Mr. Burns turns Bring Your Kids to Work Day into Put Your Kids to Work Day. Lisa Simpson evades that and chases Mr. Burns into the men's room, where he finds graffiti denigrating him.
Mr. Burns has a team transform him into Fred Kranepool. After his first day of work, Fred goes to Moe's with Homer, Lenny and Carl.
Fred has a good time with the guys, he goes fishing with them, then to karaoke, where the four of them sing "Why Can't We Be Friends?" After that, Fred sings "The Spaniard That Blighted My Life" (an actual song that was popular prior to World War I).
The guys ask Fred to stand up to Mr. Burns on their behalf, to improve the workplace for his employees. Fred does so and Mr. Burns capitulates, turning the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant into an enjoyable workplace. But Smithers doesn't like this development, and tries to explain to Homer that Fred is Mr. Burns.
Homer and the guys talk to Fred. As Lenny piles on the insults, Mr. Burns is unable to keep up the charade. He runs away. Fred becomes autonomous and has a fight with Mr. Burns. Or maybe that's what Mr. Burns imagined when he fell out of the Fred suit.
Back to his old self, Mr. Burns does away with all workplace improvement. In answer to an employee's question about a specific program, he replies "If you have to ask, it's canceled!"
Tropes
- Becoming the Mask: Mr. Burns as Fred is so taken in with the workers' friendship he decides to become Fred full time.
- Big Eater: Homer goes to work on a Saturday but doesn't know it's that day, but Marge doesn't remind him after he leaves so the family can eat a turkey roast without him not letting them get to it first.
- Black Comedy: Moe installs a drive through window and uses it to give Barney glasses of beer while he's driving his plow truck.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Lisa tries to stop Mr. Burns' plan to have kids of the employees work in the power plant mentioning child labor laws. Naturally, Mr. Burns isn't having any of it and hides in the men's room.
- Cast as a Mask: Mr. Burns's "Fred" disguise includes a voice-changing module that changes his voice to David Harbour's. Averted when one of the technicians hired to help put together Mr. Burns's disguise demonstrates a voice chip; his normal and modulated voices are both provided by Kevin Michael Richardson.
- Continuity Nod:
- Barney is shown driving his Plow King snowplow truck (see "Mr. Plow").
- A photo of Burns' "frenemies" (meaning "French enemies") shows him with the two winemakers from "The Crepes of Wrath".
- Marge mentions the time Lady Gaga came to Springfield and helped Lisa.
- Continuity Snarl: In ''The Fool Monty'', it was implied that Mr. Burns doing good deeds or doing anything positive shortens his lifespan, explaining his usual demeanor. And yet, this episode doesn't show any side-effect for Burns or even a reference to this fact.
- Couch Gag: Nelson replaced the Simpsons' couch with a green screen. As soon as the Simpsons try to sit on the couch, Nelson turns off the video processing, revealing that instead of a couch there is only a green background.
- Disproportionate Retribution: By the end of the episode, any employee caught smiling is punished.
- End-of-Episode Silliness: After Burns disposes of his suit by throwing it in acid, Smithers is thrilled to have his old sadistic boss back and gives him a hug. Unknown to him, "Burns" snaps off his Latex Perfection mask to reveal the beautiful female prosthetic artist, who adds "Or am I?" and winks at the camera.
- Expressive Mask: The "Fred" disguise's mask, though it's justified in that the mask contains electronics that enable Burns to disguise his voice and communicate with Smithers, so it's likely the mask also has some form of animatronics that allow Fred's expressions to show and mouth to move. The "Fred" disguise is also sentient, and duels with Burns at the end of the episode.
- Good Feels Good: Mr. Burns realizes this during his charade as "Fred."
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Near the end, Homer convinces Mr. Burns to go back to being a greedy heartless boss again, as that's how things have always worked since the past. He does, obviously because Status Quo Is God.
- Homing Projectile: When Homer, Carl, and Lenny invite "Fred" to Moe's after work, Mr. Burns signals Smithers of the good news by firing a missile from his mask that weaves through the hallways, unlocks Smithers's door, and hits him in the back of the head.Smithers: (rubbing the back of his neck) Oh, I hate that signal.
- I'm Standing Right Here: After Bart comments about not being able to shake off Milhouse, it turns out Milhouse is next to him, eating with the family because their sleepover ended days ago but he hasn't been picked up by his parents. Milhouse's parents ditched him to have a private vacation without him.
- Ironic Name: Don Phonyman is a real new employee instead of Mr. Burns in another disguise.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Smithers points out that Mr. Burns' improvements to the power plant could financially ruin the plant. Not only did the improvements cost money, people were wasteful with their new privileges, like dumping their segways after only slightly using them.
- Late to the Realization: Smithers reveals to Homer that Fred is really Mr. Burns and tells him that, for the good of the company, he must stop being friends with him.Homer: No problem, as long as I can still be friends with Fred.
Smithers: Fred is Mr. Burns.
Homer: Whaaaaat? Oh, he is not! - Latex Perfection: Part of Mr. Burns' disguise is a latex mask designed by a professional movie prosthetics artist that worked on the Mission: Impossible movies, who at first appears to be an old man, but then takes off his mask to reveal a young woman. And then when the team is ready to make up Mr. Burns into "Fred," she peels off her mask to reveal... her exact same self underneath, but with a doctors' head mirror.
- Mistaken For An Impostor: In the end, Homer, Lenny and Carl assume a real new worker is actually Mr. Burns in a new disguise.
- Mobile-Suit Human: A variant; Mr. Burns's "Fred" disguise includes such a mechanical suit that does indeed make him noticeably larger, but in a more realistic fashion than this trope usually does.
- Ms. Fanservice: The aforementioned female prosthetics artist.
- Not So Above It All: As Homer happily leaves for work since Fred convinced Mr. Burns to make the work place better, Bart asks if they should tell him it’s Saturday. Marge says not to since it'll give them the breakfast turkey breast for once.
- Self-Deprecation: Marge is suspicious of Homer’s new friend, remembering how Lady Gaga came to town and befriended Lisa, before vanishing forever.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode's title and idea is one to Undercover Boss.
- Burns suiting up as Fred at the end is a recreation of the suit up scene in the first Iron Man film.
- After Burns becomes mean again, the Eye of Sauron appears over each cooling tower at the plant.
- Spit Take: Upon learning Homer actually wants to be on time for work, the kids and Abe spit out their food in shock, followed by Snowball II coughing out a mouse, who coughs up a piece of cheese.
- Take That!:
- Smithers warns Homer that Mr. Burns' improvements to the plant would send the plant the way of Sears catalogue and 20th Century Fox.
- The ride Mr. Burns puts the kids on when putting them to work is one to the It's A Small World ride at Disneyland.
- "Take Your Child to Work Day" Plot: The episode begins with the power plant hosting a "Take Your Kids to Work Day" with attractions such as "Touch the Plutonium" booth and a bounce house shaped like Mr. Burns' head. However, Burns quickly reveals the true reason for the event was free child labor, and unfurls a banner reading "Put Your Kids to Work Day."
- Tempting Fate:
- Upon being taken for forced work, Bart says at least there's no annoying ride song. A song starts right after he says that.
- After seeing the bad things written about him in the men's lounge, Mr. Burns hopes things are better in the women's lounge. There's a burning effigy of him there.
- That Came Out Wrong: When Marge asks why Homer is depressed:
- Homer: I lost a friend today because Burns stepped out of him.Marge: What?
- That Man Is Dead: Burns declares that he died the moment he put on the suit (and six times before that) and is now Fred.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: The plot of the children (and Bart) put into child labor is quickly dropped after Mr. Burns finds the nasty comments about him in the men's bathroom.
- Would Hurt a Child: Mr. Burns designs a "Bring your kids to work day" event, only to use them for child labor.
