* AccidentalAesop: Homer's heart problems are caused as much by financial stress as they are by his eating habits; His first heart attack happens when Mr. Burns fires him, he has another when Dr. Hibbert tells him the operation will cost 40,000 dollars, and he has a third while he's attempting to bluff his way into getting health insurance. The episode thus acts as a concise explanation of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit_life_syndrome "shit life syndrome"]].
* AluminumChristmasTrees: 1-800-DOCTORB belonged to a real doctor's office at the time of the episode's airing. The 8 was changed to a 6 in repeats.
* CrossesTheLineTwice:
** The ''COPS: In Springfield'' theme song, which states that the Springfield cops are "on the take" because they don't get paid enough and that they don't mind using excessive force. While this seems shocking and galling, it becomes funny due to the Springfield police's record of incompetence and the fact that the song is a parody of Inner Circle's "Bad Boys", which is the theme song to the FOX show ''COPS''.
** Chief Wiggum trying to coax a suicidal man from jumping off a building, only for the suicidal man to willingly drop to his death, and Chief Wiggum to turn to the camera and make the "cuckoo" motion by swirling his finger next to his head.
** The "Merry Widow Insurance" sign, featuring a woman alternately mourning over her dead husband, then dancing on his grave with an insurance check in hand.
** Homer describing his near-death experience in Hell as, "...a wonderful place filled with fire and brimstone, and there were all these guys in red pajamas sticking pitchforks in my butt."
** Homer trying to console his kids that he's not going to die because that happens to bad people. When Bart brings up Abraham Lincoln, Homer then says that Lincoln died because "...he sold poison milk to schoolchildren."
* MemeticMutation: An animated gif of Homer's first heart attack is commonly spread during intense sports games.
* ParanoiaFuel: The last thing Homer hears before he's given anesthetic?
-->'''Dr. Nick''': (Pointing at something on the operating table) "[[spoiler:What the hell is that?]]"
* RealismInducedHorror: Homer's entire situation in this episode. After too many years of eating unhealthily and not exercising enough, Homer suffers a heart attack and ends up being at risk of losing his job due to incompetence. To make matters worse, he has no insurance and can't get any, nor can he afford the operation he needs to live, and time is running out (at one point, Dr. Hibbert tells Homer that he needs to get the operation ''as soon as possible, or he'll almost certainly die''). Even when Homer gets the operation done on the cheap by local quack Dr. Nick, it's all but stated that Nick has no idea what he's doing. To anyone who has (or had) debilitating health conditions and can't afford to cure them due to their country's healthcare system, this episode is ''heart-pounding''.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: The ''COPS: in Springfield'' theme song doesn't get too specific in parodying "Bad Boys" by Inner Circle (The ''Series/{{Cops}}'' theme), but uses "bad cops, bad cops" as the lyrical hook and has a similar minor [[{{Tonality}} key]] {{Reggae}} feel.
* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Creator/DavidSilverman's animation of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De7mwmDC39k Homer's first heart attack]].
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