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YMMV / The Simpsons S5 E1 "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"

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  • Alternative Joke Interpretation:
    • Is the name "Be Sharps" a reference to the fact that B sharp is just C natural on the piano, or to the fact that "Beatles" sounds like "B Dulls"? Both?
    • Homer spurring George Harrison's introducing himself in favor of getting one of the brownies he was eating. Did Homer fail to recognize Harrison or did he know exactly who he was but just thought the brownie was more important?
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees;
    • A Capella really was a very popular music genre in the 1980s.
    • The Kalahari Surfers actually had an album called Bigger Than Jesus in 1989.
    • Trading cards of religious figures are a real thing (although, depending on the denomination of the religion, the pictures might not have depictions of any of the figures' faces, because that counts as a violation of one of the Ten Commandments).
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Apu's membership with the Be Sharps gets funnier when it's revealed in "Lisa the Vegetarian" that he's friends with Paul McCartney and his then-wife Linda, as he first met Paul in India when The Beatles were with the Maharishi in 1968.
  • Humor Dissonance: Played for Laughs twice.
    • Bart and Lisa find a Be Sharps album.
      Bart: Dad, when did you record an album?
      Homer: I'm surprised you don't remember, son! It was only eight years ago.
      Bart: Dad, thanks to television I can't remember what happened eight minutes ago. (Homer, Marge and Lisa laugh hysterically.) No, really, I can't, it's a serious problem! (They keep laughing. Bart uncomfortably joins in.) What are we all laughing about?
      Homer: Who cares?!
    • When the barbershop quartet are trying to come up with a name for themselves, Skinner says that they need a name "that's witty at first, but that seems less funny each time you hear it." Apu suggests "The Be Sharps," and everyone is accordingly in hysterics. The name is repeated, and everyone responds with awkward, forced laughter, convincing them it's perfect.
  • One-Scene Wonder: The hysterical man who screams "This enormous woman will devour us all!", after Homer refers to the Statue of Liberty.

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