History YMMV / TheSimpsonsS7E4BartSellsHisSoul

* HarsherInHindsight: Bart's quip about Music/MichaelJackson being [[EskimosArentReal a joke adults make to scare kids]]. At the time, it was due to Jackson's [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxNDb2PVcoM molestation allegations]] first making headlines two years after "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]" aired. It got worse when Jackson was accused of molestation twice more (first in 2003, then again after his death in the [[https://youtu.be/CXOfz1YkWeA "Leaving Netherland"]] documentary), resulting in "Stark Raving Dad" being banned from all future reruns and home media releases (although it can still be viewed on pre-banned home media and online).

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The evil street sweeper who wrecks Bart's bike and then crashes into a nearby subway tunnel entrance.

* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: Milhouse asking how people can benefit from lying about the existence of God is accommodated by the camera zooming in on Lovejoy counting money from the collection plates. While the intended punchline is about organized religion cheating its followers out of money, it can also be interpreted by the amount of money in the plates. Since most of it is coinage, it can also mean that pastors such as Lovejoy don't have much to gain if people aren't willing to question their faith.

* HilariousInHindsight: The joke that prompted Moe to change his place from a bar to a family restaurant was the Hibbert family not knowing what type of place it was. In 2017, the State of Utah enacted a law requiring all eating establishments to post a sign on the outside to indicate if they were licensed as a restaurant or bar in order to avoid families mistakenly taking their kids into bars. After some mockery, the law was altered so restaurants weren't required to post the signs, but bars still have to.

* MemeticMutation: "Wait a minute, this sounds like rock and/or roll!" Go to any video playing "In A Gadda Da Vida," and you'll see this in the comments.

* TheWoobie: This episode is just Bart being jerked around by an asshole Milhouse who taunts him about his soul, plays with it like a toy, extorts Bart for it, and uses it as currency [[KarmaHoudini all while getting away with it in the end]]. Lisa explicitly taunts him quite a bit as well despite being the one who winds up helping him get it back probably because she thought he needed a dose of karma. With Bart's main misdemeanor of this episode considerably minor compared to other episodes, it's a bit of a karmic imbalance with all the personal anguish Bart goes through.

* HarsherInHindsight: Bart's quip about Music/MichaelJackson being [[EskimosArentReal a joke adults make to scare kids]]. At the time, it was due to Jackson's [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxNDb2PVcoM molestation allegations]] first making headlines two years after "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]" aired. It got worse when Jackson was accused of molestation twice more (first in 2003, then again after his death in the [[https://youtu.be/CXOfz1YkWeA "Leaving Netherland"]] documentary), resulting in "Stark Raving Dad" being banned from all future reruns and home media releases. (Though it can still ge view on pre-banned home media and online).

* HarsherInHindsight: Bart's quip about Music/MichaelJackson being [[EskimosArentReal a joke adults make to scare kids]]. At the time, it was due to Jackson's [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxNDb2PVcoM molestation allegations]] first making headlines two years after "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]" aired. It got worse when Jackson was accused of molestation twice more (first in 2003, then again after his death in the [[https://youtu.be/CXOfz1YkWeA "Leaving Netherland"]] documentary), resulting in "Stark Raving Dad" being banned from all future reruns and home media releases.(Though it can still ge view on pre-banned home media and online).

** Again, Bart claiming Michael Jackson isn't real gains a whole new layer if you're watching after "Stark Raving Dad" was [[OrwellianRetcon pulled from rotation and streaming services]].

* HarsherInHindsight: Bart's quip about Music/MichaelJackson being [[EskimosArentReal a joke adults make to scare kids]]. At the time, it was due to Jackson's [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxNDb2PVcoM molestation allegations]] first making headlines two years after "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]" aired. It got worse when Jackson was accused of molestation twice more (first in 2003, then again after his death in the [[https://youtu.be/CXOfz1YkWeA "Leaving Netherland"]] documentary), resulting in "Stark Raving Dad" being banned from all future reruns and home media releases.

* HarsherInHindsight: Bart's quip about Music/MichaelJackson being [[EskimosArentReal a joke adults make to scare kids]]. At the time, it was due to Jackson's [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxNDb2PVcoM molestation allegations]] first making headlines two years after "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E1StarkRavingDad Stark Raving Dad]]" aired. It got worse when Jackson was accused of molestation twice more (first in 2003, then again after his death in the "Leaving Netherland" documentary), resulting in "Stark Raving Dad" being banned from all future reruns and home media releases.

** Before Ned Flanders ushers his family out of Moe's restaurant, he says, "I expect that type of language at Denny's, but not here!" Since Denny's isn't as well-known outside of the United States, many foreign versions change the target of Ned's TakeThat to UsefulNotes/McDonalds. The German dub uses Burger King.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Is Milhouse that bad, or is he acting that way [[TheDogBitesBack to get back at Bart]] [[ButtMonkey for all the bad things that happened to him]]? It's not like he forced Bart to sell his soul; Bart came up with the idea in the first place to prove a point. For a more supernaturally-slanted explanation, Bart's soul may have turned Milhouse into more of a brat.

* MexicansLoveSpeedyGonzales: By some accounts, this episode has been shown in some Sunday school classes as a way to get conversations started on what the soul is, despite its mockery of organized religion. It helps that the episode doesn't mock faith in itself.

** Again, Bart claiming Michael Jackson isn't real is funny if you're watching after "Stark Raving Dad" was pulled from rotation and streaming services.

** When it comes to the MaybeMagicMaybeMundane plot, is Lisa's guess about what's going on as good as Bart's, or is she an AesopEnforcer purposely goading Bart into valuing his soul by encouraging him to think he really lost it? The question of [[FridgeLogic when, exactly, she got her hands on Bart's soul]] raises a whole new series of ideas and potential interpretations: the fact that Bart camped out in front of the door of the comic shop all night and never encountered Lisa would seem to indicate that she'd already made the purchase of his soul by the time they were eating at Moe's new family restaurant, when she taunted him with his supposed soullessness during grace. Was she: getting in her last wisecracks on the subject with the intention of giving him his soul afterward (inadvertently [[PoorCommunicationKills scaring him into running out to find his soul himself]]), continuing her effort to teach him a lesson, or simply behaving more mischievously than usual because Bart's soul was in her possession at the time?

** When it comes to the MaybeMagicMaybeMundane plot, is Lisa's guess about what's going on as good as Bart's, or is she an AesopEnforcer purposely goading Bart into valuing his soul by encouraging him to think he really lost it? The question of [[FridgeLogic when, exactly, she got her hands on Bart's soul]] raises a whole new series of ideas and potential interpretations: the fact that Bart camped out in front of the door of the comic shop all night and never encountered Lisa would seem to indicate that she'd already made the purchase of his soul by the time they were eating at Moe's new family restaurant, when she taunted him with his supposed soullessness during grace. Was she: getting in her last wisecracks on the subject with the intention of giving him his soul afterward (inadvertently [[PoorCommunicationKills scaring him into running out to find his soul himself]], continuing her effort to teach him a lesson, or simply behaving more mischievously than usual because Bart's soul was in her possession at the time?