Line #17 Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E11That90sShow


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px_sadgasm.jpg]]
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3	"That '90s Show" is the eleventh episode of the nineteenth season of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. In this episode, Homer and Marge reminisce about their relationship in the 1990s (retconning their long-established 1970s background), when he was an aspiring musician and she went to college.
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5	!! Plot:
6	On a cold evening, the family shivers by the fireplace, as Homer is too cheap to have the heating fixed, thinking that global warming would be enough. While looking for something for the fire, Lisa finds a college diploma belonging to Marge, who had previously said she and Homer married and had Bart a couple of years after high school. Since she knows that Bart is 10 and her parents are almost 40, Lisa ponders about what happened in the decade in-between. Homer and Marge then proceed to tell their children about the experiences the two of them lived in the 1990s.
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8	Having recently moved together, Marge is accepted into Springfield University while Homer, who is part of a light harmony quartet with Lenny, Carl and Officer Lou, takes a demeaning job at Abe's laser tag arcade to pay for her very expensive studies. At college, Marge becomes infatuated with her progressive professor Stefane August, who is a staunch feminist and tells her that Homer is a "townie" who would never really appreciate her. Finding them together, a heartbroken Homer decides to radically change the sound of his group into a new style of rock he calls "grunge" (for '''G'''uitar '''R'''ock '''U'''tilizing '''N'''ihilist '''G'''runge '''E'''nergy). Marge dislikes Homer's new music for its dourness and anger, and after he mocks Professor August, they decide to break up their relationship.
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10	Upon moving in with Stefane, she begins to find his sensitivity rather overblown and sours on him. After he tells her that marriage is an outdated, oppressive and misogynistic institution, Marge (who expects to marry) realizes that the Professor was merely using her and breaks up with him. In the meantime, Homer's band Sadgasm becomes popular, but fame is little comfort for him after his breakup (even after having one of his songs covered by Music/WeirdAlYankovic), and he composes "Margerine", a heartfelt song dedicated to Marge, who realizes that Homer still loves her. After finding out that Sadgasm has broken up as Homer has become a recluse and probably an heroin addict, she runs to aid him (turns out that Homer's supposed heroin habit was actually ''insulin'' because he got diabetes from drinking too many frappuccinos). After they make up, they both spend the night at the mini-golf course Bart was conceived in.
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12	!! Tropes:
13	* AcademicAlphaBitch: The Springfield University students and the elderly professor, who mock the "townie" Homer after he says the name Joan Miro as it's spelled, instead of the correct pronunciation "Juan Me-row."
14	* AnachronismStew: The episode takes place in the mid-90s, but on a Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog billboard Amy Rose is depicted with her modern design, which she wouldn't have until ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'', which wasn't released in North America until 1999.
15	* ArtisticAge: One of the few times Bart and Lisa have commented on the age of their parents in relation to their age, pointing out that being close to 40 means there was a significant gap between the two dating in high school and having 10 year old Bart. Marge actually celebrated her 32nd birthday in the first season, with Homer roughly the same age, but despite having young kids both have been treated as being much older than they realistically would be.
16	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Grunge existed before UsefulNotes/TheNineties, with bands like Green River, The U-Men, and Malfunkshun pioneering the subgenre in the 1980s. The word "grunge" as applied to the sound also predates the early '90s. Creator/SubPop popularized it by using it to market Green River around 1987, and the first recorded use of the word in relation to the Seattle music scene dates to 1981. Another historical liberty is taken with the "Marvin Cobain" joke since {{Music/Nirvana}} had already formed and produced grunge music by 1990, including ''Music/{{Bleach\|Album}}''.
17	** Young Homer references the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode "The Sponge", which premiered in 1995, and Kurt Cobain is still alive when in reality he died in 1994.
18	* BaitAndSwitchComment: Homer brings two coats and two pairs of gloves and tells Bart and Lisa they'll keep them warm. He then throws the coats and the gloves at the fireplace.
19	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Frustrated with Marge spending a lot of time with her professor, Homer tells her that she should go with him. [[LittleDidIKnow Little did he know]] that Stefane was within earshot and agrees to take Marge.
20	* TheCameo:
21	** Music/WeirdAlYankovic appears on ''The Simpsons'' again, this time doing a parody of one of Sadgasm's "Shave Me", calling his version "Brain Freeze".
22	** Creator/{{MTV}}'s Kurt Loder delivers a news report about Sadgasm's breakup.
23	* ChastityCouple: Homer and Marge lived together, SleepingSingle on air mattresses, before they ever had sex, as [[LetsWaitAWhile Marge was waiting]] either for marriage or until she got extremely drunk (as previously established, it was the second thing).
24	* ComicBookTime: This episode (infamously) established Homer and Marge as dating in the mid-to-late '90s, with all cultural touchstones of the time period and changes to their personalities in general, with Homer making a garage band and Marge getting swept up by [[HippieTeacher a new age college philosophy professor]]. Previous episodes had them graduating high school in the '70s, with Marge already a GranolaGirl in the midst of second wave feminism. While NegativeContinuity has been part of the show for a long time, given the show was a major part of '90s culture and had already mocked it as a contemporary thing this also hit a ContinuitySnarl.
25	* ContinuityNod: While updated to reflect the '90s setting, the episode follows up on how Marge and Homer first had sex inside a windmill obstacle at a mini-gold course.
26	* DevotedToYou: Even though Marge was cruel to him and left him for Stefane, Homer still loved her and sung a heartbroken song about her, mentioning her by name.
27	* ExpyCoexistence: Homer is a parody of Music/KurtCobain. To make sure we get the joke (and to make a ShoutOut to a similar scene in ''Film/BackToTheFuture1''), while watching Sadgasm play, a guy makes a phone call, saying "Kurt? This is your cousin Marvin, Marvin Cobain. I've found that sound you were looking for."
28	* FauxYay: When Moe got caught trying to steal a patron's wristwatch, he claimed he was trying to flirt. To Moe's [[OhCrap horror]], his "feelings" were reciprocated.
29	* HippieTeacher: Stefane August reflects the new age college professors that had began popping up in the '90s, many who were actual '70s counterculture hippies and would teach their classes to question everything.
30	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Subverted. Homer goes to Moe's for a drink, only to discover that Moe is offering cigars.
31	* ItWillNeverCatchOn:
32	** A young Comic Book Guy is heard saying "...and that's why ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' can never be filmed."
33	** While splitting up their possessions, Homer takes all the stuff that will be worthless in the following decades (vinyl [=LPs=], Enron stock, VHS tapes) and gives Marge all the stuff that will be successful later on ([=CDs=], Microsoft stock, [=DVDs=]).
34	* {{Jerkass}}: Marge's college professor, Stefane August. He manipulates Marge into dumping Homer for him and acts like he's a revolutionary feminist, but really he's just a jerk who would sleep with one of his students.
35	* MistakenForJunkie: Following the breakup of Sadgasm, Marge bursts into Homer's house and finds him passed out with a syringe stuck in his arm. She throws all his syringes away, thinking he's been using drugs, and nurses him back to health. He'd actually developed diabetes from drinking too many frappuccinos and was injecting himself with insulin.
36	* NiceGuy: Deconstructed with Marge's professor, who is actually quite haughty.
37	* TheNineties: The WholeEpisodeFlashback is set during this time period. Curiously, there doesn't seem to be any real defined period; it should ostensibly be taking place between 1993 and 1998, but Homer's band is clearly meant to be a parody or predating of Music/{{Nirvana}}, which hit it big in 1991.
38	* NinetiesHair: All over the place. Marge has [[Series/{{Friends}} "The Rachel"]], while Homer's hair is boyishly tousled like Music/KurtCobain, Stefane has his hair in a cross between [[Creator/HughGrant Hugh Grant's curtains]] and long Fabio-like hair. Many of the college men have gelled up hair or curtains like Music/NSync or Music/BackstreetBoys or Creator/FreddiePrinzeJr.
39	* ParentalFavoritism: Homer remarks that it's okay for parents to keep secrets, such as who their favorite child is, before adding, "[[CannotKeepASecret It's Lisa]]."
40	* RetCon: This episode attempted to do this Marge and Homer's relationship with them first dating in the '90s rather than the '70s, [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E12TheWayWeWas as previously shown]].
41	* RuleAbidingRebel: Played with, Marge becomes enamored with her college professor Stefane because he has the attitude of everything in society being a lie. This appeals to Marge because of her activism and feminist beliefs, but she starts to see the problems with that mindset when he denounces [[RealWomenDontWearDresses marriage itself as oppressing women]], as she is still interested in marriage.
42	* SecondActBreakup: The third act focuses on Marge being with Stefane and Homer going through a deep depression.
43	* SequelEpisode: Of a sort to "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E12TheWayWeWas The Way We Was]]," a second season episode with a similar premise of Marge and Homer sharing a story before they have kids (due to something else giving the family a lot of time on their hands).
44	* ShoutOut:
45	** The title is an allusion to ''Series/That70sShow''.
46	** The apartment complex that Homer and Marge live in is a reference to ''Series/MelrosePlace''.
47	** Homer's first group was a "new jack swing"-flavored R&B quartet in the style of Boyz II Men.
48	** The scene where Marvin Cobain calls his cousin, Music/KurtCobain, telling them about Sadgasm's sound, is a direct parody of the scene from ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' where Music/ChuckBerry's cousin Marvin calls Chuck to tell him about Marty [=McFly=]'s new sound.
49	** Sadgasm's songs are reminiscent of Music/{{Nirvana}} songs, with the exception of "Margerine", a parody of "Glycerine" by Bush. Weird Al parodying Sadgasm is a reference to his Nirvana parody (numerous artists have said they didn't think they were successful until Weird Al made a parody of their songs). Kurt Loder reporting their breakup is a reference to him reporting on the death of Music/KurtCobain on MTV.
50	*** The music video for ''Margerine'' features Homer playing to a crowd of crash test dummies, which may be a reference to either the [[Music/CrashTestDummies '90s band]] or the [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibleCrashDummies advertising campaign and subsequent toyline]].
51	* StudentTeacherRomance: The whole plot revolves around Marge being involved with one of her professors.

Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS19E11That90sShow