YMMV / The Simpsons S 23 E 19 A Totally Fun Thing Bart Will Never Do Again

---

• Harsher in Hindsight: The whole plot of the episode became this with the COVID-19 Pandemic, where in the early days of the viral outbreak, a cruise ship that stopped in China (where the virus originated from) was forced to wander around at sea for several days because no country would let it dock at their ports, assuming that there were infected passengers onboard. It was finally allowed to stop in Japan, but the whole ship was put on lockdown, all the passengers kept in quarantine, and several passengers and crew members did test positive for the virus.
• Memetic Mutation: Old Bart looks at picture.^Explanation The ending shows Bart as an old man looking at the photo of his family penguin sledding and embraces it with satisfaction. Fans often edit out the picture for another to show their love for something else with them in Bart's place.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The second part of Treat Williams' cameo (The Reveal that he is one of the passengers and did not recognize himself on the faked emergency message, which the other passengers point out would have prevented the anarchy) places the episode before his death in a motorcycle accident on June 12, 2023.

---