"I used to live like this. In squalor and filth, always trying to get over on people, scammin' my way through situations... I wanna live like you again, Charlie. I wanna be pathetic and desperate and ugly and hopeless!"
— Frank
Dennis and Dee's degenerate father Frank (played by Danny DeVito) pays the twins a visit in order to inform them that he's divorcing their mother, but decides he wants to live like the gang after getting a taste of their depraved lifestyle. Meanwhile, Charlie ends up in a wheelchair after Dennis accidentally hits him with his car due to his reaction from Frank appearing, and after seeing him gain sympathy from some strippers Mac, Dennis and Dee decide to fake their own disabilities.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Charlie is shown to keep booze under his bed and under his pillow when Frank asks if he has any.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Frank and Charlie pass a military surplus store, Charlie points out that veterans get more attention than anyone while eyeing a full Marine uniform. He tells Frank to buy him the outfit...and one Gilligan Cut later, we see that he's purchased a Vietnam War outfit instead, which ends up backfiring horribly.
- Later on, Dennis is drunkenly talking to Mac about somebody who he loves and considers family. It first would seem like he's talking about Frank given that this episode introduces him, but he's actually talking about his stuffed elephant Mr. Tibbs.
- Becoming the Mask: Charlie gets into the role of Shell-Shocked Veteran a little too much: he ends up screaming at the first stripper who sees him, and later takes on the characteristics of a stereotypical homeless vet.
- Big "NO!": Charlie lets out three in quick succession after he returns to the strip club to find Frank in a motorized wheelchair drawing the attention of all the strippers.
- Book Ends: The episode begins and ends with Dennis hitting someone with his car.
- Butt-Monkey: The episode opens with Charlie getting accidentally run over by Dennis, and by the end of it he's spent a night sleeping outside his apartment, a further night sleeping in the alley outside the bar, and had the only upside to being stuck in wheelchair - that he gets attention and sympathy from girls - thoroughly ruined thanks to Frank.
- Characterization Marches On: Dee is now fully out of the Closer to Earth trope and is noticeably more of a jerk and far less empathetic than in the previous season, which she will remain for the rest of the series.
- Comedic Sociopathy: The final scene, in which Frank points out they were lucky nobody important was seriously hurt after Dennis hit them all with his car. The gang then leave the hospital, and the camera pans over to reveal Dee's date in the bed opposite, wearing a neck brace and looking significantly worse off than any of them.
- Comically Missing the Point: Dennis's disguise includes a blanket over his legs (like Franklin D. Roosevelt) and a lie about polio to hide the fact that his legs haven't atrophied at all. Mac thinks this is a good idea, so he decides he will lie about having polio too (but he doesn't get a blanket). Also, Polio was all but eradicated in the Western world in the 1950's.
- Competition Freak: A Running Gag throughout the episode is that Mac insists on turning everything into a competition, despite the fact that he always loses.
- Curse Cut Short: "DENNIS, YOU SON OF A BI-" (cut to the title card)
- Drunk Driver: Dennis drives himself and Mac to the strip club while they're both wasted, which results in him falling asleep at the wheel and driving the car into everybody else.
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Frank uses this trick to get Charlie into agreeing to his moving in with him. He makes an offer of paying the rent for six months; Charlie demands a year, and Frank starts haggling. When Charlie won't budge, Frank suggests four months, and Charlie immediately raises the bar...to six.
- Establishing Character Moment: Frank's first full scene has him telling Dee and Dennis that their mother is dead...and then revealing that he lied, claiming the idea is a "business tactic." We instantly know that he's a manipulative cheat who enjoys twisting people's emotions for his own gain (and amusement).
- Establishing Series Moment: Now that Frank has been added to the cast, the final shot of the episode features the Gang sitting together in the hospital, crippled, before going to get ice cream together and musing that at least nobody important got hurt. The camera then pans to reveal Dee's date on the other side of the room sporting more severe injuries, who mutters, "What a bunch of assholes." Not only does this firmly establish the tone of the show after the Early-Installment Weirdness of Season 1, but it also solidifies all five of the Gang as a group of Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonists with no regard for anyone but themselves.
- Every Man Has His Price: Charlie initially scorns the idea of Frank moving in with him, but he changes his mind after Frank offers to pay his rent for six months.
- Foreshadowing: Frank tells one of the strippers that Charlie is his "poor crippled boy". It seems like a throwaway joke, but the season finale reveals that it's probably true.
- Friendship Moment: Surprisingly enough, the episode ends with Frank actually getting the rest of the gang to stop fighting by offering to take them all for ice cream.
- Funny Background Event: When Frank opens the door to Mac and Charlie, the two strippers can be seen behind him in Charlie's apartment having a pillow fight.
- Similarly, during the "stripper race" between Mac and Charlie, Mac's stripper tumbles off of his back, but he's too angry to even notice. Later, as the two are fighting, the stripper gets up and starts trying to point out what happened, which doesn't work.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Inverted with Dennis and Dee. When they're fighting about what each can "rescue" from their parents' house, Dee takes out a stuffed elephant - called Mr. Tibbs, no less - that belonged to Dennis and rips its head off, which obviously crushes a little piece of his soul.
- The Hedonist: After spending a night with the strippers, Frank claims that he wants to give up his life as a wealthy businessman in order to live in squalor like the gang.
- Hypocritical Humor: Dee calls Mac and Dennis "scumbags" for pretending to be disabled... while she's wearing a neckbrace and pretending she needs cructches to walk.
- I Take Offense to That Last One:Frank: I wanna be pathetic and desperate and ugly and hopeless!
Charlie: Okay, I'm not ugly. - Iconic Sequel Character: This episode marks the first appearance of Frank, who becomes a main cast member and one of the show's most iconic characters.
- Insurmountable Waist-High Fence: Frank gets Charlie out of the way by pinning his wheelchair behind a piece of the strip's club furniture; Charlie refers to this as being "boxed in." Later, Charlie's forced to spend the night sleeping outside because he can't get his wheelchair past the lip of a curb.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After everyone but Charlie faked having disabilities, they all got injured for real after Mac and Dennis fell asleep at the wheel, causing Dennis' car to crash into Frank, Dee and her date.
- No, You: Apparently Dee's go-to strategy while arguing with Dennis:Dennis: I'm a man, I'm strong. I can carry heavy things. You're a woman, you're weak, and you can't.
Dee: You're a woman and you're weak.
Dennis: That doesn't make any sense.
Dee: You don't make any sense. - Obfuscating Disability: While Charlie's disability is real — albeit temporary — after Dennis breaks his legs and lands him in a wheelchair, the rest of the gang then decide to jump on the bandwagon and fake their own disabilities in order to gain attention.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Charlie asks Frank who gets more respect than than war heroes. He gets a number of answers from Frank, including "actors", "athletes", "models", and "rich people".
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Frank points out to Charlie that while being in a wheelchair might gain the sympathy of the strippers, what really gets their attention is money, and he has tons of that.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Charlie pretends to be one of these after getting Frank to buy him an old uniform from a military surplus store.
- Shout-Out: Dennis owns a stuffed animal named "Mr. Tibbs." Dee even says "They call you Mr. Tibbs?" as she tears it up.
- Team Dad: The ending makes it clear that Frank is to act as an extremely twisted version of this trope to the rest of the gang.
- Throwing Off the Disability: After losing their wheelchair race, Mac gets so angry that he leaps out of his chair to physically attack Dennis in the middle of a shopping mall. Frank later does the same thing to Charlie after the latter gets them kicked out a strip club.
- This Is My Side: Dee and Dennis do this to the bar when they are mad at each other.
- Wheelchair Antics: Mac and Charlie race each other down the hallway of Charlie's apartment building, each carrying a stripper, while Charlie is still in his wheelchair. Later on, Mac and Dennis have a wheelchair race in the shopping mall.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: After seeing how well it works for Charlie, the rest of the gang decide to fake a disability in order to gain attention and sympathy from attractive strangers.
