History Recap / TheSimpsonsS20E11HowTheTestWasWon

* ToiletHumour: Students make a joke when Principal Skinner instructs them to use a ''number two'' pencil.

* AssholeVictim: While what happens in Homer's fantasy is horrible, Helen Lovejoy, Agnes Skinner and Cookie Kwan are hardly people you'd give much sympathy to.

* AnAesop: Not everyone learns the same way. Not every value of intelligence can be calculated with a test. Skinner realizes that his bad students that have little to no interest in education actually seem to learn when given an applied example rather than simply being told facts.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Chalmers and Skinner tell Bart that he got a perfect score of 100% on the practice test, which would mean that a perfect score spells out "SLURP MY SNOT" on the Scantron sheet. Which it doesn't--the story was part of a ruse to get all the worst students off the property on test day.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The moment Homer realized his insurance lapsed, he, the man who once brushed off his ''brain being exposed'' by a killer house, is absolutely adamant nothing that could ''possibly'' cause injury happened before the insurance complaint could be read.

* StatusQuoIsGod: Just as Lisa decides maybe average intelligence isn't so bad, Skinner bursts in and declares the test pointless, effectively invalidating her mental struggle.
-->'''Lisa''': Hooray! I'm a brainy outcast again!

** It would be perfectly understandable for Homer to be ''deadly horrified'' that his insurance lapsed by his own stupidity- considering how much he is injured (a ''two minute long'' montage of such being shown in this episode), he must have the best insurance in the business, otherwise he'd likely put his family in the poor house all on his own.

* OffModel: Helen's shoes go from low-cut heeled flats to high-heeled pumps when they land on Cookie Kwan's eyes during Homer's ImagineSpot, likely intentional given it isn't a real situation to begin with. She also has two left feet during the scene.

* AnAesop: Not everyone learns the same way. Not every value of intelligence can be calculated with a test. Skinner realizes that the his bad students that have little to no interest in education, actually seem to learn when given an applied example rather than simply being told facts.

* AnAxeToGrind: How Agnes dies in Homer's ImagineSpot.

* ArtifactTitle: InUniverse. All reading classes change their names from flower-based names to barnyard-based names, although one of the teachers, Mr. Becker, objects, so his team remains the Daffodills.
-->'''Daffodills team:''' Go 'Dills! Go 'Dills!

* StrangeMindsThinkAlike: Bart calls school a "suck shack", as does Chalmers in a later scene.

Springfield Elementary ships out all the poor-testing students ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Principal Skinner]]) on the day of a major standardized test. Meanwhile, Homer has to be extra careful now that his insurance has lapsed and has to wait until 3:00pm to get it reinstated.

** AesopAmnesia: Lisa "decides" maybe she's better off not being an annoying, brainy know-it-all... and talks it out just long enough for Skinner to come in and nullify it, with Lisa immediately declaring herself a brainy outcast again.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Hey, Chalmers, maybe you ''shouldn't'' plant seeds of doubt in the '''one student''' whose grades are ''keeping your school accredited?''

* StatusQuoIsGod: It almost seems as if the show itself was taunting fans who hated Lisa's know-it-all aspects here; The ''moment'' she decided maybe she was better off not being a know-it-all, she talked it out ''just'' long enough for Skinner to show up and nullify the test.
--> '''Lisa:''' Hooray! I'm a brainy outcast again!
* TakeThat: To standardized testing and how ineffective it really is.

* DaydreamSurprise: We see a DisasterDominoes reaction that kills most of Marge's friends, causing her to freak out because they're uninsured... right before she makes out with Lindsey Naegle, the only remaining woman, which Homer drools at while watching before it's revealed it was only in his head.

* GirlOnGirlIsHot: When Homer has an ImagineSpot about disasters that could happen while not insured, it quickly turns to Marge making out with Lindsey Naegle, making him drool.

* PottyDance: Ralph does it while on the bus. Skinner asks Otto to stop the bus so Ralph can go to a rest stop, but Otto is mesmerized by the "little girl's dance".

--->'''Daffodills team:''' Go 'Dills! Go 'Dills!