Line #15 Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E13HomerVsLisaAndThe8thCommandment


1	[[quoteright:235:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/235px_simpsons_homer_vs_8th_commandment.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:235:"Come and join you family, Lisa. It won't cost you a thing...'''''except your soul!'''''"]]
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4	'''Original air date:''' 2/7/1991
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6	'''Production code:''' 7F13
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8	Homer gets an illegal cable hook-up, which causes Lisa to worry for her father's soul, as she learned about the 8th Commandment in Sunday school ("Thou shalt not steal") and begins seeing theft everywhere she looks.
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10	----
11	!!Tropes:
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13	* AnyoneRememberPogs: Barney asks Moe why the bar doesn't have cable TV. He replies, "It was that, or the mechanical bull. (camera pans back to show the cobweb encrusted bull) I made my choice, and I stand by it."
14	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: After Moses reads the commandments against idol sculptures and adultery, Homer the Thief asks Moses to read the next commandment, which turns out to be the one against stealing.
15	* BeingGoodSucks: Homer misses the match and deprives himself of cable after his conscience gets the better of him.
16	-->'''Lisa:''' Dad, we may have just saved your soul.\
17	'''Homer:''' Yeah, at the worst possible time!
18	* BodyWipe: With Homer, as he is putting his foot down, after bickering with Marge about unplugging the cable.
19	* BreakingTheFourthWall: At the end of the episode, when Homer decides to literally cut the cable to their house, he winds up accidentally cutting power for most of the city. On his third attempt, the whole screen goes static.
20	* CallBack: While Homer is watching TV, one sound clip heard is [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E9ItchyAndScratchyAndMarge Scratchy saying "Lemonade?"]]
21	* CardCarryingVillain: A brief intro sequence depicts an Old Testament version of Homer who answers to "Homer the Thief" having a friendly chat with "Zohar the Adulterer" and the local "Carver of Graven Images." When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and starts reading aloud from his new stone tablets, the trio are less than thrilled.
22	* CharacterizationMarchesOn:
23	** It seems unusual for Lisa to be so gung-ho about Christian morals after she's been a Buddhist for several seasons, not to mention more concerned with the environment and social justice than her own moral status. She still would not be okay with Homer stealing, of course, but the point is that there would be another reason for it than the one of this episode.
24	** Despite the episode being heavily rooted in Christian morality, Ned Flanders is only seen in the opening scene, and his angry reaction to being offered free cable is shown to be the result of him just generally disliking criminals rather than being a violation of the Eighth Commandment, which is what you'd expect him to object to. Likewise, he briefly mentions that he got basic cable because he wanted to watch the arts and crafts channel; while this isn't ''completely'' inconsistent with his more established character, just about any future episode would have shown him more interested in the Christian channels.
25	* CompressedVice: In addition to stealing cable, Homer has a persistent case of StickyFingers we've never seen up to this point, albeit it only extends to petty amenities such as office supplies from work and mugs from Moe's Tavern. Just to drive it home, his Biblical equivalent in the intro sequence [[CardCarryingVillain is called]] "Homer the Thief." (This trait would eventually [[CharacterizationMarchesOn become an occasionally-seen feature of his character]], usually when it came to the RunningGag of his taking stuff from Flanders.)
26	-->'''Lovejoy:''' You're here for a reason. Is your father stealing bread?
27	-->'''Lisa:''' Maybe. I don't watch him every minute.
28	* CorruptCop: Some cops show up at the Simpson residence upon being informed Homer has an illegal cable hook-up. Homer is initially afraid they're there to arrest him but they tell him they just want to watch the match.
29	* CouchGag: The Simpsons do an Egyptian dance before jumping on the couch in a "Ta-da" pose.
30	* DeadpanSnarker: Lisa forces Marge to admit she ate two grapes to a grocery store clerk. Rather than comically overreacting, the clerk does not care and openly mocks Marge for asking to be charged for them.
31	-->'''Clerk:''' Uh, I need a price check on two grapes. Yeah, you heard me, Phil. Two measly... stinkin' grapes.
32	* DigitalPiracyIsEvil: This trope is played remarkably straight. Even the guy who hooks up the cable is later shown to be stealing car stereos and breaking into houses. Homer, who's shown to have stolen from Moe's and work and is an unabashed alcoholic and JerkAss, comes to view this (although only after [[SoapboxSadie Lisa and Marge]] guilt-tripped him to the point he gave in) as a kind of [[EvenEvilHasStandards evil even]] ''[[EvenEvilHasStandards he]]'' [[EvenEvilHasStandards can't support]].
33	* DirtyKid: Bart takes a liking to the adult programming on Top Hat Entertainment, and charges all the other boys in the neighborhood to come watch it.
34	* DistantPrologue: "Mt. Sinai: 1220 B.C.", when the commandments are first announced.
35	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
36	** When Homer says he only invited a few close friends to watch the fight, and then Apu shows up, it's meant as a joke: the idea is that Homer [[HypocriticalHumor has actually invited anyone and everyone to watch the fight]], even if they're less a "close friend" and more just a "guy I see at the convenience store a lot". Since this episode aired, however, the show has really built up the friendship between Apu and the Simpson family, to the point where him showing up at a gathering of Homer's close friends would make complete sense. It also creates some weird continuity issues after Season 5's "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E1HomersBarbershopQuartet Homer's Barbershop Quartet]]" where Homer and Apu were in a music group together in the 80s.
37	** The episode being so steeped in Christian values can come off as ''incredibly'' weird for the Simpsons considering mocking conservative Christians and Christianity in general would become one of the most common targets for them in the later seasons.
38	* {{Expy}}: When Homer watches TV, at one point, a comedian is on who is essentially Creator/JerrySeinfeld, "Don't you hate it when you go to the bathroom and there's no toilet paper?!"
39	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Jimbo Jones can twice be seen stealing things in the background, at the supermarket and later at the Kwik-e-Mart.
40	* IAmNotShazam: [[InUniverse In-universe]]. Bart's comments while watching hours of movies on cable: "This is where Film/{{Jaws}} eats the boat!" "This is where Film/DieHard jumps out the window!" "This is where Film/WallStreet gets arrested!"
41	* InsistentTerminology: When Mr. Burns shows up to watch the fight, Homer tells Bart to hide the stuff he "borrowed" from work. Bart won't obey until Homer admits that, by "borrowed", he actually means "stole".
42	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: At the very end, Homer's third attempt to cut the Simpsons' cable hookup causes the screen to fill with static, implying that he's just knocked out the viewer's cable instead.
43	* LoopholeAbuse:
44	** Bart takes full advantage of his ability to say "hell" to his parents since that was the topic of that week's Sunday School.
45	--->'''Marge:''' So, what did you children learn about today?
46	--->'''Bart:''' Hell.
47	--->'''Homer:''' BART!
48	--->'''Bart:''' But that's what we learned about. I sure as ''hell'' can't tell you we learned about ''Hell'' unless I say "''hell''", can't I?
49	--->'''Homer:''' Well, the lad has a point.
50	--->'''Bart:''' Hell, yes!
51	--->'''Marge:''' Bart!
52	--->'''Bart:''' [singing] Hell, hell, hell, hell...
53	--->'''Marge:''' Bart, you're no longer in Sunday School. Don't swear.
54	** Later that same day:
55	--->'''Marge:''' What's gotten into Lisa?
56	--->'''Bart:''' Beats the ''hell'' outa me.
57	--->'''Homer:''' BART!
58	* MissingTheGoodStuff: In addition to guilt-tripping him into accepting that stealing cable is wrong, Marge and Lisa guilt-trip Homer into staying outside the house while the boxing match is on (and Homer forces Bart to stay outside, too). As a result, while a large number of people are inside partying, the Simpsons males are suffering in silence.
59	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Drederick Tatum is a parody of Creator/MikeTyson. His opponent Watson is based on Marvin Hagler.
60	* OfferVoidInNebraska:
61	-->"You're watching Top Hat Entertainment. Adult programming all day, every day. Except in Florida and Utah."
62	** The line refers to state and municipal ordinances in those two states attempted during the 1980s that sought to prohibit cable systems from transmitting objectionable content offered by mainstream and adult-oriented pay television services that, through lawsuits filed by HBO and other groups, were struck down in district and circuit courts on First Amendment grounds.
63	* OhCrap: Homer after realizing he just bought cable from a criminal who breaks into people's houses.
64	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The normally friendly Ned is furious that he was offered illegal cable hook-up and yells at the shady cable man to leave.
65	* ParallelPornTitles: The two adult films Bart watched are ''[[Film/StardustMemories Stardust Mammories]]'' and ''[[Film/BroadcastNews Broadcast Nudes]]''.
66	* RightlySelfRighteous: Lisa and Marge guilt trip Homer into giving up cable. Homer eventually admits defeat, but tells them he loathes them for it. They just smirk in response. Earlier, Lisa did the same to Marge over testing two grapes in store, Marge was similarly annoyed by it while Lisa just smiled. She's right and both sides sure know it.
67	* ShoutOut:
68	** The scene in the prologue at Mount Sinai is a pretty obvious spoof of ''Film/TheTenCommandments1956'', with the carver of graven images selling the Golden Bull and Moses being a Creator/CharltonHeston impression.
69	** The sequence where Homer stops the cable guy's truck is a frame-by-frame homage to ''Film/NorthByNorthwest''. The plate on the truck even reads [[FreezeFrameBonus ''1NBNW'']].
70	* SlummingIt: Mr. Burns attends Homer's fight-viewing party so he can experience lower-middleclass life despite being able to easily afford the program himself.
71	* SoapboxSadie: From the moment Lisa learns about the commandments (especially the eighth, "Thou Shalt Not Steal") she gets on it and guilt-trips her entire family into accepting that stealing is wrong and getting varying degrees of humiliation as a result (Marge is insulted by a jackass clerk and Homer accidentally cuts the power to the entirety of Evergreen Terrace trying to cut the cable). Somewhat justified because it stems from fear of her family ending up in hell, which is actually quite normal for a child of her age to have such an exaggerated fear.
72	* SpecialGuest: Creator/PhilHartman as the Cable Guy, Moses and Troy [=McClure=]
73	** And a bunch of the voices on TV. They really got their money's worth out of Hartman's appearance!
74	* StealingFromTheTill: Homer. When Burns and Smithers arrive to the Simpsons' house to see the match, the former asks Bart to hide ''a lot'' of stuff he borrow..., er, stole from the power plant, from pencils to a ''computer'', before the latter enter.
75	* TimePassesMontage: While Homer and the rest of the family watch cable TV after they first got it, a potted plant sapling appears next to the couch (it wasn't there earlier in the scene). As the montage progresses, the plant grows bigger during each fade to the following scene. At the end of the montage, at which point, Marge tells Homer to get ready for church while he's watching ''WesternAnimation/DaveyAndGoliath'', the plant has withered.
76	* WaxingLyrical: The announcer for the world series of cockfighting says, "Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the Bayou", quoting the song "[[Music/HankWilliams Jambalaya (On the Bayou)]]".
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Context Recap / TheSimpsonsS2E13HomerVsLisaAndThe8thCommandment