Scrooge and the boys track down a lost play of the famed playwright William Drakespeare. But a master salesman is also on their trail...
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Flawed Prototype: Drakespeare's lost play, MacDuck, was mentioned to be his very first work, which justifies it being a failure as he was just starting his playwright career.
- Hammerspace: Filler's valise full of merchandise is virtually bottomless, containing a limitless cache of goods that would normally be too big to fit in it.
- Historical Domain Character: William Shakespeare.
- Historical In-Joke: The lost play turns out to be a Whole-Plot Reference to A Christmas Carol, on whose main character Scrooge himself is based. Obviously, Scrooge is less than pleased with this.
- Implacable Man: Filler Brushbill is a comical version. At the start of the episode, he walks straight through Scrooge's excessively powerful security measures without so much as slowing down, all while cheerfully tut-tutting about how inadequate they are and how he could sell Scrooge much better ones.
- Macbeth: The lost play is called MacDuck.
- Old Shame: In-universe example with Drakespeare's lost play. After seeing it, Scrooge sympathizes with him, especially because it wouldn't do his reputation any favors either.
- Rhymes on a Dime: The Shakespeare characters speak in Shakespearean verse.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Filler is very offended when Scrooge calls him a crook, because while he may be good at talking people into buying things they hadn't planned to buy, every deal he makes is also fair in the sense of providing the customers with their money's worth. At the end of the episode, he shows that he does indeed have principles by passing up the opportunity to get away with the lost play - because while he could sell it for a fortune just because it's Drakespeare's work, it's also a bad play, and Louie convinces him that selling shoddy merchandise is beneath him.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is an obvious reference to Much Ado About Nothing.
- The episode is filled with references to Shakespeare's plays, most notably MacBeth
- Filler has a yellow bag resembling that of Felix the Cat. Similar to that of Felix, it serves as Hammerspace for all his merchandise.
- Filler's name, which is a Punny Name based on the Fuller Brush Company, and the Red Skelton comedy inspired by it, The Fuller Brush Man...wherein he plays a character who becomes a door-to-door salesman.
- Stock Quotes: The episode is filled with Shakespeare's most famous quotes.
- Traveling Salesman: Filler Brushbill. His valise has lots of items he either sells to people he runs into, or can use himself. When he, Scrooge and the boys are surrounded by living trees, he scares the trees off with chainsaws from the valise. Scrooge then orders two dozen for his own lumber company.
- The Weird Sisters: The version from MacBeth make a prominent appearance.
- Wham Line: When Scrooge finally confronts the play characters come to life and demands answers, their leader replies "We...are actors, descendants of Drakespeare's original acting troupe."
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: The lost play turns out to be this, calling the Scrooge character MacDuck as a reference to Macbeth. A major difference is that in this case, it has a Downer Ending for the greedy character.
