"Dennis started a cult."
— Dee
When Dennis reveals that Mac and Charlie's new workout program is actually a cult he started in order to get Mac to stop eating his Thin Mint cookies, Dee and Frank try to co-opt it for their own interests.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Innuendo:Mac: Dennis will be Level 2 as well, but he'll be directly under me.
- Artistic License – Sports: As normal on the show, the exercise and weight training is just about everything you shouldn't do. The way they use kettlebells makes it obvious they are prop items with almost no weight.
- Brainless Beauty: Rex, Tiny and Cindy are very attractive people but they all fall for the Ass-Kickers hoax hook, line, and sinker. Rex has to be told how to pronounce the word "congregate".
- Call-Back:
- Fight milk is repeatedly mentioned.
- Frank and Dee get the cult members to buy wolf cola.
- Dee uses her Invigaron stress meter to meaure the Asskickers' "guilt stressors", and Charlie once again asks her where he should put his feet.
- Charlie pees the bed after drinking a large amount of alcohol.
- For the second time in as many seasons, a finale ends with Mac and Dennis's apartment on fire.
- After his presumed death, JoJo is shown riding a turtle in space during the end credits.
- Casting Gag: JoJo, "the dumb one", is played by Dax Shepard, known for his starring role as Frito Pendejo in Idiocracy.
- Church of Happyology: Cults in general are lampooned, but Scientology gets the most references. Dennis created a fake fitness club just to manipulate Mac into not eating his thin mint cookies, and he roped Charlie and two other guys into their group. Frank and Dee get involved and start trying to coerce other behaviors out of them, Dee specifically trying to get Dennis and Mac to repair their apartment so they'll move out of hers. Dee ends up using a "stress meter" she had from a Pyramid Scheme she was roped into, reimagined to measure "guilt stressors." It eventually takes a turn towards a Heaven's Gate suicide pact.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Dennis convinces a man to light himself on fire in order to prove that he's the most charismatic leader, and the rest of the gang barely react, preferring instead to continue their bickering.
- Continuity Nod:
- Mac and Dennis's former apartment is revealed to be a burned-out husk after the events of the previous season finale.
- Dee and Frank recruit Rex the male model to pose as the Master.
- Dirty Old Man: Frank spends half the episode lusting after a busty young woman who joins the cult and encouraging her to pull a muscle so that he can soak in the tub with her.
- The Ditz: JoJo, one of the cult members, is so dumb that he makes Mac and Charlie look smart.Charlie: Who signed you up?Dee: The dumb one.Charlie: Oh, Tiny?Dee: No, the one eating paint chips off the wall.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The use of blackmail, the ability to increase your rank with cash, and "Lord Zolo" all make the Asskickers very reminiscent of Scientology.
- Eviler than Thou: Although Dee and Frank try taking control of Ass Kickers away from Dennis, Dennis manages to be more manipulative. It bears repeating: he got a man to set himself on fire.
- Evil Is Petty: Dennis reveals that he originally started the cult just to get Mac to stop eating his Thin Mint cookies, and it culminates in him convincing someone to set themselves on fire in order to prove to Dee and Frank that he's the most adept at manipulating people.
- The Friend Nobody Likes:Dennis: You know how Mac is all irritating and shit?Dee: Of course.Frank: The worst!
- He-Man Woman Hater: Mac complains loudly and obnoxiously when a newsletter is put out stating that it's now mandatory for women to join the cult.
- Hypocritical Humor:Mac: It could not have been more clear: no women, no gays.Charlie: ...I don't ever remember you reading anything about that.
- Manipulative Bastard: Dennis certainly thinks he's this, and spends much of the episode condescendingly telling Dee and Frank that it takes years of practice to reach his level. To his credit, he does prove fairly adept at manipulating Mac and the other Asskickers into doing his bidding, but then they aren't exactly the brightest bulbs.
- Men Can't Keep House: Mac and Dennis seem to have completely trashed Dee's apartment since moving in with her.
- Motor Mouth: Mac claims that his mother won't stop talking if she has too much caffeine. Disappointingly, we don't get to witness this.
- Noodle Incident: Charlie states that he once ate a baby toad when talking about things he feels guilty over.
- Paste Eater: One Asskicker, said to be "the dumb one" by Dee, actually eats paint chips. He claims they're delicious. Notably, Charlie is weirded out by this... but admits that specific paint has a good flavor to it.
- Secret Test of Character: Dennis sabotages Frank and Dee by putting out another newsletter stating that the instructions to include women and learn carpentry were actually a test from the Master to sort out the true believers.
- Shirtless Scene: Everyone gets an eyeful of Rex's abs when he's posing as the Master.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Charlie and JoJo both confess to eating baby toads, and both ask where to put their feet on the "guilt stressors".
- The Thing That Would Not Leave: Mac and Dennis have become this for Dee after an undisclosed amount of time living at her apartment. She spends most of the episode trying to get the cult to fix up their old place so that they can leave.
- Toilet Humor: Frank is obsessed with getting somebody to eat a "shit sandwich", much to Dennis and Dee's bemusement and disgust. He actually convinces Tiny to go through with it by the end of the episode.
- Too Dumb to Live: Dennis successfully convinces JoJo to light himself on fire.
- Trash the Set: Yet again, Mac and Dennis' apartment gets set on fire.
- Weight Woe: Dennis uses this to effectively manipulate Mac, playing on his physical insecurities — as well as his attraction to Dennis — to guilt him out of taking time off from the cult.Dennis: I notice, uh, you're looking a little out of shape there, bud.Mac: I am?Dennis: Yeah. Yeah, and it's a shame too, because you've been looking so great lately. So sexy.
- Wham Line: After Dennis introduces the "Supreme Overlord Master" into the equation:Dennis: [H]e made it very, very clear to me that all of you are going to need to... (pulls out a bottle of lighter fluid) commit suicide.
