History Recap / TheSimpsonsS4E21MargeInChains

While shopping for her family in the midst of an Asian flu epidemic, Marge gets arrested for shoplifting bourbon (though the whole thing was unintentional and the situation could have been fixed if Apu let her pay for it), and her prison time (resulting from being railroaded in court and having Lionel Hutz as her attorney) has an adverse effect on the family and eventually the whole town, when the bake sale proceeds come up short and they have to buy a Jimmy Carter statue for their town instead of an Abraham Lincoln one.

* VomitDiscretionShot: When Arnie Pie is giving his helicopter news report, he gets sick and vomits out the copter window. We don't see it, but smash cut to Otto, who is about to sunbathe. The camera takes the viewpoint of Arnie's vomit, which falls towards a screaming Otto.

While shopping for her family in the midst of an Asian flu epidemic, Marge gets arrested for shoplifting, and her prison time (resulting from being railroaded in court and having Lionel Hutz as her attorney) has an adverse effect on the family and eventually the whole town.

* AsHimself: David Crosby

* HarsherInHindsight: The Asian flu epidemic that plagues Springfield on the first half of the episode stops being funny, considering the hysteria over SARS, the bird flu, and the swine flu that happened in the mid-to-late 2000s.

* ShoutOut: Tattoo Annie's tattoo on her back is one to MadMagazine

* TakeThat: The crowd goes into a riot when, instead of an Abraham Lincoln statue, a Jimmy Carter statue is built.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Marge forgets to pay for a bottle of bourbon, apologizes and stays where she is clearly intending to pay for it. Pay hits the silent alarm and within moments is surrounded by a police force that would be more suited to a crazed gunman.

* ForWantOfANail: Had Marge not been in prison, she could've helped out with the bake sale to raise money to buy a statue of Abraham Lincoln, instead of the Gerald Ford statue which angered the citizens so much a mass riot broke out.

* InsaneTrollLogic: After Marge was accused of shoplifting, The Blue Haired Lawyer pretty much accused her of being the second gunman of the Grassy Knoll. His evidence is nothing but a blue bush that looks similar to Marge's trademark Blue Hair. Even though it's unlikely, the jury buys it.

* LaserGuidedKarma: The majority of Springfield treating Marge like a pariah comes back to bite them big time when riots break out after the city purchases a statue of Gerald Ford instead of Abraham Lincoln, all because they couldn't raise enough money to buy Lincoln. The reason behind this is because, had Marge been able to help out with the bake sale used to fund the statue's purchase, they would've made just enough to buy Lincoln.

While shopping for her family in the midst of an Asian flu epidemic, Marge gets arrested for shoplifting, and her resultant prison time has an adverse effect on the family and eventually the whole town.

* {{Jerkass}}: Apu, Sanjay and the majority of on-screen characters who gossip about Marge because she forgot to pay for the whiskey even though it was clearly an accident due to how stressed out she was.

* InsaneTrollLogic: After Marge was accused of shoplifting, The Blue Haired Lawyer pretty much accused her of being the second gunman of the Grassy Knoll. His evidence is nothing but a blue bush that looks similar to Marge's trademark Blue Hair. Even though it's unlikely, the jury buys it.

* TakeThat: Without the income from Marge's Rice Krispies squares, the only President whose statue the town could buy was JimmyCarter. The town rioted against the idea of homaging him. According to DVD commentary, the writers ''do'' think Jimmy Carter was a bad President, but not as bad as GeorgeWBush.

* BitingTheHandHumor: Flanders thinks his family falling ill from the Asian flu epidemic is God's way of punishing him for watching and laughing at ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' (and, for the record, there was never an episode that had Al telling Peg to care for her lifeless and limp houseplants and Peg suggesting that the plants would feel more at home in the bedroom, as it's used to having something lifeless and limp in there: [[DontExplainTheJoke either their sex life or Al's penis]]).

* TakeThat: Without the income from Marge's Rice Krispies squares, the only President whose statue the town could buy was JimmyCarter. The town rioted against the idea of homaging him. According to DVD commentary, the writers ''do'' think Jimmy Carter was a bad President, but not as bad as GeorgeWBush.
-->'''Mayor Quimby:''' (while unveiling the statue) I, uh, give you our 39th President, Jimmy Carter!
-->'''Random Citizen 1:''' Aw, come on!
-->'''Random Citizen 2:''' ''He's history's greatest monster!''

* TakeThat: Without the income from Marge's Rice Krispies squares, the only President whose statue the town could buy was JimmyCarter. The town rioted against the idea of homaging him. According to DVD commentary, the writers do think Jimmy Carter was a bad President, but not as bad as GeorgeWBush.

!!Tropes:

* BitingTheHandHumor: Flanders thinks his family falling ill from the Asian flu epidemic is God's way of punishing him for watching and laughing at ''MarriedWithChildren'' (and, for the record, there was never an episode that had Al telling Peg to care for her lifeless and limp houseplants and Peg suggesting that the plants would feel more at home in the bedroom, as it's used to having something lifeless and limp in there: [[DontExplainTheJoke either their sex life or Al's penis]]).

* AnythingButThat: Lionel Hutz imagines what life would be like without lawyers, which features people from every race, ethnic background, creed, and color dancing under a rainbow while a non-copyright-infringing version of "I'd Like to Teach The World to Sing" plays.

* TakeThat: Without the income from Marge's Rice Krispies squares, the only President whose statue the town could buy was JimmyCarter. The town rioted against the idea of homaging him. According to DVD commentary, the writers do think Jimmy Carter was a bad President, but was not as bad as GeorgeWBush.

* GilliganCut: After Marge was found guilty, Apu commented on how safe the Kwik-E-Mart was. Cut to two criminals using a tractor to drag the shop to México.
* TakeThat: Without the income Marge's godies would have brought during the town's bake sale, the only President whose statue the town could buy was JimmyCarter. The town rioted against the idea of homaging him.