Season 4, episode 9
Ted Koppel's Big Night Out
Rory's midterms are coming up. Luke hired a weird kid to help him out in the diner. Richard visits Yale and tells Rory and Paris about his own Yale days. There is a football match between Yale and Harvard. Richard and Emily go and end up arguing about Richard's ex-fiance Pennilyn.Maid of the week: Sandy, who just dumps Rory's cookies on a plate.
This episode contains examples of:
- Amicable Exes: Richard and his college girlfriend before Emily, Pennilyn Lott, who Richard sees for lunch annually, much to Emily's ire.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: At the end of her list of things to hate about Brennan, Lorelai mentions that he doesn't actually know or care about the band on his t-shirt.
- Bookworm: Rory gets around her boredom during the football game by reading.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Or inconvenience, since if you accidentally wear crimson to a Harvard-Yale sporting event it looks like you are rooting for Harvard.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Brennan, watching The Breakfast Club, found it inspirational that Andrew's friends taped Brian's friend's butt. Brennan is not a bully, though; he taped his own butt.
- Paris meets Richard's friend Asher Fleming and invites herself to interview him, only remembering to declare that she's a fan as he walks away.
- Luke thinks the reverend is scolding him for swearing when he's just trying to answer the question he was asking while swearing.
- Dating What Daddy Hates: Mostly what mommy hates. Lorelai changes her mind and decides to go out with Jason because her mother dislikes him, at least after Emily chews her out for getting asked about the inn by Pennilyn Lott where Emily could hear it.
- Department of Redundancy Department: Rory orders toast. Brennan asks if she wants it fried. Hedging her bets, she says yes.
- Dumb Blonde: Lorelai thinks Jessica Simpson is this for thinking twenty-five is "almost mid-twenties".
- Embarrassing Nickname: Brennan Lewis gets nicknamed "frog guy", but doesn't seem to mind. Also, "froggie", but Luke doesn't get it.
- Fee Fi Faux Pas:
- Lorelai innocently calls Pennilyn Lott her "almost mommy" to Pennilyn in front of her parents.
- Everything Brennan does is this.
- Foreshadowing: Lane says she wanted the job Luke gave to Brennan.
- Hypocritical Humor: Lorelai's rules for what's allowed on a date change when she finds it convenient.
- Mirror Character: Downplayed with Pennilyn Lott, who is endowed with class like Emily and friendliness like Lorelai.
- Neologism: Buttnapkins. Brennan pulls them out of his back pocket and hands them to customers.
- Never My Fault: Lorelai blames Rory for not getting her out of going to the Harvard-Yale game she already got her out of once before Lorelai insisted on coming along.
- Product Placement: Lorelai wants small Pringle packets to put in her purse, and Jason finds Captain Crunch which he hasn't eaten since his childhood.
- Seinfeldian Conversation: Lorelai and Jason have a minor one on the topic of pink coconut balls.
- Shout-Out:
- The title of the episode mentions Ted Koppel.
- Rory finds it a travesty that Roy got eaten by his tiger while Jessica Simpson is alive and well.
- Brennan is like the lost Farrely brother. He watched The Breakfast Club and decided to tape his own butt together.
- Lorelai has prepared South Park impressions for boring times, like football games.
- Brennan wears a Foreigner t-shirt without knowing who they are.
- Emily doesn't have to "Kill Bill" her daughter to get her into her jacket.
- Emily thinks it's not that necessary to talk like Sharon Osbourne.
- Marty calls Richard Obi-Wan.
- Lorelai thinks her Wolfowitz t-shirt is evil.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Invoked by Emily, who accuses Lorelai of talking like Sharon Osbourne when Lorelai asks why the hell they had to show up hours before the match.
- Soccer-Hating Americans: Subverted. The Lorelais hate football. American football.
- Team Pet: A bulldog named Dan for the Yale football team. He is a Legacy Character, wih the former Dan having been taxidermied and put on display in a glass case.
- The Talk: As is the custom with the Lorelais, Rory gives her mother a brief one when she tells her she likes Jason.
- The Unfavorite: Richard and Emily compare Lorelai's choice of sweater to Rroy's choice of borrowing one of Lorelai's sweaters, and find Lorelai lacking.
- Verbal Backspace: Subverted, as when Paris calls Charlie Rose a pretentious babbler and Asher replies that Charlie is a good friend of his, Paris just says "whatever" and moves on.
- You Just Told Me: Pennilyn Lott asked Lorelai about the new inn so Emily heard it, and that's how she knows Richard still talks to her regularly.
