Steve is selected to sing the national anthem at an event honoring veterans, but can't carry the right tune. So Stan takes him to a Vietnam War reenactment.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: After forcing him through a war reenactment to get Steve to sing the national anthem in a dignified matter, Stan lets him sing it his own way, and he embarrasses the everloving hell out of him. Zig-zagged, in that it's implied Steve made a conscious effort faking the PTSD in such a graphic and severe manner that Stan would be effectively forced for once to accept Steve's quirk in how he chose to sing it just to see him happy again.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Johnny Mind's doctor asks how he, a quadruple amputee, somehow managed to move the curtain over his bed.
- Call-Back: Roger plays the role of Stan's Vietnamese interrogator. He had previously mentioned that he fought for the Viet Cong in the 60s.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Roger tortures Stan for their pay-per-view code, forcing him to listen as he reads Michael Patrick King's 700 page first draft of the Sex and the City movie.
- The Ending Changes Everything: The fact Steve immediately sings the anthem how he showed Stan at the beginning of the episode implies he faked the PTSD to get back at Stan for putting him through the hell of his "teaching" him and force him to let him sing the anthem his own way, no matter how embarrassing it was for him.
- Everyone Has Standards: As much of a right-wing blowhard as he is, Stan doesn't like Civil War reenactments because the only people they attract, besides historians, are racists.
- Foregone Conclusion: Roger warns Stan that he'll get the Pay-Per-View code one way or another, and should just surrender it to avoid any shenanigans. He later tortures and interrogates Stan until he does give the code. When it turns out to be fake, Hayley gives him the real one in exchange for a bird he was planning to eat, but he tricks her.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: After learning that the pay-per-view special costs $500, Stan refuses to let Roger purchase it, saying he wouldn't pay that much to see Barbra Streisand do Céline Dion. Before wondering if he would, where he would watch them do it, and how it would look on his credit card bill.
- Idiot Ball: Instead of Roger just shutting up and letting Stan think "Barbara Does Celine" is $4.99 to get the pay per view code, Roger reveals it's actually $499. Which Stan immediately refuses to pay.
- Mushroom Samba: Roger experiences this after eating the Ortolan during the Barbra Streisand special.
- Not in the Face!: Buckle gets his legs "blown off by a grenade" and asks Steve to finish him off. Steve shoots him in the face, despite being asked not to, causing Buckle to squirm in pain afterwards.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Stan realizes he went way too far with getting Steve to sing the anthem normally when the usually happy-go-lucky Steve is so distraught by disappointing him with his snap at the ceremony he secluded himself at the golf club "reliving" his "memories" of the "battle".
- Paintball Episode: The re-enactors fight with paintballs. They also use markers as knives, pinecones as grenades, and at one point, Steve uses a paint sprayer as a flamethrower.
- Pyrrhic Victory:
- Roger has all of the items needed to enjoy "Barbara does Celine". He then trips out from eating the Ortolan and supposedly misses the whole show.
- Stan is so successful in getting Steve to believe the effects of war that he inadvertently ruins the ceremony when it causes Steve to have a PTSD "flashback" when the fireworks go off. He ultimately has to eat his words and let him sing it his way, rendering his efforts All for Nothing.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Steve becomes this after the reenactment is over. It's implied at the very end he may have faked the whole thing to ensure Stan wouldn't have any problem with just singing it in the exaggerated way he wanted to to begin with.
- Shout-Out: The episode ends with an insane veteran being visited by his commanding officer, who convinces him that the war is over.
- Tempting Fate: After their base camp is wiped out, Principal Lewis tells Steve, Buckle, and Dick that they'll be fine so long as they stay with him. He's promptly shot.
- Torture Is Ineffective: Even after getting tortured by Roger, Stan manages to retain his willpower and not give him the code.
- War Is Glorious: Stan definitely has this view, thinking that experiencing war will make Steve a better singer.Stan: The national anthem is about war, and you'll never be able to sing it until you've been to war!
Steve: ("I don't like the sound of that" tone) Can you expand on that idea? - War Is Hell: Just two days in the reenactment is enough to give Steve PTSD.
- War Reenactors: Stan's NRA friends rent out a golf course to partake in a Vietnam War reenactment with paintballs. Steve initially thinks they're going to be in a Civil War reenactment, which Stan describes as "only for historians and people who hate blacks."
