Written by Benton Connor and Hilary Florido
After almost killing Pops by taping Mordecai's bed to the ceiling, Muscle Man promises to never prank again. Unfortunately, the rival park East Pines re-initiates a prank war started years ago, and the crew must get Muscle Man back or risk having the park destroyed.
This episode provides examples of:
- Achilles in His Tent: Muscle Man.
- Batman Gambit: In order for Benson to get Muscle Man back into the prank war, he had Pops fake getting hurt from the boxing glove prank and let Muscle Man think that the rival park gave him the gift.
- Big "NO!": Two. One from Gene when Muscle Man's giant water balloon floods his park and one from Benson when he sees Mordecai and Rigby getting shot with tomatoes.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Considering how the prank war is practically a matter of life-or-death, Benson and Pops are definitely correct to coax Muscle Man into joining the conflict. However, Muscle Man's initial reluctance still isn’t without merit, since he did nearly kill Pops at the beginning of the episode.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Without Muscle Man, the East Pine park nearly destroys the park without suffering much damage from their side. Hard to blame the latter, given the sheer difference in manpower and arsenal.
- Deadly Prank: Muscle Man's prank of taping Mordecai's bed to the ceiling nearly killed Pops by accident. Likewise, the prank war was so deadly that Benson noted it would kill everyone in the park if Muscle Man didn't put an end to it.
- Death from Above: To end the first prank war, Muscle Man launches a gigantic water balloon (with "My Mom" on it) that floods the entire rival park.
- Rain of Arrows: The East Pines park uses water balloons, tomatoes, and pies instead when declaring the prank war.
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: Muscle Man doesn't join the fight under the claim that East Pines isn't hurting anybody with their pranks. Benson knew beforehand that he'd bring this up, so he convinced Pops to let himself get socked in the face by a punching glove in a gift box supposedly sent by East Pines as a get well gift to encourage Muscle Man to avenge him.
- Edible Ammunition: The East Pines park fires tomatoes at the park staff and Skips uses expired bologna to wreck havoc in East Pine park.
- Escalating War: The prank war between the two parks.
- Furry Confusion: See Tarred And Feathered.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Muscle Man gets this when his prank almost got Pops killed.
- One-Man Army: After Muscle Man goes back to pranking, he took out all the East Park workers quickly.
- Pie in the Face: The East Pines park uses planes to drop pies all over the park.
- Selective Obliviousness: In a sense. From his guilt, Muscle Man came to assume that East Pines' pranks "aren't hurting anyone", even though it was obviously causing immense damage and destruction.
- Serious Business: The entire prank war.
- Shout-Out: Mordecai sports a combat helmet with a peace sign on it. This is a likely reference to Private Joker's contradictory peace sign pin paired with his combat helmet in Full Metal Jacket.
- When launching Gene through space, Muscle Man quotes an altered version of the speech Willy Wonka gave in the infamous tunnel scene in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
- Tarred And Feathered: Mordecai and Rigby are victims of this, though why would Mordecai need to be tarred and feathered when he's a bluejay?
- Tempting Fate: When Mordecai doubts that Gene holds a grudge for losing the prank war, cue incoming water balloons.
