When Ted is forced to go to school with John, he tries to get himself expelled.
- Big Sister Instinct: Upon finding out that Ted gave her underage cousin marijuana, Blaire chases Ted and threatens him not to do it again. It turns out it's because she wasn't able to protect her younger brother from going to jail for his drug abuse.
- Call-Back: In the first movie, when John's parents see Ted alive for the first time, they're so frightened that John's father instructs his wife to get his gun. We see here that Matty indeed has a gun, which Ted finds.
- Call-Forward:
- Ted is caught at home with sex workers just like in the first film. Just like that film, it's the point at which the other characters kick him out, albeit here they just send him to school rather than demand he move out altogether.
- John had a crush on Lori Loughlin (aka "Aunt Becky with the Bad Hair" from the Varsity Blues scandal), in a nod to his relationship with Lori in the first film.
- Everyone Has Standards: Susan is shocked that Matty would charge their niece rent.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Ted loses a bet that he can get Susan to swear. Instead of "Shit", she says "Shoot".
- Groin Attack: Clive's preferred method of bullying is to smack John in the crotch and call him gay. Ted points out the suspicious irony...
- Jerkass: John's dad Matty is a bigoted jerk who belittles and cuts down his wife. He also charges Blaire $200 a month rent for a rathole room over their garage despite being his niece and a poor college student and tells her to her face he doesn't consider her family. According to John he's a sadist who thought Vietnam was fun.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Matty may be a jerk, but he has every right to get mad at the fact that Blaire kicked off a series of events that led to John smoking weed.
- Monochrome Casting: John lampshades the fact that his suburban Boston high school is almost entirely white. Apparently, there WAS an Indian kid the year prior… but “they got him.”
- Noodle Incident: Apparently, there was an Indian kid at John’s school who was really cool (“Shared his Dunkaroos”) until “they” got him. We never find out who they were or what they did.
- Not So Above It All: For all of Blaire's PC spouting, she used to cut the hair off her "black Barbie" before cutting her Barbie's hair, and can't even remember the black Barbie's real name until later.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: The movie Ted was going to make with Sylvester Stallone went through this In-Universe. The premised invovled an astronaut cop and wisecracking bear going into space to save Christmas. However The Challenger shuttle exploded
while the film was in production, and the studio figured to scrap the project. - Pac Man Fever: The very first scene of the show features Ted and John playing what is explicitly stated to be a Super Mario Bros.. game on what appears to be a NES, despite the footage shown looking and sounding nothing like any Mario game and looking more like a 16-bit game than an actual NES game.
- Shout-Out:
- John comes up with the excuse that they spent his allowance to see Schindler's List to cover Ted buying pot.
- John and Ted discuss the movie Alive.
- Stepford Smiler: John and Ted's teacher, Mr. George, who gleefully informs the class about his marital problems and estranged son all with a smile on his face to prove that Ted can't break him.
- Stylistic Suck: As stated above, Ted was slated to co-star with Sylvester Stallone in a film where an astronaut cop and a wisecracking bear teamed up and went into space to save Christmas. It sounds like utter garbage, to the extent that Ted honestly believes Paramount arranged for the Challenger Shuttle to explode so
they could get out of making the movie. - Wham Shot: When Ted goes to an apartment to buy pot from a dealer, Blaire opens the door.
