Dennis: Dee, this guy can't be our dad, that's ridiculous!
Dee: Is it? Is it any more ridiculous than our dad having brown eyes, black hair and being four-foot-ten?
Dee: Is it? Is it any more ridiculous than our dad having brown eyes, black hair and being four-foot-ten?
A stranger named Bruce Mathis contacts Dee on MySpace claiming to be the twins' biological father, and they attempt to reconnect with him after Barbara admits it's the truth. Meanwhile, Mac and Charlie visit Mac's convict father Luther in jail but are less than enthusiastic when he recruits them to smuggle heroin through their asses.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Innuendo: Mac and Charlie have an entire conversation about how to get "hard" (tough) without having to shove anything (heroin) up their asses.Mac: Look, you wanna get hard, don't you?
Charlie: Oh, I wanna get hard. I wanna get very, very hard.
Mac: Alright, do you wanna shove heroin into your ass?
Charlie: Dude, I don't wanna shove anything in my ass.
Mac: Alright, this is the perfect opportunity to prove how hard we are and not have to shove anything into our asses!
Frank: What in God's name are you two talking about?! - Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: It says a lot when Dennis and Dee are the best behaved people at their dinner with Frank and Barbara. They deliberately meet in a fancy restaurant in an attempt to avoid this, but Frank still ends up causing a scene that starts with him aggressively asking fellow diners if they've banged his "whore" wife and ends with him having a "minor stroke".
- Ass Shove: Mac and Charlie are asked by Luther to smuggle heroin into prison through their rectums.
- Call-Back: Mac and Charlie once again attempt to huff glue only for Mac to exasperatedly point out that it's Elmer's glue.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Dennis, Dee and Barbara all bail out of the restaurant after Frank collapses. It's later revealed that he had a stroke.
- Continuity Nod: Charlie points out that Mac has also banged Frank's wife.
- Dirty Coward: Mac freaks out and bails on the plan to beat up Bruce at the last second, running away and leaving Charlie to face him alone.
- Disappeared Dad: Discussed at the beginning of the episode; Charlie complains that it's unfair Dennis and Dee get to have two dads when he doesn't even have one.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Mac states that his father has been in prison Mac's entire life. The Christmas special establishes that Luther was present at enough of Mac's Christmases to make Mac falsely believe in the "South Philly tradition" of breaking into homes and stealing others' gifts.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Mac and Charlie draw the line at actually killing Bruce like Frank wants them to, though they agree to rough him up a little.
- Dee is quick to call out Barbara for stealing meds that are meant to go to sick children.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Dennis, Dee and Barbara are genuinely confused by Bruce helping children for purely selfless reasons, trying to figure out what he's trying to gain from it and still seemingly convinced he's faking it when they leave.
- Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: A rather literal example, with Dee and Dennis eventually choosing Frank over Bruce on the explicit grounds that Frank doesn't make them feel terrible for being awful.
- Foreshadowing: Frank mentions at one point that one of his three MySpace friends is a woman he had a one night stand with thirty years ago. At the end of the episode he announces that he's going on a date with her, and she's revealed to be none other than Bonnie Kelly, Charlie's mother.
- In the restaurant scene, Frank greets Barbara by "complimenting" her "turkey neck". Three episodes into the next season, guess what sort of surgery got Barbara killed...
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Charlie slaps Mac twice when he's freaking out after failing to attack Bruce.
- Gold Digger: Barbara admits that she chose to stay with Frank and pass the twins off as his because Bruce had no money. When she later finds out that he actually had a wealthy father who has since died and left Bruce all his money, she starts showing interest in him again.
- I'm Standing Right Here: Played for very dark laughs when Bruce has Dennis, Dee and Barbara visiting terminally ill children in hospital. The three get into an argument about whether or not one of the kids is going to die, only for the boy to point out that he can hear everything they're saying.
- Incest Subtext: When Dennis and Dee tell Frank that they want to talk to him about something a little disturbing, he immediately assumes that they're about to admit they've been banging each other.
Dee: We need to talk to you about something, Dad.
Frank: Shoot!
Dennis: It's kind of disturbing...
(A Beat as Frank immediately assumes the worst.)
Frank: You two aren't banging, are you?
Dee: ...What?
Dennis: No! What are you talking about?!
Dee: That's disgusting!
Frank: Yeah, it is! Stay away from that kind of thing, no good can come of it, trust me!
Dennis: That's not what we're here to talk about.
Frank: You better not be, because I don't want no "mmrmghh" grandkids!
Dennis: I am not banging my sister!
(Barbara enters the restaurant, overhearing the conversation...)
Barbara: Jesus Christ! What have I walked into here?!
Dee: Ohh, my god...
Barbara: You two aren't having sex together!
Dennis: No, we're not having sex-
Frank: What the hell is she doing here?!
Dee: Sit down, please, Mom. Sit.
Barbara: I am not getting pulled into any sort of perverted sex talk.
Dennis: It's not perverted!
Frank: Banging your sister IS perverted, Dennis!
Dennis: I AM NOT BANGING MY SISTER.
(The music abruptly cuts off. Everyone else in the restaurant stops and looks at Dennis.)
- It's All About Me: Frank is less distraught over not actually being Dennis and Dee's father than he is over the fact Barbara tricked him into financially supporting two children who weren't his.
- Lack of Empathy: Barbra has absolutely no remorse about tricking Frank into raising Dennis and Dee, and she relates her deception in the same apathetic tone one would use to describe what they ate for breakfast.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Despite being their biological father, Bruce Mathis is pretty much the antithesis of the Reynolds twins, investing his time and money in charitable pursuits and helping the less fortunate.
- Luke, I Might Be Your Father: The end of the episode implies that Frank might be Charlie's biological father, but it's left ambiguous.Charlie: Hey, mom. What are you doing here??Charlie's Mom: I'm confused, do you live here...?Charlie: Yeah.Frank: (noticing Charlie's Mom) Bonnie?Charlie's Mom: Frank!Charlie: How do you guys know each other?Frank: This is my date!Mac: Woaahhh, wait a second! I thought you were going on a date with a woman you had a one-night stand with 30 years ago???Frank: Yeah.Charlie: (Doing the math in his head) Wait, so if you guys had a one-night... stand thirty... years ago, and I don't know who my f-... You could be my....(Dee, Dennis, Mac and Charlie's Mom realize what Charlie's wondering about. Charlie and Frank stare in confusion at each other...)Charlie: ...Dad?
- Reckless Gun Usage: Frank fires a gun in the air several times inside Charlie's apartment when he's stalking Bruce on MySpace.
- Secretly Wealthy: What's worse for Barbara than seeing the guy she passed over for Frank (Just because Frank had money) now a multi-millionaire? The revelation that Bruce was just as rich when they were dating, he simply never flaunted it before he got his inheritance.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Frank and Luther both independently come up with the exact same plan to ambush Bruce.
- Tattooed Crook: Luther has several prominent tattoos on his neck and face. Charlie later attempts to invoke this trope when he and Mac are "getting hard" by giving himself a forearm tattoo that says "BAD NEW" note
- Villainous Breakdown: Frank does not take it well when he learns that not only had his wife had an affair, but he had also been raising two children that are not even his. His freak-out is so explosive that he ends up having a stroke at the end of it.Frank: I can't believe this! I just! Can't! Believe this! You whore!Dennis: Keep it down.Dee: Please don't make a scene.Frank [sarcastic] Keep it down, don't make a scene... Oh, no! I'm not gonna make a scene! I was just told- excuse me- that my HORRIBLE, WHORE WIFE has tricked me into raising two bastards for thirty years, and I'm bein' asked not to make a scene! [goes over to a nearby table] Oh, oh, excuse me! Oh! Did you bang my wife? Huh? [As he goes over to another table, Dennis and Dee are mortified, while Barbara is just exasperated] Did you bang my whore wife? [addressing the room in general] Does anybody here have any illegitimate children with my whore wife THAT I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?!Barbara [annoyed]: Jesus, Frank!Frank: "Jesus! Jesus, Frank! Jesus, FRANK! JESUS, FRANK! JESUS, FRANK! JE- OH, JESUS, FRANK!" MY LIFE IS A LIE! MY LIFE IS A LIE! SOMEBODY'S GOTTA GET STABBED! [grabbing a knife and brandishing it at Barbara] SOMEBODY'S GOTTA GET STA— STA— [he seizes up and falls down, taking everything on the table with him]
