YMMV / The Simpsons S2 E7 "Bart vs. Thanksgiving"

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • It's not specifically made clear whether Bart intentionally threw Lisa's centerpiece into the fireplace or inadvertently tossed it in there in their tussle.^note The biggest clue is him having a brief triumphant smirk when the centerpiece is thrown out of the way, however he does seem somewhat stunned when it sets ablaze outright, especially since the fire had ironically failed to set alight until the centerpiece landed on it. From either perspective Bart can be considered a remorseless destructive brat who fails to see how hurtful his actions are, or a case of Then Let Me Be Evil from getting scolded over a genuine accident, or perhaps more likely, a bit of both.
  • Was Homer getting Patty and Selma's names wrong a mistake or intentional on the creators' part? And if it was intentional, did he do it out of stupidity or Malicious Misnaming?
• Broken Base:
  • Did Bart really deserve to be punished? Were Marge and Homer a bit too harsh on him? The viewers who see the latter finds Bart's punishment too far, even for someone like Bart. Especially considering it's on Thanksgiving and Lou and Eddie were shocked to hear about it, regretful or not. For the viewers who see the former defends Marge and Homer by stating that Bart purposely threw Lisa's centerpiece into the fire (and even if it was an accident, Bart's smartass remark suggested that he didn't feel bad about it). Considering how much of a pain Bart can be, along with the fact the parents not only have to deal with their relatives and the preparation of the feast itself in Marge's case. One's patience can go so far, especially if one has a child like Bart. However, there is a third group of fans who see that all of them were just as selfish.
  • While the episode itself and the rest of the Simpsons family are firmly on Lisa's side, who was to blame for the incident in the first place? Lisa's centrepiece was taking up too much space and was light enough for her to easily pick it back up again, while Bart was carrying a hot and heavy turkey that should have taken priority in that moment. Additionally, was Lisa jealous that Bart (and the turkey) immediately upstaged the centrepiece she had spent so much time on and acted a little irrationally in the heat of the moment? Or are neither to blame; Homer or Marge should have been the ones to carry the turkey and to gently ask Lisa if she could move her centrepiece.
• Fridge Brilliance: At the beginning of the episode, Lisa is fighting with Bart over a bottle of glue which she needs to finish her centerpiece. Later, she is seen painting the centerpiece. Both glue and paint are highly flammable. This might be the reason why Lisa's centerpiece instantly catches fire and burns up so quickly when it lands in the hot fireplace.
• Genius Bonus: Mr. Burns lives on the corner of Croesus and Mammon, two mythological figures of greed.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The opening scene when Bart and Homer watch the Springfield Thanksgiving Day Parade, it shows the antler of the Bullwinkle balloon springing a leak, in the years since the episode's first airing there have been similar incidents involving balloons: in 1993 a Sonic the Hedgehog balloon collided with a lamppost and injured two spectators, in 1997 a The Cat in the Hat balloon toppled over a lamppost and left a child spectator in a coma for a month and at the 2005 Thanksgiving Day Parade a M&Ms balloon got tangled in a streetlight resulting in two sisters being injured and the M&M's balloon being retired indefinitely.
  • This won't be the last time a holiday is ruined by Bart accidentally burning something, and that time, the whole Simpson family suffers horribly for it.
  • Bart feels sorry for Santa's Little Helper after Homer kicks him out of the house for swiping his turkey drumstick and lets him tag along with him. A later episode would have Homer kick Santa's Little Helper out of the house for eating his turkey instead of rescuing him from a fire, only this time, he lets the dog be taken away entirely, to which poor Bart is devastated.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • During Bart's Imagine Spot of the family blaming him for everything, Homer yells at Bart: "It's your fault I'm bald!" In "And Maggie Makes Three," we learn this is at least partly true as that episode shows that Homer's baldness came about by him ripping out his hair each time he learned Marge was pregnant.
  • When Homer mentions why you can't have "every flash-in-the-pan character" as a parade balloon, a Bart balloon is briefly visible on the Simpsons' TV. At this stage the show's producers were in all likelihood expecting that the show would run for a few years and then fizzle out, but as it would turn out, the show ended up being much more of a Long Runner than they could have ever dreamed. True, Bart's role has been heavily overshadowed by that of Homer, and to a lesser extent Lisa in the show's later years, but he hasn't done too badly all things considered.
• Memetic Mutation: YouTube comments on Bart's Nightmare Sequence tend to contain "It's your fault [x]".
• Never Live It Down: Ironically, despite Forgiveness being the theme of this episode, some viewers aren't forgiving towards Marge and Homer for punishing Bart. This is despite them showing remorse for making Bart run away, Homer having done worse things to Bart without issue, Marge being at her wit's end in that scene, and Bart reacted to Homer's ordering him to his room with a smartass remark (which in turn led to Marge's accusation that he'd ruined Thanksgiving), which just escalated the situation and made it clear that even if his destroying Lisa's centrepiece was accidental, he didn't feel any remorse over it.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The Nightmare Sequence is pretty well-animated by Season 2's standards.
• The Woobie: If there's one thing the fans can agree on, it's that Lisa is definitely one here. She never did anything wrong, yet her centerpiece which she worked so hard on gets trashed and she blames herself for Bart running away.

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