History YMMV / TheSimpsonsS11E13SaddlesoreGalactica

* TheScrappy: The Jockeys are some of the most hated villains on the show just for how little sense they make. They're a good part of why this episode is so [[BizarroEpisode bizarre.]]

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Lisa is painted as a SoreLoser for appealing the Ogdenville band's ill-gotten win, but her outrage is absolutely justified. Even if it wasn't meant maliciously, Ogdenville broke the rules and should have been disqualified, and the competition judge brushed Lisa off when she complained.

* AccidentalAesop: The Ogdenville band cheated (by using glow sticks, expressly against the rules) and won. Lisa spends the rest of the episode appealing to progressively higher authorities until finally then-President UsefulNotes/BillClinton himself overturns the results. He delivers the SpoofAesop "If things don't go your way, just keep complaining until your dreams come true"; Marge points out that it's a lousy moral to take away from this, and Clinton simply replies that [[TakeThat he's a lousy president]]. Be that as it may, "Calmly and logically appeal to authority figures when faced with an injustice" isn't really that bad a moral.

* AccidentalAesop: The Ogdenville band cheated (by using glow sticks, expressly against the rules) and won. Lisa spends the rest of the episode appealing to progressively higher authorities until finally then-President UsefulNotes/BillClinton himself overturns the results. He delivers the SpoofAesop "If things don't go your way, just keep complaining until your dreams come true"; Marge points out that it's not a good moral to take away from this, and Clinton simply replies that [[TakeThat he's not a very good president]]. Be that as it may, "Calmly and logically appeal to authority figures when faced with an injustice" isn't really that bad a moral.

* AccidentalAesop: The Ogdenville band cheated (by using glow sticks, expressly against the rules) and won. Lisa spends the rest of the episode appealing to progressively higher authorities until finally then-President UsefulNotes/BillClinton himself overturns the results. He delivers the SpoofAesop "If things don't go your way, just keep complaining until your dreams come true"; Marge points out that it's not a good moral to take away from this, and Clinton simply replies that [[SelfDeprecation he's not a very good president]]. Be that as it may, "Calmly and logically appeal to authority figures when faced with an injustice" isn't really that bad a moral.

* StrawmanHasAPoint:
** Lisa is painted as a SoreLoser for appealing the Ogdenville band's ill-gotten win, but her outrage is absolutely justified. Even if it wasn't meant maliciously, Ogdenville broke the rules and should have been disqualified, and the competition judge brushed Lisa off when she complained.
** While probably unintentional, Comic Book Guy's complaints come across like this to many viewers, given that this episode does tend to top real-world worst-episode-ever lists.

* AccidentalAesop: The Ogdenville band cheated (by using glow sticks, expressly against the rules) and won. Lisa spends the rest of the episode appealing to progressively higher authorities until finally then-President UsefulNotes/BillClinton himself overturns the results. The Aesop is pretty explicitly spelled out: if things don't go your way, you can always whine to someone until they do. It was clearly meant to be a SpoofAesop; Marge points out that it's not a good moral to take away from this, and Clinton simply replies that [[SelfDeprecation he's not a very good president]]. Be that as it may, "Calmly and logically appeal to authority figures when faced with an injustice" isn't really that bad a moral.

** The Ogdenville band uses glowsticks and wins, even though visual aids were expressly forbidden. Lisa's outrage is justified as the Ogdenville band won despite breaking the rules, as well as her appealing to higher figures, since the competition judge doesn't care about the rules violation and brushes her off when she complains. Even if it wasn't meant maliciously, Ogdenville broke the rules and should have been disqualified. Similarly, the show treats "if the other side cheats, complain until it's fixed" as a spoof aesop, but it's an entirely reasonable response under the circumstances.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: It could be argued that the jockeys could have been anything else besides something as fantastical as elves, such as the Mafia, Illuminati, Stonecutters ([[TheBusCameBack again]]), or just regular jockeys, since they already had motive to sabotage Bart and Duncan anyway. Others have claimed that the idea of jockeys being elves is actually a pretty good gag (jockeys are pretty short, so making a joke about them being secretly elves definitely has some mileage), but it should have been just a quick aside, not a major cog in the third act.

** While probably unintentional, Comic Book Guy's complaints come across like like this to many viewers, given that this episode does tend to top real-world worst-episode-ever lists.

** While probably unintentional, Comic Book Guy's complaints come across like like this to many viewers, given that this episode does tend to top real-world worst-episode-ever lists, though for a completely different reason.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: The episode's attempt to ward off complaints at the pass through Comic Book Guy's StrawFan-ness became this after the episode ended up being disliked for reasons that had nothing at all to do with recycling plot points.

* BrokenBase: Many fans hate this episode and call it one of the worst ever (at best. At worst, they cite it as the point where they invoke FanonDiscontinuity and pretend that every episode after this point doesn't exist), but a fair number enjoy it because it spoofs the {{Flanderization}} and [[DenserAndWackier absurd plots]] that started to crop up in Season 9.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: It could be argued that the jockeys could have been anything else besides something as fantastical as elves, such as the Mafia, Illuminati, Stonecutters ([[TheBusCameBack again]]), or just regular jockeys, since they already had motive to sabotage Bart and Duncan anyway. Others have claimed that the idea of jockeys being elves is actually a pretty good gag, but making it a major cog in the third act was a bad idea.

* BrokenBase: Many fans hate this episode and call it one of the worst ever, but a fair number enjoy it because it spoofs the {{Flanderization}} and [[DenserAndWackier absurd plots]] that started to crop up in Season 9.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: It could be argued that the jockeys could have been anything else besides something as fantastical as elves, such as the Mafia, Illuminati, or Stonecutters ([[TheBusCameBack again]]). Others have claimed that the idea of jockeys being elves is actually a pretty good gag, but making it a major cog in the third act was a bad idea.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: It could be argued that the jockeys could have been anything else besides something as fantastical as elves, such as the Mafia, Illuminati, or Stone-Cutters (again). Others have claimed that the idea of jockeys being elves is actually a pretty good gag, but making it a major cog in the third act was a bad idea.