"I would rather pay a huge fine than have to give back to the community."
— Mac
When the gang is sentenced to community service following the events of "The Gang Goes Jihad", Mac, Dennis, and Dee end up coaching inner-city children's basketball while Charlie is required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. The Waitress reveals that she is also a problem drinker and offers to be Charlie's sponsor so she can get closer to Dennis.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Alcoholic: The Waitress is revealed to have a drinking problem. Charlie denies being one, though he blatantly is.
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Charlie hoped to garner leniency from the judge by invoking this. Unfortunately for him, being drunk is not a defense and only resulted in Charlie being enrolled in a twelve-step program.
- The Bro Code: Frank scolds Dennis for sleeping with the Waitress, telling him that he shouldn't have sex with his friends' girlfriends. Despite the fact that Frank himself did exactly the same thing.
- Catchphrase: Mercilessly lampshaded after Frank says "what's the action?" twice in quick succession.Dennis: Oh, Jesus Christ, are you gonna keep saying that? Is that like your catchphrase now?
- Child Hater: Dennis claims to be one on finding out that he has to coach kids' basketball as part of his community service.
- Continuity Nod:
- The gang are sentenced to community service after burning down a building.
- Dennis mentions that he's slept with the Waitress.
- Flexing Those Non-Biceps: Charlie tries to show off for the Waitress. Poorly.
- The Gambling Addict: Frank is shown to have a bit of a gambling problem, making inconsequential bets and hanging around a shady group of Vietnamese gamblers.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After all the gang's efforts to rig what should have been a simple children's basketball game, they're all reduced to picking up trash on the highway...except for Frank, since he was never in any legal trouble to begin with.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Charlie has difficulty reading simple words like "months" when reading about his sentence at the beginning of the episode.
- Love Martyr: The Waitress is still very hung up on Dennis, despite him clearly not caring about her.
- Manipulative Bitch: The Waitress pretends to care about Charlie's alcoholism just so she can use him to get closer to Dennis.
- Not So Above It All: This was one of the first episodes to show the Waitress being as awful as the gang. She pretends to care about Charlie, believing (falsely) that it will make Dennis like her. Later, she callously ditches Charlie when she believes (again, falsely) that he holding her back from getting together with Dennis.
- Out of Order: The podcast mentions this episode was pushed back a bit, hence the follow-up to "The Gang Goes Jihad" and Frank apparently having no memory of The Waitress after sleeping with her a few episodes prior.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Dee, Dennis, and Mac try to put as many black kids on their basketball teams as possible. Mac also insists Dee can't be head coach because she's a woman.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: The entire Gang dine-and-dash in the cold open after realizing Charlie spent over $40 on drinks.
- Serious Business: The gang treats a children's basketball game as this due to their own petty rivalries and competitive nature. The fact that Frank manipulates them into betting $500 on the outcome might also have something to do with it.
- Shout-Out: Mac compares Dee to Big Bird when she wears a yellow pantsuit.
- The Sponsor: The Waitress offers to act as one for Charlie, though in reality she's only using him to get closer to Dennis.
- Throwing the Fight: Frank deliberately fixes the game in order to make money off his gambling buddies by bribing Dennis's star player not to take part.
- Tropaholics Anonymous: Charlie is required to attend AA meetings as part of his community service.
- Unnecessary Roughness: All over the place thanks to the gang teaching their kids to use tactics such as stomping on their opponents' feet with steel-toed construction boots (Dennis) or hiding safety pins in their wristbands as makeshift shivs (Mac). Predictably, the final game is utter carnage.
- Would Hit a Girl: Mac elbows Dee in the face while demonstrating to the kids how they should play.
- Wrestler in All of Us: One of the kids breaks out a rear chinlock on another kid during the game.
