YMMV / The Simpsons S 12 E 14 New Kids On The Blecch

• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: During the concert onboard the aircraft carrier, Lt. Smash begins to imagine the audience turning into soldiers, who then attempt to shoot down a bunch of hippies who appear to be riding a giant mechanical praying mantis. When the admiral interrupts, he asks if Smash has been having the "hippie fantasy" again; Smash's response is "they're getting less frequent, sir", implying Smash is suffering from something.
• Fridge Brilliance: As he outright stated he saw Bart's prank at the marathon, it's entirely possible Lieutenant Smash deliberately trained that bird to steal his fake moustache knowing full well he'd run to the first person not out for his blood.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The episode enjoys great popularity in Latin America, where celebrity cameos are less divisive and boy bands like NSYNC and the like have enjoyed popularity for a lot more time than their usual expiration date in the USA. Just search for "Banda Deluxo" in YouTube, and you will be surprised at videos with views in the millions.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The scene where L.T. Smash blows up MAD after nearly publishing a parody of Bart's boy band "Party Posse". This was in February 2001, so quite a few events hasn't happened yet. They even pointed out the unfortunate coincidence in the DVD commentary for this episode. Another similar incident happened in January 2015 when the headquarters of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were attacked by terrorists for publishing an image related to Islam.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: One of the writers of Mad Magazine comes up with a parody called Everybody Hates Raymond; it's even funnier when a few years later in 2005 (the same year Raymond ended) we got the next best thing: Everybody Hates Chris.
  • "Superliminal" was used as a Perfectly Cromulent Word by L.T. as part of his three-pronged attack ("Hey you! Join the Navy!"). In 2019, the word was used as the title for a trippy puzzle game.
• Nightmare Fuel: The moment when Lisa plays the VHS backwards to reveal "JOIN THE NAVY" was apparently thought to be terrifying by a surprising number of people, judging by this YouTube comment section.
• Refrain from Assuming: The song is called "Drop Da Bomb," not "Yvan eht Nioj".
• Unintentional Period Piece: Though it aired in 2001, Production Lead Time dates the episode to 1999-2000 — not only does the Boy Band parody *NSYNC (who have a guest appearance in the episode) and the Backstreet Boys, but there's a scene with New York City having one of its buildings destroyed, dating the episode to pre-September 11.^note Indeed, the episode was suppressed from broadcast for some time after the attacks. There's also a reference to Everybody Loves Raymond.

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