History Recap / TheSimpsonsS9E22TrashOfTheTitans

* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Implied with Bart when riding with Homer to tell the citizens to vote for him, adding "If you don't, he'll beat us."[[note]]Despite the "us", Homer is only physically abusive towards Bart, [[WouldntHitAGirl not so Maggie or Lisa]].[[/note]] Homer then lies and says that he won't, then says [[WhatAnIdiot (into the megaphone)]][[invoked]] that he ''will'' beat Bart as horrified citizens look on.

-->'''Homer:''' [[TheUnapologetic I never apologize, Lisa. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I am.]]

* NoodleIncident: Wen Homer announces his candidacy for sanitation commissioner, the courthouse clerk points out that Homer is in a line for people who have to register as sex offenders. In that line are Patty and Selma, Jimmy the Scumbag [[note]]the telemarketing scammer[[/note]] from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E7LisasDateWithDensity Lisa's Date with Density]]", Mayor Quimby's nephew from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E20TheBoyWhoKnewTooMuch The Boy Who Knew Too Much]]" [[note]]the one who was accused of beating up a French waiter when he refused to say "Chowder," but was found innocent when Bart told the court that he saw the waiter trip and fall on himself in such a way that it looked like he was assaulted[[/note]], and Moe Szyslak, who complains that the lines for registering sex offenders are always long. The viewer can understand why Moe, the mayor's nephew, and possibly Jimmy the Scumbag would be sex offenders (Moe's a creeper [or at least that's what he's become in later episodes, especially with the running gag about hitting on Marge], Mayor Quimby and his entire male family members are [[{{Expy}} expies]] of the Kennedys (whose legacy is mired in sex scandals in which no one knows what exactly happened -- or someone knows, but he or she doesn't want to talk about it), and Jimmy the Scumbag is...[[ShapedLikeItself a scumbag]]), but what's the story with Patty and Selma? Why are they in the registered sex offenders line, and why didn't they leave when the clerk revealed what the line is for? Either they did something so bad that it can never be mentioned or -- like Homer in that scene -- they too suck at picking lines.[[note]]The "sex offenses" line regarding Patty and Selma is probably a reference to "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E5TheCartridgeFamily The Cartridge Family]]" where Patty and Selma lured a TV repairman over to their apartment with the false claim that their TV was broken and then force him to "spend the night" with them during the sequence of Marge leaving Homer after being lied to again about Homer getting rid of his gun.[[/note]]

* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: Once Homer believes he beat TheMan and forced them to clean up his immense mess, he gloats about it for what we assume is all day long (thanks to him starting once it's morning and he sees they cleaned up and then a TimeSkip to the evening and him still gloating in bed), to the point that Marge (who secretly sent an apology letter in his name and probably knows what will happen if she confesses to it) can't take it anymore and tells him she sent the letter just to make him shut up.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The two garbagemen who antagonised Homer in the first place are not seen again, due to Homer becoming obsessed with taking down TheMan that is supposedly Patterson. One can only assume they were replaced by Homer's re-innovated services, at least until he blows everything.

* WorseWithContext: This and NotHyperbole. When Homer wants to show the rest of his family the illegal thing he did to get the money to fund his department, they all think that it's drugs until Homer shows that it's allowing other cities to dump trash in an abandoned mine. A distraught Lisa then points how much of an ecological disaster that is and says "I almost wish they ''were'' drugs!" and Bart then says a deadpan "some are", pointing out a truck from [[TheBigRottenApple New York City]] that is dumping guns and used dope syringes.

** Homer, as usual, gets beaten up by garbagemen, ''again'' by U2's security (and recorded on the concert's big screen), and is implied to get horse whipped after destroying the town after losing the Sanitation Department's entire yearly budget in less than a month.

* {{Irony}}: Homer gets his ass kicked by U2's security guards as the band performs "Pride (In the Name of Love)".[[note]]Albeit it was [[LaserGuidedKarma deserved]], as Homer interrupted their concert to endorse himself for trash commissioner without any prior authorization from them, kicked a [[WouldHitAGirl (female)]] producer just because she called him out on trespassing backstage and messed with expensive equipment that he could have easily broken (and which [[HoistByHisOwnPetard allowed his beating to be broadcast]]).[[/note]]

* IdiotBall: Marge. Did she really not know her husband that well, that if she told Homer the truth about forging his name on an apology letter, it would set him off on a crazy rampage which would result in destruction of the town? She could have just stayed silent and let Homer believe he did beat city hall. Granted, the implication was that Homer's gloating was so insufferable that she couldn't hold it in any more.

* {{Tucckerization}}: Ray Patterson was named after an animator who worked on WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry cartoons.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Homer gets it twice over. He becomes sanitation commissioner via LandslideElection and proceeds to implement his crazy promises ... which drain his annual budget within a month. Then his sale of underground Springfield to other cities for their trash leads to it being so polluted it has to be moved five miles away, building by building.

* TrashOfTheTitans: This episode is the {{Trope Namer|s}}, with [[RunningGag two caused by Homer]] (first to his property, then to Springfield overall), though the show had used the trope many times before.
* UnaccustomedAsIAmToPublicSpeaking

-->''(Ray enters to a band playing the theme to ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter''.)''

-->''(Ray leaves. The band shrugs, and plays the ''Series/WelcomeBackKotter'' theme again as he leaves.)''

* SomebodyElsesProblem: When Moe and Homer are discussing what to do to make Homer's campaign attractive, they fall on the slogan "Can't someone else do it?" and Homer rides it all the way to victory. His promise: the garbagemen will do ''everything'' regarding taking out the garbage, even getting it out of the homes, and the townsfolk will be free to laze around. Eventually, RealityEnsues: the additional payment Homer gives the garbagemen so they will follow this order (as well as the extra-flashy uniforms and new equipment) uses up the annual budget within ''a single month''.

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Homer didn't realize how expensive his proposals would actually be. Also applies to the townsfolk who voted in Homer.

* RealityEnsues: Homer gets it twice over. He becomes sanitation commissioner via LandslideElection and proceeds to implement his crazy promises ... which drain his annual budget within a month. Then his sale of underground Springfield to other cities for their trash leads to it being so polluted it has to be moved five miles away, building by building.

** The song "The Garbage Man" [[SongParody spoofs]] "The Candy Man" from ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', and its end parade spoofs that of ''Theatre/TheMusicMan'' (as does Homer [[InstantCostumeChange snapping his fingers to change into a uniform]]). Also, [[Series/SesameStreet Oscar the Grouch]] appears in one of the trash cans in said parade.

** Ray Patterson's end speech was inspired by an incident in which Redd Foxx was to perform in Las Vegas, but noticed that there were very few people present, prompting him to leave immediately; the band which played him on with the theme from ''Series/SanfordAndSon'', after a moment's confusion, played him off with the theme again. This incident was also spoofed in [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E7TheTwoMrsNahasapeemapetilons "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons"]] when Moe walks onstage at a bachelor auction, and without stopping, walks straight to the "rejects" section.

[[TheStinger "Wankers."]]

[[TheStinger "Wankers."]]

* DisproportionateRetribution / MisplacedRetribution: Homer goes on the warpath and ruins a man's career (''and'' tries to kill him -- Patterson also accuses Homer of cutting his brake lines at one point) ''and'' ruins an entire town (although in Homer's defense that one was due to incompetence) because he didn't liked how two trash men treated him and then didn't liked that Marge wrote a letter of apology in his name when they decided to stop picking up his trash.

* IgnoredExpert[=/=]OnlySaneMan: Ray Patterson was smart enough to see that Homer has no clue what being sanitation commissioner is all about. First, during the debate:

* WorseWithContext: This and NotHyperbole. When Homer wants to show the rest of his family the illegal thing he did to get the money to fund his department, they all think that it's drugs until Homer shows that it's allowing other cities to dump trash in an abandoned mine. A distraught Lisa then points how much of an ecological disaster that is and says "I almost wish they ''were'' drugs!" and Bart then says a deadpan "some are", pointing out a truck from [[TheBigRottenApple New York City]] that is dumping guns and used dope syringes.