While filling in as the substitute home-ec teacher, Bob turns the class into a booming restaurant. Meanwhile, Linda gives Teddy some dancing lessons in preparation for an upcoming wedding.
Trope & Deliver:
- Bait-and-Switch: When Bob hands the head chef's spatula to Tina, she suddenly believes she'll be the head chef...until Bob quickly tells her to hand it to Zeke. Infuriated, she stubbornly holds the spatula to keep Zeke from taking it.
- Bittersweet Ending: Bob is unjustly fired and the Home-Ec-staurant is shut down, but he manages to inspire the students like never before, reconciles with Tina, and gets the last laugh on Caf-Co with his final lunch service.
- Brick Joke: Linda tells Bob to remove her pepper spray from her purse. Bob not only doesn't remove it, he later threatens to use it on the students after his first day doesn't go so well.
- When talking about Metal Shop, the kids make reference to the high risk of losing fingers there. When Tina transfers to Metal Shop, one of the students is shown missing part of a finger.
- Brutal Honesty: Mr. Frond once more shows off what an insensitive prick he is when he explains to Bob that Home-Ec is regarded as a dumping ground for "Dumdums". When Bob replies that his daughter is in that class, Frond doesn't back down.
- Chekhov's Gag: Tina's half-assed attempt at metalworking comes in handy when they need a replacement bolt for one of the wheels on the food cart as they're trying to get to the cafeteria.
- Cool Teacher: Bob becomes this in a short amount of time. Even Gene and Louise, who start out flabbergasted at his newfound popularity, eventually come to enjoy their time in Home Ec.
- Drinking on Duty: The ending implies that Hildy the lunch lady is drunk constantly drunk, even while working at a school. After being offered to go get drunk, she responds with this:Hildy: What do you mean get drunk?
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Frond first appears buying a martini glass set. Later episodes show him to be a teetotaler who looks down on those who drink and can't even have a small glass of wine without vomiting excessively.
- Extreme Doormat: Mr. Frond just stands there as Bob and the Home-Ec students prepare for their final service and does nothing to stop them.
- Failed a Spot Check: It takes a couple days for Bob to notice that Tina transferred to Metal Shop.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: The representative of Caf Co. has a meeting with Bob in his car, which has the tension cut by Bob awkwardly trying to climb into and out of the backseat since it only has 2 doors and due to Frond later squeezing himself between them.
- Flipping the Bird: Hildy the lunch lady does this to Bob repeatedly.
- Gone Horribly Right: The Home Ec-staurant does extremely well, letting Zeke flex his newfound cooking talents and causing Bob to become the most popular teacher in school. However, it does too well, getting the attention of Caf Co. and leading to Bob being fired from teaching.
- Hash House Lingo: Bob gets Gene and Louise to work in the Home-Ec-staurant, with Gene serving as a waiter.Gene: Give me a bald Kelly Ripa in a canoe with a brick!
Zeke: Chicken taco, no sour cream, plus a brownie — you got it!
Gene: Really? I didn't even know what I meant. - Hidden Depths: Zeke has a perfect palate, which lets him learn to cook in such a short amount of time that it impresses Bob, who's been cooking all his life. Amusingly, Zeke tries to deny he has this talent, and curses out Bob when he tries to encourage him to use it.
- Hypocritical Humor: Bob tells Frond that kids are horrible and that people should stop making them. Keep in mind, Bob is the father of the three most disruptive kids at Wagstaff, although one could say that's part of why Bob says this.
- I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Mr. Frond tells Tina that he can't say exactly why the former Home Economics teacher went on disability, then immediately says it was because of drug addiction.
- Jerkass:
- Hildy the lunch lady, who flips Bob off for no reason, and this is before Bob opens the restaurant and starts stealing her business.
- Bob's own kids become slightly more hostile (especially Tina) towards him when every other kid in the class think of him as a Cool Teacher. Louise reprimands a passing student for not being sarcastic on complementing Bob. They all get better in the end, though.
- Kids Are Cruel: After nearly making a scene due to the students being uncooperative with the initial cooking class before Mr. Frond turned on the Home-Ec video to keep them quiet, Bob has this to say:Bob: Kids are horrible, why do we keep making them?
- Kissing Cousins: Teddy once got to third base with his second cousin.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Bob has a minor moment of this when he realizes Tina transferred to Metal Shop and he didn't even notice.
- The Name Is Bond, James Bond: Mr. Frond does this at the beginning when showing off his new martini glass set.Frond: The name's Frond, James Frond. I have a license to counsel.Louise: Double-Oh-So-Sad.Bob: Louise, be nice.Louise: Why? It's Mr. Frond.
- Never My Fault: Gene and Louise attribute their lazy attitude and poor work ethic to their previous work environment.
- Noodle Incident:
- Teddy once fell off a roof.
- When explaining to Bob that the home-ec movies placate the students:
Mr. Frond: It's not like we can just slip meds into their milk...[chuckles nervously] anymore.Bob: What?Mr. Frond: Hmm? I got to go. - Overly Narrow Superlative: Bob specifically calls Tina his favorite eldest daughter. Justified; Bob rarely if ever plays favorites and even if he did, he'd have to choose his words carefully given his other children are right there. Amusingly, after he says this, Gene laments that he can't do anything right.
- Pet the Dog: After realizing she was being too rough with a student to get answers, Hildy gives him an extra black-and-white bun as an apology.
- Piggyback Cute: A platonic example; Louise piggybacks on Bob during the first half of the rush to the cafeteria. She rides the cart for the second half, but can be seen clinging to Bob's left arm the entire time.
- Predatory Business: Bob lampshades the fact that a giant corporation like Caf-Co has an issue with having students cook for other students, thus depriving them of one school's worth of business. Caf-Co ultimately drives the Home Ec-staurant out of business, but Bob gets the last laugh.
- Restaurant-Owning Episode: Bob turns the Home Ec class into a restaurant and it does incredibly well, but it does too well and it gets the attention of Caf-Co, the food company the school has a contract with, and they force Bob to shut down the restaurant and he gets fired from teaching.
- Save Our Students: Bob inspires the Home-Ec students to learn to cook and apply those skills to a real restaurant rather than just passively watching crappy educational movies, and refuses to give up on them even when Wagstaff's faculty members (and some of the students themselves) already have.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tina leaves Home-Ec when she feels that Bob is not appreciating her and joins Metal Shop.
- Shoot the Messenger: Hildy assaults a poor kid for simply explaining to her that the kids aren't in the cafeteria because they're getting lunch at the Home Ec-staurant.
- Shout-Out:
- The final Burger of the Day is the "Edward James Olive-most Burger."
- During a mid-episode montage, one of Teddy and Linda's dance lessons has them crawling on the floor toward each other with Teddy wearing his shirt tied at the navel, which is a shout-out to Baby and Johnny practicing to "Love is Strange" in Dirty Dancing.
- Snap Back: Lampshaded by Zeke.Zeke: This will always be remembered... till people forget.
- Supreme Chef: Zeke of all students has what Bob calls a "perfect palate". Which enables him to become a borderline gourmet chef in the span of days.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Mr. Frond tells Bob that the underachieving students are in Home-Ec because it's not like they can put meds in their milk... anymore.
- Teacher's Pet: Tina thinks that if her dad is the teacher she'll be the teacher's pet and be able to ace the class. Her expectations are dashed as Zeke becomes star of the class while she's relegated to being the dishwasher. Later in the episode, after transferring to Metal Shop, she remarks to Bob that she's at least teacher's pet somewhere... only to be told she isn't (and later giving a rather hostile farewell to the actual teacher's pet when she rejoins Home-Ec).
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Bob manages to actually connect with the students, and while he's fired unfairly it's clear that he's garnered something of a following. Even Gene and Louise grow to respect him and help him with his final lunch service.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Teddy vomits offscreen in the bounce house at the wedding.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To Dead Poets Society and Stand and Deliver. Bob takes over teaching a group of "dumdum" students, helping them realize their potential, in reference to the latter. At the end, the kids stand on their desks in support of Bob after he is unfairly dismissed, in reference to the former. The episode title also references Stand and Deliver, and the final Burger of the Day references the film's lead actor.
- Would Hurt a Child:
- Frond misinterprets what Bob means by "challenging" the kids, thinking he means to fight them, and says he would be able to take on the girls.
- Hildy the lunch lady gets so pissed off when she learns about the "Home Ec-staurant" that she uses her tongs to grab the nose of the poor kid who mentioned it to her and starts screaming at him before she regains composure.
- Young Entrepreneur: Bob decides to turn the Home-Ec class into a full-blown restaurant to teach the kids the "economics" part of Home-Ec.
