[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/138thspectacular.JPG]]

'''Original air date:''' 12/3/1995

'''Production code:''' 3F31 [[note]]Special production code. Not actually produced after the rest of the 3F production line.[[/note]]

The third ''Simpsons'' ClipShow, albeit presented as a retrospective/anniversary special rather than as a normal episode with the characters reminiscing (as seen with "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E18SoItsComeToThisASimpsonsClipShow So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show]]" and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E3AnotherSimpsonsClipShow Another Simpsons Clip Show]]").

Troy [=McClure=], whom you may remember from such Fox Network specials as ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0163521/ Alien Nose Job]]'' and ''Five Fabulous Weeks of Series/TheChevyChaseShow'', opens the program with a look at creator Creator/MattGroening -- depicted as a crazed, [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies right-wing]] Southerner who came up with the Simpsons to pay off his gambling debts -- and clips from the original ''Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow'' shorts. After that, there's:

* Fake trivia in the commercial break bumpers (one about the FreezeFrameBonus during the opening credits when Maggie is put through the grocery store checkout scanner and one about which two popular characters died in the past year)[[note]]which is a trick question, as, while Dr. Marvin Monroe and Bleeding Gums Murphy did die, they were never popular[[/note]]
* Viewer mail questions about Homer's stupidity, how long it takes to make an episode, and Smithers' ambiguous sexuality.
* Real deleted scenes, including Krusty getting cancelled after his arrest for trying to sell a pornographic photo book to minors in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E22KrustyGetsKancelled Krusty Gets Kancelled]]" (and a subsequent scene where Krusty is told his show is canceled and will be replaced with a hemorrhoid infomercial, with Krusty begging to play either a hemorrhoid sufferer or one of the "After" guys); Homer's head being used as a bowling ball in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E5TreehouseOfHorrorIV The Devil and Homer Simpson]]"[[note]](along with Bart trying to sell his soul for a Formula-One racing car, and Lionel Hutz coming back with a box of pizza, thinking he lost the case, but when Marge tells him they won, he reveals the box was empty all along)[[/note]]; Homer eating food from his mom's undelivered care packages and talking about how he's taking the nuclear plant down from the inside in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E8MotherSimpson Mother Simpson]]", Apu showing a Bollywood film to The Simpsons in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E13HomerAndApu Homer and Apu]]"; Mr. Burns using a robotic Richard Simmons to scare Homer away in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E18BurnsHeir Burns' Heir]]"; and a montage of alternate scenes made for "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two]]" to keep the real shooter's identity secret until broadcast, presenting everyone from Moe to Tito Puente to Santa's Little Helper as the culprit. This is followed by a complete alternate ending in which Smithers turned out to be the culprit all along (which would have conflicted with the plot point about the attempted murderer being someone having Simpson family DNA).

[=McClure=] closes the show with the real reason people want to watch the show: "Hardcore nudity!" (albeit ''PG-rated'' hardcore nudity).
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!!This episode contains examples of:
* ADayInTheLimelight: Troy [=McClure=]'s most prominent role up to this point, though a proper spotlight episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E19AFishCalledSelma would come soon after.]]
* ArtShift: The intentionally bad drawings of Grampa and Krusty that look as if a kindergartener drew them.
* BitingTheHandHumor: Troy [=McClure's=] self-introduction (see above) mocks some of Fox's most embarrassing efforts of TheNineties -- the DocumentaryOfLies ''Alien Autopsy,'' and ''Series/TheChevyChaseShow'', the latter of which was a late night talk show in 1993 that lasted less than two months.
* UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}: Parodied in the "Homer and Apu" deleted scene.
* BrickJoke: The deleted scenes feature one that didn't make it into "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E5TreehouseOfHorrorIV Treehouse of Horror IV]]", not even in OrphanedReference[[invoked]] form. In the scene where Bart wants to sell his soul to the devil for a Formula 1 racing car, Marge looks up Lionel Hutz in a phone book, and sees that he's guaranteeing "cases won in 30 minutes or your pizza's free." After Marge succeeds in winning Homer's soul back, Hutz returns after [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere abandoning the trial]] and defeatedly offers the promised free pizza to the Simpsons (only to reveal that that pizza box he's offering is empty when he learns the Simpsons won the trial after all).
* ClipShow: Albeit with even more LampshadeHanging of the concept than usual for this show, and the only ''Simpsons'' clip show that doesn't have the Simpsons family sitting around and remembering past adventures. Notably, the producers tried to avoid the usual clip show tropes as much as possible, with the inclusion of previously-unreleased deleted scenes and the rare Tracey Ullman shorts (which, pilot short aside, aren't even available on DVD outside of this clip show). As [=McClure=] points out, Act Two's DeletedScenes montage is arguably a DefiedTrope.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: In response to a question about Smithers, Troy shows a montage of his AmbiguouslyGay moments... then states he's simply an unmarried white male, presently residing in Springfield.
* CouchGag: A montage of Couch Gags from "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E2AStreetcarNamedMarge A Streetcar Named Marge]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E4LisaTheBeautyQueen Lisa the Beauty Queen]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E12MargeVsTheMonorail Marge vs. the Monorail]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E11HomersTripleBypass Homer's Triple Bypass]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E11BurnsVerkaufenDerKraftwerk Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E3HomerGoesToCollege Homer Goes to College]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E18AStarIsBurns A Star is Burns]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E12HomerTheGreat Homer the Great]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E9HomerBadman Homer Badman]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E2LisasRival Lisa's Rival]]", "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E14BartsComet Bart's Comet]]", and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]".
* CulturalTranslation: In the Latin American dub, the robotic Creator/RichardSimmons is instead called the robotic Creator/LorenzoLamas.
* DomesticOnlyCartoon: To date, this is the only episode to be fully animated in America, with no Korean outsourcing involved. This is because there was very little new footage that needed animating, and what little was required was just the outside shot of the Springfield Amphitheater (with the sign gag that the next day's event is an "Alternate Lifestyle Prom"), and all the scenes involving Troy sitting, standing and talking to the audience. The episode was also digitally colored in America at [[Creator/VirtualMagicAnimation [=USAnimation=]]] in North Hollywood.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Matt Groening is depicted in this episode as a crazed, bald Southerner with a gun. In later episodes, Groening is depicted as an InkSuitActor who heavily resembles the real Groening in terms of both appearance and personality.
* ExactWords: The announcer asks which two popular Simpsons characters died in the past year, with the answer being Bleeding Gums Murphy (who died in season 6's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E22RoundSpringfield Round Springfield]]") and Dr. Marvin Monroe (who died some time prior to "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Who Shot Mr. Burns?]]"), but it's incorrect because "they were never popular."[[note]]Monroe's survival was later retconned into a much later episode, making this either wrong or DatedHistory.[[/note]]
* {{Fanservice}}: During the ending montage, the clip from "Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy" shows off more of nude Marge than the original episode did.
* FreezeFrameBonus: Troy, under Groening's supposed insistence, gives credit to the staff behind ''The Simpsons''... and shows a two second scroll of names that [[UnreadablyFastText whizz up the screen]]. [[http://www.simpsonsarchive.com/episodes/3F31.html The names are actual staff members.]]
* FrivolousSummoning: In the "Treehouse of Horror IV" deleted scene, Bart pretends to want to sell his soul for a Formula One racer just to mess with Devil Flanders.
* GetOut: "Creator/MattGroening"'s reaction to a surprise interview;
-->'''Groening:''' GIT OUTTA MAH OFFICE! (''shoots [[CameraAbuse into the camera]]'')
* MeetYourEarlyInstallmentWeirdness: [=McClure=] shows the first of the [[Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow Tracey Ullman era]] shorts and, after it's over, looks confused before quickly saying that [[BlatantLies the Simpsons haven't changed a bit since then]].
* MilestoneCelebration: Parodied InUniverse with the arbitrary 138.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny: The end credits showing different scenes of various ''male'' characters being naked. And one of Marge, but that was somewhat unintentional as it was missing a cell layer that was in the original from [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E10GrampaVsSexualInadequacy Grampa vs Sexual Inadequacy]].
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Creator/MattGroening was drawn to look like Creator/JohnFord, James L. Brooks is drawn like J.P. Morgan, and Sam Simon is drawn like Creator/HowardHughes.
* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: The Simpsons are described as "America's favorite [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones non-prehistoric]] cartoon family."
* SelfDeprecation: The whole episode runs on this.
** Groening is portrayed as an old, bald, gun-toting, crazed, alcoholic Southerner who shoots at the camera crew who tries to interview him.
** Troy's reaction to the earliest episode is stunned silence.
** The deliberately child-like drawings of Krusty and Grampa (which look nothing like how they were depicted during the Tracey Ullman era) are a jab at the animation quality of the early shorts.
** At the end of the deleted scenes, Troy's shown to have fallen asleep, and has to be prodded with a stick to wake up.
-->'''Troy:''' If that's what they cut out, what they leave in must be pure gold!
** After recalling Mr. Burns was shot by "the baby", he goes apathetically silent for a while. He then coughs to cover it.
** A subtle one is Troy reading letters from fans, which all seem to be written by renowned doctors and professors. According to the DVD commentary, the joke is that no one with such a successful career would actually take time to watch, let alone be interested, in the show.
* SoldHisSoulForADonut: There's a clip cut from "Treehouse of Horror IV" where Bart says he'd sell his soul for a Formula 1 racecar. The Devil immediately appears and says he can arrange that, but Bart changes his mind.
* SpecialEditionTitle: This episode not only features a ColdOpen featuring Troy [=McClure=] setting up the episode's premise, but also an EpisodeTitleCard replacing the actual title screen. It also omits the transition through the "P" in "Simpsons" (since the title uses the marketing logo rather than the usual in-show logo).
* TakeThat: There's one to the O.J. Simpson criminal trial's jury, when it's noted that the Smithers-as-culprit ending to "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS7E1WhoShotMrBurnsPartTwo Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two]]" could not work because it would require ignoring "all the Simpson [=DNA=] evidence",[[note]]Burns was fighting--and losing--with Maggie over a lollipop, so that could be the source of the [=DNA=] evidence.[[/note]] which was what the jury was accused of doing.
-->''And that would be downright nutty.''
* UnusualEuphemism: In the Smithers-as-culprit alternate ending to "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", Burns says that Smithers was "drunk as a lemur".
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The show promises "[[EditedForSyndication old favorites you can't see in syndication]]"... and fails to deliver.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The episode claims that Springfield is “the entertainment capital of this state.”
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