Scrooge and Glomgold finding Aladdin's lamp (no, not the Disney version, but the one from Arabian Nights) causes more trouble than good.
This episode includes examples of the following tropes:
- And I Must Scream: The Jackass Genie is trapped in his lamp under a pile of rubble, where he's not likely to be freed any time soon.
- Aside Glance: The archaeologist's assistant, when the former believes Glomgold (after having just returned to the present) is a mirage.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Seemingly played straight at first when Scrooge arrives at the ice cream shop to discover Glomgold won the race. But then averted when the latter carelessly squanders his last two wishes, causing the episode's adventures to have never happened.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Both Scrooge McDuck and Flintheart Glomgold find a magical lamp. To decide who gets it, the genie tells them to race each other back home. Glomgold wins, and his first wish is for Scrooge to be stranded on a desert island. However, his second wish is that he could see the look on Scrooge's face, and he's sent to the same island to do so. Then he wishes that he "had never found this blasted lamp". Cue the Reset Button, and Scrooge this time wildly chases Glomgold out of the cave without finding the lamp, just before a cave-in traps it forever.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Despite his appearance and voice, the genie is extremely wicked and conniving, being every bit of what's to be expected of a Jackass Genie.
- Determinator: Both Scrooge and Glomgold are determined to win the race, and the lamp. Especially Scrooge who seemingly does the full course on foot.
- Disguised in Drag: Scrooge and Glomgold pose as harem girls in order to throw the palace guards off their trail.
- Enemy Mine: Scrooge and Glomgold while they're trapped in the past. It immediately ends when they return to present day.
- Everyone Has Standards: After one of Glomgold's attempts on Scrooge backfires and sends him hurtling down the cliff they are climbing down, Scrooge is openly concerned for his enemy's well being. Realising he's now in the lead however, Glomgold quickly recovers and gloats, dissolving an unimpressed Scrooge's empathy.
- Evil Is Petty: Discussed. Scrooge knows he has to get through the race to Duckberg alive, not just for his sake, but because he knows Glomgold is compulsively spiteful enough to use the three wishes to ruin his family's lives as well.
- Fat Bastard: The genie.
- Genie in a Bottle: Scrooge and Glomgold find a genie in a lamp.
- Harem: As part of the Arabian Nights parody.
- Heroic Resolve: At one point during their race for the lamp in the desert, Scrooge is tailing behind Glomgold and almost collapses in exhaustion. He laments that at least if he doesn't make it, they boys will be set for life. Then he remembers what sort of person Glomgold is...Scrooge: If Glomgold gets those three wishes, he won't leave the boys with a dime! I've GOT to make it! *marches on more determined than ever*
- Ironic Echo Cut: Huey, Dewey, and Louie comment that Scrooge could use a dip in the pool after seeing the genie relaxing in it. We then cut to Scrooge in the desert, having to race Glomgold over who becomes the genie's master, saying that he could use a dip in the pool.
- Irrational Hatred: Played for Laughs. After all of Glomgold's scheming is undone by the end of the episode, he ends up being chased by Scrooge in the reset timeline for reasons the latter can't quite remember.Scrooge: Come back here, Glomgold! Something tells me I should be very angry with you.
- Jackass Genie: Along with trapping Scrooge and Glomgold in the past so that he won't have to go back to being a slave, the genie uses Exact Words to rob Glomgold of his second wish. The latter instant ends up biting him in the butt when Glomgold angrily wishes he never found the lamp, resulting in the genie being trapped forever.
- Loophole Abuse: The genie's reason for first trapping Scrooge and Glomgold in a loop and then sending them to the past. Neither of them can finish the race back home if they're currently stuck in another time period, which means he won't have a master and is free to goof off outside the lamp as much as he wants.
- Meaningless Villain Victory: Glomgold successfully claims the lamp and even gets to use all three wishes, which he wastes on careless wording that resets the whole ordeal.
- Nap-Inducing Speak: Scheherazade's tales are depicted as this, even causing crocodiles to fall asleep.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: If Scrooge hadn't sent the genie to stay at the McDuck household, he never would have gotten too accustomed to life outside the lamp and eventually picked up the Villain Ball.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Glomgold's wishes wrap everything neatly up by the end of the episode, which was definitely not his intention.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Genie has a voice and mannerisms similar to Ed Wynn.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Scrooge attempts to butter up the genie by leaving him under his family and staff's care in his mansion. He comes to enjoy having someone serving him for a change, to the point he sabotages the race so he won't have to go back to servitude again.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Glomgold after screwing his last two wishes respectively. After wishing Scrooge on a desert island, he laughs and wishes he could see his face. A fiendishly smirking genie complies. After being teleported onto the same island as Scrooge, a furious Glomgold wishes he never found the blasted lamp. He has roughly a second to realise what he just said before a Reset Button sends him back.
- Before that, he was standing on a ledge while watching rocks fall towards Scrooge after throwing a dynamite. Until the ledge is about to fall off.
- Parody: Of Arabian Nights. Scheherazade, instead of telling interesting stories that keep listeners hooked night after night, tells boring stories that lull people asleep.
- Race Lift: Schererazade is depicted as a white, blonde duck, as opposed to the other Arabian-looking characters.
- Reset Button: Flintheart Glomgold's lack of care with his wishes got him stranded in a desert island with Scrooge. Forgetting he still had a wish, he unwittingly used it to wish he had never seen the lamp. Because of that wish, the past was altered so the explosion that allowed Scrooge and Flintheart to enter the cave also caused the lamp to fall from its pedestal into a pile of rubble, where it remained unseen by everyone who entered the cave.Genie: (still trapped in the lamp) Hello? Anybody out there? Anybody out there?!
- Self-Disposing Villain: The genie's attempts to double cross Glomgold lead to him wishing he never found the lamp in a fit of anger. Since he was still holding the lamp, the genie of course, has to fulfil this.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Glomgold's last wish accidentally pushes the reset button, rendering the whole story moot.
- Somewhere, an Equestrian Is Crying: The horses in the Arabian Nights pastiche are chubby, shortlegged creatures that don't look like they could cope with the desert, a far cry from how historical horses would have looked like.
- Trapped in the Past: The genie sends Scrooge and Glomgold back to the time of the Arabian Nights in order to keep either of them from winning the race and becoming either of their servants.
- Tricking the Shapeshifter: Duckworth, the nephews, and Webby pull the "Bet You Can't Fit In This Bottle" version by having Webby express disbelief that the genie could fit inside his lamp. The second he does, Huey traps him and refuses to let him out unless he returns Scrooge and Glomgold to the present.
- Villain Ball: The genie does everything in his power to screw over the two opponents so he won't need to serve a master, an act that ultimately leads to a Reset Button that leaves him trapped in his lamp for even longer. One could argue it would have been a smoother process to just let one of them win and get their three wishes over with.
