"Guys, let's be smart about this, okay? Let's be right down the middle."
— Dennis
Dennis is determined keep things classy when the gang appears on a game show, but their quirks turn the host against them and jeopardize their chances of winning.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alliterative Name: Mac goes by the name "Ronald Reynolds", claiming that Frank adopted him so that they could get on the show.
- All Issues Are Political Issues: Frank wants to discuss his political agenda on the show. Dennis protests against this idea.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Lampshaded when Mac attempts to explain the messed up Reynolds family tree to the host.Mac: He [Frank] raised them [Dennis and Dee], but he didn't sire them. Now he may have sired him [Charlie], we're not exactly sure, but they do live together in squalor.
- Bland-Name Product: The game show is called Family Fight, despite being otherwise indistinguishable from Family Feud (outside of one answer survey responses being included on the board. The real deal requires two minimum to prevent what happens in the episode).
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite being fairly crazy in his own right, Frank does by far the best of anyone in the gang, getting only one wrong answer and completely acing Fast Money.
- Call-Back:
- Mac starts trying to steal everything in sight as soon as the gang sets foot in the green room.
- Dennis flinches when he hears a loud, sudden sound.
- Frank gives "toe knife" as an answer to the question "name something that people use to groom themselves".
- Charlie gives Nightman as an answer to the question "name something that people are afraid of".
- Camp Straight: Dennis names "laser beams" as something that people use to groom themselves, claiming that "it's the only way to make sure the follicle is completely destroyed". He's also shown applying foundation before the gang goes on camera.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Mac repeatedly and completely fails to understand the rules of the game, to the point of confusing it with other shows, despite having them explained to him multiple times.
- Dennis, through the first several rounds, employs a strategy of giving the most elitist and highbrow answers possible, lest he come across as a Lower-Class Lout like the rest of the Gang. This constitutes the single worst strategy possible on a game show where the whole objective is to pick the most common answer.
- Continuity Nod:
- Charlie brings up that Frank might be his real father and asks if Family Fight, which is a game show, will do a paternity test for him.
- Dennis answers "laser beams" to the question "name something that people use to groom themselves."
- Death Glare: The entire gang gives one in unison when the rival family attempts to introduce themselves.
- Doesnt Know Her Own Strength: Dee accidentally breaks the hand buzzer, which the host states shouldn't be possible.Grant the host: Are your hands made of anvils?
- Dirty Old Man: Frank hits on the matriarch of the other family in the most obnoxious way possible.
- Ditzy Genius: Frank is his usual crazy self, but outside of one instance when the Gang tries to steal the board he gets the top answer for every question he is asked, including during "Fast Money".
- Dumbass Has a Point: Charlie points out that Sea Urchin is a bad answer because no one eats them.
- Enraged by Idiocy: Over the course of the episode, the Family Fight host grows tired of the Gang's eccentricity, to the point where he curses on-air when he has to interact with them.
- Fed to Pigs: Discussed (and possibly invoked) by Frank, who has committed many human rights violations during his overseas-factory-owner days.
- Game Show Appearance: Naturally.
- Girls with Moustaches: When asked to name a product that people use to groom themselves, Dee comes up with "cream that you use to bleach your facial hair".
- Gluttonous Pig: For the first question "Name an animal that we eat but doesn't eat us". Frank gets the top answer with pig but tries to change his answer by saying that pigs have eaten human and that he's seen pigs eat people. The host denies his request but in reality pigs are actually capable of eating humans and themselves if given the opportunity. Pigs are omnivores.
- Insane Troll Logic: Charlie's explanation of why the answer to the above question might be "bride".Charlie: You can't become a groom, or get groomed, without a bride.
- And yet in spite of this, 'Bride' ends up being an answer anyway since Charlie later recalls taking the survey for the game.
- Irony: After realizing he was part of the answer survey, Charlie volunteers to participate in "Fast Money" as he's guaranteed to get right answers. The Gang won't let him because they know that since he was the only one who gave his weird answers, he'll only get five points. When "Fast Money" finishes with Dennis having a breakdown and getting no points, the Gang winds up five points short of the 200 needed to win.
- Lampshaded Double Entendre: Dee does this with one of her answers; when asked to name an animal we eat that doesn't eat us, she says that she "likes to eat cock".Dee: You see what I did there? It was a little bit of a double entendre type of thing, I was talking about chicken but I said cock.
- Limited Social Circle: The only "friend" the gang could get to record a video message cheering them on was Cricket. And he only did it because they paid him five bucks.Mac: We couldn't get anybody else?Charlie: No.
- The Load: Despite (or arguably because of) his insistence on being the most competent and intelligent one there, Dennis initially fails to answer even a single question right because he insists on giving highbrow answers that are completely out-of-touch with regular people. He does briefly turn things around when he starts "thinking like a commoner", but his histrionics, stage fright, and out-of-touch nature winds up causing him to completely flunk Fast Money and lose the game.
- Losing Horns: The wrong answer buzzer drives Dennis to have a full-on breakdown.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The host’s demeanor and obvious frustration with the stupidity of the Gang and their answers is an obvious, if somewhat exaggerated, caricature of Steve Harvey’s run as the host of Family Feud.
- Noodle Incident: Frank claims that he's seen many pigs eat many men.
- Rage Breaking Point: After the other team gets a third strike on a question, the host pounds his fist on the podium a few times and screams "God damn it!" when he has to go to the Gang's side for the steal.
- Renaissance Man: Dennis describes himself as such.Dennis: I'm kind of a jack of all trades, if you will. So really, the question isn't what do I do, it's what don't I do.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: When Charlie suggests bride as something you groom yourself with, Mac thinks he’s got a point. Turns out Bride was an answer because Charlie was surveyed.
- Shout-Out:
- When Mac tries to phrase the answer as a question, the host points out that it's not Jeopardy!. He later asks when they get to spin the wheel.
- Charlie asks if this is one of those shows that will do a DNA test to prove if Frank is his father.
- Sticky Fingers: Mac compulsively tries to steal an ashtray from the green room, despite Dennis pointing out that they have ashtrays and he doesn't even smoke.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Charlie keeps giving ridiculous answers that only he could come up with, only for them to appear on the board to the complete bafflement of rest of the Gang, the other team, and the host. It turns out that Charlie was one of the people surveyed for questions in the first place, so the answers are his own.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Dennis seems to take this view for most of the episode, since Frank keeps making vulgar and politically-heated comments, Dee insists on inserting sexual innuendoes into her answers, Mac doesn't understand the rules and Charlie keeps giving bizarre answers that only he could have come up with. At the end of the day, however, it's Dennis whose behavior proves to be the most embarrassing and costs them the game.
- Take That!: To Jenny McCarthy.Dee: JMac's face is never puffy.Dennis: Yeah, because JMac's face is stapled to the back of her head.
- Toilet Humor: Dee has a fart noise keychain that she plans on using. She ends up falling on it when she passes out, causing it to go off repeatedly.
- Too Much Information: The Gang has a tendency to do this, which results in the host declaring that he will only ask them questions that keep the game moving.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Dennis is surprised that Charlie doesn't know what cottage cheese is, as he'd thought that Charlie was a "cheese guy".
- Troubled Fetal Position: After losing Fast Money, Dennis breaks down and ends up crouched in a fetal position on the floor.
- Unexpectedly Obscure Answer: One of the answers to "Name something we eat, which does not eat us" is 'Dragon', and "Something people fear" was 'Nightman'. It turns out that Charlie was actually in the survey, and so those were his answers.
- Villainous Breakdown: The sound of the wrong answer buzzer reduces Dennis to a sobbing, pathetic mess, having a tantrum on the floor and insisting that "this doesn't represent me!".
- Weight Woe: Dee claims that she hasn't eaten for three days in order to look thin in front of the cameras. She later passes out due to hunger.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Mac keeps getting the rules of the game mixed up with those of other game shows.Dennis: We need to get all the top answers to win Fast Money.
Mac: Right, totally, totally. And then we spin the wheel.
Dennis: Okay, you're definitely not gonna play, 'cause you can't understand a thing that's happening.
