Candace becomes mayor of Danville for a day after winning an essay contest, where she issues her own laws and even hosts a busting segment. Meanwhile, Doofenshmirtz invents an Accelerate-inator to speed up Roger's golf game.
Tropes:
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Melanie at first points out the "Mayor for a Day" title is not official, but just a gimmicky title. But when Candace gives her a paid week off...Melanie: Melanie is out! PEACE!
- Continuity Nod: In her inauguration speech, Candace briefly mentions being the Queen of Mars.
- Cosmic Retcon: The breaking of the Accelerate-inator, as well as the further destruction by the Baby Alien, changes history so that the old coot wins the essay contest instead of Candace.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Roger's caddie is named Katy.
- Drunk with Power: Candace abuses her mayoral privileges to remake Danville in her own image.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When the entire episode is being reset thanks to Doofenshmirtz's Accelerate-inator being broken, we see very brief clips of Perry and Doofenshmirtz dressed as musketeers, explorer and cannibal, husband and housewife, and as Ancient Egyptians. You can also see the Baby Alien popping out from his dimension.
- Gratuitous Italian: For some reason, Candace signs off her phone call with her mother with, "Perfecto! Adieu, maman!"
- Hypocritical Humor: Candace fails to prove her point when she denies she's crazy once she does a rather demented laugh.
- Indian Burial Ground: The old coot attempts to make this claim, but Phineas says that this is just their backyard.(Beat)Old Coot: If'n ya find any gold, it's mine!
- Left the Background Music On: The montage of Candace and Stacy enacting new laws around Danville is accompanied by a tune that is revealed to be played by the Paisley Sideburn Brothers, whom she hired for the office; Candace tells them to stop after the montage is over.
- Literal Metaphor: A major Running Gag in this episode.
- Candace is the winner of the "Mayor for a Day" essay contest because Roger interpreted her essay about busting her brothers as a metaphor for the economy. Later, everyone also thinks it's a metaphor.Roger: Ms. Flynn has found the perfect metaphor for our troubled times. In this day and age, it is all of our responsibility to "bust" the "little brothers" of corporate greed to the "mom" of fiscal responsibility.
- Later, we have this exchange when Candace unveils her brothers' invention for the Big Bust:Candace: Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I give you... (pulls down curtain to showcase the old pioneer town) what you've all been waiting for!
Reporter: Look! It's a perfect metaphor that we should return to simpler times and values!
Candace: That's not exactly what I meant.
Reporter: Ha! A perfect metaphor for how history teaches us about our future!
Candace: That's pretty good, but no.
Reporter: It's a metaphor for—
Candace: NOT EVERYTHING IS A METAPHOR! - And finally, after the events of the whole episode is reset and the old coot becomes the mayor instead, he proclaims a new law that any gold found is his, which prompts the audience to cheer for it thinking it was a metaphor, before realizing he was being literal.
- Candace is the winner of the "Mayor for a Day" essay contest because Roger interpreted her essay about busting her brothers as a metaphor for the economy. Later, everyone also thinks it's a metaphor.
- Live Mink Coat: After Phineas announces that he plans to build an old pioneer town in the backyard, Ferb pulls out what looks like a fur trapper hat and wears it on his head, before it's revealed that the "hat" is a live raccoon.
- Overly Long Gag: Phineas and Ferb sawing very, very slowly, in the spirit of building things without modern technology.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Perry disguises himself as Doof's caddie, but Doof fails to recognize him because he's not wearing his fedora.
- Public Bathhouse Scene: Major Monogram holds Perry's briefing for this episode inside the agency sauna; he reasons that his division will lose the sauna privileges if they don't use it at least three times a month.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: When Candace once again says her brothers are "going down", Stacy sarcastically hums the first four notes of Beethoven's fifth symphony.
- Rearrange the Song: A very slow pioneer-style version of the "Quirky Worky Song" plays when Phineas and Ferb start sawing wood, and it starts and stops whenever they get tired.
- Reset Button: Candace manages to use her power as mayor to successfully get Linda to see what the boys have done, and Linda actually ends up being quite angry with them. However, at that moment, Perry breaks Doofenshmirtz's Accelerate-inator and it malfunctions, causing everything to reset back to the beginning of the day, and the malfunction causes things to be changed so Candace ends up losing the essay contest to the town's local coot.Candace: I was robbed...
- Status Quo Is God: This is one of the closest times Candace has ever come to actually busting her brothers... and it's all undone by the Accelerate-inator breaking.
- Super-Speed: Doofenshmirtz invokes this on Roger with his Accelerate-inator, so that he doesn't have to wait for too long for the family golf game to finish.
- Take That!: During Candace's "Eureka!" Moment, she says that she has forgotten the promises that got her into office in the first place, "like so many other elected officials".
- Visual Pun: Phineas says they need to rid the pioneer town of cattle wrestlers, which are represented by Mexican luchadors wrestling cattle.Luchador: Tag me in! Tag me in!
- Was It Really Worth It?: Inspired by Roger's speech during Candace's inauguration as mayor, Phineas and Ferb decided to build an authentic pioneer town without using any modern tools or technology. They finished building it, but later decide that it wasn't worth all the effort.Phineas: Yep, it took a whole lot of toil, pain, sweat and hard work to build this town. We should be proud.
Beat
Ferb: Let's never do that again.
Phineas: Agreed. Come on, let's go inside the house for a snack.
Isabella: And air conditioning.
Buford: And indoor toilets. - Yank the Dog's Chain: Candace comes the closest she's been to busting Phineas and Ferb thanks to her power as Mayor for a Day. Unfortunately, thanks to the Accelerate-inator breaking, not only is the entire day undone just as Linda's about to yell at the boys, but it also changes the outcome of the contest so that the town coot wins instead of her. When Candace declares she was robbed, she was unaware that she was right in more ways than one.
- You Know What They Say: Played with. Roger makes a joke, "You know what they say, 'You can't be tee'd off once you've teed-off.'" Doofenshmirtz gets puzzled and wonders who actually said that, and Roger points towards a pair of Creepy Twins literally named "They", who proceed to repeat Roger's joke.Roger: Creepy, huh? I've been trying to ditch those guys all day.
