History Recap / TheSimpsonsS2E11OneFishTwoFishBlowfishBlueFish

* NotHelpingYourCase: During Homer's VideoWill recorded for Maggie, he tries to eulogize himself as "a simple man. A kind man. A gentle man who loved his children and-- D'oh!" He's been interrupted by a phone call from Milhouse, so he ends up standing up close to the camera, scratching his butt and exclaiming, "Bart, get your butt down here!"

* JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife: Homer gets pulled over for speeding. He admitted to speeding and wanted to just take the fine but instead they threw him in jail for the night. Maybe not that bad compared to the others on this page but Homer thought he only had a matter of hours left to live and he wanted to spend it with his family.

* PeacefulInDeath: {{Discussed}}. Marge lets Homer sleep in on what he believes will be the last day of his life because he "looked so peaceful lying there". "There'll be plenty of time for that!" It's seemingly played straight when Marge finds him the next morning sitting in the living room recliner, having spent his last morning listening to the Bible on tape, but it turns out the poison never got into his system, and he thankfully survived, so he was just asleep.

* PoorCommunicationKills: What lead to Homer supposedly ingesting poison; the master chef, busy making out with Mrs. Krabappel, refuses to hear out Toshiro when he tries to tell him about the order and makes him prepare it himself. On the other hand, you'd think Toshiro would spit it out that the order in question is fugu, as given the head chef's [[OhCrap terrified]] reaction later on, he likely would've taken it seriously.

* SoundtrackDissonance: Normally, Lisa is portrayed as being adept at the baritone saxophone. However, in this episode, a bass saxophone is heard playing instead.

* TooDumbToLive: Homer orders the Fugu blowfish platter, which the waiter tries to warn him about the dangers of that particular dish. However, Homer ignores the warning and tells him to give him his dish, then inadvertently causes the amateur chef to mess up the cutting with his impatient shout, "I WANT MY FUGU!" It's only through sheer luck that it turns out it was prepared correctly and he didn't ingest poison.

* TruthInTelevision: Pufferfish in general (especially Fugu) is very toxic and can potentially kill someone, it is also a sushi ingredient and needs to be cut in a very careful manner to get as much meat as possible.[[note]]There's even a specific knife called a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashimi_b%C5%8Dch%C5%8D Sashimi bōchō]] which is used specifically to carve the meat off pufferfish.[[/note]]

* SpecialGuest: Joey Miyashima as Toshiro; Sab Shimono as the sushi bar chef; Creator/GeorgeTakei as Akira (later replaced with Hank Azaria); Diane Tanaka as the bar hostess

* MusicAgeDissonance: Bart and Lisa [[AgeInappropriateArt karaoke duet]] the ''Film/{{Shaft}}'' [[AgeInappropriateArt theme]].

* BorrowedCatchPhrase:

* SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage: All the Japanese is legitimate. It probably helps that all the people speaking it '''are''' Japanese.

* ThoughtTheyKnewAlready: When Homer goes have a man-to-man with Bart, he goes to his room and taps his lap so Bart will go sit on it. Bart instead pulls his pants down and lies across Homer's lap, thinking he was found out on whatever he did.

* AesopAmnesia: When Homer is ecstatic that he's alive, he vows to live life to its fullest. The next scene is Homer watching TV and eating pork rinds. (Maybe that ''is'' living life to its fullest, by Homer's standards.)

* CaptivityHarmonica: {{Parodied|Trope}}. Homer asks his harmonica-playing cellmate [[WhatAreYouInFor what he's in for]]. The answer? "Atmosphere."

* ImplausibleDeniability: {{Lampshaded}}. Homer tells Bart that one of the three most important sentences in life is "It was like that when I got here." When Bart accidentally breaks a glass of aftershave and makes Homer angry, Bart says "It was like that when I got here!" making Homer proud.

* TheTroubleWithTickets: Homer is pulled over as he's speeding to get back home to Marge (after believing he only has a matter of hours to live.) He insists that the cops just give him a ticket so he can get going, but the cops decide that they don't want to give him a ticket and throw him into a jail cell instead.

* TruthInTelevision: Fugu is an actual pufferfish that is very toxic and can potentially kill someone, it is also a sushi ingredient and needs to be cut in a very careful manner to get as much meat as possible.[[note]]There's even a specific knife called a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashimi_b%C5%8Dch%C5%8D Sashimi bōchō]] which is used specifically to carve the meat off the pufferfish.[[/note]]

* TruthInTelevision: Fugu is an actual pufferfish that is very toxic and can potentially kill someone, it is also a sushi ingredient and needs to be cut in a very specific manner to get as much meat as possible.[[note]]There's even a specific knife called a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sashimi_b%C5%8Dch%C5%8D Sashimi bōchō]] which is used specifically to carve the meat off the pufferfish.[[/note]]

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: In reality, fugu poison -- tetrodotoxin -- is ''not'' an untraceable poison whose only symptom is sudden death after 24 hours. It's a neurotoxin that causes total muscle paralysis, and the most common cause of death is the resulting inability to breathe. The toxin starts taking effect within 30 minutes, and while it has no antidote, it ''is'' treatable if the victim can be rushed to the hospital and placed on life support until the poison is eliminated from the body.

* DefyingTheCensors: The censors did not like [[AgeInappropriateArt Bart and Lisa]] doing karaoke to the theme from ''Film/{{Shaft}}'', so the producers had to show a clip from the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwards when that song was nominated, as proof that it had previously been performed on primetime television without repercussions.

Thirteen years before this episode fugu poisoning was the plot of [[Recap/ColumboS07E02 an episode]] of ''Series/{{Columbo}}''.

* AsHimself: Larry King (reading The Bible on tape).

* DefyingTheCensors: The censors did not like [[AgeInappropriateArt Bart and Lisa singing]] the theme from ''Film/{{Shaft}}'', so the producers had to show a clip from the Academy Awards when that song was nominated, as proof that it had previously been performed on prime time television without repercussions.

* EskimosArentReal: When Lisa says she wants to go somewhere without burgers, pizza, or fried chicken, Homer says, "We'll go to Mars!", indicating he doesn't believe restaurants exist that don't sell those entrees.
* FiveStagesOfGrief: Homer and Dr. Hibbert go through this in about 30 seconds. "Mr. Simpson, your progress astounds me!"

* GilliganCut: When Homer survived the fugu, he tells Marge he's going to take advantage of life and start really living. The episode ends with Homer watching a bowling competition on TV while eating pork rinds.

* LastDayToLive: The plot of the episode largely consists of Homer checking off items on a list of things to do before the fugu poisoning kicks in. Despite having to contend with a few unexpected obstacles, he gets around to most of the important stuff and is prepared for the end, [[StatusQuoIsGod which, naturally, never comes]].
* MusicAgeDissonance: Bart and Lisa [[AgeInappropriateArt sing the]] ''Film/{{Shaft}}'' [[AgeInappropriateArt theme]] as a karaoke duet.

** The shot of Homer entering the retirement home is reused from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E7BartVsThanksgiving Bart Vs. Thanksgiving]]", which is ''really'' obvious since [[https://frinkiac.com/gif/S02E11/798125/800427/ you can barely see the Thanksgiving banner still hanging over the entrance]].
** The animation of Homer watching bowling on TV and eating Pork Rinds Lite is reused from Season 1. It originally showed [[https://frinkiac.com/gif/S01E06/890655/892006.gif Homer choking on the pork rinds]], but that was cut out and Homer's chewing was put on a cycle.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Mrs. Krabappel's role consists of having sex with the only chef in the Happy Sumo to have the required experience to cut fugu. [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom If not for that]], Homer would not have spent the rest of the episode thinking he was poisoned and would die from it.

* SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage: All the Japanese in this episode is legitimate. It probably helps that all the people speaking it are Japanese.

* AgeInappropriateArt: Bart and Lisa sing the ''Film/{{Shaft}}'' theme as a karaoke duet.