Emperor magazine magnate Drew Patton, an old schoolmate of Rob's, offers him a position writing a humor column. As Rob thinks about the offer, Laura becomes more and more high-strung thanks to exposure to Patton's playboy lifestyle and her fear of losing her husband to its seductive atmosphere if he accepts the job.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- Happily Married: Rob tells Drew Patton at the end that while some men consider marriage a prison, others think of it as more like an amusement park. (Implicitly, he's one of the latter.)
- Hidden Depths: Drew insists that he only hires the best people for his magazine, which Rob is skeptical of because of all the beautiful women around. Drew points out one woman as being excellent at taking dictation, and allows Rob to test her. Rob starts reciting the Gettysburg Address, then asks her to read back the last thing she wrote. She starts reading back the end of the speech, which he hadn't even gotten to yet, because she assumed that's where he was going.
- Insult Backfire: Rob's old colleague, a Hugh-Hefner-like magazine star, denounces him as sick for sticking to being happily married to Laura rather than falling to the temptation of his lifestyle. Laura thinks this is wonderful.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Drew Patton is a pretty clear expy of Playboy magnate Hugh Hefner.
- Playboy Parody: Emperor magazine is clearly meant to evoke Playboy. It's a famous "girlie" publication that also runs other things (if Rob being hired as a joke writer is any indication). The magnate behind it, Drew Patton, surrounds himself with beautiful women and claims men get secondhand kicks out of his lifestyle.
- Seduction-Proof Marriage: Played with. The titular man, an old colleague of Rob's named Drew Patton who has become a playboy, asks Rob to write a humor column for Emperor. Laura is not at all happy about this as she is afraid her husband will "crumble" under the pressure of being around beautiful girls all day. This only worsens as Rob decides he should get a look at the workplace. However, ultimately Rob turns down the position and his own personal office and secretary and being around beautiful girls all day to remain faithful to Laura. Patton finds this "sick."
- The Triple: Drew Patton tells Laura there are only three reasons Rob would deny vicariously enjoying his wild lifestyle: he's lying, he's scared, or he's dead. He admits a fourth possibility at the end.Patton: Old Rob is none of those things...he's sick!
