A Plot: Beverly asks Miss Cinoman to let Adam - who is going through puberty - lip sync in the school musical, A Chorus Line.
B Plot: Murray attempts to inspire Erica to go to the Homecoming Dance with Geoff Schwartz.
- Anachronism Stew: The first public sign that Milli Vanilli was lip-syncing came on 21 July, 1989. The timing of Adam's puberty aside, schools tend to not be open during the summer months.
- Appearance Angst: According to Bev, her puberty occurred when she was just nine, and she ended up saddled with the unwanted nickname "Booberly".
- Foreshadowing: Barry and the JTP are trying to prepare for Homecoming by emulating Milli Vanilli at the start of the B Plot, long before the musicians are mentioned in the A Plot.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: When Murray sees Erica turn down the well-meaning and kind Geoff, he encourages her to open up more and go to Homecoming...which leads to her being asked out by Johnny Atkins, and then going through heartbreak.
- Growing Up Sucks: Adam gets pimples, starts smelling bad, and his voice starts cracking due to his age, preventing him from singing naturally. Towards the end, Bev rallies everyone in the musical with a speech about how they're all feeling this, and that it's natural, rather than something to be ashamed of.
- Honesty Aesop: Pops strongly advises Beverly about this when he's informed of the syncing scheme, but Beverly herself doesn't take it to heart until she sees the chorus "rehearsing", at which point she realizes what she's doing and tells them to be themselves.
- Repetitive Audio Glitch: When Beverly and Adam try showing off their lip syncing scam to Pops, this ends up happening, which initially confuses Pops because he thought Adam was actually singing at the time.
- Rise of Zitboy: One of the opening scenes has Adam trying to cover a zit with a bandage; when worried about how it's too obvious, Barry reassures him by saying he'll just tell people they were roughhousing. Later, Bev shows him the power of makeup to hide them. And at the episode's end, Barry is encouraging him to pop one.
- That Syncing Feeling: Inspired by the Milli Vanilli scandal, Bev plans for this so her son can stay in the spotlight. Since everyone else in his age group is also going through puberty, Ms. Cinoman attempts to apply this to the entire group, until Bev has a Heel Realization and gives a motivational speech to get everyone to sing naturally.
- Title Drop: Bev realizes she's turned the musical "A Chorus Line" into A Chorus Lie after seeing them "rehearse" to a recording of scales.
- Two-Timer Date: Johnny Atkins openly tells Erica that he's bringing another girl, Carla, along to Homecoming. When Erica is disgusted by this, he immediately asks a different woman to be his second. Carla is uncomfortable with the situation, but thinks she can change Johnny.
