History Recap / TheSimpsonsS18E18TheBoysOfBummer

* JerkassBall: Everyone in Springfield, other than the Simpsons, holds the ball when they torment Bart just for missing a game-winning catch in a baseball game, even going so far as to goad him into committing suicide.

* CardCarryingJerkass: The whole town quite proudly ([[NotHyperbole literally, as in has it on billboards advertising the place]]) labels itself "[[UngratefulTownsfolk The Meanest City In America]]".

** 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 '''78''' times).

* CrapsackWorld: During her [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech speech]], Marge addresses a nearby billboard citing Springfield as the "[[UngratefulTownsfolk Meanest City in America]]". After the townspeople's actions in this episode, she couldn't agree more.

* EvilAllAlong: [=LaBoot=] initially seemed to be a positive role model towards Bart, but upon learning who Bart is, he cruelly drives him to tears.

* WorldOfJerkass: Everyone in Springfield except Bart, Marge, Lisa and Maggie over the Little League loss. Lampshaded with a billboard even citing it as the "Meanest City in America".

* WorldOfJerkass: Everyone in Springfield except Bart, Marge, Lisa and Maggie over the Little League loss.

* AnAesop:
** Publicly shaming someone over something minor can have an adverse effect on their psychological being, and you'll end up regretting it.
** In sports, if an athlete is unhappy with their situation, has concerns on their mind or get too cocky, they won't be able to play well.

** Played almost to the point of {{deconstruction}}. The way the townspeople treated Bart, who made 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.

%%* EvilAllAlong: [=LaBoot=] initially seemed to be a positive role model towards Bart, but upon learning who Bart is, he cruelly drives him to tears.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Played almost to the point of {{deconstruction}}. The way the townspeople treated Bart, who made 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.

* PoliceAreUseless: [[BadCopIncompetentCop Chief Wiggum]] doesn't arrive to the water tower to try to talk Bart out of apparently attempting suicide, but to ''encourage him to jump''. Earlier on, Bart asked Wiggum to drive him away from the crowd, only for the latter to ''drive him back into the stadium so the crowd can continue to terrorize him''.

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 angrily 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.

* PetTheDog: Despite his actions towards Bart earlier in the episode, [=LaBoot=] tries to catch him after he jumps from a water tower. Unfortunately, he misses.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: A retroactive example. When the people of Springfield (off-screen) first placed the label "[[CardCarryingVillain The Meanest City in America]]" on their advertisement billboards, Marge initially thought that it was just something to attract small businesses. She is [[MamaBear very upset, to say the least]] that it turned out to be NotHyperbole.

-->'''Marge''': You should all be ashamed! Passing judgment on a child for a sports boo-boo! Now, thanks to you, my special little guy will be haunted by this for the rest of his life! I always thought that[[note]]referring to a billboard calling Springfield the "Meanest City in America"[[/note]] was just a slogan to attract small businesses. But now I know it's the truth!

-->'''Marge''': You should all be ashamed! Passing judgment on a child for a sports boo-boo! Now, thanks to you, my special little guy will be haunted by this for the rest of his life! I always thought that was just a slogan to attract small businesses. But now I know it's the truth!

* WorldOfJerkass: Everyone in Springfield except Bart, Marge, Lisa and Maggie over the Little League loss. Homer begins as an exception too, but he is quick to toss Bart under the bus when the rest of Springfield pressures him.
-->'''Homer, in response to Moe and others beginning to bully him''': Don't look at me, ''[Bart]'' is the choke artist!

* WorldOfJerkass: Everyone in Springfield except Bart, Homer, Marge, Lisa and Maggie over the Little League loss.

-->'''Marge''': You should all be ashamed! Passing judgment on a child for a sports boo-boo! Now, thanks to you, my special little guy will be haunted by this for the rest of his life!

** [[BadCopIncompetentCop Chief Wiggum]] seemingly offers to move Bart away from the jeering crowd, only to send him back into stadium so the crowd can throw beer cans at him.

* 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.
-->'''Grampa:''' You stink, [=LaBoot=]!

* WorldOfJerkass: Everyone in Springfield except Bart, Marge, Lisa and Maggie over the Little League loss.

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