YMMV / The Simpsons S 6 E 5 Sideshow Bob Roberts

• Angst? What Angst?: Bart is strikingly less concerned about being Held Back in School in this episode versus the last time this happened to him. On the other hand, this time it's thanks to Sideshow Bob's Evil Is Petty machinations rather than his own failings, which means he's not so much held back as forcibly downgraded all the way to kindergarten—which he loves.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: What exactly did Homer do to get him kicked out of Riverdale?
• Genius Bonus: Birch Barlow's first name is likely a reference to the ultraconservative John Birch Society.
• Harsher in Hindsight: After Bob is elected mayor, he orders Principal Skinner to make Bart repeat Kindergarten, which initially horrifies him before he makes the most of it. In "Lisa's Sax", we learn that Bart basically had the worst teacher ever in Kindergarten, who was so disdainful of him that it caused his Start of Darkness.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Again, after "Lisa's Sax." Years after the traumatic beginning of his education, Bart finally gets to have a good time in Kindergarten with a teacher who treats him kindly. No wonder he's reluctant to leave.
  Bart: Aw, tomorrow we were gonna find out who the dish ran away with.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In Boss, Kelsey Grammer resumes his job as an unhindered, criminal mayor, hell-bent on building highways.
  • The mayoral debate in this episode is filmed by FOX, and its moderator is Birch Barlow who has a shameless right-wing bias. This episode aired two years before the debut of FOX News, which has been widely criticized for being biased towards the right.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Clips of Sideshow Bob's Evil Laugh after his victory became quite popular after Donald Trump was elected President in 2016. Additionally, after the defense against impeachment in 2019 boiled down to "There's no such thing as attempted bribery," people quickly pointed to Sideshow Bob's lamentation listed under Insane Troll Logic as a comparison.
  • Smithers as a Mysterious Informant is also a fairly common Simpsons meme source, usually poking fun at how blatantly obvious his true identity is while standing in the shadows.
• Parody Displacement: Chances are that the average viewer is far more familiar with this episode than the 1992 film that heavily inspired it.
• Values Dissonance: Smithers calling his own homosexuality a "choice of lifestyle". A gay character insinuating that they chose their preference, rhetoric more often than not employed by those who believe homosexuality can be "fixed", is something that would absolutely leave a sour taste in the mouths of modern viewers. Of course, he was speaking euphemistically.

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