Line #40 Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E10GrampaVsSexualInadequacy


1	'''Original air date:''' 12/4/1994
2
3	'''Production code:''' 2F07
4
5	[[quoteright:204:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grampa_vs_sexual_inadequacy_promo_picture_2.jpg]]
6	When Homer and Marge try and fail to reinvigorate their fading sex life, salvation comes in the form of Grampa Simpson, who concocts a bathtub aphrodisiac that Grampa and Homer sell to the masses. Meanwhile, Bart fears that the alleged disappearance of all the adults is part of an alien invasion/government conspiracy.
7
8	----
9	!!Examples:
10
11	* AbusiveParents: As Homer points out, Abe's been an awful father who was never supportive. When Homer was watching President Kennedy on television as a child and imitates him, Abe cruelly tells Homer (while rolling up a newspaper) that America was made so idiots like Homer can't be President and to stop daydreaming. Then there's the entire car argument where Abe flat-out tells Homer that he was an accident and that he never should have been born. [[JerkassRealization Abe does regret how he treated Homer later on]]. Meanwhile, according to Marge, Homer himself tells Bart he didn't want him all the time, and defends himself by claiming it's "cute" when he does it.
12	* AdviceBackfire: Homer and Marge initially try to rejuvenate their sex life by following the advice of a book on tape entitled ''Mr. and Mrs. Erotic American''. HilarityEnsues.
13	* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Homer trying to explain the situation with Abe gets distracted by a chocolate bar Bart's eating, but Homer tells him to put it away.
14	* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: Homer and Abe make amends with one another.
15	-->'''Homer:''' I'm a screw-up. I burned down our house.\
16	'''Abe:''' No, I'm a screw-up. ''I'' burned down our house.\
17	'''Homer:''' You know what?\
18	'''Abe:''' What?\
19	'''Homer:''' We're ''both'' screw-ups.
20	* BaitAndSwitch: Lisa and Bart buy some books, with Lisa buying [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ueberroth Peter Ueberroth]]'s biography and UsefulNotes/AlGore's book "Sane Planning, Sensible Tomorrow", and Bart buying one about [=UFOs=], saying the government is covering them up (something Lisa derides as being "a paranoid fantasy"). As they get rung up, the library scanner sends a signal to a satellite, which sends it to the US Pentagon, and it's printed out. An Army officer looks over it, and immediately hurries to the White House, reporting to UsefulNotes/AlGore... because "someone finally bought a copy of [his] book".
21	* BaitAndSwitchComment: After Homer stops helping Abe to sell the aphrodisiac, Abe tries to get Barney's help and later says it's not the same without Homer. Homer can drive.
22	* BalloonBelly: Homer ends up looking even fatter than usual after spending the night engorging on enchiladas, much to Marge's disappointment, as she was in the mood to snuggle.
23	* BookDumb: The hillbillies of Spittle County who listen to Homer and Abe's pitch may not be well-educated, but they're not stupid either. When Homer claims to have never met Abe before, one of the rednecks immediately asks why his face is on the bottle. Cut to the ChaseScene.
24	* BrakeAngrily: Homer gasps and then does this when Grampa says that Homer was an accident and then tells his father to get out.
25	* BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting: Homer's attempts to do this [[WeWantOurJerkBack unnerve]] his kids.
26	-->'''Lisa:''' Dad, it's just that too much of your love can really be... scary!
27	-->'''Homer:''' Someday you'll thank me for all this scary love.
28	* CarFu: When "Mr. And Mrs. Erotic American"'s advice doesn't work out for Homer and Marge, Marge throws the tape out the car window. Homer then crushes the tape by running the car back and forth over it.
29	* TheCasanova: Professor Frink becomes this as soon as he drinks the tonic, and he picks up a female scientist.
30	* CerebusRetcon: While it'd been implied beforehand, this episode makes it explicit that it was Abe's terrible influence that was responsible for Homer's own bad parenting skills. As Homer admits, he simply never had someone to actually set a good example for him as a father.
31	* ChildhoodHomeRediscovery: Abe takes Homer to the farmhouse where they lived before moving to Springfield, but visiting the house causes Homer to have flashbacks of Abe being a [[AbusiveParents neglectful and unsupportive father towards him]], and they have an argument which ends with Homer vowing never to speak to Abe again. They reconcile at the end of the episode... [[LetThePastBurn as the farmhouse burns to the ground]].
32	* ComicallyMissingThePoint: Parents becoming sex-obsessed? Alien vampire invasion! It escalates to the point that when Milhouse of all people tries to say there's got to be something sensible about what is going on, he's accused of being a vampire himself and mobbed by the other kids.
33	* TheConspiracy: The children of Springfield (except Lisa) suspect something huge is going on involving "reverse vampires" because their parents rush home before nightfall. They are actually just having sex.
34	* ContinuityNod: Marge mentions [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E12IMarriedMarge Bart's birth being an accident]] as well.
35	* CouchGag: The family runs past a repeating background shot of the couch in a parody of Creator/HannaBarbera cartoons.
36	* DamnedByFaintPraise: Grampa apologizes to Homer for horribly insulting him. The best compliment he can come up with? "I was always proud... that you weren't a short man".
37	* ADayInTheLimelight: For Abe, focusing on his strained relationship with Homer.
38	* DidntThinkThisThrough:
39	** Planting Homer in the audience to sell the tonic fails not only because of Homer's lousy acting skills but also because Homer's face is in the tonic's label.
40	** Homer attempts to convince a man to buy the tonic because it could be beneficial to him, but words his sales pitch so poorly that he gets punched in the face. Telling the man "You look like someone who needs help satisfying his wife" wasn't the best way to pitch the aphrodisiac, to say the least.
41	* DoubleStandard:
42	-->'''Homer:''' He said I was an accident. He didn't want to have me.\
43	'''Marge:''' You didn't want to have Bart.\
44	'''Homer:''' I know, but you're never supposed to tell the child!\
45	'''Marge:''' You tell Bart all the time - you told him this morning.\
46	'''Homer:''' But when ''I'' do it, it's ''cute!''
47	* EpicFail: Homer's attempts to be a good father to Bart and Lisa all fail spectacularly because he smothers them and won't listen to their objections. Bart even tells him that they far preferred it when he wasn't trying to be a good father to them.
48	* FisticuffProvokingComment: Happens twice.
49	** The first time, Homer and Abe are at the mall trying to peddle Abe's homemade aphrodisiac. Homer approaches the "Just Stamp the Ticket" Man, saying, "Hello sir! Yes, you look like a man who needs help satisfying his wife". The would-be customer responds by punching him in the face.
50	** The second time occurs after Grampa's aphrodisiac results in Springfield's adults spending all their time in their bedrooms and abandoning the city to the children. Bart attributes the absence of grown-ups to an invasion plan by "the saucer people" but Milhouse sharply disagrees stating it's the result of "a massive government conspiracy" and accuses Bart of being part of it. Bart reacts by attacking Milhouse and the two briefly scuffle on the floor before Lisa breaks up the fight.
51	* FlatJoy: Al Gore was really excited that someone bought his book.
52	-->'''Gore:''' ''(smiling; monotone)'' Well. ''(reaches over to a record player; turns it on)'' This calls for a celebration.\
53	'''Music/KoolAndTheGang:''' ♪''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebration_(Kool_%26_the_Gang_song) Ce-le-brate good times, come on!]]''♪\
54	'''Gore:''' ''(still monotone)'' I ''will''.
55	* FlintstoneTheming: A very brief example - the tonic-selling tour visits Frigid Falls, Mount Seldom and Lake Flaccid.
56	* ForgottenPhlebotinum: Grandpa's tonic sure would've helped in later episodes where Homer and Marge's sex-life was struggling, e.g. season 9's "Natural Born Kissers".
57	* FreeRangeChildren: After Homer gets his sexual drive from the tonic, he gives his children fifty dollars and tells them to go to the movies, then take a cab to their aunts' house. The kids promptly head over to a StockFootage festival.
58	-->'''Lisa:''' What do you think Mom and Dad are doing right now?\
59	'''Bart:''' I don't know.
60	* FreudianExcuse: Abe was a crummy father who actively discouraged his son at every turn. Homer genuinely wants to be a loving, involved, encouraging parent, but he never had anyone to model that behavior for him and has no clue what he's doing.
61	-->'''Homer:''' How am I supposed to be a good dad when I never had one myself?
62	* GenerationXerox: During a fight, Abe says "Why you little..." to Homer and strangles him. [[RunningGag Similar to what Homer frequently does to Bart.]]
63	* GetOut: Homer is driving and arguing with Grandpa Abe when Abe tells him his birth was an accident.
64	-->'''Homer:''' ''[[[BrakeAngrily stops the car]]; then, [[TranquilFury in a eerily calm voice]]]'' Get out!\
65	'''Abe:''' I'm sorry I said that...\
66	'''Homer:''' ''Out!''\
67	'''Abe:''' I'm going to get out of the car, and I hope you'll find it in your heart not to drive away --\
68	''[Homer immediately drives away]''\
69	'''Abe:''' Well, I'll be all right [[TemptingFate as long as I can remember my army training]].\
70	''[at night, in the same spot]''\
71	'''Abe:''' Dang...
72	* JerkassHasAPoint: While [[HypocriticalHumor it's undoubtedly hypocritical of Homer]] to be upset by his father telling him that he was an accident [[AbusiveParents when he himself reminds Bart of this frequently]], he's never gone as far as telling Bart that he's not glad to have him ''now'', and in fact makes an effort to tell him he's wanted in both this episode and "I Married Marge". Abe doesn't simply tell Homer that he was unwanted at the time of his conception, but that he would be happy if Homer had never existed.
73	* LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: After botching the sale in hillbilly country, Homer and Abe are getting chased by an angry mob. Grandpa blames Homer's poor salesmanship, but Homer counters that they only started chasing them when Abe turned on "that getaway music"([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Y3mnj-8lA "Foggy Mountain Breakdown"]] by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs). He switches off the radio and instantly the hillbillies stop, make disappointed noises, and return home.
74	* LetThePastBurn: Homer and Abe fall out after visiting the farmhouse where they used to live before moving to Springfield. They resolve the feud at the end of the episode, as the farmhouse is burned to the ground.
75	* LoveHotel: The Aphrodite Inn where Homer and Marge go to try and rekindle the spark in their relationship, but because they failed to book ahead they get stuck with cots in the utility room.
76	* LovePotion: Grandpa's tonic causes any man who drinks it[[note]]we never actually see any women using it so it's unclear if it affects them the same way[[/note]] to be instantly filled with wild passion, usually resulting in their scooping up the woman they love and running to the nearest bedroom.
77	* MadeOfIncendium: Abe sets the farmhouse's living room ablaze when he throws a bottle of his tonic in the fireplace.
78	* MadeOfIron: Bart ends up falling off the house roof without any ill effects.
79	* AMistakeIsBorn: Abe tells Homer that he was an accident. This angers Homer to the point of TranquilFury, [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness which is extremely rare for him]]. Later, Marge says to Homer he tells Bart was a mistake all the time.
80	* MomentKiller: In the opening scene, as Homer and Marge are actually getting down to some snuggling, Bart bursts into their room in a panic about a UFO (which is actually an umbrella).
81	* MoralMyopia: When Grampa in a fit of rage tells Homer that he was an accident, Homer abandons him on the roadside. When he informs Marge of this she reminds him that he tells Bart he's an accident all the time, Homer retorts that it's "cute" when ''he'' does it.
82	* NeverMyFault: Abe blames Homer for their getting chased out of Spittle County by angry locals. This despite Abe being the one playing the getaway music that got the locals chasing them and probably planned the sales pitch that angered the locals in the first place.
83	* NoSell: Dr. Hibbert drinks the love tonic, but it doesn't have the immediate effect it does with everyone else.
84	* NoYou: At the start of the ride home:
85	-->'''Homer:''' Your whole life you never said ''one'' nice thing to me!\
86	'''Grampa:''' That's 'cause you're a screw-up!\
87	'''Homer:''' ''You're'' the screw-up!\
88	'''Grampa:''' Why, you little... ''[strangles Homer]''
89	* NotHelpingYourCase: Grampa tries to replace Homer in his medicine show with Barney as an ersatz "son":
90	-->'''Barney:''' I used to be a fat, disgusting slob. ''(belches)''
91	-->'''Hillbilly:''' That medicine seems to be giving your son a lot of gas!
92	-->'''Grampa:''' I assure you, his belching is the result of an unrelated alcohol problem. ''(Barney passes out, before all the hillbillies leave)''
93	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Normally, when Homer's mad, he'll explode at you. Abe's "You were an accident!" comment evidently hurt him enough to put him in TranquilFury mode. Abe is spooked into giving an apology, to no avail.
94	-->'''Abe:''' If I hadn't taken that tonic 38 years ago, you would never have been born and I would be happy! ''You were an ACCIDENT!''\
95	'''Homer:''' ''(slams on the brakes and speaks very softly but still evidently enraged)'' Get out!\
96	'''Abe:''' ''(genuinely concerned)'' I'm sorry I said that...\
97	'''Homer:''' ''(still softly) Out!''
98	* ParentalSexualitySquick:
99	-->'''Abe:''' Unsatisfying sex life?\
100	'''Homer:''' N-- yes! But ''please'', don't ''you'' say that word!\
101	'''Abe:''' What, "seeeex"? What's so unappealing about hearing your elderly father talk about ''seeeex''? I had ''seeeex''.\
102	(''Homer shudders'')
103	* ParentsAsPeople: Abe was, and is, a crummy dad, but he had his good moments, such as when [[PetTheDog he dressed up as Santa Claus to visit Homer on Christmas]]. For his own part, Homer, despite his flaws, [[BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting is trying his best to be a better father to his kids]].
104	* PetTheDog: Homer goes through old photos and bemoans Abe's ParentalNeglect when he was a child, noting that Abe "wasn't even around on Christmas morning when I actually got to meet Santa Claus. [[LateToTheRealization That's when it finally sinks in]] that Abe dressed up as Santa for him.
105	-->'''Homer:''' [[TemptingFate Oh! This photo is a blessing! It eases my pain]]. ''(accidentally lights it on fire with the match by which he was looking at it)''
106	* PhonyDegree: Bart believes the rantings of a [=UFOlogist=] who is "head of the Spaceology Department at the Correspondence School of Tampa". Note that the word "Spaceology" doesn't actually mean anything (the correct term would be "astronomy").
107	* RamblingOldManMonologue: Grampa is in rare form when he's riding in the car with Homer:
108	-->'''Abe:''' ...And that's what's wrong with Bart's generation. Now, as for ''your'' generation...\
109	''(Homer groans)''
110	* RejectedApology: Abe shows up at the Simpson home with a bunch of flowers to apologise to Homer for saying his birth was an accident. Homer worldessly slams the door in his face.
111	* RushedInvertedReading: While shopping at Books! Books! and Additional Books!, Homer and Marge were looking for a book in the "Martial Relations" section to improve their marriage. Meanwhile, Bart and Lisa shopped on their own. When the children returned, Homer and Marge quickly grabbed random books to pretend they were looking for something else, not for books about sex. When Bart asked what Marge and Homer were looking at, Homer [[ScreamsLikeALittleGirl reacts in horror]] when he realizes he picked a book by Robert Mapplethorpe.
112	* SantasExistenceClause: Subverted. Homer finds an old photograph in the farmhouse of what he thinks is himself as a boy meeting Santa Claus. He looks closer and discovers it's Abe dressed as Santa.
113	* SarcasmBlind: When Lisa jokingly suggests that the adults of Springfield have become reverse vampires who have to get home before dark, all the other kids become terrified of the idea, and instantly accept it. [[SurroundedByIdiots Much to Lisa's frustration]].
114	* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: After noticing something is wrong with Marge, Grampa speculates that she might be suffering from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicavolcanoconiosis.
115	* SexyDiscretionShot: After telling Abe about how weak their sex life is, Abe gives Homer some tonic to improve his sex life with Marge leading to shots of a train going into a tunnel, a rocket blasting off, and hot dogs falling in a factory which pans back to reveal Bart, Lisa and Maggie in a movie theater watching stock footage of all three.
116	* ShoutOut:
117	** Bart writes on the chalkboard that his homework wasn't stolen by [[Series/TheFugitive a one-armed man]].
118	** After years of Professor Frink as Creator/JerryLewis' [[Film/TheNuttyProfessor1963 Nutty Professor]] character, we see him as Buddy Love after he drinks the tonic.
119	** The music track that plays during the satellite sequence is an obvious parody of the opening theme to ''[[Series/TheXfiles The X-Files]]''. So is pretty much the entirety of Bart's B-plot, such as he and Milhouse arguing over it being a government conspiracy ("Or have they gotten to you too?")
120	* SilentTreatment: Homer gives his father the silent treatment when he calls him an accident.
121	-->'''Marge:''' Homie, are you really going to ignore Grampa for the rest of your life?\
122	'''Homer:''' Of course not, Marge. Just for the rest of ''his'' life.
123	* SnakeOilSalesman: Homer and Grampa's traveling show has all the hallmarks of this, including old-fashioned barking from a platform, and planting people in the audience, but the tonic really does work in this case... until the duo break up.
124	* SomethingElseAlsoRises: When Homer and Marge have sex, the audience sees footage of a train going into a tunnel, a rocket taking off, and a line of hot dogs coming off a conveyor belt. Then it turns out it's part of a movie that the kids are watching, as they wonder what their parents are up to.
125	* SpannerInTheWorks: Homer and Marge try to have a romantic getaway at the Aphrodite Inn, a hotel that offers guests themed rooms for their erotic fantasies, such as the Caveman Room, the Pharoah's Room and the Camelot Room. Unfortunately, almost all the rooms are taken when Homer and Marge check in, forcing them to stay in the Utility Room. Homer tries to play it up as a romantic fantasy where he's the janitor and Marge is the janitor's wife, but Marge points out that it really is the hotel's utility room. At one point, the desk clerk comes in to get a vacuum cleaner.
126	* SureLetsGoWithThat: When Bart is freaking out over thinking the umbrella in the tree was a UFO, and Marge refuses to let him sleep with her and Homer because they were in the middle of sex.
127	-->'''Bart:''' Can I sit on the roof with a baseball bat in case a UFO ''does'' come?\
128	'''Marge:''' Yes, yes, yes, that's fine. Good, good.
129	* TorchesAndPitchforks: Subverted after the hillbillies of Spittle County see through Homer and Abe's snake oil tactics. They start chasing Homer and Abe in a truck, but immediately give up once Homer turns off the banjo getaway music Abe was playing.
130	* TVNeverLies: Or in Milhouse's case, "Literature Never Lies".
131	--> If it's in a book, it's gotta be true!
132	* TranquilFury: Homer when Abe calls him an accident. It [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness scares Abe]] into apologizing, to no avail.
133	* TheTriple: When Homer promises to be a more attentive father, one of his first acts is to teach Bart to ride his first bike. There are just some problems with that.
134	-->'''Bart:''' Number one, I know how to ride a bike. Number two, I already own a bike. And number three, ''that'' is a ''girl's'' bike.
135	* TheUnreveal: A flashback shows us a rare glimpse of Homer's mother... from the neck down, so we don't see her face ([[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson for another year or so]]).
136	* WeWantOurJerkBack: Bart & Lisa complain that they preferred Homer's half-assed under-parenting far more then his half-assed over-parenting. Homer complains that he's using his whole ass.
137	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The kids spying on their parents plotline fades out eventually. A deleted scene had Ralph telling them that the parents aren't around because they're busy having sex (a revelation which Bart then twists into a conspiracy involving Film/{{the Mole People}}). The writers edited this out because they didn't think Ralph would be smart enough to understand that.
138	* YouCantGoHomeAgain: Homer and Grampa go back to their old farm, and recollect happier times (and unhappy times), but it's worn down and just not the same. [[FromBadToWorse Then they accidentally burn it down]].

Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS6E10GrampaVsSexualInadequacy