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Recap / The Simpsons S 28 E 13 Fatzcarraldo

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"No! People, beware! The crap you love to eat has been replaced by food!"
Homer Simpson

When all the fast food restaurants in Springfield become healthy, Homer is forced to turn to chili dogs for comfort. Meanwhile, Lisa tries to save the school radio station.


Tropes:

  • Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Homer and some coworkers are allowed to leave work earlier, he uses his phone to tell someone he can't enjoy that extra time to them because he's going to celebrate with the boys. The person at the other end is Moe and the "boys" are Marge's boobs.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Homer wishes for a reason to feel depressed enough to go to the chili dog stand for comfort, he's told his sisters-in-law are moving in.
  • Big "NO!": Homer's reaction to being told that Krusty Burger has replaced their ketchup with beet aioli.
  • Clown Car: When Krusty arrives at the chili dog stand, he comes out of a clown car with an army of lawyers and his pet chimpanzee. When they try to return, the car falls apart.
  • Comfort Food: Chili dogs is Homer's comfort food because his parents used to drop him at a chili dog stand every time they met a psychiatrist for marriage counseling.
  • Everybody Has Standards: Even though Lisa is a vegetarian, she willingly helps her father try and save the chili dog stand.
  • "Jar of Jellybeans" Contest: Homer won one of these with a jar of buttons, earning him, Lenny, Carl, and three other workers they're eating irradiated pizza with the rest of the day off. Homer also appears to have won the jar of buttons.
  • Meat-O-Vision: Parodied:
    Marge: I bet you're imagining me as a chilli dog right now!
    Homer: Of course not!
    (Homer is revealed to be imagining Marge as a burger instead. Marge somehow realises this and groans)
  • My Greatest Failure: Deuce pretended to not remember Homer because he's deeply ashamed of how little he could help him when he was younger. He knew Homer needed a real father figure in his life, but he couldn't do more for him than give him free chilli dogs as a comfort.
  • Parental Abandonment: When Homer was a kid and his parents' marriage was at risk, his father said neither parent would want him once they divorced.
  • Running on the Spot: Krusty as he tries to get away from the Deuce Caboose as it rolls down the hill, complete with a Hanna-Barbera running Stock Sound Effect.
    Lawyer: Krusty, just run normal.
    Krusty: I don't remember how!
  • Silly Prayer: When Homer can't find any restaurant to his liking (as the majority is switching to health-based foods):
    Homer: Heavenly Father, I know you're a friend of the eating man. You created Sunday so we can have brunch. Please, O Lard, shower me with your divine grease and deliver me some egg rolls, or pizza, or hot dogs — whatever I can eat while driving. For thine is the flower and the gravy forever. Amen-u would be great.
    (Homer sees a sign advertising chili dogs at the next left)
    Homer: Thank you!
  • Shout-Out:
    • To Fitzcarraldo. Along with the title, the third act has Homer and other fat people pull the Deuce Caboose up a hill, just as Fitzcarraldo did with his steamboat through the jungle.
    • The opening gag is one to 2001: A Space Odyssey. What looks like The Monolith silhouetted against the sun as Also sprach Zarathustra plays is actually one of a series of pizza boxes for Homer's domino trick.
    • After Homer tells his story about the Deuce Caboose, Bart quips "Fatman Begins".
    • As he lets Homer get away without getting arrested, Chief Wiggum says "Forget it, Lou. It's Chili Town."
    • When Homer finds Deuce's Caboose Chili Dogs and finds nothing healthy but a Heimlich maneuver chart, he exclaims, "Chewy, we're home!"
      Homer: "Chewy" is what I call my mouth.
      Deuce: I really don't care what you call your mouth.
  • Stout Strength: Homer's plea for help with the stolen chili dog stand summons a bunch of other overweight guys who help him drag it up two very steep hills.
  • Take That!:
    • To Arby's, yet again. When Homer is looking for a new fast food place to eat at, Arby's is the only place among the rejected ones. For extra points, when the other restaurants have been redone into healthier versions ("Kentucky Fried Chicken" into "Kentucky Steamed Chickpeas"), Arby's is the only one that has no sign of being modified.
    • The opening chalkboard gag: "If we're so good at predicting, how come my dad bet on Atlanta" is a reference to the infamous failure of the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl just a week prior.

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