Original air date: 11/20/2005
Production code: GABF-21
To win back Lisa's love, Homer dresses up as a mascot called "The Safety Salamander" and gains fame for rescuing people from a car accident. Meanwhile, Springfield holds a recall election to get the incompetent Mayor Quimby out of office.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Why is there a pony tied to the bike rack and who owns it?
- Armor-Piercing Question:Bart: Hey Mom, can I have some money to buy Dad a present?Marge: If I give you money, how is the gift really from you?Bart: Where do you get your money?Marge: (disgruntled) Here's a ten. Make your own card!
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Principal Skinner mentions that Lisa, during her misandrist rampage at school, broke a window, upended an ashcan, and hurled a Thermos brand thermos onto the street.Homer: Does it still keep hot drinks hot and cold drinks cold?
Skinner: I'm afraid it doesn't keep any drinks anything.
Homer: NOOOO! - Be Careful What You Wish For: Homer gets hit by a cinderblock after asking people to stop throwing fruits at him.
- Beyond the Impossible: Even Homer didn't know how he was able to pat Lisa's head with the tail of his costume.
- Breakfast in Bed: Homer is treated to a breakfast in bed for Father's Day. Bart and Lisa give him gifts, only he upsets Lisa when he's not that fond of her gift, as it was homemade.
- Crappy Homemade Gift: Lisa decides to make Homer a homemade book for Father's Day, which depicts the two as unicorns playing together. He's not that fond of it, so he decides to leave it on the fridge. Unfortunately, the magnet doesn't hold, and the book falls into the automatic water dispenser and gets ruined, leaving Lisa heartbroken.Homer: Well, it's not my fault. Lousy magnet!
(Lisa runs off crying)
Homer: What the...? (looks at magnet) "Happy Birthday, Dad. From Lisa." D'oh! - Didn't Think This Through: Calling all the emergency response teams to the site of the car pileup seemed like a good idea...if they hadn't forgotten that the street sign was missing.
- Does Not Like Men: The School Councelor says that Lisa will end becoming a misandrist if Homer doesn't make ammends with her.
- Dramatic Thunder: Played with. When Skinner reluctantly attaches a frowny sticker to Lisa's permanent record, lights flash, as if the heavens are upset about this event...but then Skinner tells Willie that rats are chewing through the light fixtures again.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: During the town meeting when everyone blames Quimby for the traffic accident, Quimby says he cannot be removed from office...except by a simple recall election. Upon realizing what he said, Quimby told everyone to disregard it, but it was too late.
- Furry Confusion: For Father's Day, Lisa makes a picture book featuring herself and Homer as unicorns. In the last picture, they're riding horses.
- Given Name Reveal: During the Springfield Mayoral Debate, the Crazy Cat Lady's real name is revealed to be Eleanor Abernathy for the first time.
- Karma Houdini: Bart doesn't end up in trouble for taking the street sign and inadvertently causing the massive car accident. In fact, it's Mayor Quimby who ends up paying for it.
- Lesser of Two Evils: Homer's slogan is "The lesser of 25 evils".
- Magic Pants: When Homer wears the salamander suit after it shrunk in the wash, it rips around his arms, feet, and stomach, leaving the legs of the costume unharmed.
- Motorcycle Dominoes: Lisa kicks over a line of bicycles during her rant.
- Noodle Incident: Mayor Quimby once hijacked a plane, forcing the pilots at riflepoint to "take this plane anywhere girls are going wild".
- Not Helping Your Case: After accidentally ruining Lisa's Father's Day gift to him, Homer tries to blame it on a refrigerator magnet...which turned out to be a birthday gift to him from Lisa.
- Not What It Looks Like: When Homer was rescuing people from the car accident, he ended up pulling Mr. Smithers and Mr. Largo from the same car, the latter defensively crying they were only carpooling.
- The Permanent Record: Lisa's brief bout of hostility in school because of Homer's stupidity in Father's Day makes Skinner put a frowny face sticker on Lisa's permanent record. Skinner tries to threaten Lisa into backing off with it and then glues it with a somber "may God forgive me" and a snap-zoom with dramatic chord.
- Persona Non Grata: For some reason, Homer is no longer allowed at the zoo.
- Produce Pelting: Rainier Wolfcastle becomes a victim of this for defending stem cell research. Homer later becomes a victim when he loses his costume.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The bullies stole The Scream (Munch). The episode was written around the same time the real painting had been stolen.
- Shrunk in the Wash: Marge washes the Salamander Suit, causing it to shrink and rip while Homer is in the middle of a debate.
- Status Quo Is God: Mayor Quimby keeps his job because no candidate gets the 5% required to become a candidate during the recall election.
- Stock Audio Clip: Milhouse does his "Wazzup" bit from "The Bart Wants What It Wants", and the audio of Milhouse saying it is reused from that episode but pitch-shifted up a bit.
- Ungrateful Bastard: After being rescued from the car accident, Nelson says that his mother is still in the car. When Homer looks inside the car and doesn't find anybody there, Nelson laughs.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
- The bullies convince Bart to steal a street sign with his name on it, inadvertently causing a massive pileup that gets blamed on Quimby, leading to the recall election.
- Had Marge not washed the salamander suit, it wouldn't have shrunken and ripped while Homer was in the middle of a debate, therefore not dissapointing the crowd.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Homer vomits inside his suit, prompting Marge to wash it.
