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Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS13E8SweetsAndSourMarge

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1[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simpsonsweet.jpg]]
2
3'''Original air date:''' 1/20/2002 ''(produced in 2001)''
4
5'''Production code:''' DABF-03
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7Marge starts a protest to rid the town of sugar and sugar-laced foods after Springfield is named America's fattest town. The source? The Motherloving Sugar Corporation, owned by the AffablyEvil Garth Motherloving (guest star Creator/BenStiller). In protest of her protest, Homer goes into sugar-smuggling.
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9!!This episode contains examples of:
10* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Judge Snyder passes a law that bans sugar from the town. In real life, a judge is only supposed to interpret existing laws, preside over trials and pass judgement, and would not be able to make up new laws on the spot. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] at the end of the episode when Snyder admits that he didn't actually have the authority to enact the sugar banning law, and it is repealed.
11* BaitAndSwitchComment: After the non-Simpsons abandon them aboard the ''Gone Fission'', Burns angrily yells at Apu: "Stroke, stroke, stroke!" Apu tells Burns he's stroking as fast as he can, to which Burns clarifies that he meant he was actually having a stroke.
12* BitingTheHandHumor: While burning most of the sugary sweets and food products in town, the police throw a pile of Butterfingers into the flames. The fire rejects the Butterfingers, causing Chief Wiggum to comment that "even the fire doesn't want them.” The Simpsons used to advertise Butterfingers (with Bart commenting "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!") and it's a well-known [[PopCultureUrbanLegends urban legend]] that this joke allegedly got Nestlé to get rid of the show as an advertisement venue.
13* TheCameo: Among the participants of the human triangle is [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E14TheItchyAndScratchyAndPoochieShow Roy]].
14* CantLiveWithThemCantLiveWithoutThem: Marge derides sugar for being harmful to your health because you could turn fat and sluggish from it, but also concludes a lifetime without sugar can also be detrimental.
15* CaptainErsatz: Count Fudgula, an obvious parody of [[Advertising/MonsterCereals Count Chocula]].
16* CardCarryingVillain: Garth Motherloving. Not only is his birth name apparently "[[UnfortunateNames Hitler]]", but the button to drop sugar on the docks is labelled “obey bad guy,” and every entry in his day-planner is just “evil deeds”.
17* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Parodied with Garth Motherloving; the very concept of corporate ethics is completely alien to him.
18* DecoyProtagonist: Marge is the protagonist for the first half of the episode, wanting to get sugar banned due to how unhealthy it is (especially after seeing that Springfield has been named "The Fattest Town in America). Homer takes over the protagonist role in the second half, with the rest of the episode centered on his attempts to smuggle sugar after the ban.
19* DidntThinkThisThrough: Whichever one of the sugar smugglers that wrote out the contract which said that they would give Homer and the others the sugar without getting paid.
20* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The entire episode plays with the idea of sugar being equatable to a drug, especially during the scene where Homer, Mr. Burns, Apu and Count Fudgula smuggle sugar into Springfield. The scene that best hammers this in is when Disco Stu sucks up lines of sugar through a straw in a manner akin to snorting cocaine (which is funny, considering a report in 2012 stated that sugar addiction is similar to cocaine addiction).
21* DontLookAtMe: Count Fudgula has this reaction when Homer discovers him being part of the sugar smuggling ring, despite being one of the main proponents of the lawsuit, and cowers under his cape in shame.
22* DrivenToSuicide: An anonymous Springfield resident leaps off a building to commit suicide, [[SubvertedTrope only to land in the people ball that forms from Homer's people pyramid]].
23--> '''Guy:''' GoodbyeCruelWorld. [he lands in the pile.] [[LampshadeHanging Hello ironic twist!]]
24* EveryoneHasStandards: Lisa is a GranolaGirl and SoapboxSadie who is (from a statistical point of view) the family's greatest supporter for healthy living, but she immediately supports Bart's and Homer's plan to smuggle sugar into the city when the alternative is [[AnythingButThat eating steamed limes]].
25* FaceHeelRevolvingDoor: Despite testifying on Marge's behalf on how he got addicted to sugar, Count Fudgula is part of the conspiracy to smuggle sugar back into Springfield. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Homer:
26-->'''Homer:''' Count Fudgula? I thought you were trying to get off the stuff.\
27'''Count Fudgula:''' I'm a monster; don't look at me.
28* FatAndProud: Most of Springfield is overjoyed when they're announced the world's fattest town. Only Marge is concerned that they're celebrating obesity.
29* FateWorseThanDeath: Lisa doesn't initially believe that getting sugar back is worth Homer and Bart risking their lives. Until Marge announces she steamed limes for dessert, and Lisa shoves them out the door, saying "Godspeed."
30* FatFlex: Homer states that he can stop sucking his gut in now that everyone's happy about being fat. He has to exhale ''twice'' to let it all hang out.
31* GoingColdTurkey: The whole town goes weak and depraved from a complete sugar withdrawal thanks to Marge.
32* GRatedDrug: What sugar comes off as.
33* GuinnessEpisode: Homer tries to get into the ''Duff Book of World Records'', and Springfield is eventually named "America's Fattest Town".
34* {{Foreshadowing}}: While Homer is reading the Duff Book of World Records to his family at breakfast, a bowl of cereal called "Frosting Gobs" can briefly be seen on the table, hinting at the plot to come.
35* HardTruthAesop: Having the government try to force people into healthy lifestyles doesn't work.
36-->'''Marge:''' I guess you just can't use the law to nag.
37* HeelFaceTurn: Judge Snyder decides to overturn his previous decision to ban all sugar from Springfield. He started to miss sugar himself, plus he realized he went beyond his legal authority.
38* {{Jerkass}}: Garth Motherloving is a total jerk, [[IronicName ironically]]. A bit of FridgeBrilliance here; "Motherloving" sounds like a {{bowdlerized}} take on "motherfucking," making him as bad as his name implies.
39* LiteralMetaphor: Homer's NotInMyContract line.
40* MoodWhiplash:
41** The jumper mentioned in DrivenToSuicide seems pleasantly surprised that his suicide attempt was foiled by landing in Homer's people ball.
42** When Marge wins her case against Motherloving, Homer tells Marge that he's [[SoProudOfYou so proud of her]]. Then Judge Snyder immediately bans sugar from Springfield based on Marge's evidence, prompting Homer to angrily state to her "Get in the car."
43* NeverMyFault: Judge Snyder sides with Marge in enacting a sugar ban on the town claiming that it's the Motherloving Company's fault that he himself got so obese.
44* NoodleIncident: Apparently, Homer once suggested that he'd only go to Moe's whenever someone said the word 'tavern' (in this case, Lisa).
45-->'''Homer:''' She said 'tavern'! I'm going to Moe's!\
46'''Marge:''' I never agreed to that rule!
47* NotHyperbole: The sugar smugglers' contract literally did not had a written clause that demanded Homer to pay them. The leader of the smugglers gets angry and [[WhoWritesThisCrap demands to know which of his goons wrote the contract]] once Homer leaves and he gives the document a once over.
48* NotInMyContract: Homer doesn't pay the sugar smugglers because he claims it wasn't part of the deal. Their leader [[ReadTheFinePrint double checks the contract]], finds out it really wasn't, and demands to know [[WhoWritesThisCrap which of his subordinates actually wrote it]].
49* OhNoNotAgain: Hans Moleman screams this when running from the ball of people.
50* ReversePsychologyBackfire: Homer tries this on a toucan that steals his map to the sugar rendezvous point. It fails -- the toucan just flies away with the map.
51* RewatchBonus: Viewers rewatching the episode might notice the "Obey Bad Guy" button in [[http://frinkiac.com/img/S13E08/1144852.jpg a scene]] from right after the non-Simpsons aboard the ''Gone Fission'' take a life boat.
52* RiddleForTheAges: Exactly ''[[WhoWritesThisCrap who]]'' wrote that sugar contract, and why would they write a contract that means they have to give a bunch of smugglers an illegal substance for absolutely free?
53* RuleOfThree: Readied in his diving gear, Homer falls backwards off the top of Burns' yacht, landing on the lower deck. He tries again, landing on the flat surface of a nearby whale. He quips [[LampshadeHanging "I'm only gonna do this one more time"]] before managing to land in the water.
54* SarcasmMode: Garth Motherloving "agreeing" to Marge's suggestions.
55* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When the cops try to stop sugar from being smuggled into Springfield, Homer declares his team won't give up, only to see the team's non-Simpsons using a life boat to escape.
56* SheetOfGlass: After sugar becomes illegalized and Homer attempts to smuggle it from an island, he gets chased by Chief Wiggum's police boat. During the chase, Homer comes across two workers on boats holding a sheet of glass, ducking to avoid breaking it. Chief Wiggum swerves to avoid crashing into the glass and a mother on a jet ski pushing a baby carriage, eventually getting his police boat beached.
57* ShoutOut:
58** Homer refers to Marge throughout the second half of the episode as variations of Film/ErinBrockovich (such as "Erin Chocosnitch").
59*** The first time the comparison is made, Bart refers to Brockovich as "the prostitute with a heart of gold," obviously confusing Creator/JuliaRoberts' role as Erin with her character in ''Film/PrettyWoman''.
60** One of the sweets burned in the fire is a promotional chocolate statuette of Creator/JohnnyDepp from ''Film/{{Chocolat}}''. It melts in a horrifying, human-esque manner.
61** The same remix of the "[[Film/BeverlyHillsCop Axel F]]" theme used in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E12MargeVsTheMonorail Marge vs the Monorail]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E23TheSpringfieldConnection The Springfield Connection]]" plays when Homer attends the sugar smuggling meeting with Apu.
62** Chief Wiggum's boat chase with Homer and Bart while they're trying to smuggle in the sugar is set to the ''Series/MiamiVice'' theme.
63** Motherloving bribes Homer into helping his plot by showing him a smoking [[Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory Oompa-Loompa]].
64** After Maggie gets splattered with fudge, she wipes it off in homage to [[Creator/LaurelAndHardy Oliver Hardy]].
65* SmarterThanYouLook: Cletus, a stereotypical slack-jawed yokel, knows how to write in perfect cursive.
66* SpecialGuest: Creator/BenStiller as Garth Motherloving.
67* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Judge Snyder repeals the ban on sugar after realizing he didn't actually have the authority to enact it.
68* TakeThat: To Butterfingers.
69-->'''Chief Wiggum:''' Not even the fire wants them.
70* ThrowTheDogABone: Not only does [[ButtMonkey Gil]] win his first case as a lawyer, but he also defeats the Blue-Haired Lawyer (whose only real courtroom defeat up to this point was in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E18TheDayTheViolenceDied The Day the Violence Died]]") in order to do so.
71* TheToothHurts: Count Fudgula lost his fangs to tooth decay from his sugar addiction, and has been forced to use dentures as replacements.

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