The family gets ready to celebrate Roger's 1600th birthday, only to find that Steve is going through puberty. Stan and Francine wish for Steve to be older and younger, respectively, leading to them injecting him with CIA drugs to achieve it.
Tropes:
- A-Cup Angst: One of Hayley's puberty freakout's is discovering her breasts have reached their maximum size.
- Adults Are Useless: Neither Stan nor Francine take action when the jocks drag Steve to the bathroom to be tormented.
- Bittersweet Ending: On the one hand, Steve is left humiliated at the school dance, being dragged to the bathroom by the jocks while his parents do nothing about it. On the other hand, Roger gets his birthday cake ruined by Steve's pubic hair, a fitting punishment for humiliating Steve for no good reason.
- Couch Gag: The opening sequence was redone starting with this episode. Instead of the newspaper headline, Roger appears in the passenger seat of Stan's car wearing a different outfit from a previous episode.
- Fountain of Youth: The first overdose of CIA drugs results in Steve being regressed to around five years old, much to his utter fury.
- Heavy Sleeper: Steve sleeps too soundly to be woken up by Stan and Francine stabbing needles into his head. Francince lampshades this.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Stan and Francine have been altering Steve's age with a serum to avoid dealing with the same puberty-induced violent mood swings they suffered through with Hayley's puberty. After Francine accidentally turns him five in a bid to keep him 14, Stan tries to instead age him to 21, happily musing about his plan to Francine after he gives Steve the serum. When Steve appears, aged all the way to 80-years-old, Fran simply groans "Oh my God" in disgusted resignation and downs both shots of whiskey that Stan had poured for him and Steve to share.
- Insane Troll Logic: Roger assumes that Steve is the one at fault for getting more attention than him, even though Steve himself was turned into a toddler against his will by Francine.
- Jerkass Ball: In Francine and Stan's collective defense, Steve didn't exactly smooth their fears about puberty making him more unruly, as he viciously snaps at Francine for simply asking him to take a sweater when he goes out running.
- Karma Houdini: As per usual for the show. Stan and Francine both mess with Steve's life separately, then don't interfere when he does need to be saved from bullies at the dance.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Roger gets his birthday cake ruined by Steve's pubic hair right after publicly humiliating him out of spite.
- In a flashback, Roger taunts Hayley about her pimple, only for Hayley to toss him out the glass window.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body:
- After being regressed, Steve is easily distracted by cartoons on TV, and despite being enraged at Francine, she's able to reduce him to a fit of childish giggles by tickling his feet. Later, when Stan sneaks into his room that night to inject him with a double dose of the antidote, Steve is found curled up in the fetal position in footie pajamas and sucking his thumb.
- After being progressed into old age, Steve's imminent fury is once again pacified by the TV — this time showing the weather channel.
- Misplaced Retribution: Roger pantses Steve at the school dance as payback for taking away the attention from him on his birthday. Never mind that it was Francine who caused it through turning Steve into a four-year-old against his will.
- Noodle Incident: Francine declares she'd rather go back to prison than deal with Steve's puberty. Why she was there the first time is never revealed.
- No Periods, Period: Defied. One of the flashbacks to Haley's puberty is her freaking out when discovering she is going to menstruate every month, then ruining a white couch.
- Parent-Induced Extended Childhood: Francine tries to stunt Steve's growth by injecting him with a CIA formula... only for her to accidentally use too much and de-age him into a five-year-old, much to Steve's outrage. Worse still, Francine prefers him this way, and spends the next few scenes obsessively doting over him.
- Parental Neglect: Stan and Francine leave Steve behind as the latter is getting manhandled by the jocks at the dance.Stan: We did say there were crappy times, right?
- Running Gag: Stan and Francine literally stab Steve with their needles rather than gently inject him. When Francine does it, the needle actually breaks off, forcing her to hammer it out of sight with Steve's alarm clock.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Because of the horrific time they had with Hayley going through puberty, in which she torched the living room over a zit, Stan and Francine decide they're gonna get as far away from Steve as they can.Stan: (after the flashbacks) So, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna wear my big shoes and pack my flip-flops.
- Shapeshifting Excludes Clothing: After being regressed, Steve arrives at the breakfast table next morning in nothing but his pajama top, which has to be continuously adjusted so the sleeves don't slip over his hands.
- Shout-Out: The ending with Roger and Klaus is taken from Sixteen Candles.
- Teens Are Monsters: Hayley spent her puberty getting progressively more destructive in the face of periods and A-Cup Angst, until an oversized zit resulted in her throwing Roger out the window and setting the house on fire. As such, Stan and Francine are not eager to endure the nightmare a second time in Steve's case, hence why the latter resorts to stunting his growth.
- Tranquil Fury: After being pacified with cartoons and foot-tickling, Steve is clearly still very angry while being escorted through the mall by Francine, but keeps it suppressed... barely.Steve: Just so you know, I'm speaking calmly, but there is a tantrum brewing in me the likes of which this mall has never seen.
