A modeling agency is allowed to recruit at Lawndale High School. Quinn participates while Daria is disgusted with the arrangement.
This episode provides examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: Romonica DeGregory and Claude.
- Accidental Misnaming: Romonica was constantly correcting her name to Helen, who kept calling her "Monica".
- Always Camp: Claude and Romonica are parodies of Fashion-Business stereotypes. In Claude's case, while he talks and dresses like the typical "Fashion Male", it's still ambiguous.
- Ambiguously Gay: Claude gets quite excited at the thought of the boys without shirts.
- Aww Look They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite Daria keeping an eye on Quinn and loving to see her embarrassed, she draws the line at how the modeling agents are asking Quinn to rub her hands on a man's bare chest and that she's terrified of the implications.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Averted. When the busty Brittany is modeling a gown for the recruits, the man motions to his chest as a question, and the woman shakes her head "no". In short: Brittany doesn't get in.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- One of the Modeling Poses Romonica instruct is to act like "finding a headless corpse in a car", making emphasis on the car being brand-new. Daria and Jane waste no time to snark about it.
Daria: And a smelly old corpse!!
Jane: In a really bad outfit!
- After Daria openly says that she will chaperone Quinn's modeling workshop just to see if Quinn gets humiliated, Helen worries if she should feel better or not despite knowing Daria's true motivations. Jake says it's a good thing because Daria is taking care of her sister, to which Helen angrily yells at him for not listening to the last part of the conversation.
- Cool House: Invoked by Jane about Daria's room. She compliments the padded walls and wishes a schizophrenic guy also had lived in her house.
- Cooperation Gambit: Helen agreed to stop talking about redecorating Daria's room if she went to the modeling class to check on her sister. After the deal is closed, Daria tells her that she was going anyway because she had the feeling that something embarrassing was going to happen to Quinn.
- Double Entendre: During sexy modeling poses with male partners, Quinn becomes uncomfortable:
Quinn: I need to go to the bathroom.
Romonica: Are you sure that's what you're feeling?
- Eating the Eye Candy: Trent claims that he's watching the modeling class because musicians should be familiar with models. Jane doesn't buy it.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Ms. Li might be a corrupt, power-hungry tyrant, but even she was disgusted when she saw the inappropriate way the modeling students were acting with the boys on stage and later, was outraged over the head of the mercenary school coming in to recruit students.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Quinn is visibly uncomfortable with the idea of intimately rubbing a boy's bare chest in front of other people, one of the very earliest indicators that, even when she was just a shallow, obnoxious brat, she does draw the line when it comes to sex.
- Likewise, what finally pushes Daria to take action against the modeling class is when she sees Claude and Romanica making the modeling students act like that with the boys. She did want to watch to see her sister get embarrassed, but Quinn is still her little sister and there are lines she won't cross.
- Ironic Echo: When Romonica tries to convince Helen to let Quinn participate in the modeling class, she says "Quinn is a pearl in a bed of oysters". When it's announced that Kevin won the modeling contract, Daria tells Quinn that "Kevin is a pearl in a bed of oysters".
- Insult Friendly Fire: During the modeling class, a sobbing Brittany sits next to Daria, Jane, and Trent and, referring to herself, says that she should be in the class, not there with the losers, without realizing that she's not alone there. Also Semi-Subverted when Kevin arrives to console Brittany, Daria tells him exactly what Brittany said, to which Kevin responds "Yeah, I can see that".
- Laser-Guided Karma: Ms. Li agreed to have the modeling agency in the school in exchange for the monetary fee she was going to get for bullet-proof skylights for the swimming pool. Near the end of the episode, the group from the Brutal Mercenary Magazine arrived claiming that they got the same invitation Ms. Li sent to Amazon Modeling Agency, all of which is covered by the news. It’s all but stated that Daria actually invited them and pretended that Ms. Li was the inviter.
- Modeling Poses: Romonica instructs the girls to have a variety of poses, like "going to the hospital to see a boyfriend-stealer get her leg amputated", "pretending to be kittens in a pound" to "finding a headless corpse in a brand-new car".
- Money, Dear Boy: In-Universe. The principal admits that she only allowed the modeling agency on campus so she could use the fee to install bulletproof skylights in the swimming pool.
- Noodle Incident: When Brittany screams at the chubby girl who modeled with Kevin that Brittany will always be Kevin's first and the girl can't steal it from her, a more buxom, scantily-dressed blonde girl immediately replies "I can."
- Not So Above It All: Daria and Jane notice that Jodie is having a lighter lunch on the same day there are model scouts around the school, and they don't miss the chance of making fun of her for it. Jodie at first tries to deny it, claiming that she wasn't that hungry, to which Jane sarcastically says that she fed her real lunch to a stray dog.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Daria tells Helen and Jake how completely stupid and degrading she thinks it is that Ms. Li is allowing a modeling agency to exploit the student body, and Helen realizes Daria feels pretty strongly about it. Why? She was willingly talking to them about it. At the same time, Daria is surprised that Helen, for once, completely agrees with her on this.
- Papa Wolf: Jake gets furious when Quinn casually argues that Claude says "she has perfect boob size to be a model", and asks who is Claude and if they're a guy or a woman. Helen has to calm him down to keep the discussion focused.
- Silent Snarker: Jane proves that she can be snarky through her drawings as well. Without saying a word, Jane blows Romonica and Claude off with a drawing of them as vultures.
- Skewed Priorities: One of Romonica's poses was "finding a headless corpse inside a car", highlighting that the car is new. Daria and Jane promptly make fun of this.
- Stealth Insult: Both Jane and Daria give Claude and Romonica one of these. Jane draws them as vultures, while Daria...
Daria: I can't take off my glasses. I need them to recognize scam-artists.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Despite being attractive and having a sense of fashion, Brittany is rejected by the scouts because of her ample bosom. In reality, many models are slender and have smaller busts so as to allow the clothing being modeled to drape naturally on their frame.
- Token Minority: Among the Fashion Club girls, the other student is a chubby girl, who was clearly chosen to make the scouts look more "inclusive and diverse".
Claude: Brilliant of you to sign her on.
Romonica: Nothing like a decoy.
- You Are Fat: Romonica complains later that skinny Kevin's butt is too big.
