Line #34 Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E19TheKidsAreAllFight


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_kids_are_all_fight_promo_1.JPG]]
2	The discovery of an old film strip prompts Homer to tell the story of Bart and Lisa's sibling rivalry when they were younger.
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4	!! Tropes:
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6	* AlreadyMetEveryone: This episode has Bart and Lisa's earliest encounters with Milhouse, Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney occurring before they ever started school.
7	* AmbiguousTimePeriod: Marge's lead-in spoofs the introductions of similar [[WholeEpisodeFlashback flashback episodes]] in earlier seasons of the LongRunner, which [[PeriodPiece clearly anchored the stories in specific years]] before ComicBookTime got stretched to its breaking point.
8	-->'''Marge:''' It all began six years ago. [[ShapedLikeItself The president of back then was the president. The popular music of those times was all the rage]].
9	* AnotherStoryForAnotherTime: Marge says this with regard to the room that's now Maggie's bedroom, where she claims she used to grow weed.
10	* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: When Bart and Lisa ask the young Milhouse for help, he runs into his house to get Kirk, only to be immediately distracted by a cartoon on TV. Then Kirk walks in...and is immediately distracted by the same cartoon.
11	* BrainyBaby: Two-year-old Lisa is nearly as articulate and smart as her eight-year-old counterpart, pulling a WoundedGazelleGambit on the bullies and correctly understanding the meaning of the word "crown" (referring to Jack's head rather than, as Bart assumes, a literal crown) in the nursery rhyme "Jack and Jill."
12	* BystanderSyndrome: Marge asks Homer why he didn’t think to intervene in the fights while taking the pictures, to which Homer replies that the lighting was so good he didn’t want to miss the chance.
13	* CallBack: Grandma Flanders and Bart's monster clown bed make their first appearances since "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E10LisasFirstWord Lisa's First Word]]" way back in season 4.
14	* CheatedDeathDiedAnyway: The action of the episode starts when Grandma Flanders apparently dies while babysitting the kids. An epilogue shows that she was rushed to the hospital and managed to pull through, only to be killed by (seemingly) [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Ned's loud chorus of "Amazing Grace" upon learning she survived]].
15	* ContrivedCoincidence: Bart and Lisa get trapped on top of the Springfield Tire Fire, and Homer bends a nearby tree for them to reach. The branch he's holding breaks, sending them shooting across town...straight through the window of their bedroom for a safe landing on [[ChekhovsGun Bart's clown bed]].
16	* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: Marge narrowly stops Homer from telling them he lost his kids while they weren’t under his watch.
17	* EveryCarIsAPinto: Even pedal cars, apparently!
18	* FauxHorrific: Bart and Lisa are terrified of and flee from a “big dog” - a chiauwa.
19	* FireForgedFriends: According to Homer and Marge, being lost in the neighborhood together as embattled toddlers led to Bart and Lisa developing the camaraderie they have now.
20	* HappyEndingOverride: In "Lisa's First Word," two-year-old Bart [[InfantSiblingJealousy hated baby Lisa]] until her first word turned out to be his name, prompting the discovery that [[BigBrotherWorship she had loved him all along]] and causing the two to bond immediately. This episode shows that within the next two years they had become bitter enemies who constantly and violently fought one another to the point of alarming their parents and making them impossible to take anywhere.
21	* HypocriticalHumor:
22	** Homer strangles Bart for hitting Lisa with the Phonic Frog. Bart picks up a lamp and smashes it on Homer's head to save himself. Homer's response to Bart's behavior?
23	--->'''Homer''': Where is he learning all this violence?
24	** Ralph Wiggum witnesses a TooDumbToLive action on Bart's part and calls him "stupid" before casually doing something even more dangerous.
25	* InvisiblePresident: Variant. It's mentioned that the President in the flashback was "the President."
26	* LampshadeHanging: Marge asks Homer why he simply stood and took pictures instead of intervening in Bart and Lisa’s fights.
27	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:
28	** Moe develops the photos and Marge thinks he's asking her if she'd like a "matte" finish. He just means he'll write "[[Creator/MattGroening Matt]]" in the right-hand corner.
29	** When Homer adds the epilogue explaining what happened to Ned's grandmother, an exasperated Bart and Lisa ask him to stop telling the story as it's had "[[SelfDeprecation three natural endings already]]"--poking fun at the way the three-act structure had changed to four segments plus TheTag when the show went into HD.
30	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Homer ''shoots'' a pizza the guys want him to help them eat to show he's more concerned about his lost kids.
31	* PreAsskickingOneLiner: 2-year-old Lisa has this to say before whacking Bart with a classic picture book:
32	-->'''Lisa:''' ''Literature/GoodnightMoon?'' Goodnight ''BART!''
33	* TheRunaway: Bart and Lisa escaping into town on their own is about the only time when Marge and Homer are worried about them [[FreeRangeChildren being out by themselves]]. Of course, they were much younger at this point in time.
34	* SeriesContinuityError:
35	** Kearney is seen as a kid along with Dolph and Jimbo, despite the series typically implying that he's many years older than both of them, being [[YoungerThanTheyLook a young-looking adult man]] with a child of his own in the show's present.
36	** According to "The Musk Who Fell to Earth," a mere seven episodes ahead of this one, Bart named Maggie. Here, Homer comes up with the name while he's searching for the young Lisa and Bart, as he realizes it would be a great name to yell if their hypothetical third kid gets lost.
37	* SiblingRivalry: The classic rivalry between Bart and Lisa was ''[[{{Exaggerated}} much]]'' worse when Bart was four and Lisa was two, to the point where the current Bart and Lisa are [[EveryoneHasStandards quite confused by all of Homer's pictures of them fighting]] and wonder how they ever developed "the uneasy alliance we enjoy today."
38	* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: [[AvertedTrope Averted.]] While Homer and Marge were looking for Bart and Lisa, Homer entered a municipal building and started telling about the missing kids until Marge interrupted him because the building served as headquarters for social services.
39	* TakeThat: Moe claims Bart and Lisa used to fight "like creationists and common sense".
40	* TooDumbToLive: Bart's been warned of stranger danger and, seeing strangers on the sidewalk, [[ComicallyMissingThePoint drives his tricycle into heavy traffic to avoid them]]. He's promptly outdone by Ralph Wiggum:
41	-->'''Ralph:''' Your brother is stupid! ''([[HypocriticalHumor He stands inside the tire of a moving truck and sings as it rolls away]])''
42	* UninhibitedMusclePower: When Bart and Lisa get trapped on top of the Springfield Tire Fire, Marge hopes that seeing the kids in danger will trigger this in Homer, having read of several similar cases. Although Homer tentatively says he's "kind of feeling it," he's not actually enabled until [[SkewedPriorities Marge mentions that they just bought them new shoes]], causing him to bend an ''entire tree'' down to where the kids can reach it.
43	* UselessBystanderParent: While looking at the photos of Bart and Lisa fighting and picking on each other, Marge questions Homer, who took the pictures, why he didn't intervene. Homer's answer is that the light was too perfect to step in.
44	* WholeEpisodeFlashback: The majority of the story takes place six years prior when Bart was 4 and Lisa was 2. They were fighting so much that Marge and Homer were at their wits end; during a brunch double-date with the Flanders, Bart and Lisa end up escaping their babysitter and go on an adventure around town.
45	* WoundedGazelleGambit: Back when Bart and Lisa were younger, she pulled one to trick some bullies into leaving Bart alone.
46	* YourAnswerToEverything: {{Parodied}}:
47	-->'''Marge:''' We have to find some answers.

Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS26E19TheKidsAreAllFight