Line #10 Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E21TheOldManAndTheLisa


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/960_4.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:"I call it the "Burns Omni-Net.' It sweeps the sea clean."]]
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4	'''Original air date:''' 4F17
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6	'''Production code:''' 4/20/1997
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8	While Lisa champions a recycling program, Mr. Burns discovers that he's lost his fortune (and was never told this before because his accountants are sycophants/afraid of Mr. Burns' wrath) and now must live like a common man. With Lisa's help, Mr. Burns devises a [[ThePlan plan]] to regain his fortune.
9	--------------------------
10	!!This episode contains examples of:
11	* AbsurdlyDedicatedWorker: Smithers continues doting over Burns even after he is fired and replaced by Lenny.
12	* AffablyEvil: Mr. Burns is genuinely polite and fair to Lisa throughout the entire episode, and was going to give her twelve million dollars before she turned it down.
13	* AlcoholHic: Homer lets one out after going through many cans of beer to help Lisa recycle.
14	-->'''Homer:''' That's about all the recycling... HIC ... I can handle today.
15	* AllForNothing: Despite all the recycling the Junior Achievers' Club does, they only earn a check for 75 cents (which wouldn't even cover the gas for the drive to the store for the bundling twine) and must cancel their field trip to Albany (with Principal Skinner even saying they wouldn't do any more recycling). Even worse, when Lisa points out that [[TemptingFate they had collected enough paper to save a whole tree]], a few seconds later, an angry Skinner accidentally knocks a tree down while leaving the recycling center.
16	* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: Kent Brockman is clearly delighted to report on Burns' downfall and [[EvenTheLovingHeroHasHatedOnes even Marge]] gets in some wisecracks at his expense while watching the newscast.
17	* AsHimself: Wrestling/BretHart buys Burns Manor.
18	* BaitAndSwitchComment:
19	** This line, from Skinner:
20	--->'''Skinner:''' What a load of garbage... I'm ecstatic!
21	** Mr. Burns' "inspirational" speech to the elementary school students:
22	--->'''Burns:''' I'll keep it short and sweet. Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must ''slay'' if you wish to succeed in business!
23	* BeyondTheImpossible: After Lisa turns down Burns' offer, Homer suffers ''four'' simultaneous heart attacks (and a fifth one after Lisa tells Homer that 10% of $120,000,000 isn't $12,''000''...[[note]]It's $12 '''million''' for those of you playing along at home.[[/note]]).
24	* BornInTheWrongCentury: The inciting incident of the episode is that most of Burns's stock turns out to be in pre-Great Depression industries that are now defunct (if not even older, like Confederate Slaveholdings). He digs himself deeper by investing most of what's left into similarly stagnant branches like US Hay or a spats company.
25	* BrokeEpisode: Mr. Burns gets this after he discovers his stocks are all hopelessly out of date. Given that, as a rule, StatusQuoIsGod in Springfield, he works his way back up to a nine-figure net worth by the end of the episode by picking up recyclable litter.
26	* ByNoIMeanYes: A newly poor Mr. Burns [[ObliviousToHisOwnDescription doesn't realize how low most Springfielders' opinion of him is]].
27	-->'''Barney''': Hey, [[HatedByAll aren't you that guy everybody hates?]]
28	-->'''Burns''': [''Chuckles''] Oh, my, no. I'm Monty Burns.
29	* ChekhovsGun: The plastic six-pack holders. In the beginning of the episode, Lisa is lecturing the family about recycling and comments how the rings need to be cut up so animals don't get snagged in them. Later when she's cleaning the beach with Mr. Burns, she shows Burns a fish caught in another discarded six-pack holder. Finally, at Burns' new recycling plant; he mentions how Lisa's teachings inspired him to build a giant fishing net out of six-pack holders to catch thousands of fish to turn into his slurry.
30	* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
31	** Homer:
32	--->'''Kent Brockman:''' Remember millionaire C. Montgomery Burns? The man who [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E25WhoShotMrBurnsPartOne blocked out our sun]], [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E10BartGetsHitByACar ran over a local boy]], and [[NoodleIncident stole Christmas from 1981 to 1985]]? Well, guess who's flat broke, and picking up trash for a living?
33	--->'''Homer:''' [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder Please be Flanders, please be Flanders...]]
34	** Also, when Lisa shows herself disgusted at knowing what the slurry named after her was made of, Mr. Burns thinks a spoonful of it will make her better. Sure, he didn't understand why Lisa didn't like the idea, but he should have noticed she didn't.
35	* ContinuityNod:
36	** When Lisa and Mr. Burns are arguing about recycling and the topic segues to how wealthy Burns is, Lisa produces a copy of Burns' autobiography (''Will There Ever Be a Rainbow?'') from [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E22BloodFeud "Blood Feud"]], where Homer makes Bart donate blood to save Mr. Burns' life under the impression that they will be given money.
37	** Also, Burns knows it was [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Maggie who shot him]] but still doesn't know [[RunningGag Homer's name]]. Kent Brockman also mentions the time Burns blocked out the sun on his newscast, along with the events of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E10BartGetsHitByACar Bart Gets Hit By a Car]]."
38	* ContrivedCoincidence: Mr. Burns ends up at the Springfield Retirement Center around the same time that Lisa shows up looking for things to recycle.
39	* CouchGag: The couch is a giant Whack-A-Mole game with the Simpsons as the moles.
40	* CreepyChild: Upon seeing Mr. Burns again, Maggie [[ContinuityNod makes a gun shape with her finger and cocks it at him]], to his discomfort.
41	* DistantReactionShot: When Homer ends up in the hospital after Lisa turned down Burns' offer, he bemoans the loss of what he ''thinks'' is $12,000. Lisa then began to clarify to him how much she actually gave up, very reluctantly;[[note]]Twelve ''million'' dollars.[[/note]] cut to the hallway with an alarm going off about a "Code Blue".[[note]]A heart attack.[[/note]]
42	* DownerEnding: Burns's experience does not make him become a better person, and he recovers his plant and fortune; and Lisa tears up a check worth 12 million dollars (in 1997's money), which could have done so much good to the world (and to undo some of the damage Burns did with the recycling plant). To top it, Homer gets 4 heart attacks at the same time (and almost dies at the end). And because of negative continuity, people do not keep recycling.
43	* EvilCannotComprehendGood: After learning about recycling from Lisa, Mr. Burns takes it to its extreme [[GreenwashedVillainy by recycling living sea creatures]] into a multipurpose slurry. [[ObliviouslyEvil He doesn't understand why Lisa is horrified by this]], since, as he sees it, he is giving people what they need without wasting a single sea creature.
44	-->'''Lisa:''' Ah! You haven't changed at all. You're ''still'' evil, and when you're trying to be good, you're even ''more'' evil!
45	* ExactWords: When Burns asks his advisors how his investment in Confederated Slave Holdings is doing, one of them [[HesitationEqualsDishonesty hesitantly]] says that it's "steady."
46	* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The twelve million dollar check Mr. Burns hands to Lisa at the end of the episode reads "4/27/97", while the episode aired on April 20th, maybe implying that the events depicted lasted only a week.
47	* FlowersForAlgernonSyndrome: {{Subverted}}. When Mr. Burns becomes completely broke, Lisa, who sees good in everyone, tries to help the evil old miser earn a honest living while at the same time teaching him how to be good by helping others. He admittingly realizes how good it feels to help and wants to help others as much as possible, but even then his "helping" is still evil. He creates an industrial paste to feed the homeless, as well as many other positive uses, except it's made from thousands of sea creatures as his new invention basically sweeps the entire ocean floor clean.
48	* FreezeFrameBonus: Mr. Burns becomes a nervous wreck when trying to choose ketchup or catsup. As Burns is looking at the grocery list, you'll see that Smithers wrote "catsup", after all.
49	* GoneHorriblyRight: Lisa teaches Burns to recycle. And boy, does he...
50	* GrandFinale: In the DVDCommentary,[[invoked]] the writers and producers joked that they could have ended the series with this episode, since the ending implied that Homer died of a massive heart attack.
51	* HatedByAll: Burns, per usual, by all Springfield residents not named Waylon Smithers; Barney outright asks him if he's "that guy everybody hates." Lisa takes a chance on his ability to improve anyway and [[JerkWithAHeartOfJerk bitterly regrets it]].
52	* HeroWithAnFInGood: Mr. Burns unsuccessfully tries to be good. He tries his hand at recycling, and ends up using the plastic he recycled to overfish the nearby sea.
53	* HonestAdvisor: Burns recruits Lisa since an honest voice can help him more than the [[YesMan yes-men]] who bankrupted him.
54	* HonorBeforeReason: Lisa [[ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules refuses to accept the check from Mr. Burns because it was gained though immoral means]], even though she could have easily donated her share[[note]]We repeat: twelve '''million''' dollars.[[/note]] to charity or anything else that would have helped make up for how it was obtained.
55	** Marge as well, since she says Lisa made the right decision.
56	* HowTheMightyHaveFallen: The grocery store workers are surprised by Burns struggling to choose between ketchup and catsup, thinking he's shocked from being bankrupted.
57	* HypocriticalHumor: Marge chastises Lisa for gloating, only to do so when Homer agrees with her.
58	** The NewAgeRetroHippie at the recycling center says Burns is "living in the past" for referencing a Pink Floyd song and should "contemporize".
59	* InvisibleSubtleDifference: When Marge tries to recycle, she gets it wrong:
60	-->'''Lisa:''' Mom, Mom! You're mixing polyethylene with polyurethane.
61	-->'''Homer:''' [''Aghast''] [[FelonyMisdemeanor Marge!]]
62	* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: At first, it seems Mr. Burns has become a BenevolentBoss and in this episode seems more [[HanlonsRazor ignorant than actively malicious]]. However, we soon see the full extent of his recycling program...
63	* TheJoyOfX: The episode's title uses "The Old Man and the X" pattern.
64	* ALessonLearnedTooWell: Mr. Burns goes bankrupt, Lisa helps him rebuild his empire, on the condition that he do responsible things, like recycling. Mr. Burns ends up creating a device that completely strips the marine ecosystem to create a new product. "It's made from 100% recycled animals!"
65	* LiteraryAllusionTitle: The title is a reference to ''Literature/TheOldManAndTheSea''.
66	* MusicalGag: The ''Series/ThatGirl'' sequence ends with the Simpsons' doorbell ringing the melody's last two notes.
67	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Lisa upon realizing what Lil' Lisa's slurry is made of, and that ''she'' was the one who inspired it.
68	* NeverMyFault: Twofold with Mr. Burns. When he finds out that he's broke, he blames his "yes-men" for being too gutless to tell him that he was losing money. They most likely didn't tell him because giving Burns any sort of bad news (especially when it involves money) ends with the bearer of bad news having the hounds released on them. He also blames Waylon Smithers for not warning him about The Great Depression, despite Smithers not being born until ''decades after''.
69	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Lisa's efforts to teach Burns about recycling backfire to environmentally devastating levels when, having learned from her that fish can get caught in soda can rings, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint he uses a giant net made of them to trawl the ocean for marine life]] which he then grinds to slurry and sells.
70	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The voice of the hippie was based on Creator/DennisHopper in ''Film/ApocalypseNow''.
71	* NoodleIncident:
72	** When Smithers visits the Simpson house with Burns, he is surprised to see Homer at home:
73	-->'''Smithers:''' Simpson! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at work?
74	-->'''Homer:''' I made a bad mistake and Lenny sent me home to think about what I did, but I don't remember what it was, so I'm watching TV.
75	-->'''Smithers:''' Well, Lenny's reign of terror is over. [[FalseReassurance Mr. Burns bought back the plant this morning.]]
76	** Apparently, Mr. Burns stole Christmas from 1981 to 1985.
77	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Lisa, the environmentalist, actually tries to '''stop''' the people of Springfield from recycling after realizing Mr. Burns' true colors.
78	* PaperDestructionOfAnger: Lisa coldly tears the check from Mr. Burns in half because the money was made immorally and destroyed a chunk of sea life.
79	* PetTheDog: Burns fully pays Lisa her share of the profits after she helps him regain his fortune.
80	* RichesToRags: Mr. Burns, thanks to listening to spineless yes-men. [[RagsToRiches Lisa helps him become wealthy again.]]
81	* RuleOfThree: Burns names "family, religion, [and] friendship" as "the three evils you must slay if you wish to succeed in business" in his speech to the Springfield Elementary Junior Achievers' Club.
82	* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Mr. Burns enlists Lisa to help him regain his lost wealth. She inspires him to build a recycling plant, but on discovering that he uses it to kill vast amounts of sea life, she rejects her share of the money. Which is ''twelve million dollars''.
83	* ShoutOut:
84	** The sequence when Mr. Burns tries to ask Lisa to help him spoofs the TitleSequence of ''Series/ThatGirl''.
85	** The scene where a confused Mr. Burns goes to a grocery store is inspired by an apocryphal account of UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush being amazed at a grocery scanner.
86	** When bidding farewell to the hippie, Mr. Burns says "[[Music/WishYouWereHere1975 Shine On You Crazy Diamond]]".
87	** The recycling center is called "Uriah's Heap", named after the character Uriah Heep from ''Literature/DavidCopperfield'' and/or [[Music/UriahHeep the band as well]]. The hippie who owns and operates the center is modeled after Creator/DennisHopper's photographer character from ''Film/ApocalypseNow''.
88	** The scene where Lisa runs down the streets of Springfield, trying to stop everyone from recycling and thereby enabling the production of Lil' Lisa's slurry, spoofs ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers'' and ''Film/SoylentGreen''.
89	* SoProudOfYou: Marge thinks that Lisa did the right thing by turning down Burns' offer. Homer, not so much.
90	* SpoofAesop:
91	-->'''Homer:''' Well, Lisa, I hope you learned your lesson. "Never help anyone."
92	* StrawNihilist: Bart, on recycling:
93	-->'''Bart:''' Ah, recycling is useless, Lis. Once the sun burns out, this planet is doomed. You're just making sure we spend our last days using [[TakeThat inferior products.]]
94	* StupidGood: Mr. Burns loses his fortune and befriends Lisa, who encourages him to be more eco-friendly. He somehow warps this into making a gigantic net that dredges the ocean for fish, then grinds them into a slurry, which makes him rich again. Burns offers Lisa a 10% of the profits ($12 million total) as his way of saying thanks, and she tears the check up because it's "[[HonorBeforeReason the right thing to do]]". The idea that she could have donated the money to actual environmentally-friendly charities never seemed to enter her head; she just wrote it off as "blood money" and dismissed it as inherently dirty.
95	* TyrantTakesTheHelm: PlayedForLaughs as Lenny is placed in charge of the nuclear plant after the bank forecloses on Burns. Whilst the viewer only sees a nervous Lenny use the P.A. system to encourage the employees to work harder and Homer’s admission that Lenny sent him home to think about a mistake he made, Smithers paints a picture of Lenny as a stickler for the rules and even describes Lenny’s tenure as a reign of terror.
96	* UndyingLoyalty: Smithers continues caring for Burns even upon his bankruptcy. He even lets him live in his house.
97	* {{Unishment}}: Lenny is temporarily put in charge of the nuclear plant. Homer makes a bad mistake and Lenny sends him home to think about what he did. He soon forgets what it was and spends the rest of the day watching TV.
98	* VillainsOutShopping: Mr. Burns goes grocery shopping but because of how sheltered his life has been, is completely out of his depth - which he freely admits when faced with ketchup and catsup.
99	* WaxingLyrical: When Burns makes his first recycling dollar, he tells the hippie, [[Music/PinkFloyd "Shine on,]] [[Music/WishYouWereHere1975 you crazy diamond."]]
100	* YesMan: Mr Burns' poor investments go unnoticed because of this, with all his advisers too spineless to disagree with him. He even calls them this trope and chews them out, and they ''still'' agree with him.
101	* YourAnswerToEverything: Smithers says he didn't warn Mr. Burns about {{the Great Depression}} because he still wasn't born back then. Mr. Burns says it's Smithers' excuse for everything.
102	%%* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: This is how Lisa reacts to Burns' praise for teaching him about recycling.

Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS8E21TheOldManAndTheLisa