After a near-death experience from binging on fast food, Burns is disheartened to learn his death will be celebrated by the public. Upon tasting an effective, vegan meat substitute in a hamburger developed by Professor Frink, Burns gains the idea to reverse his reputation by starting a franchise of vegan burger restaurants.
Tropes:
- And There Was Much Rejoicing: Burns realizes no one will mourn him when he dies after he sees a crowd outside his hospital room cheering.
- Balloonacy: A particularly extreme non-balloon example. After swallowing a single tiny champagne bubble, Mr. Burns was able to float in the air.
- Being Good Sucks: Burns is ultimately fine with being hated again, as trying to maintain his reputation was too much effort for someone who didn't care at all what people thought before.
- Black Comedy Burst: A crowd has gathered outside Burns' hospital room, cheering his death. When Smithers announces that Burns is alive, a man in the crowd pulls out a gun and aims it at his head. When the scene cuts back to Burns and Smithers, a gunshot is heard.
- Broken Pedestal: Mr. Burns' Burgers made him popular for once, until everyone finds out that they are made from Amazon plants.
- Easily Forgiven: It's lampshaded by supporters' signs that the recent good deed Burns is attempting has made them forget everything horrible he's done in the recent past.
- Flashback: To Mr. Burns’ childhood. He gives his mother a picture he drew of her hugging him. She throws it in the fireplace, then tells him his father died.
- Hollywood Density: Mr. Burns is unusually light. A diet of Krusty Burgers triples his weight to a mere 42note , and a single bubble of champagne made him float in the air.
- Loophole Abuse: As spokesperson for X-Cell-ent Burgers, Homer is only allowed to say certain phrases. During the press event, Homer uses those phrases to answer Lisa's questions about Burns using endangered plants from the Amazon.
- Shout-Out:
- Burns' daydream after eating Homer's burger spoofs Titanic (1997).
- Burns smiles like the Grinch after eating the meatless burger.
- The cast of Stranger Things is shown riding their bikes behind Bart and Lisa... followed by a Demogorgon on a bike. The episodes title even sounds similar.
- Anton Chigurh works at the meatless burger plant.
- Various fast food mascots are spoofed throughout, most notably the rarely seen Mac Tonight.
- Signs of Disrepair: A billboard for Burns' X-Cell-ent Burgers is struck by lightning, erasing the letters that read "Healthy Diet Coming Soon" so that they now read "Die Soon" (and setting the eyes on Burns' face on fire).
- Take That!:
- As part of his newfound public acclaim, Burns is finally accepted into the "Beloved Billionaires Club", which only has two members before him. Mark Zuckerberg is not a member but likes to linger on the property, and has to be shooed away with a hose by a staff member.
- Mr. Burns' burgers being rejected for being made of Amazon plants may be a shot at Brazil's practice of burning down parts of the amazon rainforest to raise cheap beef.
- While in bed, Homer is holding a book entitled "Harry Potter and the Apologizing Author", a jab at J.K. Rowling's apprehensible behavior on social media.
- Virtual Assistant Blunder: Marge's Alexa accidentally buys 1000 shares of X-Cell-ent stock.
- Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Krusty, as he proudly proclaimed. While Krusty Burger did lose some traction due to the blatantly-pandering LGBTQBLT, he won the burger wars due to Lisa and Homer dismantling X-Cell-ent Burgers' reputation.
