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** Abe Simpson has an American flag with only 49 stars, since he doesn't recognize Missouri and states that he'll be "dead in the cold, cold ground" before he recognizes it. In [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS13E13TheOldManAndTheKey a later episode]], Abe would embark on a road trip to Missouri to win back an ex-girlfriend.
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** This episode takes on a whole new light in the 2020s with the rise of modern social media pile-ons and "cancel culture". While the episode's focus at the time was on the sensationalization and harassment of people by tabloid news, now ordinary people can do the exact same thing to their targets on social media. People attacked by social media pile-ons have suffered everything from depression to bankruptcy to even potentially committing ''suicide'' due to the abuse, doxxing and lies told about them. The victims of these attacks are often targeted for simply telling the wrong kind of joke, criticizing a piece of media or even being WronglyAccused when they're mistaken for someone else who actually did something.
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* CrossesTheLineTwice: Homer being falsely accused of sexual harassment over a misunderstanding and having his life ruined in a mass media storm because of it (with even his own family hesitant to support him) is heart-breaking. The reporters' using ManipulativeEditing to make Homer look like a crazed maniac (like someone out of a YoutubePoop [[HilariousInHindsight before it was even a thing]]), claiming that Homer "sleeps nude in an oxygen tent he believes gives him sexual powers", and speculating that Marge put the cat out "possibly because it was being sexually harassed [by Homer]" is so absurdly unbelievable that the episode goes straight into BlackComedy satire territory.
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* CrossesTheLineTwice: Homer being falsely accused of sexual harassment over a misunderstanding and having his life ruined in a mass media storm because of it (with even his own family hesitant to support him) is heart-breaking. The reporters' using ManipulativeEditing to make Homer look like a crazed maniac (like someone out of a YoutubePoop [[HilariousInHindsight before it was even a thing]]), claiming that Homer "sleeps nude in an oxygen tent he believes gives him sexual powers", powers" (which Homer indignantly claims is a half-truth), and speculating that Marge put the cat out "possibly because it was being sexually harassed [by Homer]" is so absurdly unbelievable that the episode goes straight into BlackComedy satire territory.territory. The resulting LifetimeMovieOfTheWeek dramatizing the incident depicting Homer as an AxCrazy CardCarryingVillain is the cherry on top of it all.
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** Marge gives an intended SpoofAesop that "as long as everyone keeps filming one another, justice will be done." This was a joke at the time, because the technology simply didn't allow for it and therefore a person being exonerated by a random bystander filming the event was an absurd DeusExMachina. However, many people these days consider it a simple true statement; [[TechnologyMarchesOn the vastly-increased availability of video cameras and smartphones has led to it being far more likely that a random person can whip out a camera and capture events that would otherwise be hearsay or unreliable witness testimony in full detail, and that evidence can often be a major clinching factor in court]]. In particular, the conviction of Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd in 2020 had shown this change. The Minneapolis Police Department's official report described Floyd's death as a "medical incident", but footage from a bystander's phone disproved that allegation and left no doubt that Floyd's death had been the direct result of Chauvin's actions. Even 2007's ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' made this a plot point, with Comic Book Guy filming Grampa Simpson's "EEPA" breakdown during the church scene.
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** Marge gives an intended SpoofAesop that "as long as everyone keeps filming one another, justice will be done." This was a joke at the time, because the technology simply didn't allow for it and therefore a person being exonerated by a random bystander filming the event was an absurd DeusExMachina. However, many people these days consider it a simple true statement; [[TechnologyMarchesOn the vastly-increased availability of video cameras and smartphones has led to it being far more likely that a random person can whip out a camera and capture events that would otherwise be hearsay or unreliable witness testimony in full detail, and that evidence can often be a major clinching factor in court]]. In particular, the conviction of Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd in 2020 had shown this change. The Minneapolis Police Department's official report described Floyd's death as a "medical incident", but footage from a bystander's phone disproved that allegation and left no doubt that Floyd's death had been the direct result of Chauvin's actions. Even 2007's ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' made this a plot point, with Comic Book Guy filming Grampa Simpson's "EEPA" breakdown during the church scene.
