History Recap / TheSimpsonsS10E23ThirtyMinutesOverTokyo

* SadisticGameshow: "The Happy Smile Super Challenge Family Wish Show," may sounds like a cheery gameshow where families compete for prizes. [[NeverTrustATitle It isn't.]] As the host tells the Simpsons: "Now, our game shows are a little different from yours. Your shows reward knowledge. We punish ignorance," right before blasting Homer in the face with a mini flamethrower hidden in the microphone in front of him. The Lightning Round involves tying Homer to the top of Tokyo Tower to literally be struck by lightning.

* TooDumbToLive: Homer insisting on eating tins of plankton from the 33 cent store, despite Lisa pointing out it's two years out of date and Homer clearly suffering the effects of red tide poisoning from eating it.

* SadisticGameshow: "The Happy Smile Super Challenge Family Wish Show," may sounds like a cheery gameshow where families compete for prizes. It isn't. As the host tells the Simpsons: "Now, our game shows are a little different from yours. Your shows reward knowledge. We punish ignorance," right before blasting Homer in the face with a mini flamethrower hidden in the microphone in front of him. The Lightning Round involves tying Homer to the top of Tokyo Tower to literally be struck by lightning.

* GratuitousJapanese: After the family's last one million yen flies off with the wind, Homer yells out "Shimatta baka ni!"[[note]]Subtitled, "[[{{Catchphrase}} D'oh!]]," though the Japanese more directly translates to, "Damned fool!"[[/note]] in frustration. Otherwise Bart and Homer speak [[SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage accurate Japanese]].

* SadisticGameshow: "The Happy Smile Super Challenge Family Wish Show," may sounds like a cheery gameshow where families compete for prizes. It isn't. As the host tells the Simpsons: "Now, our game shows are a little different from yours. Your shows reward knowledge. We punish ignorance," right before blasting Homer in the face with a mini flamethrower hidden in the microphone in front of him.

* AssInAmbassador: The United States Ambassador to Japan is unsympathetic to the plight of the family having no money to get home, coldly telling them to get jobs to pay their own way, snipes at them not to try and take ''his'' job and even has armed servicemen at the embassy chase them off of the premises.

* LuckyTranslation: The European Spanish version of ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' translated "Hasta la vista, baby!" as "Sayonara, baby!" Sayonara means "goodbye" in Japanese, so the phrase fits even better when Homer repeats it that way in the European Spanish dub of this episode.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is the only episode where Lisa says "[[MadLibsCatchPhrase The Simpsons are going to [place]!]]" Later episodes would always have it be Homer's line.

* GratuitousJapanese: After the family's last one million yen flies off with the wind, Homer yells out "Shimatta baka ni!"[[note]]Subtitled, "[[CatchPhrase D'oh!]]," though the Japanese more directly translates to, "Damned fool!"[[/note]] in frustration. Otherwise Bart and Homer speak [[SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage accurate Japanese]].

** Snake steals all of The Simpsons' vacation money and (as far as the episode is concerned) he doesn't get punished for it nor do The Simpsons get their money back.

* LiteralMinded: When Chuck Garabedian tells everyone to "squeeze every penny", Homer tries to literally squeeze a penny...until it gets lodged into his skin.

** Uncle Pennybags, the mascot of the game "Monopoly" makes an appearance.

-->'''Lisa''': Dad! That's FOX!
-->'''Homer''': AAAAAH! UNDO! UNDO!

-->'''Barney:''' "D'oh! Woo-Hoo! Um... [[WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill That boy ain't right!]]"
-->(''Barney runs out'')

-->'''Marge''': Come on, Homer. Japan will be fun! You liked ''Film/{{Rashomon}}''.\\
'''Homer''': That's not how '''''I''''' remember it!

--->'''Homer''': Before I go, I want to say something. Game shows aren't about cruelty, they're about greed and wonderful prizes like poorly-built catamarans, but somewhere along the line you lost your way. For shame.

** The scene where the Simpsons get seizures from watching ''Battling Seizure Robots'' is a reference to the infamous ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode ([[Recap/PokemonS1E38ElectricSoldierPorygon "Electric Soldier Porygon"]]) that gave hundreds of Japanese viewers (most of which were children) seizures due to the strobe effects.

** At the sumo ring, Homer [[BorrowedCatchphrase borrowed]] [[Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger Arnold Schwarzenegger's]] catchphrase "[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay Hasta la vista, baby]]".

*** The Latin American Spanish dub turns it into an unintentional ActorAllusion, [[invoked]] as Homer's VA at the time, Humberto Velez, actually dubbed Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Latin American Spanish dub of ''Terminator 2''.

* TakeThat: Among products like "Onions?", "Cool Ranch Soda" and "Skittlebrau", the 33-cent store is well-stocked with Series/That70sShow merch.
* TechnologicallyBlindElders: Homer finds the word "gigabyte" amusing, and this is his reaction when Lisa offers to show him how to order pizza over the internet:
-->'''Homer:''' The internet? Is that thing still around?

* VacationEpisode: The Simpsons travel to Japan.

** "Battling Seizure Robots" references the controversy over the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode [[Recap/PokemonS1E38ElectricSoldierPorygon "Electric Soldier Porygon"]].

** "Battling Seizure Robots" references the controversy over the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episode [[PokemonS1E38ElectricSoldierPorygon "Electric Soldier Porygon"]].

* AmusingInjuries: The family participates with a Japanese game show, which are notorious for being sadistic (not on the scale the show has it, but pretty close), or as the host says, "Your shows reward knowledge. We punish ignorance."

* MistakenForRacist: On the plane waiting to go to Japan, Homer is angry about their destination:

-->'''Waiter:''' Don't ask me; I don't know anything! I'm product of American education system. I also build poor-quality cars and inferior-style electronics.
-->'''Homer:''' ''[cackles]'' Oh, they got our number!

* ThereWasADoor: In Japan, Homer walks straight through the paper doors rather than sliding them open, saying "I don't have time for that!".

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: Homer is completely disinterested in going to the new Internet cafe until Bart tells him about "a website that shows monkeys doing it."
-->'''Homer:''' C'mon, Lisa! Monkeys!

-->'''Marge''': Come on, Homer. Japan will be fun! You liked ''Film/{{Rashomon}}''.
-->'''Homer''': That's not how '''''I''''' remember it!

* BrickJoke: When Homer and Bart are released from prison, Homer just walks straight through the wall, like he did when he arrived at their hotel room earlier in the episode.