Charlie's career as children's musician "Charlie Waffles" takes off and restores him back to financial stability after his jingle writing career had dried up, but he has to face off with an old fear when he has to perform a live concert in front of a sold-out crowd. Alan should be relieved his brother is making money again, but instead finds himself jealous of how Charlie has fallen into a lucrative career by accident while he continues to struggle just to get by.
Tropes
- Catchphrase: Charlie implements one in his "Charlie Waffles" persona, in a question-answer format. He asks "Who loves kids?" and the other participant in the conversation replies with "Charlie Waffles".
- The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Charlie Harper, the hedonistic playboy who has built his entire life around having meaningless sex with assorted beautiful women and indulging in countless vices, is now "Charlie Waffles", a children's singer who writes songs about farting and barfing.
- Drunken Master: Terrified about his upcoming concert in front of over a thousand people, Charlie resorts to drinking heavily. The alcohol not only allows him to forget about his stage fright and give the performance, but being drunk makes his performance all the more chaotic and comedic, which his audience of very young children love.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Charlie's sudden success as a children's musician should be a tremendous relief to Alan, as he is completely dependent on being able to continue living in Charlie's house for free. However, for most of the episode he's annoyed that his brother has fallen ass-backwards into a massive windfall of money with minimal effort on his part, as well as the fact that a 'drunken whoremonger' like his brother would become a children's singing star of all things.
- Liquid Courage: Alcohol allows Charlie to get past his stage fright and perform his Charlie Waffles concert without issue (the mistakes he makes due to being drunk are hilarious to the children in the audience, and make the performance better).
- Lyrical Dissonance: The Charlie Waffles songs are very simplistic and designed to appeal to children, with some even having identical beats to known children songs. The lyrics of those songs, on the other hand, are about topics like sucking up to your grandmother so she'll give you her money when she dies, saying bye to drinking out of breasts, and puking in a fish bowl to feed the fish.
- Magnum Opus: The episode that got Charlie Sheen nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, one of two nominations he got during the show's run.
- Only in It for the Money: Artie Pliskin, the CEO of Fluffy Bunny Records, has no issue with Charlie performing a concert in front of hundreds of young children while completely sloshed, as the performance is a hit and will be very lucrative for him and Charlie.
- Performance Anxiety: Charlie has a severe case of it, which he claims is the reason why he never joined a band. The contractual agreement he signed with Fluffy Bunny Records means he has to either overcome it to perform a live concert or get sued for breach of contract. Charlie manages to pull off the former by getting drunk right before the show begins.
- Stylistic Suck: The songs that Charlie performs as Charlie Waffles are incredibly juvenile, crass, and some are arguably inappropriate for the intended audience of preschool and kindergarten-aged children. While it's believable that the kids would like them, it's certainly a little odd that their parents are fine with their kids listening to songs about no longer drinking from breasts or watching your parents have sex.
