Homer enlists an intern named Mike Wegman to help him with a new business but runs into trouble with the local Mafia.
Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Response: After Mike screams at Burns for insulting Homer, Burns simply shoots him in the face. Luckily, Mike survives because the gun was over 200 years old.
- Berserk Button: Anyone criticizing Homer will result in Mike dishing out rants to them.
- Can't Take Criticism: Mike is prone to scream at people's faces when they criticize his mentor Homer for too long that he goes on long-winded speeches of how much they suck for even dissing Homer.
- Continuity Nod:
- When Mike reveals why he admires Homer so much, he pulls out an old newspaper page centered around Homer's heroism in Homer Defined.
- Upon meeting Marge, Mike speculates that Homer's active sex life is the reason he's always napping at work, commenting, "Mr. Plow indeed."
- Disproportionate Retribution: When Homer asks Mr. Burns to give a five-dollar contribution like everyone else who signed Lenny's birthday card and Mr. Burns agrees, Smithers reacts by calling Homer a monster and demoting him.
- Mike lashes out at anyone who insults Homer.
- The Dog Bites Back: After Mike gets shot in the face by Mr. Burns for lashing out at him because he insulted Homer, Bart gets revenge on him for doing the same to him by calling him ugly, the same word Mike used on him during his rant, in addition to calling him "pellet head" as a result of having several bullets on his face from Burns shooting him.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Homer asks Marge if she respects him for his work as a nuclear power plant worker. Marge's response is her face creaking as she smiles and her left pupil getting loose inside her eye.
- Everyone Has Standards: Even Homer, with his long history of strangling Bart in reaction to his quips, tries to calm Mike down before his own Hair-Trigger Temper on the subject can be activated and is downright horrified when Mike proceeds to chew Bart out.
- Fiery Redhead: Mike becomes this whenever someone insults Homer.
- Funny Background Event: When Homer and Mike reach a food truck cemetery, the intern says the other food trucks ended there because their owners didn't have an original idea like he has. A truck at the background is shown to have the same idea he had (pizza slices).
- The Gambler: Mike takes out a $100k-dollar loan from Fat Tony. He uses one half to pay for the food truck, but he uses the other to gamble it at a college basketball game to pay it all in one go (because either he goes big or goes home). He loses the bet.
- Gender-Blender Name: Despite his wife's objections, Mike insists on "Patrick Ewing Wegman" as the name for his as-yet-unborn daughter (who we actually get to see during the credits).
- Hero-Worshipper: Mike greatly idolizes Homer because he knows Homer is almost always at the center of every major nuclear power plant problem on the news (though he later learns Homer is responsible for causing all those problems). It gets a bit out of hand when Mike isn't kind to letting people criticize Homer.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Bart's reaction to Mike's vicious takedown.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Upon Mike ranting at him for insulting Homer, Mr. Burns shoots him in the face, though fortunately he survives due to the gun being over 200 years old. However, considering that Mike made Bart cry earlier in the episode, it's hard not to say he deserved it.
- Mama Bear: Marge kicks Mike and his wife out of the Simpson household after the former's rant toward Bart makes him cry.
- Manchild: Mike, a 35-year-old unpaid intern and father-to-be, makes Homer look like a bastion of maturity and emotional stability by comparison.
- Pet the Dog: Just as they're about to be killed by Fat Tony and his gang, Mike tells Homer that Bart is gorgeous like him and will do fine in life, presumably as an apology for making him cry.
- Psycho Supporter: Mike has zero tolerance for any insult directed at Homer and will viciously and personally tear down anyone who dares to slight his idol—including Bart engaged in his typical playful banter at his Bumbling Dad's expense.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mike delivers these whenever Homer gets insulted by others for too long.
- He first does it to Bart, who ends up crying for the rest of the night and gets Mike and his wife expelled by an angry Marge. Despite this, Mike is still happy with himself.
- He later does it to Burns when asking him for a loan for his food truck business. It earns Mike several bullets to his face.
- Stunned Silence: The entire room, including Mike's wife, is gobsmacked by his takedown of Bart...with the exception of Lisa, who's overcome by hilarity.
- Totally Radical: Despite being in his mid-30s, Mike behaves like a spirited teenager. Or, in Homer's words, "a 35-year old with a 20-year old's job who speaks like a 10-year old."
- You Monster!: Smithers calls Homer a monster for taking advantage of Mr. Burns' bout of decency.
