Frank: I see it every year. I mean, some clown runs for office, drops out of the race, and gets a big chunk of dough. I mean...you'd have to be a real lowlife piece of shit to get involved in politics.
Mac and Charlie: (both look at Dennis)
Mac and Charlie: (both look at Dennis)
After realizing the money-making potential of political corruption, the gang decides to help Dennis run for the position of a local comptroller in order to solicit a bribe. Mac and Charlie both vie for the position of his campaign manager, while Frank and Dee attempt to run their own scam.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Innuendo: Mac complains that they're getting "blasted in the ass" by the state liquor taxes.
- Attack of the Political Ad: When Dennis refuses to drop out of the race, Mac and Frank make an ad to smear him by accusing him of statutory raping an underage girl while he was a camp counselor.Mac: Dennis Reynolds: Baby Rapist! Don't let him rape you, Philadelphia!
- Badass Longcoat: Parodied when Frank and then Mac both meet Charlie in an empty parking lot wearing a trenchcoat. Both times, Charlie comments on how badass it looks.
- Berserk Button: One of the guys at the union does not take kindly to Mac calling them nerds, and spends the rest of the episode plotting an elaborate revenge against him.
- Call-Back: Two to the previous episode. The guys make another comment about Dee's "five-head", and Mac once again announces that he's "washing his hands of the whole situation" after Dennis fires him as campaign manager.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Mac actually succeeds in making some money from the union guys when Dennis drops out of the race, only to lose it all at the end of the episode when two Corrupt Cops solicit a bribe from him to stop them from arresting him.
- Chekhov's Gun: At the beginning of the episode, Charlie is shown looking over his collection of Garbage Pail Kids. He later uses it to bribe Frank into handing over the tape smearing Dennis.
- Clipboard of Authority: Parodied; the guys seem to think that holding a clipboard is the ultimate status symbol and that whoever is acting as Dennis's campaign manager should have one.
- Deadly Euphemism: Charlie thinks that Mac is doing this when he suggests that they need to make Dennis "disappear". Mac clarifies that he just meant Charlie should take him to Atlantic City for a few days until the election is over.Charlie: Alright, how do you wanna do this thing? If we use a gun, we're definitely gonna need a silencer...
Mac: A gun?
Charlie: Fine, no guns, no guns. Uh, piano wire, okay, maybe we can use some piano wire. Look, whatever it is, I gotta be the guy to pull the trigger on this thing. - "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Dennis outright tells Charlie that he probably has dyslexia after reading the jumbled and incoherent campaign speech that Charlie writes for him.Dennis: I'll read the words you wrote: "Hello, fellow American. This you should vote me. I leave power. Good. Thank you, thank you. If you vote me, I'm hot. Taxes, they'll be lower, son. The democratic vote for me is right thing to do, Philadelphia, so do."
- Lazy Bum: Dennis drops out of the election when he finds out that being a politician involves actually doing the work that the position entails and that the position of comptroller is just a "glorified accountant".
- Mistaken for Prostitute: A politician's wife mistakes Dee for one after Frank dresses her in ridiculously revealing clothes and overdone makeup in order to solicit another bribe.
- Nerd Hoard: Charlie reveals that he has a large collection of Garbage Pail Kids cards. Later, he is forced to trade it to Frank in exchange for a "smear tape" Frank and Mac made to discredit Dennis, who Charlie was helping to run for comptroller. When the campaign falls apart anyway, Charlie is distraught that he gave them up for, ultimately, nothing.
- Only in It for the Money: Frank lampshades how most electoral candidates only get involved so that they can solicit bribes from their political opponents. Naturally, this idea appeals to the gang.
- Opinion Flip-Flop: Charlie accuses Mac of doing this, disgustedly claiming that "that's what Democrats do".
- Phrase Catcher: Several different characters say "that's politics, bitch!" to Mac throughout the episode.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Frank states that women in politics is like donkeys doing calculus.
- Politicians Kiss Babies: Parodied when Mac aggressively confronts a woman in the mall and demands that she give her baby to Dennis to kiss. Understandably, she's more than a little freaked out.
- Prison Rape: Implied at the end of the episode, when one of the cops tells Mac that the other inmates would "tear through him like Kleenex" if he went to prison.
- Sleazy Politician: Dennis practically embodies this while he's running for comptroller. This is also Frank's opinion of politicians generally.
- There Is Only One Bed: Played for laughs when Dennis visits Charlie's apartment and realizes that he and Frank must share the single futon.
