In the black-and-white noir world of his memory, Charlie navigates the seedy underbelly of Philadelphia as Frank has been "diarrhea poisoned," and it's up to Charlie to clean up the mess.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Acquired Poison Immunity: Parodied. Charlie uses his constant exposure to hazardous chemicals, both occupational and recreational, to incapacitate his enemies twice — he shoves his glue huffing bag against Mac's face to chloroform him, and later chokes Vince out by pouring a bottle of ammonia into a nearby bucket of bleach, claiming he's built up a tolerance to mustard gas. Eventually subverted when he learns that drinking bleach is not a universal poison neutralizer, and between that and eating the tainted pie, all he's done is poison himself twice.
- Affectionate Parody: Of the Film Noir genre.
- Animal Motif: Charlie repeatedly compares Mac to a dog, asking what he would "do for a biscuit" from Dennis if he comes when he's whistled to, and referring to him as "chasing his tail" should he arise from a glue fume-induced slumber.
- Bedmate Reveal: Subverted when Charlie wakes up to find Dee lying next to him in bed. She was sitting there so Mac and Dennis could photograph her "dead" body with Charlie and use it to blackmail him, but her insistence on shooting a needlessly "sexy" smile at the camera foils the plan.
- Brooklyn Rage: While the Philadelphia accent is an East Coast USA accent not unlike a New York accent (and is in fact imitated in popular culture to affect a "film noir/gangster" atmosphere), Mac and Dennis' use of New York-esque East Coast accents in this episode is this trope, as they typically speak with the same "General American" accents as the actors who play them.
- Corrupt Politician: Frank bribes one to outlaw a dye supposedly used in maraschino cherries as part of his and the Waitress' graft scheme.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The Waitress, of all people, turns out to be behind the entire (admittedly fairly minor) criminal scheme.
- Evil Laugh: The Waitress gives a surprisingly impressive one when she reveals that she was the mastermind behind the cherry scheme.
- Femme Fatale: The Waitress manages to be one. Dee tries to evoke this, but being Dee, she fails; Cricket is arguably better than her.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Cricket tells Charlie to "Go kiss a duck."
- In Medias Res: The episode starts out with Charlie seemingly dying and covered in blood. The ending reveals that this was poisoned cherry pie he vomited all over himself and is actually just suffering from diarrhea.
- Mood Whiplash: Multiple times during the episode, the characters will drop their respective film noir archetypes and speak like they normally do for comedic effect.
- Noir Episode: The entire episode framed this way, including the episode being Deliberately Monochrome (except for the color red), Charlie's janitor job is framed through Private Eye Monologue and everyone is dressed like it's The Roaring '20s.
- Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Parodied in several scenes where characters smear red fluid, colored against the black and white background, against their clothes, hands or objects around them. It's just cherry juice.
- Schizo Tech: Apart from one period car parked outside Paddy's, none of the sets are changed in any way, so the Gang's obsolete yet still modern phones, computers, and TVs are always in the background.
- Series Continuity Error: At the beginning, when Dennis tries to get Charlie to clean up the mess despite Charlie trying to knock off, he walks into the office with a toothpick in his mouth, only to take it out and hold it throughout the conversation. When he calls Mac, he is still holding the toothpick when Mac walks in. In the next shot of Dennis and Mac's faces, the toothpick is back in his mouth even though he wasn't shown putting it back.
- Splash of Color: Much like in Sin City, red is the only color used, although instead of blood, it's mainly used for cherries.
- Stealth Pun: The Waitress notes that Frank "got the message in the end" after she "diarrhea poisons" Frank.
- Tap on the Head: Used to knock out Charlie as Frank starts to reveal His Name Is....
- Toilet Humor: Any script that calls for Danny DeVito to say "I've been diarrhea poisoned" definitely qualifies.
- Too Dumb to Live: Charlie thinks that drinking bleach counteracts poison, when really it poisons you further.
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: In her efforts to sound classy and mysterious, Dee affects an accent that seems to jump back and forth from British to the Deep South.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Dee thinks she's the "knockout blonde with a body that could make a statue blush" when everyone else calls her a goon.Charlie: I get more of a "goon" vibe from ya.
