"We need forty million dollars."
— Mac
The gang is forced to try and find an alternate source of funding for their unauthorized Lethal Weapon sequel after Frank backs out due to creative differences.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Acting for Two: Charlie plays both the police chief and the "weird Danish henchman", while Dee plays Murtaugh's daughter, the stripper Lady Starship and a random police officer.
- Affectionate Parody: Of the Lethal Weapon series.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: One of the characters Charlie plays is the twin brother of a blonde-haired assassin that died in their previous Lethal Weapon film, working with Lazarus to take revenge for his brother's death.
- Aside Glance: Dennis-as-Riggs glances at the camera when Mac's blackface makeup is coming off during the shower scene.
- Author Appeal: In-universe; thanks to Mac's influence, the film has so much homoerotic subtext that it gets mistaken for a gay porno. Also, the only way Frank would agree to fund the film is if he got to have a sex scene involving his character.
- Awesome Aussie: Riggs as played by Dennis retains Mel Gibson's Australian accent from the original movies.
- Awkward Kiss: An utterly unconvincing once between Mac and Dee when their respective characters get married at the end of the movie.
- Back from the Dead: Chief Lazarus is resurrected at the beginning of the movie after he was killed off in the previous instalment. Murtaugh's daughter is also brought back at the end after being blown up in the first act.
- Backup Twin: Charlie plays the identical twin of his character from the first movie, who was killed off.
- Bad "Bad Acting": None of the performances are good, but Charlie is the worst: stuttering over his lines, emphasizing words oddly, and mixing up the character names.
- Banned Episode: It's one of five episodes of It's Always Sunny which is no longer available for online purchase or streaming due to its depiction of Blackface/Brownface.note
- Blackface: Mac and Dee both play Murtaugh and his daughter in blackface.
- Bookends: Lampshaded by Mac-as-Riggs, who notes that they've "come full circle."
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Mac-as-Riggs borrows Murtaugh's famous "I'm getting too old for this shit" line, and then proceed to ruin the joke by explaining what he was doing.
- Call-Back:
- Mac, Dennis and Charlie once again request a large amount of money from the bank to fund a ridiculous project.
- Dennis states that he isn't opposed to showing full penetration per se; just that Frank is the one doing it. He then proceeds to give a list of all the positions he could do if he had the sex scene instead.
- Frank is shown using his toe knife.
- Chekhov's Skill: Murtaugh uses his basketball skills from the beginning of the movie to defeat Lazarus at the end.
- Fan Disservice: The rest of the gang consider Frank's sex scene to be this, which is the whole reason they're seeking alternative sources of funding in the first place.
- Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: During the scene where Riggs and Murtaugh, as played by Mac and Dennis respectively, hit the strip club.Dennis/Murtaugh: I sure am glad we came to this strip club, Riggs! I do like looking at beautiful naked women.Mac/Riggs: That's because we're not gay.
- Homoerotic Subtext: Between Riggs and Murtaugh, including a scene where the two of them wrestle naked in the shower. Mac describes the film as a "love story between two men". On top of that, the wedding scene shows Riggs (played by Mac) flinching away disgusted from his wife and never actually kissing her.
- Human Shield: Lazarus uses his mook as one when the heroes open fire on him.
- Hypocritical Humor: Dennis protests the blackface Mac puts on, but he sees no problem with all the other racist elements in the movie (Frank's redface, the fact that Murtaugh's entire character arc is focused on basketball), and tries to do a "black voice" that sounds nothing at all like Danny Glover.
- Incestuous Casting: Riggs (played by Dennis) is to marry Murtaugh's daughter (played by Dee) at the beginning of the movie. Averted in the second wedding scene, however, which takes place after Mac and Dennis switch roles.
- Meaningful Name: Chief Lazarus comes back from the dead.
- Mr. Exposition: Lampshaded and played for laughs, as Mac insists on explaining everything that's going on, no matter how blatantly obvious it is, despite Dennis and Charlie pointing out that most people aren't as dumb as him and have no problem following the plot.Mac/Riggs: Yeah, buddy, you did it! You did exactly what you said you were gonna do and now he's dead! And now we have to kill that shaman woman so that she doesn't come back and reanimate him again!
- Noodle Incident: During one scene the bar is infested with biting bugs that Frank and Charlie apparently ordered from China.
- Obvious Stunt Double: Intentionally done several times throughout the movie. Mac is replaced with an actual black man when Murtaugh has to make a basketball shot and Dee is replaced with a different woman the second she strips fully nude.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Dennis's Australian accent slips a few times, mostly when he's annoyed at Mac.
- The Other Darrin: Mac and Dennis once again switch roles halfway through the movie to allow them each to play both Riggs and Murtaugh.
- Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading: As a result of Mac's Transparent Closet tendencies, Riggs and Murtaugh come across as gay lovers to just about everyone watching.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: The gang are shocked when the dotcom girl they go to admits she's never seen any of the original Lethal Weapon movies.
- Rain Dance: Lazarus's master plan is apparently to do a "Native American rain dance" so that he can make a fortune with his umbrella company.
- Sequel Episode: To "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth".
- Special Effects Failure: All over the place in-universe with the gang's film, though the most notable example has to be the chase scene with a green screen backdrop, during which Charlie's torso completely disappears. There's also the ill-chosen decision to have a shower scene where one of the characters is in Blackface, where Mac's makeup starts washing off.
- Stylistic Suck: Just like the previous film, this one is also filled with terrible acting, worse special effects and a nonsensical plot.
- Viewers Are Morons: Mac certainly thinks so. Throughout the film, his character is constantly explaining pieces of the plot which should be obvious to the viewer, and nothing the rest of the gang says convinces him to stop.Mac: Well when you're watching an action movie, you can never understand what's going on.Dennis: No. You can never understand what's going on!
