A Plot: Adam plans to sing Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" in the school's holiday talent show. Jealous of Adam's rising popularity, Barry plans to do his own rendition as "Barry Joel", but he doesn't know any of the lyrics.
B Plot: Lou Schwartz and Beverly, each sensing a possible marriage between Erica and Geoff, start to compete over who will host Hanukkah celebrations for the combined families.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Beverly confronts Lou about trying to steal Hanukkah from her, Present Day!Adam states she spun out again... only to immediately state that for once she was right.
- Hanukkah Episode: This episode has Bev and the Schwartzes trying to one-up each other in hopes of being the house Erica and Geoff will choose to go to for their celebrations.
- Irony: Barry performs his version of "We Didn't Start The Fire" at the talent show...and starts a fire.
- Properly Paranoid: Beverly believes the Schwartzes are trying to make a play at being the hosting family for all celebrations. When she confronts Lou about it, he admits it and sabotages her in the process.
- Sibling Team: When trying to change Barry's mind proves futile, Adam approaches him with a way they can combine both of their strengths to do the Billy Joel song together.
- Something Something Leonard Bernstein: Barry does not know the lyrics to "We Didn't Start The Fire." At all.
- Technician Versus Performer: Adam knows the lyrics and has the technical know-how to play the music, while Barry is better at performance and actually singing.
- We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies: The main plot has Adam and Barry planning to do the song for the school talent show. Eventually, they end up using new lyrics about the school.
- Who's on First?: Invoked; Pops attempts to convince Barry to do the classic Abbott & Costello routine instead of competing with his brother, only for the conversation to actually turn into this. It takes Barry two hours to finally get it, at which point he decides it would be funnier if the players instead had childish insults as names.
