when her crush, Winston, gave her a 10.
- Lincoln when Paige flirts with him at the arcade.
- Benny when Luan made him sit down on a Whoopee Cushion.
- One-Steve Limit: The fact that all the Loud siblings could be "L. Loud" is what sets off the competition. And of course, Mr. Loud is Lynn Sr.
- Pie in the Face: Luan's token of affection to her crush Benny.
- Queer Establishing Moment: For the majority of the episode, the audience is led to believe that Luna's crush, Sam, is a boy, only for said boy to walk past the locker Luna put a note in and for a girl to open the locker instead.
- Red Herring: Among the trio of guitarists, only one of them was a guy, making the audience assume he was Sam. Sam turns out to be the blonde girl in the group.
- The Reveal: Luna is revealed to be bisexual.
- Running Gag:
- One of the siblings interrupts Lisa when she attempts to talk during a meeting.
- Lana keeps gasping and swallowing her gum.
- Satellite Love Interest: Zig-zagged. While we know enough about the Loud kids to build a character, with the exception of Sam and (debtable) Benny, we don't know too much about their crushes other than the fact that they're nice people who are the crushes of the Loud kids. It doesn't help that, with the exception of Sam and Benny, they haven't appeared since this episode aired.
- Series Continuity Error: This episode establishes different love interests for Lincoln and Lucy.note Granted, there's nothing to suggest they can't have more than one crush.note
- Ship Sinking: Played straight and subverted at the same time. Luan/Maggie is sunk when it's revealed that Luan's crush is male, while Lincoln/Ronnie Anne and Lucy/Rocky are ambiguous.
- Spit Shake: Lynn and Francisco do one.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Female and male example. Most of the Loud kids are attracted to their crushes because of how nice they are.
- Squick: Invoked.
- Lisa gives her crush a still beating pig's heart as a token of her affection.
- Lynn flings her jockstrap into Francisco's face.
- Waxing Lyrical: "Dream on Lunes, you're the owner of a lonely heart."
- Wham Line: "See ya later, Sam!"note
- Wham Shot: The episode ends with Luna slipping her love letter into Sam's locker, and hides around the corner to observe. The trio of guitarists seen throughout the episode walk past...and the blonde girl of the group stops to open the locker. Her locker.
- Whoopee Cushion: Luan uses one on Benny.
