A magician causes Chris's birthday present to Elise to disappear (and steals Dan's underwear) so Dan sets out to prove that magic is quackery.
This episode provides examples of the following Tropes:
- Air-Vent Passageway: Dan uses one to escape the dungeon in the Magic Manor.
- Agony Beam: Chris gets attacked with one of these. Dan discovers it to be powered by a metal rod hooked up to a car battery.
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: Dan kidnaps Peter's rabbit to barter with him.
- Authentication by Newspaper: Dan uses this to prove that Sprinkles the Rabbit is still alive.
- Batter Up!: Dan's first instinct is to attack the magician with a baseball bat. Chris advises Dan that this would constitute assault.Dan: I guess we can mangle his reputation, instead.
- Captain Obvious: In the Magic Manor, there is a room where all the tiles have English letters on them.Chris: They seem to be letters. English, in origin.
- Continuity Nod: Chris says the necklace was brought to the US by his great-great grandma. In "Dan Vs Canada", we learn that Chris's great-great grandfather was Canadian, so this syncs up.
- Contrived Coincidence: The magician who humiliates Dan is the same magician who traumatized Elise when she was younger.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Dan and Chris dress as magicians to infiltrate Magic Manor.
- Dumb Muscle: Chris tries to spell "magic" with a "J". Further, witness this exchange at the beginning of the episode:Dan: You will feel a punch... Watch this hand! [punches Chris]Chris: Ow! How'd you do that?
- Expy: Magnifico is pretty much cartoon Criss Angel.
- Flashback: To Elise's traumatic experience with Magnifico.
- Freak Out: Elise freaks out whenever she sees a magician.
- Instant Sedation: "Sleep!" (Dan later discovers it to be a hidden atomiser of chloroform.)
- Little Black Dress: Elise wears one to pass off as an stage assistant. Doesn't work.
- Locked in the Dungeon: The main trio once they get caught in the Magic Manor.
- Magic Wand: That shoots an Agony Beam from a car battery!
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: It's never actually explained how Dan had his underpants taken out by Magnifico at the start of the episode, leaving Chris to wonder if magic really exists.
- Malaproper: "Elsie".
- Needle in a Stack of Needles: Chris manages to find Elise's necklace... in a pile of jewellery 10 times the size of him.
- Occam's Razor: Mr Mumbles attacks Magnifico just as he's about to hurt Dan. Chris observes that he's never seen her attack anyone like this before. Then a bunch of doves fly out from Magnifico's clothes... Mr Mumbles was after the doves!Dan: You see? Everything has an explanation.
- Out-of-Character Moment: This is a rare episode where Dan plays the Agent Scully to Chris's Agent Mulder rather than the other way around.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Played straight when Dan and Chris have to spell out "magic" on the floor tiles. Averted, however, at the manor gates, where the magic words are, "My, your blue eyes are striking in the moonlight!"
- Pick a Card: Any card!
- Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: The rabbit's name is Sprinkles.
- Saw a Woman in Half: Part of what traumatises little Elise as a kid.
- Shout-Out: The trap floor in the Magic Manor is a clear nod to the similar scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Chris even treads on the same letter as Indy, "J", that almost plunges them both to their doom (Indy because he doesn't initially account for different transliterations of "Jehova", Chris because he can't spell "Magic").
- When trying to break into the Magic Manor, Dan calls it the Sanctum Santorum.
- Speed Stripes: As Dan lunges to attack Magnifico in his jewel room.
- Stage Magician: Magnifico. Peter too, although he's still in-training.
