Line #4 Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E17TheHeartbrokeKid


1	'''Original air date:''' 5/1/2005
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3	'''Production code:''' GABF-11
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5	Springfield Elementary signs a deal with a snack company to install vending machines in the schools—with Bart taking advantage of the situation to the point that he becomes obese and suffers a heart attack.
6	----
7	!!Tropes:
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9	* {{Acrofatic}}: Downplayed with Bart, who skateboards from the school to the Simpson house even while obese. However, he's far less graceful than he is in the typical opening, and each step of his trip takes a bit longer than it normally would. He has a heart attack shortly after arriving.
10	* AIIsACrapshoot: The robot Marge in Homer's ImagineSpot has a gun, shooting him repeatedly until he's dead. [[ThinkingOutLoud Then lamenting out loud about why he gave it a gun]].
11	* BigEater:
12	** Bart becomes so addicted to the junk food from the vending machines that he decides to exclusively eat from them, leading to him becoming obese in just three weeks.
13	** Kent Brockman confesses to gorging on kettle corn during commercial breaks.
14	* BitingTheHandHumor: Towards the end:
15	-->'''Bart:''' I've learned that even made-up corporate mascots can lie to you.
16	-->'''Homer:''' (''holding up stuffed animal'') Did you hear that, Foxie, the Fox Network fox?
17	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Tab Spangler is extremely mentally unstable, but is an effective weight loss coach anyway.
18	* CallBack: Homer tries to weasel out of fat camp by suggesting other family members, including "My seldom-seen half-brother Herb [Powell]", who was last seen in season 3's "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?".
19	* CompressedVice: As soon as the school's new vending machines are turned on, Bart develops a major junk food addiction, which causes him to become severely obese in a mere three weeks and even have a heart attack. When Bart sees what his parents put themselves through to pay for fat camp, he overcomes said addiction instantly--by going straight to the source, smashing all the new vending machines.
20	* ContinuityCavalcade: In-universe in the episode's Itchy and Scratchy cartoon, where Scratchy checks off every box depicting the many ways Itchy has killed or maimed him.[[note]]These include being churned into butter ("Butter Off Dead"), decapitated by a windmill ("What's Nuked, Pussycat?"), impaled by the Space Needle ("Skinless in Seattle"), squashed by the moon ("Flay Me to the Moon"), printed into money ("The Buck Chops Here"), tricked into eating himself ("Esophagus Now"), hung by his own intestine ("Why Do Fools Fall in Lava?"), impaled on a cactus ("Germs of Endearment"), and killed in a plane crash with Buddy Holly ("Bleeder of the Pack").[[/note]]
21	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The representatives of Scammer and Z-Dog. Their vending machines and the wares they produce are meant to get kids hooked on unhealthy snack foods without any regard for their health solely for profit--the school gets 50% (or so they claim). They even admit that the machines are equipped with MindControl devices designed to disrupt the children's judgement centers.
22	* DrillSergeantNasty: Tab. One fat camp exercise is making the patients pull him on a chariot while he whips them.
23	-->'''Bart:''' This can't be legal!
24	-->'''Tab:''' It's legal enough! (''cracks whip'')
25	* DrunkOnMilk: Homer somehow manages to overdo it on the milkshakes and acts like his regular drunken self when asking Lisa to take a picture of him with all the milkshake cups on the bed.
26	* FormerlyFit: Action star Rainier Wolfcastle's apparently let himself go pretty badly, ending up at Sprangler's fat camp.
27	* FrivolousLawsuit: Tab Spangler tells Bart about a family that started a laundry to be able to afford his services and filed a lawsuit claiming the chemicals killed their dog. Tab doesn't believe the claim since it's unusual to see a dog living past the age of 14.
28	* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]]. At one point, Homer casually claims he lost his job ''off-screen''. Like it's an afterthought.
29	* GratuitousGerman: ZigZagged. One German backpacker calls Bart a "strudel-sucking globenheimer", which isn't a real German word. Later, Homer sings "99 Lüftballons" by Music/{{Nena}} in the original German lyrics.
30	* {{Jerkass}}: In order to pay for Bart's fat camp, the family becomes a youth hostel for European teens, who spend all day being insulting and superior towards them because they're American.
31	* JobStealingRobot: Marge does not take well to the fact her cooking duties for Bart were replaced by a snack machine at school.
32	* LastSecondWordSwap: When the family stages an intervention for Bart, Bart says "What the f-amily!"
33	* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: Scammer and Z-Dawg, the hip-hop themed snack mascots. Lindsey Naegle describes them as [[RuleAbidingRebel "Spokesrebels"]].
34	-->'''Scammer:''' Yo, don't flava hate, participate!
35	-->'''Ralph Wiggum:''' It's fun to obey the machine!
36	* MythologyGag: When Bart is having a heart attack, Homer tells him to "Do the Bartman".
37	* NutritionalNightmare: The snacks provided by the vending machines are ridiculously unhealthy, with a can of soda containing ingredients such as hydrogenated petroleum oil, monosodium poisonate, and ''partially deweaponised plutonium''.
38	* OpeningShoutOut: In one scene, a variation of the opening sequence is played, only it lasts much longer now that Bart had become slower because of his extra weight.
39	* PreAssKickingOneLiner: After Bart gives the family the vending machine money, Homer declares "It's time to take out the Eurotrash!" before chasing off the Europeans who had been staying in the house.
40	* PreMortemOneLiner: Parodied when [[TheAhnold Rainier Wolfcastle]] throws some ice cream away as an exercise at the fat camp.
41	-->'''Rainier:''' Here's the scoop: Your Haagen days are over! (''throws scoop into trash'') I'm Baskin' in your pain as I'm Robbin' you of life!
42	* PushoverParents: Marge absolutely spoils Bart by being too lenient with his eating habits, turning him into essentially [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Eric Cartman]].
43	* RuleOfDrama: Lampshaded and PlayedForLaughs as Tab Spangler takes Bart home to show the sacrifices his family is making.
44	-->'''Tab:''' Young man, there's something I have to show you. In one hour. We have to drive there. No talking along the way, it'll hurt the drama.
45	-->(''later, while driving'')
46	-->'''Bart:''' Can I just...
47	-->'''Tab:''' Shh, ''drama''!
48	* SecretSnackStash: Bart keeps one hidden in his room.
49	* ShoutOut:
50	** When Tab takes Bart home to show the youth hostel it became, Bart asks if the guests can see them and the coach says that they obviously can since he's not [[Literature/AChristmasCarol the Ghost of Christmas Past]].
51	** One excuse Bart gives about his obesity is being [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark "Big boned."]] Unsurprisingly, Tab refuses to accept that.
52	** Bart hides candy in his room in a hole covered by a poster, showering himself with some of it, parodying ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption''.
53	* SpecialGuest: Albert Brooks not only voices Tab Spangler, but also briefly reprises his role as Jacques from ''Life on the Fast Lane''.
54	* SoapboxSadie: Lisa tries to go on a crusade against the vending machines, but the vending machines manipulate the kids to keep using them and ignore her preaching.
55	* StagingAnIntervention: The Simpsons do this to convince Bart to lose some weight. When he tries to make a break for it, he is taken by "professional child snatchers" to the {{fat camp}}.
56	* TakeThat: The European students who stay in the Simpson house are all rude, condescending jerks who constantly insult Americans. After Homer chases them off, they decide to go to Disneyland, "Where we will heap the scorn on Goofy!"
57	* TemporaryBulkChange: Bart becomes obese after eating too many snacks. Kent Brockman, Rainier Wolfcastle, and Apu also had this happen since they're also at the camp with Bart.
58	* VengefulVendingMachine: Bart attacks the school vending machines and they retaliate by firing their contents at him.
59	-->'''Scammer:''' Yo, I'm gonna cap a pop in yo ass!\
60	(''vending machine shoots soda cans with Bart blocking them.'')\
61	'''Bart:''' (''smashes the machine, taking its money'') [[BondOneLiner I'm ending your vending, dawg.]]
62	* WeightWoe: Bart becomes morbidly obese and suffers a heart attack from eating so much junk food. Aside from Bart, Kent Brockman, Apu, and Rainier Wolfcastle are also dealing with this trope and stuck at the same fat camp.

Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS16E17TheHeartbrokeKid