"This show is so infrequent that the last new episode came out when I was still Pharaoh."
-Yami Yugi
Tropes
- Abhorrent Admirer: While Yugi isn't exactly repulsed by Rebecca, he does seem slightly annoyed and flat-out states that he will never have sex with her.
- As You Know: Professor Hawkins explains how Duel Monsters is based on an ancient Egyptian game... which the protagonists already know about, along with every person on the planet with even the slightest knowledge of Yu-Gi-Oh!.
- Cliffhanger: Yugi is finally going to get answers about the spirit world and- WHAT DOES POT OF GREED DO?!
- Continuity Nod:
- Yugi objects to enslaving human beings no matter what the voice in his head tells him, a reference to Yami's many attempts to justify slavery in ancient Egypt.
- Joey wonders aloud whether the trend of old characters coming back will lead them to run into Johnny Steps
. - They reach a door, and Yami tells Yugi to 'stand back and let a pro handle this', a reference to when Yugi was 'bitch-slapped' by a door in Season 3.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Yugi and Yami make orgasmic noises while trying to pull free the sword together. Dark Magician Girl is not amused.
- Don't Explain the Joke: Yami makes yet another "Kuribohs are basically hairy testicles" style joke, which ends up falling flat due to overuse. His attempt to follow up makes it worse.Yami: ...Yugi. Balls.Yugi: Ah... y-yeah.
- Fandom Nod: The episode's title is a play on "puzzleshipping", which is the Yu-Gi-Oh! fandom's term for portraying Yugi and Yami Yugi as a romantic couple. The 4kids dub of season 4 in particular is (in)famous for the Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading going on between them.Yami: (holding hands with Yugi) Aaaaaaand ship confirmed.
- Free-Range Children: Yugi's first guess at the identity of a character whom he hasn't seen in forever is his parents.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Sexually Active Today?: Rex breaks off from telling the protagonists important plot information just to talk about a girl he "totally scored" with.
- Hypocritical Humor: Tristan gets into some variations of this twice.
- When Joey mentions Johnny Steps, Tristan wonders out loud how Joey knows who that is as if Tristan himself met the guy. Tristan was just as absent as Joey was for meeting Johnny Steps, so he shouldn't be acting like he met Johnny.
- Everyone, especially Yugi, is thoroughly unimpressed with Professor Hawkins and his credentials as a researcher, to the point where Tristan says that the guy's even dumber than him. Rebecca kicking him in the shin immediately after he says that prompts him to yell, "Ow, my penis!", showing that he's in no position to be calling others dumb.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: Téa feels threatened by Rebecca's attempts to get with Yugi, but Yugi has no romantic feelings to speak of for her.
- Lampshade Hanging: Tristan questions how Joey knows who Johnny Steps is when he wasn't even there during the single episode that character appeared in... which is also weird, because Tristan was also not present for that episode.
- Mythology Gag: Yugi has a nightmare that follows the exact plotline of the Yu-Gi-Oh! R spinoff manga.
- Never Say "Die": Like the previous episode, inverted. Yugi shows the Orichalcos stone to Professor Hawkins, saying it's "this shiny, green stone I from that guy I killed." The guy's soul was actually removed, but they don't seem to realize that.
- Running Gag: Téa read a book about that once. "That" is anything, from "Atlantis" to "killing" to "books".
- Shout-Out:
- The alternate Duel Monster dimension's possession of both a castle and a giant floating eye ball leads Yami to conclude that they are in Middle Earth.
- Yami later decides at random that the evil beast being unleashed must be Voldemort.
- Yugi expressly forbids everyone from making a Sharknado reference.
- Take That!:
- Professor Hawkins's lackluster exposition is chalked up to the fact that he got his archaeology degree online at the University of Phoenix.
- The movie Tomorrowland is called "a pile of shit". Harsh.
- Title Drop: Tristan pops out of nowhere just to celebrate this happening.
