http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SamAndMaxFreelancePoliceEpisode104AbeLincolnMustDie
Sam and Max must investigate the top man himself, the President of the United States, who has been passing inane mandates such as required hugs. Not only must the two take down the President, they may have to install their own man in his place, though Abe Lincoln may have a word or two about that (or just a plan to enslave America by hypnosis).
Tropes:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The President's crazy laws include federally required hugs, lost civil rights, environment threats, and mandatory gun registration, the last of which does not sit well with Max.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: An animatronic statue of Abraham Lincoln, implied to be the same statue from the Lincoln memorial in Washington, DC.
- Bait-and-Switch: In the "Do you have any...?" back and forth with Bosco:
Sam: Do you have any wiener cozies?
Bosco: (fake Russian accent) Da! We just get shipment in this week! Let me look...
Max: Oh boy!
Bosco: (normal voice) Wait. Did you say "wiener cozies?" I thought you said "Navajo blankets." No, we're all out of wiener cozies.
Sam: (if you click "Do you have any..?" again) Do you have any Navajo blankets?
Bosco: (fake Russian accent) Nyet!
- Busby Berkeley Number: During "The War Song", the Secret Service agents jump into a giant swimming pool.
- Civil War: The Soda Poppers, now the recently-elected governors of the Dakotas (North, South and the newly-created West) are on the verge of declaring one due to their ongoing custody battle over Mount Rushmore.
- Excited Episode Title!: "Abe Lincoln Must Die!"
- Freeware Game: The episode was released as one of these initially.
- Foreshadowing: When attempting to use the truth serum with Hugh Bliss, he acts nervous and anxiously says he doesn't drink. In Bright Side of the Moon, Hugh Bliss is revealed to be a hive mind of sentient bacteria, meaning that the alcohol in the vodka would likely kill him.
- Hidden Depths: Apparently Jimmy Two-Teeth is a lobbyist for affordable health care.
Max: He's a lot more multifaceted that you give him credit for, Sam.
- Homemade Inventions: Bosco's Truth Serum, AKA a bottle of homemade vodka.
- How Do You Say: Parodied when Max responds to Bosco's use of the phrase by slowly repeating the last word ("Ques-tion-ing", "In-ter-ro-ga-tion"). Up until:
Bosco: Will make anyone get rid of inhibitions and tell, how you say, complete and honest truth!
Max: "Your accent sucks." Hey, it's already working!
- I'm Not Doing That Again: Max's response to the Secret Service agents suddenly breaking out into show tunes is "Let's never do that again!"
- In Vino Veritas: Exploited; Bosco's truth serum is in fact vodka which Sam uses to get Whizzer drunk so he'll confess what he really feels about his brothers' plans and start a fight between the three of them.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Bosco claims that the government is spying on everybody...
Max: (turning to look at the camera) So that's why I always feel an overbearing presence just out of my field of vision, watching and judging my every move!
Sam: ...That's me, Max.
- Lockdown: In the remaster, lockdown shutters appear in the Oval Office windows when the Soda Poppers declare a civil war in the Dakotas.
- Monster of the Week: The President of the United States, Agent Chuckles, and the giant animatronic statue of Abraham Lincoln.
- Mythology Gag: When the President is revealed to be a literal puppet ruler, Sam says he's "a damned ugly puppet", much like the head of the mad scientist in the prologue to Sam & Max Hit the Road turned out to be "a damned ugly time bomb".
- New Jobs As The Plot Demands: Sybil gets two new careers in this episode: first running a dating service, then later a carbon-dating service.
- Offscreen Crash: After the Soda Poppers declare war on each other, they dash off like normal... except Whizzer, who's still inebriated from the "truth serum", crashes into something just off-screen.
- Our Presidents Are Different: Three in the one episode.
- The puppet President is a literal President Puppet and a President Buffoon, bordering on President Lunatic.
- The Lincoln Memorial is also a President Puppet, using the public image of the real Lincoln to run unopposed, while intending to hypnotically enslave the country.
- Max is a definite President Lunatic.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Bosco's new identity this time around is the ushanka-wearing Vladimir Illyevich Boscovorski, Russian proprietor of Worker's Glorious Warehouse of Inconvenience.
- Properly Paranoid: Bosco's fears that the US Government is spying on him turn out to be entirely justified.
- Sophisticated as Hell: When Max challenges Lincoln to a presidential debate:
Abe: In the spirit of democracy, I say... bring it!
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In the War Room section below, Sam and Max are given the option of launching a nuclear missile (actually a replica of the Washington Monument) at the planet Krypton. If you do so, the computer will display a message stating that the missile will take 26 million years to reach the planet, much to Max's disappointment.
- Title Drop: After Lincoln loses the election and decides to go on a rampage, Sam declares "Abe Lincoln must die!"
- That Reminds Me of a Song: When Sam and Max start a war in the Dakotas, Superball and the other Secret Service agents break out into a jazzy show-tune called "The War Song".
- This Means War!: The Soda Poppers declare war after Sam gives Whizzer a "truth serum" and Whizzer starts blurting out what he and his brothers really think of each other's ideas.
- The Three Trials: Downplayed, most trials are in groups of two but there are three cue card sabotages needed to tank Lincoln's ratings.
- Tranquil Fury: After Sam states that the President is legalizing mandatory gun registration, Max pulls out his gun and calmly goes, "Get the keys".
- The War Room: Much of the last act of the episode revolves around Sam and Max trying to get into the war room so they can blow up the rampaging robot Lincoln.
- Weaponized Landmark: Two. First is the giant animatronic statue of Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial, and the second is actually the Washington Monument, which is revealed to be a self-replenishing silo of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
