History Recap / TheSimpsonsS25E20BrickLikeMe

'''Marge:''' You're right. [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Something is very different about the Simpsons today]]... your father's wearing a tie!\\

* TheLittleShopThatWasntThereYesterday: After Lego Homer sees animated Homer in the bathroom mirror, he asks Marge if she got a replacement mirror from one those stores.
-->'''Homer:''' Marge! Did you replace our regular mirror with a magical mirror from a mystical salesman at a weird store that if we went back to find it it wouldn’t be there anymore?
-->'''Marge:''' [[SubvertedTrope No.]]
-->'''Homer:''' ([[OhCrap screams]])

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Homer has this moment when explaining to the Lego version of Lisa why he PrefersTheIllusion causes him to realize all its drawbacks: he'll be stuck in the same job forever, he'll never get to watch his kids grow up and he and Marge won't grow old together.

** Comic Book Guy turns his head to switch from a smiling to a scowling face, like [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas the Mayor of Halloween Town]]. [[labelnote:]] Or The Lego Movie's own Good [=Cop/Bad=] Cop.[[/labelnote]]

** Comic Book Guy turns his head to switch from a smiling to a scowling face, like [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas the Mayor of Halloween Town]]. [[labelnote:*]] Or The Lego Movie's own Good [=Cop/Bad=] Cop.[[/labelnote]]

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Homer has this moment with the Lego version of Lisa when explaining why he PrefersTheIllusion causes him to realize all its drawbacks: he'll be stuck in the same job forever, he'll never get to watch his kids grow up and he and Marge won't grow old together.

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Homer has this moment with the Lego version of Lisa when explaining what he likes about the unchanging world causes him to realize all its drawbacks: he'll be stuck in the same job forever, he'll never get to watch his kids grow up and he won't grow old with Marge.

* ExplainExplainOhCrap: Homer has this moment with the Lego version of Lisa when explaining what he likes about the unchanging world causes him to realize all is drawbacks: he'll be stuck in the same job forever, he'll never get to watch his kids grow up and he won't grow old with Marge.

'''Marge:''' You're right. Something is very different about the Simpsons today... your father's wearing a tie!\\

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: A twofer: the episode is the 550th overall and most of the animation is stop-motion using Lego bricks.

** Naturally, ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'' itself is referenced in various ways throughout the episode. The most notable examples include the premise, Comic Book Guy's head spinning a la Good Cop/Bad Cop, Bart's designing of a CrazyAwesome mech to save the day, and Homer denying any familiarity between the episode's plot and the film as a Lego display of Emmet and Wyldstyle is wheeled behind him.

* AllJustADream: The Lego portions turn out to be the result of Homer dreaming after being knocked out by Comic Book Guy's Lego statue of the episode's [[Franchise/TheHungerGames Katniss Everdeen]] parody.

* JustHereForGodzilla: InUniverse. Homer is painfully bored by the romantic subplots in Franchise/TheHungerGames parody and just came to see kids killing each other.

** Outside of the universe, most people (specifically those who used to love ''The Simpsons'', but stopped watching it when its quality went down the drain) only watched and were interested in this episode because of the LEGO sequences.

** Naturally, ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'' itself is referenced in various ways throughout the episode. The most notable examples include the premise, Bart's designing of a CrazyAwesome mech to save the day, and Homer denying any familiarity between the episode's plot and the film as a Lego display of Emmet and Wyldstyle is wheeled behind him.

* WholePlotReference: "Brick Like Me" is essentially a ''Simpsons'' take on ''The Lego Movie'', albeit with a somewhat different direction and moral (as both have Aesops about creativity and accepting change, but "Brick Like Me" is more directly concerning a person's attempt to escape the real world through immersing themselves in Legos). Lampshaded by Homer when he describes the experience to Lisa as "having a dream where [he] was in a world made of Lego bricks and learned important lessons about parenting". The episode apparently started production before the crew was told by Lego about the movie.

[[quoteright:299.44768693307:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_simpsons_brick_like_me_poster.jpg]]

* TakeThat: According to Homer, ''what'' is "the most inhumane torture ever devised by man"? [[spoiler:TabletopGame/CandyLand.]]

** Comic Book Guy turns his head to switch from a smiling to a scowling face, like [[Film/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas the Mayor of Halloween Town]]. [[labelnote:*]] Or The Lego Movie's own Good [=Cop/Bad=] Cop.[[/labelnote]]

** The shelves at the comic book store are stacked with books by Creator/PhilipKDick (or rather, Philip K. ''Brick''), which alludes to the true nature of the Lego world.

* ShallowParody: Of ''Franchise/TheHungerGames'' which the show writers seem to have pictured as essentially ''Franchise/{{Twilight}}'' with bows (and even then apparently no violence.)

* TakeThat: According to Homer, ''what'' is "the most inhumane torture ever devised by man"? [[spoiler:[=CandyLand=].]]

** Homer realizing the fatal flaw of the dream world (everything stays as it is with no room to grow) seems to be a commentary on the show's longevity.

--> '''Homer:''' Marge! Did you replace our regular mirror with a magical mirror from a mystical salesman at a weird store that if we went back to find it it wouldn’t be there anymore?