In an attempt to get into the
Guinness Book Of World Records, Homer arranges the town to get into a massive human pyramid but fails when they form a giant human ball. After rolling onto a weight station, Springfield gains the record for "World's Fattest Town". Marge becomes worried that the town is condemning all their lives to an existence of obesity and poor health and decides to act out against the Motherloving Corporation, headed by Garth Motherloving (
Ben Stiller), which provides most of the town's sugary, unhealthy foods. Inducing what is known as "Marge's Law", all sugary foods are banned from sale much to the general populace's contempt.
This episode contains examples of: (YMMV Examples here)
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: While burning most of the sugary sweets and food products in town, the police throw a pile of Butterfingers into the flames. The fire rejects the Butterfingers, causing Chief Wiggum to comment that the fire "doesn't even want them". This gag cost the Simpsons their contract with Butterfingers and has been cut from reruns (but not the DVD version).
- Captain Ersatz: Count Fudgula, an obvious parody of Count Chocula
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: The very concept of corporate ethics is completely alien to Garth Motherloving.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The entire episode plays with the idea of sugar being equatable to a drug, especially during the scene where Homer, Mr. Burns, Apu, and Count Fudgula smuggle sugar into Springfield. The scene that best hammers this in is when Disco Stu sucks up lines of sugar through a straw in a manner akin to snorting cocaine (which is funny, considering a recent report that states that sugar addiction is similar to cocaine addiction).
- Driven to Suicide: An anonymous Springfield resident leaps off a building to commit suicide, only to land in the people ball that forms from Homer's people pyramid.
- Jerk Ass: Garth Motherloving is a total jerk
- Reverse Psychology: Homer tries this on a seagull that steals his map to the sugar rendezvous point. It fails.
- Rule of Three: Readied in his diving gear, Homer falls backwards off the top of Burns' yacht, landing on the lower deck. He tries again, landing on the flat surface of a nearby whale. He quips "I'm only gonna do this one more time" before managing to land in the water.
- Sarcasm Mode: Garth Motherloving "agreeing" to Marge's suggestions.
- Shout Out: Homer refers to Marge throughout the second half of the episode as variations of Erin Brockovich (such as "Erin Chocosnitch").
- One of the sweets burned in the fire is a promotional chocolate statuette of Johnny Depp from Chocolat.
- Garth Motherloving bribes Homer into helping his plot by showing him a smoking Oompa-Loompa.
- Suicide As Comedy: See Driven to Suicide
- Unfortunate Names: Garth Motherloving previously went by the surname Hitler.
