Cuphead, just because your name is in the show's title doesn't mean you're allowed to hijack your brother's story.
Mugman prepares for another lesson with his piano teacher Ludwig, but becomes jealous when his brother is picked for an upcoming recital.Tropes
- Absurdly-Long Limousine: How Ludwig arrives to teach Mugman.
- Accidental Misnaming: Ludwig keeps calling Mugman "Moogmahn", which Cuphead keeps pointing out. Mugman just goes with it to please Ludwig. He also calls Cuphead "Coophaad".
- Brick Joke: Crawdads and lobsters are mentioned throughout the episode, with Cuphead gathering and eating them from the start. He later has lobster with Ludwig that Mugman wanted. In the end, when he compares crawdads to be just "tiny lobsters", a giant crawdad appears to express how he took offense to the notion.Giant Crawdad: Hey! Who are you callin' "tiny", punk?
- Easily Forgiven: When Cuphead learns that Mugman was planning to sabotage him at the recital, he gets over it, saying he would have done the same thing.
- Gainax Ending: The episode randomly ends with a huge muscular crawdad angry with the cups because they said that crawdads are just like little lobsters. Do note that throughout the episode crawdads were just food and not anthropomorphized in any way.
- Got Me Doing It: At one point Mugman refers to himself as "Moogmahn" and to Cuphead as "Coophaad", just like Ludwig said.
- Hard Work Hardly Works: Mugman has presumably been getting lessons from Ludwig on a regular basis but isn't very good at piano. Cuphead, on the other hand, plays incredibly well on his first try.
- Hidden Depths: Who knew Cuphead was so great with the ivories?
- Laser-Guided Karma: It is revealed that Ludwig decided to copy Cuphead's song and win the recital prize for himself. He wins, but is crushed by a piano Mugman strung up and intended for Cuphead.
- Noodle Incident: When Mugman grabs Elder Kettle's hedge trimmers with the intention of cutting off Cuphead's hands so he can't play at the recital, Elder Kettle reprimands him with "What have I told you about using my hedge trimmers to mutilate your brother?", which indicates that this isn't the first time this has happened.
- Only in It for the Money: Cuphead has no interest in taking part in the music recital... until Ludwig mentions a $10,000 prize for the winner.
- Piano Drop: Mugman was so jealous of Cuphead that he set up a piano to drop during the recital. Cuphead, however, skipped the recital, and Ludwig, who passed Cuphead's song as his own, gets hit by the piano instead.
- "Psycho" Strings: Heard when Mugman plans to use Elder Kettle's hedge trimmers to cut Cuphead's hands off.
- Red Live Lobster: The crawdads Cuphead is eating are not alive, but it's implied they are freshly caught and raw, yet they are bright red, and so is the giant living anthropomorphic crawdad that shows up at the end of the episode.
- Running Gag:
- Various characters are seen eating a bucket of crawdads Cuphead brings home.
- "Maybe try... watercolors?"
- Standard Snippet:
- The klaxon of Ludwig's limousine is the intro to Beethoven's Fifth.
- Mugman plays "Chopsticks" on the piano.
- There are other works of other composers, including Mozart and Fryderyk Chopin.
- Stunned Silence: As shown above, Ludvig, Mugman, and Elder Kettle are all left in awe when Cuphead shows how good he is at the piano.
- Theatre Phantom: Mugman does a brief one (sans mask) by setting up a piano to fall on Cuphead during the recital. Then, he finds Cuphead still at the cottage...
- Wingding Eyes: Dollar signs appear in Cuphead's eyes as soon as Ludwig mentions the $10,000 recital prize.
