YMMV / The Simpsons S7 E17 "Homer the Smithers"

• Alternative Joke Interpretation: It's heavily implied that Smithers is spending his vacation at a gay resort and tells Mr. Burns over the phone that the place does not allow picture-taking. Does the place really have photography banned on the premises to protect the privacy of its guests, or did Smithers just make that up to avoid showing pictures to Burns and potentially outing his sexuality? (Which was still a secret at this time.)
• Catharsis Factor: After everything Mr. Burns did in the previous seasons, it's incredibly satisfying to see Homer finally deck him in the face.
• Signature Scene: The scene where Homer tries to make Burns' breakfast (ending with him setting fire to a bowl of cereal) has become known as one of the funniest scenes the show has ever done, and the epitome of Epic Failures in cartoon history.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Smithers is made out to be a sympathetic figure who lost his job because he trusted the wrong person to do his job while he went on vacation. But it's hard to feel bad for him because he deliberately picked a bad employee so nobody would "outshine" him, seemingly not caring how this would impact his boss (who insisted he take the vacation to begin with, and who Smithers is endlessly loyal to normally) and the fact that the plan either went horribly wrong or worked too well (depending on how you look at it) means that Smithers brought his downfall on himself.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • Marge mentions that Homer doesn't usually wake up until 6 a.m., when The Little Rascals is on. Before the mid-1990s, stations not affiliated with any of the three networks (as well as several cable channels) would dedicate their morning schedules to broadcast old short subjects and cartoons. However, by the time this episode aired in 1996, "classic" blocks were being phased out, being replaced by news/talk programming on UHF stations or more recent shows on cable.
  • The software we briefly see Smithers using on his computer is also very Windows 3.1-aesthetic.

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