The kids begin to help save the environment by raising awareness of engines stalling and creating carbon dioxide emissions. Muffy, however, is worried that this slant against cars could harm Crosswire Motors.
Tropes in "Muffy's Car Campaign" include:
- Both Sides Have a Point: At the end of the episode, both parties come to a compromise. Francine agrees that they should've took Muffy's dad's business into consideration, knowing it would worry her. But Muffy points out that if she hadn't protested, they wouldn't have found a better alternative to the exhaust-heavy cars.
- Comically Missing the Point: Buster misunderstands what Muffy means by saying there's "bigger fish" to protest against.Muffy: We should be going after bigger fish than a few cars. And you know what that bigger fish is?
Buster: Whales? - Debating Names: The kids can't decide what name to go with for their environmental activism. Francine dubs them the Eco Kids, Buster wants Eco Ninjas, Arthur wants Eco Squad, and Binky later refers to them as the Eco Compadres, the name he likes best.
- Green Aesop: The kids start protesting against stalling exhaust engines to help prevent climate change. This worries Muffy, whose dad owns a car business, and a car-free city could put her family in trouble. She's relieved when her dad tells her that good businessmen adapt with the times, and their company is starting to sell electric buses, helping save the environment while also letting their business grow ethically.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Ed shows himself to be a good parent by saying that he cares about the environment because it's the same world Muffy will grow up in. He hears everyone out on their concerns about environmentally unfriendly cars and decides to start selling electric buses at his car dealership.
Brain advises Binky to poll the classmates to figure out if Mr. Ratburn's math test was too hard like he thinks. When the results come in, Binky starts doing more polls for change around the school, even though his polling methods are way off.
Tropes for "Truth or Poll" include:
- Actually a Good Idea: While they were added as an act of revenge by Brain, Binky actually admits to liking the flowers at the Tower of Pain and decides to keep them.
- Exact Words: Binky thinks a math test was too hard and polls students to see, but only about a third of the class agrees with him. He tries to prove his side by changing the question to "Could the math test have been easier?", which everyone agrees with, but only because it carries a different message; saying something was too hard and saying it could've been easier aren't the same sentiment.
- I've Heard of That — What Is It?: When Binky tells Arthur and Brain they were probably the only ones who didn't struggle with the math test:Arthur: Too bad you can't know what everyone thinks.
Brain: You could take a poll.
Binky: Yeah, smarty-pants, I'll just take a poll! ...What's a poll? - Mad at a Dream: In Binky's nightmare, Brain polls the students with "Do you think Binky should be put into a pie?" with 100% of students saying yes. Brain reveals he used a parallel to Binky's real-world logic to get the results. The next day, when Brain tells Binky that his polls are misleading, Binky replies, "Well, at least I'm not putting kids in pies!"
- Push Polling: Much of Binky's polls are biased to bring changes that he wants. For example, he gets the school to start serving his favorite flavor of ice cream because he claimed 100% of students liked it, but he actually asked them if they would rather have a new flavor of ice cream or no ice cream at all. Brain fights back, such as asking kids if they like flowers, and when they pass, he has them added to Binky's Tower of Pain.
