Noodle Incident / The Simpsons

"Gonna be in the tub for a while."

"Marge! It happened again."

— Homer Simpson (with a plunger on his head), "The Front"

The Simpsons, being a Long-Runner, has been a rich source of Noodle Incidents since 1989—oftentimes without even trying.

As a series that thrives on Rule of Funny while reveling in its Negative Continuity, that really can't be helped. Happily, the show's extensive experience with the trope, along with its masterful use of Rapid-Fire Comedy and breathless non sequiturs, has elevated the comic Noodle Incident to an art form; many are among the funniest, most quotable, and most remembered jokes in given episodes.

Go Back to the main page here, or find examples from other western animation here.

Examples:

General:

• Most of the chalkboard gags allude to Bart being in trouble for something while leaving it to the audience's imagination what he actually did, why he did it or how he was able to do it, making the Noodle Incident a virtually Once per Episode occurrence.
  Tar is not a plaything.
  I will not drive the principal's car.
  I am not a dentist.
  I will not fake rabies.
  "The President did it" is not an excuse.
  I will not teach others to fly.
  I am not a licensed hairstylist.
  Science class should not end in tragedy.
  Making Milhouse cry is not a science project.
  Organ transplants are best left to the professionals.
  The boys' room is not a water park.
  I do not have power of attorney over first graders.
  Next time it could be me on the scaffolding.
• Many of Kent Brockman's news broadcasts fall into this trope, as we only hear the last few words of the previous news item, preceding the one which actually has relevance to the plot:
  • "...And the fluffy kitten played with that ball of string... all through the night."
  • "...leaving the Vice President in charge".
  • "...which, if true, means death for us all."
  • "...making it the latest Segway scooter accident to claim over 1000 lives."
  • "...and the First Lady promised to sit on the egg until it hatches."
  • "Authorities say the phony Pope can be recognized by his high-top sneakers and incredibly foul mouth."
  • "Paris is no more. The legendary city of lights has been extinguished forever as a massive-" (the television is switched off before we hear what happened).
  • Another episode has him bid the audience goodnight and then remember that he forgot about how "the President was arrested for murder". He tries to squeeze it in but runs out of time.
  • From the video game The Simpsons Hit & Run (and an obvious reference to show creator Matt Groening): "...leaving the famous bearded cartoon creator incarcerated in a Peruvian jail."
  • Occasionally, even other news anchors get in on it:
    Tom Brokaw: ...Reducing the number of states to 49.
• We may never know why the Simpson family is banned from 47 US states (which causes Fridge Logic: If the Simpsons have been banned from nearly all of the U.S., exactly where do they live and Where the Hell Is Springfield?. Are we to believe that Springfield is in another English-speaking country [possibly an American territory, like Guam or the U.S. Virgin Islands] or do they live in one of the only three states that haven't thrown them out yet?), though, considering the chaos Homer caused in "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" and what happened in "Kill the Alligator and Run" (which is the episode that revealed that the Simpsons have been banned in nearly all of America), it's not much of a surprise.
• At one point, Selma was briefly married to Disco Stu, although we never see how they met, we never see them dating, and we never see the proposal or the wedding. All we know is that Disco Stu saw fit to petition the Catholic church for an annulment (successfully) and Marge says Disco Stu was her favorite of all of Selma's husbands.
  • Selma was also married to Lionel Hutz for a brief period off-camera (sometime between her marriages with Sideshow Bob and Troy McClure) and this was first mentioned when she rejected Homer's idea of marrying Apu Nahasapeemapetilon to avoid him getting deported.
    Homer: (on the phone) Hello, Selma? Selma my dear, how are you?... Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Listen, shut up for a second. How would you like to marry Apu so he doesn't get deported?
    Selma: I'd rather eat poison. My name's already Selma Bouvier Terwilliger Hutz McClure. God knows it's long enough without Nahassapeema-whatever. From now on, I'm only marrying for love... Mmm, possibly once more for money.
• In "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Bart says he has 2 mortal enemies referring to Sideshow Bob and Dr. Demento. We never learned what Bart did to have to worry about Dr. Demento.
• The death of Dr. Marvin Monroe. Prior to Troy McClure saying he was dead in "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular", the only clue that it had happened was an episode where a place called Marvin Monroe Memorial Hospital is seen. (The word "memorial" is added to a place named for a deceased person.) How it happened and when was a mystery. (Matt Groening claimed that the character was retired because Harry Shearer, his voice actor, strained his throat playing him, and as the character himself had admitted in one episode, his voice became downright annoying.) Still more oddly, he's made appearances after his supposed death, explaining to Marge in "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife" that he's "been very sick." In "Treehouse of Horror XXV," he appears as a ghost and, asked if he's alive or dead, claims to be "in some kind of horrible limbo," complaining that he can walk through walls but gets stuck halfway.

Episode examples:

• The season one episode "Bart the Genius" had Bart Simpson make faces at Martin Prince and Mrs. Krabappel ask Bart "Are those naughty dogs back again?" No other details are given other than supposedly two dogs mated in full view of Springfield Elementary's fourth grade glass some time in the past.
• The season 1 episode "Homer's Odyssey" has Ms. Krabappel mention an infamous trip to the Springfield State Prison, to which Bart replies, "Ms. Krabappel, I didn't unlock that door!"
• In "Black Widower", Sideshow Bob appeared on Krusty's telethon and apologized for sending him to jail, to which Krusty replied, "Hell, if they ever open the books on this telethon, I'm right back in there!"
• In "Kamp Krusty", we first see Krusty the Klown at Wimbledon, being a jackass as he watches the game, for which he apologizes to the Queen of England. When he next see Krusty, he's being knighted, which then he learns about Bart's takeover of the titular camp. How he went from Wimbledon to the Queen's sword is unmentioned.
• In "Marge Gets a Job":
  Burns: Do you think we could dig up Al Jolson?
  Smithers: Don't you remember? We did that once before.
  Burns: Oh yes, he's dead. And rather pungent. The rest of that night is something I'd like to forget.
• In "New Kid on the Block", Marge calls Abigail, one of the kids' past babysitters, to watch them while they go out to dinner. Abigail's sister answers instead, saying she takes care of her because something Bart did caused her to have a mental breakdown and is now sitting on a rocking chair with a thousand-yard-stare muttering to herself.
  Abigail: No Bart put it down... put it down Bart... Bart put it down...
• In "Marge vs. the Monorail", Chief Wiggum, in an effort to stop Mayor Quimby from undermining his power during the runaway monorail disaster, warns him to back off, saying that he has pictures of him, which Quimby dismisses and says, "You don't scare me; that could be anyone's ass!"
• Skinner gets another one in "Brother from the Same Planet" when "talking" with his mother who is apparently watching him from their house (which for some reason resembles Norman Bates' house from Psycho):
  Skinner: No, mother. I have a right to be here; I'm on school business... but mother, that sailor suit doesn't fit anymore!"
• "The Front" has Grampa rehearsing his acceptance speech for the Cartoon Awards and comments on how much of an honor it is "that a man who once took a shot at Teddy Roosevelt could win back your trust".^note He may or may not be referring to Roosevelt's assassination attempt in 1912, but that could open up another as-of-yet unanswered question of how old he really is.
• "Whacking Day" has Grandpa claim, after a blatantly false story where he rode out the war as a German cabaret dancer and performed in front of Hitler, that the story isn't all true, but "I did wear a dress for a period in the 40s. Oh, they had designers then!"
• "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" has Homer and the Be-Sharps singing a song about Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Annoyed, Apu then gripes to him, "This is worse than your song about Mr. T!"
  • The reasons why the Be-Sharps' meteoric success has been so utterly forgotten just eight years later, not to mention just how it happened in the first place ("Since when can you write a song?") are all brought up at the end of the episode, and Homer brushes them all off with a comment that yes, there is an explanation, but he'll tell them some other time.
• While trying to figure out who's sending Bart threatening notes in "Cape Feare", it turns out Bart's been making crank calls to Moe and actress Linda Lavin for years. In the latter's case, she did something so bad even Lisa felt she deserved Bart's pranks.
• In "Rosebud", Homer mocked Mr. Burns at his birthday party, which involved drawing a frowny face on his butt and Mooning an audience. It ends badly, and apparently, it's not the first time it's happened.
  Homer: I'll never wiggle my bare butt in public again.
  Lisa: I'd like to believe that this time. I really would.
• There are a couple from "Marge on the Lam":
  • How and what got Ruth Powers to divorce her husband. We do get why, but backstory on what their relationship was like and the full history of it leaves a lot to the imagination and why she hated him so much that she would be willing to use a gun on him.
  • Chief Wiggum tells a lonely Homer to buy an inflatable woman (also known as a blow-up doll), but insists on making sure it is a woman and touches on an incident where he had a male one, but doesn't go any further with details.
  • What happened to Lionel Hutz at the YMCA that made him freak out over people touching his stuff?
  • When trying to stop Marge and Ruth from driving into the chasm, Homer apologizes to the former for a few past incidents involving attempting to make gravy in the bathtub and using her wedding dress to wax the car.
• In the beginning of season 5 episode "The Last Temptation of Homer", Homer and his buddies are in a situation where they are trapped in a room with toxic gases coming at them from all sides. We then cut to Mr. Burns' office with Charlie saying, "Well, sir, I won't bore you with the details of our miraculous escape..." It's subverted as we know how the men got in that mess (in fact, they caused it!).
• In "$pringfield", when Homer finally convinces Marge to give up gambling due to her having a problem with it and that she was neglecting her other responsibilities, he decides to throw it back in her face by dismissing his own (much worse) past indiscretions:
  "Remember the time I was caught stealing watches from Sears? Well, that's nothing because you have a gambling problem! And remember the time I let that escaped lunatic in the house 'cause he was dressed Like Santa Claus? Well, you have a gambling problem!"
• From "Homer the Vigilante", when he starts a neighborhood watch, he tells the family about what happened that day.
  Homer: So I said to him, "Look, buddy, your car was upside down when we got here. And as for your grandma, she shouldn't have mouthed off like that!"
• "Homer and Apu":
  • While at a Costco-esque store, a drunk Barney accidentally knocks over a giant Mrs. Maple bottle (which he confuses for a human) which spills everywhere to which he screams, "Oh, I've killed her! It's all happening again!" ^note Though that could be a reference to the episode "Rosebud", in which Barney threatened to shoot Homer with a gun, Homer slammed the door in his face, the gun went off, and the last thing we hear is a woman screaming, cop sirens, and Barney muttering, "Uh-oh!"
  • Lisa plays an Indian instrument called a shenai, and Homer comments that it's "worse than the album Grandpa released" (with no flashback or further information about the matter).
• In "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy", Lisa is offended by the sexist Malibu Stacy dolls and asks Marge to take her to the doll factory tour to complain in person.
  Marge: Honey, you're not going to throw red paint at the executives, are you? The Keebler people were very upset.
• In "Homer Loves Flanders" after Kent Brockman says that a cure for "Pigskin Fever" is to take two tickets and go to the football game, a voice quickly says, "Warning: tickets not meant to be taken internally". This prompts Homer to point to the announcement and declare to Marge and Bart, "See? Because of me, now they have a warning."
• "Bart Gets an Elephant":
  • After Stampy rescues Homer from the tar pit and Bart and Lisa go to hug him, Bart explains that they're stuck to him. As Marge goes to pry them off of him, she mutters, "This is just like what happened at the caramel factory." Although Homer fantasizes about the food, no further details are given.
  • There's also the matter on how Barney ended up in the tar pit in the first place, who after being rescued by Stampy (right before he rescued Homer) then lights a cigarette and his whole body catches on fire. His only reply to this is "Ouch!"
  • Also, after Stampy pulls Homer into his mouth, he then says in amazement that he has now had his head in the mouth of an elephant, a hippo, and a giant sloth.
• "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song" started with Skinner in hot water even before the escapade with Santa's Little Helper in the air vents. He's seen looking very frazzled as he tries explaining over the phone how "Yom Kippur" sounded made up, implying Skinner accidentally discriminated against a Jewish student.
• In "Lady Bouvier's Lover", Bart ends up being punched in the face three times due to identifying himself as Homer and getting blamed for his past indiscretions, which include him apparently writing threatening or otherwise harassing letters to Frank Sinatra and stealing golf balls from a local golf course.
• From "Itchy & Scratchy Land":
  Homer: (Fumbling with map): North. South. Nuts to that, I'm taking a shortcut.
  Marge: No, Homer. You'll get lost.
  Homer: Relax, Marge. With today's cars, you can't get lost. What with the silicon chips and such.
  (Cut to car pulling up to the amusement park parking lot, severely destroyed, with a wagon wheel in place of a tire, a Homecoming banner being dragged behind, a U.S. Army missile sticking out of the chassis, a school traffic sign stuck to the side, and chickens in Marge's hair)
  Homer: All right, we're here. Now let us never speak of this shortcut again.
  • A little while later, while watching a parade with the family and an Itchy robot tips the top of his head off to Homer and Marge like a hat and we see the electronics inside of it, Marge then explains, "You see all that stuff inside, Homer? That's why your robot never worked." ^note Although there was a later episode where Homer did build a sentient robot that called him father and asked him for legs, only for him to send it away.
• In "Sideshow Bob Roberts", after Sideshow Bob throws Bart out of his limo, Homer is seen being thrown out of a car by Archie and friends and is warned by Moose to "Stay outta Riverdale!" The same episode shows that Bart somehow made an enemy of Dr. Demento.
  Bart: I'm only ten, and I've already got two mortal enemies!
• "Homer Badman":
  • Grandpa doesn't recognize Missouri as a state for... some reason.
  • The tabloid press proclaims that Homer Simpson sleeps nude in an oxygen tent, which he believes grants him sexual powers. Homer, upon hearing this, proclaims "Hey, that's a half-truth!" Which half of it is true is never elaborated on.
• Principal Skinner, recalling the time he almost discovered a comet in "Bart's Comet".
  Once... but by the time I got to the phone, my discovery had already been reported by Principal Kahoutek. [A cloud covers the moon; the music and everything else suddenly turns very sinister:] I got back at him, though... him and that little boy of his... [Cloud passes; everything's suddenly not sinister again] Anyway, that's why I always keep a cellular phone next to me.
• "Lisa's Wedding" has sometime in the future where Mr. Burns has been cryogenically frozen until there is a cure for 17 stab wounds in his back.^note Although the scientists had already cured fifteen of the wounds It's never said who stabbed him or why, although given his reputation, it could've been anybody.
• In "'Round Springfield", Krusty opens his show by talking about his sexual harassment suit, which because of his plea bargain, requires him to introduce Ms. No-Means-No to the cast. He doesn't say anything about the actual incident.
• "The Springfield Connection". What did Hans Moleman do to earn the death penalty, and how did his last meal end up being eaten by Homer? Plus, since he was apparently on death row, why would Homer be housed with him in the exact same cell?
• Doubling as Bait-and-Switch, in "Who Shot Mr. Burns? Part Two" after Lisa dismisses the possibility of their family being guilty of attempted murder, Grampa says that one's actions can surprise a person, casually mentioning "I never thought that I could shoot down a German plane, but last year, I proved myself wrong."
• An amusing occasion from "Team Homer" has Mr. Burns going through his checkbook, appearing to find out about his (drugged-up) $500 check for Homer's bowling team, only to be corrected:
  Smithers: Uh, sir, that's a check for your boweling.
  Burns: Oh, yes. That's very important.
  Smithers: Yes, sir. Remember that month you didn't do it?
  Burns: Yes, that was unpleasant for all concerned.
• From "Lisa the Iconoclast": apparently, no matter what business the Springfield Jubilation Committee is discussing, their meetings all end the same way:
  Mayor Quimby: Can't we have one meeting that doesn't end with us digging up a corpse?!
• Two are mentioned in "Homer the Smithers". First, Smithers explains to Homer that Mr. Burns' relationship with his mother is strained, explaining that he hasn't forgiven her since her affair with President Taft. Also, there's this exchange he has while having a phone conversation with "her":
  Mr. Burns: Oh, hello, Mater. Sorry about pulling the plug on you. Who knew that you would have recovered and live for another... five decades? Boy, is my face red!
• In "The Day the Violence Died", Bart and Lisa give up on trying to get Itchy and Scratchy back and instead decides to try and get Apu out of jail. They then start reading "Public Nudity: Codes and Statues".
  • This is later explained at the end of the episode during the Itchy & Scratchy Press Conference:
    Apu: I, too, owe many thanks to Lester and Eliza. This is a great vindication for anybody who was ever taking a bath went to get the paper, fell down and had the door slam behind them and the doorknob break off.
• Troy McClure's unseen fish fetish from "A Fish Called Selma". Whatever it entails, it has him banned from Sea World and can be described as him "sleeping with the fishes".
• In "Burns, Baby Burns", at the dinner table, Homer says, "It's not like anything interesting happened to anyone else today." We then pan to Bart studying a diamond under a jewellers glass, Lisa with a broken arm, and Maggie wearing a "Cutest Baby" sash.
• "Bart After Dark"
  • During the "We Put the Spring in Springfield" musical number, Grampa and Jasper sing that the burlesque house has given them the most fun "since March of 1961".
  • Also earlier in the episode, when Marge first holds a town meeting to protest the house, Jasper asks if she's talking about an undiscovered bordello they apparently frequent, to which Grampa cries out, "No! She's talking about the burlesque house! Now keep your mouth shut!"
• From "Lisa's Date with Density":
  Nelson: Wait till he finds what I left in his bird bath!
  Skinner: NOOOOOO!!!
• From "The Springfield Files", Agents Mulder and Scully make cameos, and we hear this conversation:
  Mulder: Worse than the time we were attacked by the flesh-eating virus?
  Scully: No, this is much more irritating.
  • A subsequently-aired episode of The X-Files does deal with such a virus (in which they didn't fall victim to), but "The Springfield Files" would have to take place much earlier in the X-Files timeline, going by a reference Mulder once made to a suspect looking like "Homer Simpson's evil twin." The closest thing the two had to being attacked by a pathogen was a hallucinogenic flesh-eating fungus but that was also aired later.
• "My Sister, My Sitter":
  • Lisa is trying to get her brother medical attention at a clinic and Smithers won't let Lisa in front of him because of a serious injury that seemingly makes it painful for him to sit down (though this could be taken as a Double Entendre, considering Smithers's closeted homosexuality).
  • The entire waiting room in that episode was full of people bizarrely injured in Noodle Incidents. Including a line specifically for wheelbarrows.
• In "The Canine Mutiny", Santa's Little Helper runs away, and Bart is looking for him; Bart has followed the trail to the church, where Rev. Lovejoy and Mrs. Skinner admit he'd been there but had to be turned out because of some mischief. Mrs. Skinner snaps, "He UN-HOLY'ED the HOLY water!"^note Most likely, Santa's Little Helper peed in the Holy Water
• In "The Old Man and the Lisa", Kent Brockman reminded his viewers who Mr. Burns is with two continuity nods, and a noodle incident:

  Brockman: Remember millionaire C. Montgomery Burns? The man who blocked out our sun, ran over a local boy, and stole Christmas from 1981 to 1985? ^note  Although in Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?, the Simpson house inexplicably still has Christmas lights spelling out Merry Xmas And A Happy New 1985 on the roof, hardwired into the house's electrical circuit to boot.

  • In "Future-Drama," set 20 Minutes into the Future, Lisa is going to Yale after winning a scholarship that Burns was forced to offer as a punishment for stealing Christmas again, this time apparently for good (somehow).
    Lisa: ...I miss Christmas.
• During the middle of "Lisa's Sax", Grandpa interrupts the middle of Marge's story with "I realized I could make money selling my medication to deadheads." He chooses not to elaborate further.
• In the first segment of "Treehouse of Horror VIII", what exactly was the "frog's legs" joke Mayor Quimby made that pissed off the French enough to make them nuke Springfield? We don't know, but Kent Brockman thought it was hilarious.
• The main plot of "Realty Bites" involves Marge selling the Flanders family a home infamously dubbed "The Murder House." It seems the house was home to the grisly "Jealous Jockey Murders", yet the only details shared were:
  • Mrs. Astor, the previous owner and intended target, survived by hiding in the butler's pantry.
  • There was a torso heap in the living room.
• At one point in "The Joy of Sect", Rev. Lovejoy is spreading gasoline around the church and muttering "I never thought I'd have to do this again."
• In "Simpson Tide", when Kent Brockman announces that Homer has (seemingly) gone rogue with a submarine full of missiles, he brings up an old photo of a drunken Homer in a fur hat and coat, doing That Russian Squat Dance. Marge is horrified; Lisa's only response is "I told him that photo would come back to haunt him".
  • Many of Homer's "File Photos" are built on this. Some unexplained incidents include him posing with dozens of cigarettes in his mouth, a gorilla at the zoo holding his pants as Homer angrily shakes his fist at him, his tongue stuck to frozen pole and a distressed-looking Marge holding him as he's passed out drunk whilst they're on a vacation.
• "Lost Our Lisa" has Homer and Lisa breaking into the Springfield museum to see the Isis exhibit. Homer asks Lisa to open the window, because apparently, the police have his prints on file.
• "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace", Homer has to do research in the Springfield Elementary School library because he was banned from the "'Big people's'" library over some... unpleasantness." In the same episode, after Homer quits his job to become an inventor, Marge, who is uncomfortable with the idea, tries to console herself by saying "Well, I suppose if this doesn't work out, you can always go back to the plant." Homer simply responds "Not the way I quit."
• On the season ten episode "Lisa Gets an "A"", Bart is about to let Lisa into the boys' bathroom. Lisa objects, and Bart replies, "Relax. There's nothing here you didn't see when Dad boycotted pants."
• From "Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble"":
  Peter Lorre-esque character: And when Mr. Dinkley saw what I had done, I was banned from the car wash forever!
• "Mayored to the Mob":
  • Homer asks Fat Tony's henchman Legs how he got his nickname:
  Legs: That's actually a very interesting story! See, President Kennedy's father... ^note Who is thought to have made a fortune by, among other ventures, bootlegging alcohol during prohibition.
  • However, Homer's attention is diverted before we can hear any more of it.
• In "Homer to the Max", Grampa berates Homer for changing his name:
  Grampa: The family name is my legacy to you. I got it from my father, and he got it from his father, and he traded a mule for it. And that mule went on to save spring break.
  • Marge feels that getting chained to trees as part of a protest isn't as as bad as a New Year's Eve party Lenny once held. All we learn is that he didn't even have a clock.
  • Earlier in that episode, after Homer discovers that a heroic character on a television show has the same name as his, it's said to be a coincidence, just like the time that some guy named Anthony Michael Hall stole his car stereo the week before.
    Bart: Right, coincidence.
  • While at the environmentalists' garden party, Bill Clinton is dancing with Marge, only for a Secret Service Agent to whisper something in his ear and him to reply, "Shoot! Quebec's got the bomb!" and for him to depart. We never learn what the situation was about or even why one of the U.S.'s greatest allies would have access to a bomb.
• In "Make Room for Lisa", Homer damages an original copy of the US Constitution. To pay off the damage he caused, Homer agrees to let a cellular phone company build a tower on top of their house. When Lisa is understandably upset that her room is now filled with the tower's electrical equipment, Marge tries to offer some comfort by assuring her that the situation is only temporary:
  Marge: It's just until we pay off Daddy's desecration of a priceless artifact. [Beat] I thought I'd never have to say that again.
• In "Maximum Homerdrive":
  Homer: So I told that nurse, 'You can take your free tetanus shot and you can shove it!'
  Bart: You're the man, Homer! [They high-five each other]
  Homer: And then—[With a suddenly locked jaw] I—[mumbles, then uses a fork to open his jaw, sighing with relief] Whew! That was a close one!
  Marge: But what you didn't tell us is the reason why Lenny bit you.
  Homer: Well, I really didn't give him any choice; you see—
  • We never hear why this occurred, as Lisa came in grumbling about the new all-meat restaurant.
• In "Monty Can't Buy Me Love", when Mr. Burns single-handedly captures the Loch Ness Monster during a popularity-increasing scheme:
  Groundskeeper Willie: That was amazing, Mr. Burns!
  Mr. Burns: I was a little worried when he swallowed me, but then, well you know the rest.
• From "They Saved Lisa's Brain" (during the subplot of Homer posing for erotic photos):
  Homer: You're not going to ask me to pose nude, are you?
  Photographer: Well, yes, unless you have issues about revealing your body
  Homer: I don't, but the block association seems to. They wanted a "traditional" Santa.
• There's a brief scene in "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" where several characters suddenly appear as fat thanks to Homer's good reviews. One of them is Mr. Burns, who announces he feels great before his shins suddenly break. He simply expresses mild annoyance that it's happened again.
  • Ned is one of the characters who got fat, yet later on he's skinny again. Given that Mr. Burns and Sideshow Mel were still fat by the end of the episode, it's not mentioned how Ned became skinny again.
  • At some point, Homer pissed Sideshow Mel off enough he joined in delivering Homer's comeuppance at the end.
• In "Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder", after bowling a perfect 300 game, Homer takes out a list of life goals and checks it off, right next to "see Stevie Nicks naked", which has three checks beside it.
• "Eight Misbehavin'" features a scene that skips ahead nine months to the Simpson Family riding in the car, and they all discuss events that happened during that year. Marge had a short but memorable run as "Sideshow Marge", Bart learned the true meaning of Columbus Day and winter, while Lisa became the most popular girl in school but blew it by being conceited.
• In "Grift of the Magi", Homer tallies his Christmas record:
  Homer: Let's see, this'll make three Christmases I saved, versus eight I ruined...two were kind of a draw. ^note The latter two can be inferred to be "Marge Be Not Proud" and "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace", in which Homer's actions had little to no impact on the success of the former Christmas and the failure of the latter. Alternatively, he's not counting the ones where he had no impact (as he's clearly had more than 13 Christmases by this point) and is referring to two unknown Christmases where he did equal and significant amounts of both good and bad for Christmas.
• The season 11 Flash Forward episode "Bart to the Future" had Future Bart tell Future Ralph that he'll get a settlement for either the spider bite at Disney Land or the incident with the oversalted French fries (neither of which are explained any further).
• From "Behind the Laughter":
  Homer: I just want to set the record straight. I thought the cop was a prostitute!
• Barney's shown a video of some of his drunken escapades in "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses". The last scene involves him in the Simpsons household dressed up like Marge (including a blue wig) before he falls over the staircase and starts licking his spilled beer off the floor. The scene raises two questions: Besides he was drunk, how did Barney manage to dress up as Marge in the Simpsons house? And for that matter, who knew to videotape it?
• There's an in-episode one for "Treehouse of Horror XI": Homer gets through the day without dying, even though his death was predicted by his horoscope. He tells Marge to stop worrying, as the only threats to his life that day were a nasty paper-cut, a tree felled by lightning, a giant globe rolling down the street, a pickaxe to the forehead, a snake bite, and "the testicle thing" (which was never shown).
• In "Worst Episode Ever", while looking through the Comic Book Guy's collection of bootleg videotapes, Bart finds a Police Informant Video of Ned Flanders making a statement about Homer releasing a radioactive ape into his house, which has taken over the top floor. Bart comments, "It wasn't Dad's fault. The ape tricked him." At the end of the episode, we see the ape forcing Flanders to drive him somewhere.
• During the Good Guy Awards Show in "Children of A Lesser Clod" where Homer is being honored for his daycare, Bart and Lisa display home movies to showcase what kind of a father he really is, which includes incidents where he was drunk and passed out in front of the Christmas tree while only in his underwear, he lost Maggie to Moe in a card game and, most shockingly, where he chased Bart down the street with a flail while shouting "I'll mace you good!" His only defense is that they were taken out of context.
• In "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge":
  Homer: Aww, every time Santa and me get together, something bad always happens.
  • Possibly a Call-Back to the pilot episode where Homer had to work as a mall Santa, or even the example in "They Saved Lisa's Brain".
• In "Large Marge", Homer hands Lisa his wedding ring so he won't get paint on it, only for Lisa to point out his "ring" is a bandage wrapped in foil. Homer sheepishly admits his real ring is inside a turtle.
• One could make educated guesses, but it's never explained exactly what Marge's friend Ruth Powers did to wind up in prison, which she was released from in "Strong Arms of the Ma". (The charges of car theft in a previous episode had been dismissed.) Also, she had earned the title of "Miss Mexican Mafia" while in prison, but never explained why.
• In "Moe Baby Blues", Moe is in a roomful of angry mobsters wielding pistols:
  Moe: Uh, that's the second most guns ever pointed at me.
• In "My Mother the Carjacker", Homer's mother Mona states that she remembers Homer's friends Carl and Lenny when they were children. She says, Carl, Lenny and another boy named Stevie "were like the Three Musketeers", to which they both reply: "Poor Stevie. They never found his head."
  • This may have been explained in an earlier Bongo comic book. Bart, Lisa, Milhouse and Martin briefly discuss "Brain-Freeze Steve", a boy from their parents' generation who, according to legend, drank a Squishee so fast that his brain exploded. A flashback at the end of the story reveals that the legend is true, and that Abe was responsible for giving him the idea to drink through two straws at once...
• In "The President Wore Pearls", Marge noting how poorly she handles games of chance, recalling how a game of Candy Land ended with her somehow throwing vodka in Maggie's face.
• In "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife", Dr. Marvin Monroe shows up when Marge is signing her first book. Marge mentions that she hadn't seen him in a real long time, to which he replies "I've been really sick".
• In "Co-Dependent's Day" Marge, while drunk and impersonating Homer, says "Gee Marge, sorry I set the bed on fire."
• "Bart-Mangled Banner":
  • Dr. Hibbert had some people dressed as him to distract Bart while Hibbert gave him some vaccination. Something Moe did as Hibbert got the doctor banned from the library.
  • From the same episode, political prisoner Elmo laments "Elmo go to wrong fundraiser!.
• The Seven Beer Snitch:
  • Chief Wiggum, to Smithers:
  "Oh Smithers, if I didn't arrest you that night in the park, I'm not going to arrest you now..."
• "See Homer Run":
  • Dr. Pryor explains to Homer and Marge that Lisa now hates men because of a lack of a positive male role model in her life, illustrating this by showing them pictures she drew herself showing several mishaps involving Homer that Lisa was there to see and traumatized by. One of them is titled "The Day The Policeman Came To My Soccer Game" and shows Homer being carted off by police screaming "I'LL SUE YOU ALL!" while an annoyed referee looks on. ^note May be connected to a line from season 4's "Whacking Day", when Homer tells Lisa to bottle up her rage and release it at the appropriate time, "like the day I hit a referee with that whiskey bottle".
  • In the same episode, Lisa asks Homer why can't he take her to the zoo frequently like Janey's father, making him remind her that he's not allowed in the zoo anymore.
• At the beginning of "Simpsons Christmas Stories", when Flanders is called by Lovejoy to be a substitute pastor and deliver the Christmas sermon.
  Flanders: I feel like I'm born again ''again!'
  • Unless he's using "born again" to mean "converted to Christianity", which some people do.
• In "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore", before Mr. Burns started showing a movie about outsourcing, he asked for a minute of silence for the workers who died in some heroic, well, whatever it was, we never got to know because "heroic" was the last word Mr. Burns said before Homer chanted for the movie and the subject of the heroic deaths was never brought up again.
• In "Regarding Margie", Homer shows an amnesiac Marge a photo album. One picture shows him beating up former President George H. W. Bush. He then shows another picture of him beating up the (then-sitting) President George W. Bush (in the Oval Office, no less). And then doing the same to a sack of apples.
• In "Lost Verizon", Homer offhandedly mentions an "unpleasantness in Ecuador" that they have behind them. (And a brief coca leaf addiction.)
• In "O Brother, Where Bart Thou?", Nelson mentions that his mother once tried to trick Charles Barkley into getting her pregnant.
• From The Greatest Story Ever D'ohed, "That is not something a lion would want to see on his X-ray!"
• "The Book Job":
  • While pitching the plan
    Bart: This better not turn out like Kansas City.
    Homer: It won't be like Kansas City!
  • And after they get caught
    Bart: (sarcastic) Kansas City?
    Homer: (resigned) Kansas City.
• In season 25's "Steal This Episode", Marge is annoyed that Homer is illegally downloading movies and screening them to the neighborhood in the backyard. Bart says that it's "not even the worst kind of pirate Dad's been".

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