Phineas and Ferb help the Fireside Girls with their car wash fundraiser, while Candace tries to take some of Stacy's dating advice. Meanwhile, Doofenshmirtz schemes to literally turn molehills into mountains.
"At the Car Wash" contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: Phineas is about to suggest setting up a zipline from Mount Danville to their backyard to raise awareness of the star-nosed mole. But this is immediately shot down when Isabella suggests a car wash.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: In Doofenshmirtz's flashback, the fridge says "колдбох", which is "koldbox" spelled in Cyrillic.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The -inator not only makes the molehill mountain-sized, but the star-nosed mole itself. The giant mole then walks away with the car wash on its head.
- Audible Gleam: Candace, once she's been scrubbed and polished squeaky-clean by the car wash.
- Body Wipe: Candace's sparkling, freshly waxed eyes fill the screen at one point in the song before transitioning to her being rinsed and buffed.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Phineas uses Isabella's catchphrase, "What'cha dooooin'?", as he and Ferb encounter Isabella in the beginning.
- Brick Joke:
- At the beginning of the episode, Linda points out that something's been eating her Hydrangeas, followed by a bunch of them getting sucked into the ground. At the end of the episode, Doof's inator causes a skyscraper-sized mole to rise out of the ground, and Phineas points out that the mole must have been eating the flowers.
- Carl mentions that he wrote a thesis on seismic events that he published on his website. Later, Doof mentions he got the idea for his inator from "some kid's website", as Carl's page is shown on his computer.
- Butt-Monkey: Candace is put through the wringer, literally, at the car wash.
- Call-Back:
- When Doof drops a battery under his fridge, he yells "dang it!" and then apologizes to Perry, as he "didn't mean to get street," referring to a line from Phineas earlier in the episode (See: Gosh Dang it to Heck)
- When Doof is in the giant boot, he recognizes an aglet, which was previously defined in "Tip of the Day". Indeed, Doof should be the only person in the Tri-State Area who remembers what they are.
- Caught in a Snare: Despite avoiding the entirety of Doofenshmirtz's elaborate (and expensive) security system, Perry stumbles into a rope trap set up to a potted tree, and gets caught and hung by the foot.
- Chekhov's Gun: During Agent P's debriefing, Carl mentions that he wrote his sophomore thesis on seismic quakes and events. A few scenes later, Doofenshmirtz reveals that he got the idea for his inator after reading about it on "some kid's website"; the camera pans over to show Carl's thesis.
- Conveyor Belt of Doom: Poor Candace gets trapped on the automated car wash's conveyor belt and is subjected to the same cleansing as the vehicles. Over the course of the song, she gets spun, brushed, scrubbed, hosed, polished, and vacuumed.
- Death Course: Doofenshmirtz installs one on his vents, complete with a Laser Hallway and various traps. Perry passes through all of it, much to Doof's chagrin.
- Didn't Think This Through: Doofenshmirtz uses his Mountain-Out-Of-A-Molehill-Inator in his lab - the penthouse of an apartment building. He notes that he probably should have done this in the basement.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: One of the places Doof looks for a battery is in Norm's butt. This is before it was established that Norm runs on squirrel power.
- Funny Background Event: The Giant Floating Baby Head is briefly seen outside Candace's window.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Parodied. Phineas overuses the word "dang", and Ferb informs him that he's not street enough to pull it off.
- Gratuitous Spanish: When Candace asks Phineas to speed up the car wash conveyor, Phineas says "¡Accelerado, por favor!"note to Ferb, who's manning the controls.
- Here We Go Again!: In the end after the mole disappears into the sea, Isabella wonders how they are supposed to save it now. Ferb simply quips it can take care of itself.
- Hold Up Your Score: Agent P's lair entrance gets a 9.5 from Monogram and an 8.5 from Carl.Major Monogram: Eight and a half, Carl? Really?
Carl: Well, sir, he did separate his feet a little on the re-entry.
Major Monogram: Carl! (sighs) Hey, is something burning over on the stove?
Carl: My spaghetti! - Improbable Hairstyle: After the humiliating torment in the car wash and crash landing onto Jeremy's car, Candace's hair is now much longer than usual, with a wavier, almost spring-like quality. She attributes it to the hot wax, and possibly the sealer. Jeremy thinks it looks cool.
- The Internet Is for Cats: While explaining his evil plot to Perry, Dr. Doofenshmirtz gets briefly distracted showing off some humorous cat pictures he found on the Internet.Dr. Doofenshmirtz: Look! "Invisible cheeseburger
"! (beat) No, huh? Well, it's not for everyone. I just think they're funny. - Lampshade Hanging: When Perry escapes Doofenshmirtz Evil, Inc., the computer announces, "System overload. Cliché explosion imminent."
- Literal Metaphor: In the most literal-minded take on Evil Is Petty, Doof wants to make mountains out of molehills because people kept telling him not to. He acknowledges that he does know it's a metaphor and what it actually means, but he maintains that his scheme is more of a statement that people can't tell him what to do.
- No OSHA Compliance: Apparently, the kids are a little young to understand what makes a safe workplace environment, considering their car wash treats human beings the same as it does vehicles.
- Noodle Incident: The Fireside Girls' past attempts to raise money to save the star-nosed mole haven't gone well. It can be reasonably inferred how Holly got singed and covered in soot from a bake sale, and how Ginger is roughed up and scratched after cat-sitting, but how did Katie wind up covered in bandages with two broken hands after a lemonade stand?
- Opening Shout-Out: While looking for batteries, Doofenshmirtz checks in Frankenstein's brain.
- Precision-Guided Boomerang: Perry uses his fedora to cut down a piece of tubing, which overloads Doof's inator and shocks Doofenshmirtz with an electric charge; the fedora returns to Perry's hand afterwards.
- Shout-Out:
- The title is a reference to the Rose Royce song.
- The song is done in the style of The B-52s, with Phineas doing his best Fred Schneider impression.
- There are two Star Wars references in the song. First, one of Candace's many humiliations has her hair being rinsed, buffed, and sculpted into Princess Leia's iconic twin buns. Then, blink and you'll miss it, but there is an AT-AT walker behind Phineas during his commercial for the car wash.
- Doofenshmirtz has recently discovered LOLCats.
- The episode ends with the giant star-nosed mole ready for a Godzilla-style rampage across the Pacific Ocean.
- Squee: Candace's reaction to Jeremy inviting her for a ride in his mother's car. It's so loud that it blows his hair back.
- Subverted Catchphrase: When the "Aren't you a little young" gag comes up.Worker: Hey, here's your delivery, kid. Friction rollers, spot-free rinser, individual driers, turbo spray nozzles, jet powered vacuum, atomic collider.Phineas: I suppose you're going to ask me if I'm too young to use this stuff.Worker: Nah, just try not to blow a hole through the earth's core, or we'll both be in deep doody.Phineas: Okay!
- That Came Out Wrong: This exchange.Man #1: Oh, no! It's a hideous giant mole!
Man #2: [with a huge mole on his head] Hey, shut up!
Man #1: No no! That mole, ya fool! [points at rampaging giant star-nosed mole] - Wasn't That Fun?: After Jeremy's car rolls off the tail of the giant star-nosed mole, Candace says, "I don't know what that was, but let's do it again!"
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Doofenshmirtz actually succeeded at turning molehills into mountains. We don't get to see how the mountains were removed after the episode ended.
