Original air date: 5/21/2006
Production code: HABF-16
Marge and Homer try their luck at celebrity marriage counselling.
This episode provides examples of:
- Attack of the Killer Whatever: The episode's Couch Gag sees the residents of Springfield being attacked and eaten by their couches.
- Brainless Beauty: Tabitha asks to guess the attendance of the game being played at the end of the episode as a condition of taking him back. The question - like "Guess the Attendance" questions at actual ballgames - is multiple choice. Buck picks "B", but Tabitha reveals that the correct answer is "'C', as in, keeping together."
- Broken Record:
- Chekhov's Gun: The Jumbo-Vision. After his disastrous performance at the start, Buck sees Homer and Marge kissing on it and decides he wants to use them to counsel his and Tabitha's marriage. At the end, Tabitha comes on the Jumbo-Vision to tells Buck she wants to stay with him.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Subverted. At the end, the Duff Blimp spells out a message that says "I Love You Buck". Buck, obviously thinking Tabitha is behind it, is so invigorated he hits the ball straight into the Blimp, causing it to crash and revealing Homer is behind the message.
- Head-Turning Beauty: The reaction at every show of Tabitha's. Running Gag with Bart.
- Hypocritical Humor: The one denouncing a young Abe for being a man disguised as a woman is a similarly disguised Jasper.
- Jaw Drop: Every man's reaction when Tabitha kicks off her risque performance while singing the national anthem at the beginning of the episode.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Downplayed. Buck likely wouldn't have had the Simpsons attempt to save his marriage with Tabitha if he hadn't noticed Homer and Marge on the stadium's kiss cam.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Homer gives Tabitha a neck rub with greasy fingers while eating fried chicken. Buck overhears through the door, assumes they're having sex and punches Homer out.
- Ms. Fanservice: Tabitha Vixx. So much so that in her show a sign warns "first ten rows may get horny".
- Noodle Incident: The argument that led to Homer arguing with Marge about whether a monkey can mow their lawn or not.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bart angrily confronts Homer after being beaten up at school because his parents ruined Buck Mitchell's marriage. Homer responds that he was similarly beaten up at work and shows Bart a swear word that someone wrote on the back of his head. Whatever it is, it's so bad that Bart doesn't find it funny.Bart: ...Papa.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Buck overhears Homer giving Tabitha a neck rub after her show and assumes they're having sex.
- Pet the Dog:
- Homer is hardly the best father to Bart, but him asking Buck to sign baseballs for Bart is a nice gesture. And also quite a funny one when it's revealed there are dozens of them.
- He also cares enough about Buck and Tabitha's marriage that he carries out a Grand Romantic Gesture on Tabitha's behalf to try and save it, but Buck accidentally screws it up. Luckily, Tabitha wants to stay with Buck anyway.
- Revenge Before Reason: Buck overhears Tabitha moaning and Homer praising the fried chicken he's eating, and, instead of asking what's going on when he enters Tabitha's dressing room, he immediately assumes the worst and punches Homer out, twice, so once again his marriage is on the rocks.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: At the start of the episode, in Springfield Stadium, Tabitha sings the first few bars of the American national anthem at the game, then strips down to lingerie and launches into one of her own songs with lascivious dancing. Naturally her husband is not happy and his game that night suffers badly as a result.
- Spear Carrier: Isotopes player Tito at the end, saying he doesn't care about the revived marriage of Buck and Tabitha because bandits just kidnapped his mother.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Pretty much everyone by accusing Homer of screwing with Buck.
- Trivially Obvious: When the Kiss Cam starts up on the Jumbo-Vision, Carl points at it and exclaims, "Look, it's a thing!"
