At a sports day for seniors, Bart discovers that Marge was once a prankster on par with him as a child, leading to their bonding. Meanwhile, Homer desperately tries to find something passed down from him by bonding with Lisa.
- Adults Are Useless: Ms. York did nothing to help Marge when the other students picked on her, which resulted in her becoming a prankster in the first place.
- Call-Forward: In a flashback, Superintendent Chalmers says he'll replace Ms. York with "a winner." Of course we know instead he got Skinner.
- Couch Gag: The Simpsons are carved into a mountain, and Homer causes himself to collapse by trying to pick a tree out.
- Deadly Prank: Marge pranks Ms. York one last time, but she dies from the shock. Subverted when it turns out they were both pranking Bart and York is very much alive, but no one informed Chief Wiggum and he almost double subverts it when he mistakes York for a zombie and almost shoots her.
- Karmic Trickster: Unlike Bart, who plays pranks with or without provocation, Marge only pranks in retaliation. Even when she enjoys the other results of her trickery (becoming more popular as a kid and earning her son's admiration as an adult), she'll never mess with anyone who didn't do something to deserve it.
- "Kick Me" Prank: A lighthearted variation of this happens when Marge and Bart both hug at bedtime and vow to give up pranking forever. While the note Bart pins to Marge during the hug simply says "The End", the note Marge pins to Bart says "It never ends".
- Jerkass: While Marge might have gone overboard with her pranking, she only got into it because her old principal refused to help her when the other students were picking on her.
- Like Parent, Like Child:
- It's revealed that Marge used to be a rebellious prankster, just like her son is in the present.
- Homer tries to find something in common with Lisa through food, but it doesn't go anywhere because she's a vegetarian until they learn they share the same crazy allergies.
- Noodle Incident: When Wiggum almost shoots Ms. York after she reveals that she was Faking the Dead, Lou has to remind him that she's not a zombie, "just like the Wilsons weren't zombies." Wiggum prefers not to talk about the Wilsons.
- Not Me This Time: Bart enjoys the pranks that Marge does and helps out with some of them. However, he does point out that he had no real involvement in Marge's prank on Mr. Burns, the one that went a bit too far...
- Person as Verb: Lampshaded when Lisa is worried that Homer helping her cook a vegetarian stew will "Homer it up."Homer: My name is a verb meaning to ruin? That is pretty Homered up.
- Police Are Useless: Wiggum jumping to conclusions and wanting to shoot Ms. York thinking she was a zombie and later Marge for being a "zombie lover." Then there's the fact the Wilson family was shot.
- The Prankster: It's revealed that Marge was one in elementary school. The first one was an accident, as the principal slipped on a can Marge accidentally dropped on the floor and fell on a garbage bin, but the response she got made her do more pranks. Now, with Bart's encouragement, she becomes a prankster again.
- Shout-Out:
- The long-awaited sequel to Avatar is the real unobtainium, according to Marge.
- One of the prank items Marge and Bart left on Helen's shopping cart is The Marvelous Mrs. Miser's Day Old Bread.
- To the Blue Man Group: Thinking the blue-faced Ms. York is dead, Chief Wiggum says the unfortunate woman will be buried with the famous blue percussionists.
- Sickeningly Sweet: When Homer and Lisa bond over sharing allergies and hug, the attending physician coughs and apologizes that she's allergic to treacle.
- Slippery Skid: Marge's prank on Mr. Burns is to break her necklace and let the beads trip him up.
- Tempting Fate: Marge assures Bart that Mr. Burns will just fall harmlessly on the grass. Instead, he stumbles into traffic and is hit and tossed in the air multiple times until he falls on electrical wires and gets shocked.
- Title Drop, almost: Early on in the episode, Ms. York calls Marge "Margie the Meanie."
