History Recap / TheSimpsonsS7E9SideshowBobsLastGleaming

-->'''Sideshow Bob''': (slightly crazed) Ooh, huh, I- I never planned to ''escape''. You see, this is a--a kamikaze mission... You and I are going to ''kill Krusty the Clown!'' (banks hard right towards Alkali Flats)

** The underground bunker and table ([[ShownTheirWork topped with green felt]]) is reminiscent of The War Room ''Film/DrStrangelove''. Krusty's suggestion that the [[SurvivorsGuilt survivors will envy the dead]] is one of the president's questions about the mineshaft survival solution.

* TheCameo: It seems like [[Series/FamilyMatters Steve Urkel]] and [[Series/DoctorWho The Fourth Doctor]] are esteemed representations of television.

* TheCameo: Seems [[Series/FamilyMatters Steve Urkel]] and [[Series/DoctorWho The Fourth Doctor]] are esteemed representations of television.

** Bob realizes too late that the 1950's bomb he stole from the military had long since been disarmed.

** The guy who eats people and wears their faces is an obvious nod to [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]].

** Bob scoffs at the idea of the Springfield Air Show, disbelieving that people still enjoy "buzz-cut Alabamians spewing colored smoke from their whizz-jets to the strains of 'Rock You Like a Hurricane.'" Guess which song is played at the air show later in the episode.

** Bob's bomb, which he had been threatening all of Springfield with, gets a nice commercial break cliffhanger when Bob sets it off, only for it to fall to pieces, toss out a tiny puff of smoke, and release some rats it had inside. Lisa even lampshades it on the message she writes on the blimp's board to attract the police.

* PoliceAreUseless: Chief Wiggum decides to completely ignore and cover up Sideshow Bob's disappearance out of sheer laziness.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Bob claimed that he was doing a good deed by ridding Springfield of TV, but all it really did was make him the top dog in the manger. Also, when Bob sees Springfield give into his demands, he exclaims "Blast! I should have made more demands!"

* TankGoodness: One of the vehicles the military sends out to pursue Bob when he makes his getaway on the Wright plane is a tank. [[TanksButNoThanks Subverted eventually]] when the tank accidentally crushes the Wright Brothers' plane before stopping (because for some reason the guy driving the tank is an Air Force pilot instead of an Army tanker. [[CripplingOverspecialization The pilot even mentions that the tank is not a vehicle he's trained to drive]]).

* EmptyQuiver: Sideshow Bob steals a 10-megaton nuclear bomb and uses to hold Springfield hostage, forcing it to shut down all television broadcasts. [[spoiler: When he detonates it, it turns out the bomb had decayed beyond use due to Bob picking a nuke constructed during the 50's]]

* BaitAndSwitchComment: At the meeting Mayor Quimby declares "Our city wont negotiate with terrorists... can you point me towards a city that will".
* BigRedButton: Lying neatly right on top of the ''atomic bomb''.

* AccidentalHero: Krusty's selfishly and with no regard to the towns safety ignoring Sideshow Bob's ban on TV is what exposed his bomb to be a dud and [[SpannerInTheWorks ultimately foiled his plan.]]

* DangerDeadpan: Two fighter jets are scrambled to intercept Sideshow Bob's escape in the Wright brothers' plane. It does not go well, as the pilot comments Yeagerly: "Bogey's air speed not sufficient for intercept. Suggest we get out and walk."

* DisproportionateRetribution: Sideshow Bob [[EvilLuddite tries to nuke Springfield because he doesn't like the way television is dominating people's lives]]. (One of his reasons is, he used to ''be'' an actor on a kids show, and claimed that his "foolish capering destroyed more young minds then syphilis and [[NewMediaAreEvil pinball]] combined". Still, [[RevengeBeforeReason it's a rather poor excuse.]])

* EmptyQuiver: Sideshow Bob steals a 10 megaton nuclear bomb and uses to hold Springfield hostage, forcing it to shut down all television broadcasts. [[spoiler: When he detonates it, it turns out the bomb had decayed beyond use due to Bob picking a nuke constructed during the 50's]]

** Homer breaks down the gate to the air base with his car trying to save Bart and Lisa, as soon as he does, Bob and Bart fly over him and he declares [[PapaWolf "Don't worry Bart, Daddy's coming to save you"]] only to run over a road spike taking out all four tires.
** [[RuleOfThree Bob]] attempts to Kamikaze Krusty in the comically slow Wright Brothers plane which not only gives Krusty plenty of time to escape but falls to the ground after hitting the shack wall, leaving the plane more damaged than the shack.
* EverythingMakesAMushroom: Sideshow Bob takes Bart and Lisa hostage next to a 50's A-bomb. His demands are refused, he pushes the detonator, and a mushroom cloud explodes... before the camera pans out to reveal the cloud is, at most, two inches tall. Sideshow Bob then comments that "he HAD to go for the retro charm". The nuclear bomb had a very explicit expiration date written on it: "Best Used Before 1959."

* GoingCommando: Bart is "going commando" when he and Lisa get trapped in the airforce base.

* OlderIsBetter: Subverted, Bob never took into consideration that maybe the military would have deactivated an obsolete drop-type atomic bomb from the 50s.

*** One of the scenes, showing Maggie picking flowers in a field with the camera zooming into her eye, is a homage of the infamous and controversial Daisy ad used by Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 United States presidential election.
** The alien is being kept in hangar 18, referring to the film ''Hangar 18''.

* SkewedPriorities: Krusty places the town at risk of being ''nuked'' by continuing to broadcast in spite of Bob's threat, believing that as the only programme on air, he'll get a ratings windfall.

-->'''Sideshow Bob''': (slightly crazed) Ooh, huh, I- I never planned to ''escape''. You see, this is a- a kamikaze mission... You and I are going to ''kill Krusty the Clown!'' (banks hard right towards Alkali Flats)

-->'''Bob''': God bless the idiot-proof air force. ''(hits "fly" button, only for the jet to fall into a nearby ravine as it tries to take off)''

* TruthInTelevision: Even ignoring that the bomb had clearly been disarmed long ago, an atomic weapon built in the 1950s would have basically gone inert and incapable of an atomic explosion by now, as nuclear warheads have a specific half-life. Not too long after this episode aired, the US military raised concerns to congress that eventually we're going to have to start building new nuclear warheads or the ones we have won't work anymore.
* UnknownRival: Bob goes on his usual psychotic rampage against Bart and Krusty. Ironically, despite pretty much single handedly ruining his initial plan, he doesn't target Lisa, even lamp shading he couldn't care less about her.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Really, Bob? All this just to be rid of television?

** Bob threatening the town with a nuke from TheFifties that falls apart the minute he pushes the button.
** Bob trying to escape in a jet only for it to crush in a ditch forcing him to take the much slower Wright Brothers plane.

** Homer breaks down the gate to the air base with his car trying to save Bart and Lisa, as soon as he dose Bob and Bart fly over him and he declares [[PapaWolf "Don't worry Bart, Daddy's coming to save you"]] only to run over a road spike taking out all four tires.

* AntiClimax: Sideshow Bob tries to destroy the shack with the Wright Brothers plane... only to harmlessly bounce off of it & get the plane run over by a tank.

* ToiletHumor: As the soldiers search the entire base for Sideshow Bob, they find Grandpa hiding in one of the toilets: