Marge is arrested (again) for letting Bart play unsupervised in the park and comes to realize that prison is a welcome break from her household duties.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Homer is such an alcoholic that he drinks in an Imagine Spot featuring him as a housewife.
- Clingy Child: Bart and Lisa both become this when Marge comes back from prison, following her from room to room and screaming when their view of her is blocked by the refrigerator door.
- Couch Gag: This episode is infamous for the fact Lisa is playing, of all things, a theremin during her solo.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Homer's imagine spot is in black and white, parodying The Donna Reed Show.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Chief Wiggum admits that arresting Marge over letting a child go unsupervised to the park is an overreaction. During Marge's trial, she mentions her own childhood as an example of why it's ludicrous to arrest her for letting her son go unsupervised and the judge reacts by having Marge's mother arrested.
- Drives Like Crazy: The police respond to a report of an unsupervised child at the playground, and slam into one of the spring-mounted horses when arriving. They later hit Ned Flanders when going to the Simpson home to arrest Marge.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Homer thought that Marge was sent to the chair when she hung up.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: In a Cutaway Gag, Jesus admits he doesn't really like Homer.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: When Marge comes home the entire family follows her into the pantry for a Group Hug whereupon she notices they're out of peanut butter.
- Fantasy Twist: Upon vowing to become the "perfect homemaker," Homer imagines himself as a Donna Reed-style housewife who cheerfully packs Marge and the kids out the door and hits the bottle as soon as they're gone, much to Homer's disappointment ("Oh, I was doing so great, but it turned out I was a secret alcoholic"). The Tag further reveals that Marge, the "husband," is having an affair with Ned Flanders.
- Free-Range Children: The core story surrounds the growth of "helicopter parenting" where kids are not allowed to free play in the neighborhood. Homer ends up doing some work taking the kids for a walk with harnesses on like they were dogs.
- Karma Houdini: Lampshaded with regard to Homer by Bart, Lenny, and even Homer himself ("My email password is 'baddad'!") after Marge is jailed for a single act of letting Bart visit a crowded playground unsupervised.Lenny: Yeah, it's kind of funny––Homer takes his kids to a saloon, but Marge is in jail for being a bad parent.Homer: I guess somebody up there likes me.God: Do you like him?Jesus: Uh, not really, no.
- Negative Continuity:
- The more famous episode about Marge serving time in women's prison (Season 4's "Marge in Chains") is not alluded to at all.
- The Free-Range Children antics that are a staple of the show turn out to be punishable by up to 90 days' jail time for the parent, which causes the other parents to actually start supervising their kids after the law is enforced in Marge's case. Nothing occurs to change this situation by the end, but given the quality of Springfield's police department, it's likely nothing needs to.
- Off on a Technicality: Marge's lawyer gets her conviction overturned because Homer forgot to issue Bart's birth certificate, meaning Marge isn't Bart's legal mother.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Bart fled the couch gag when Homer tries to make him assemble the couch for one dollar.
- Selective Enforcement: In spades. Marge is arrested and sent to prison for allowing Bart to play in the park unsupervised, and when Marge claims that she was allowed to play unsupervised when she was a kid, her mother gets arrested as well. Homer, on the other hand, is a far more irresponsible parent than Marge (and Bart even points this out), but the judge won't hear it.
- Unwanted Assistance: The plot starts off with Marge kicking Bart out of the house to go play outside after his attempts to help her clean up a spill wind up burning a hole in the kitchen linoleum (the spill didn't even occur in that room).
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Marge accidentally starts a prison riot by saying the words "prison break"
