History Recap / TheSimpsonsS18E18TheBoysOfBummer

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: A campaign of bullying as thoroughly (and absurdly) cruel as the one directed at Bart would make anybody snap or seek death in real life -- just like it happened to Bart. The DistantFinale of the epilogue also shows that Bart Carrie’s the scars of the trauma well into his old age - the moment his equally-old friend Milhouse snaps from hearing Bart telling about catching the pop fly for the Nth-time and tells him it was arranged, Bart ''immediately'' falls apart and Milhouse has to make up a lie to prevent it from going further.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: A campaign of bullying as thoroughly (and absurdly) cruel as the one directed at Bart would make anybody snap or seek death in real life -- just like it happened to Bart.

-->'''Chief Wiggum''': [[''[BlatantLies hastily hides bullhorn behind his back, fakes looking around in disgust]]''] Yeah, who said that?

* EveryoneHasStandards: [=LaBoot=] may be willing to make fun of Bart for making an error he himself made decades ago, but he still tries (emphasis on "[[EpicFail tries]]") to save Bart when he jumps off the water tower.

* TheBully: Practically ''everyone'' in Springfield[[note]]excluding his own family (although Homer was persuaded to go with the others, and Patty, his aunt, can be seen shaming him alongside the rest of the town)[[/note]] is one towards Bart, going as far as to encourage Bart to kill himself. And they still bully him after he's hospitalized, forcing Marge to condemn their evil acts on him. It's honestly [[SubvertedTrope a miracle]] they didn't target her next for [[NeverMyFault daring to call them out, as they did with Homer]].

* KarmaHoudini: A scolding from Marge is a somewhat light punishment for a town that harassed a kid even after his suicide attempt.

-->'''Bart ([[LaughingMad manic]], on top of the water tower)''': Look, people! I hate Bart Simpson, too! Now we can be friends again!

* DogGotSentToAFarm: At some point Bart had a rabbit named Cottontail who he believes was sent to live upstate.

* KickTheSonOfABitch:
** Grampa Simpson heckling [=LaBoot=] for his role in bullying his grandson and driving him to suicide and then for his excuse of an attempt to catch him when he tries to kill himself.

** The town's behavior toward Bart is ''so'' cruel and over-the-top that it's easy to forget what a {{Jerkass}} Bart is by default, including [[HourglassPlot at the beginning and end of this very episode]].

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Grampa Simpson heckling [=LaBoot=] for his role in bullying his grandson and driving him to suicide and then for his excuse of an attempt to catch him when he tries to kill himself.

* BungledSuicide: Bart survives his tumble from the water tower because his fall is broken by a conveniently-placed bush.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Invoked by the ''entire city'' after Bart's suicide attempt- the ball that drove him to it was conviniently declared invalid because "the umpire didn't clean the base with a regulation brush" (when Bart begins to SpotTheThread, Milhouse runs away in a panic, admitting they told him not to talk about it); when he ''repeatedly'' misses it, it becomes a OverlyLongGag, with the crowd coming up with increasingly obvious and increasingly BlatantLies until he ''finally'' catches it, ''at the crack of dawn.'' Bart is so desperate to get closure, however, that everyone ''still'' maintains the lie into his senior years.

* DirtyCop: Chief Wiggum is among those who bully Bart for his mistake and is willing to encourage the latter to kill himself.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Played almost to the point of {{deconstruction}}. The way the townspeople treated Bart, who did a simple mistake at a sport that is unimportant, would be absurdly cruel if he was a grown man. Doing that to a ''kid'' just paints the town as a horde of complete psychos.

** For the sake of trying to help Bart feel okay, the whole town makes a new game and they try to make Bart the hero of the day. Emphasis on "'''try'''". An absurd barrage of failures make it so Bart can't catch a single ball or do anything else right (not to mention add another bunch of humiliations), and by the time he finally makes the play, it's nighttime and almost everybody who was watching had gone home or was falling asleep (and the umpire had to order the play to be redone so many times that it was probably illegal).

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Arguably, the fact that the town celebrated their championship ''game appearance'' with all the pomp and circumstance as though they already won did indeed give the team a "swelled head" just as Flanders was warning them.

* KarmaHoudini: A scolding from Marge a somewhat light punishment for a town that harassed a kid even after his suicide attempt.

* DoubleStandard:
** The town turns against Bart to such an extreme degree that Moe ''[[UpToEleven vilifies Homer for not using a condom to prevent Bart's conception]]'', and when Homer stands up for Bart the crowd turns on him until he takes their side (which he does almost immediately, calling him a "choke artist"). However, none make a similar accusation regarding Marge not taking the pill and when ''she'' confronts the mob, none attack her [[ShamingTheMob and she single-handedly convinces them to stand down]]. Some see this as a gender-based DoubleStandard, adding to the sour reception of the episode since Marge is spared vilification from doing the same things that Homer gets attacked for.
** Similarly, the town did show humbleness when Lisa made it to a national spelling bee in "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can", even giving her ''a bust in a nearby cliff'' even though she choked. Bart gets nothing of the sort.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Grampa Simpson heckling [=LaBoot=] for his role in bullying and driving his grandson to commit leading him and then failing to catch him when he tries to kill himself.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Grampa Simpson belittling [=LaBoot=].

* AdultFear: Having your young child be ruthlessly tortured by the entire city to the point of [[DrivenToSuicide attempted suicide]] is a really dark thought. And even worse when, even after said child is resuscitated from the attempted suicide, the city ''[[LackOfEmpathy continues]]'' to torture him. This thankfully brings out Marge's MamaBear instincts to [[ShamingTheMob call out Springfield for their cruelty]].

* DoubleStandard: The town turns against Bart to such an extreme degree that Moe ''[[UpToEleven vilifies Homer for not using a condom to prevent Bart's conception]]'', and when Homer stands up for Bart the crowd turns on him until he takes their side (which he does almost immediately, calling him a "choke artist"). However, none make a similar accusation regarding Marge not taking the pill and when ''she'' confronts the mob, none attack her [[ShamingTheMob and she single-handedly convinces them to stand down]]. Some see this as a gender-based DoubleStandard, adding to the sour reception of the episode since Marge is spared vilification from doing the same things that Homer gets attacked for.
** Marge is shown to be respected by most people in Springfield, so a lecture from her means more then one from Homer, who is shown to be widely disliked by many people in Springfield in many previous episodes.

Bart survives his fall and is knocked unconscious. While Marge visits him in the hospital, she hears a mob of townspeople outside chanting "Bart sucks!". Finally having had enough of the town's constant bullying, she steps outside and chews them out on their extreme vindictive behavior, effectively more than living up to their title as the "meanest city in America". Feeling guilty, the townspeople apologize for hurting Bart and agree to restage the game to fix his self-esteem. Bart awakens in his baseball uniform on the field and, after 78 tries, Bart finally catches the ball and "wins" the game.

[[caption-width-right:340:"The Isotopes ''lose'' the pennant!"]]

%%* EvenEvilHasStandards: [=LaBoot=] may be willing to make fun of Bart for making an error he himself made decades ago, but encouraging Bart to jump off a water tower? That's too far for him.

* CaptainObvious: The cover of one of Lenny's mystery novels has the phrase "The Murderer Did It".

* DisproportionateRetribution: Played almost to the point of {{deconstruction}}. The way the townspeople treated Bart, who did a simple mistake at a sport that is unimportant, would be absurdly cruel if he was a grown man. Doing that to a ''kid'' just paints the town as a horde of complete psychos.

%%* EvenEvilHasStandards: [=LaBoot=] may be willing to make fun of Bart for making an error he himself made decades ago, but encouraging Bart to jump off a water tower? That's too far for him.