Original air date: 12/6/1998
Production code: AABF-04
While driving home from a Old West tourist trap, Homer ignores Grampa Simpson's pleas to let him use the bathroom, which causes the old man to blow out both of his kidneys. With Grampa at death's door, Homer decides to give a kidney to his father — then runs off when he becomes afraid of what being an organ donor will do for him.
This episode contains examples of:
- All Part of the Show: One of the actors at the attraction is a sickly alcoholic who asks for help and then falls in a tub and presumably drowns. All of the tourists (save for Lisa) do in response to this is laugh at him and snap pictures. Even Bart replied back to his sister when she asked if someone should help him that the guy knew what he was doing.
- Are We There Yet?: A variant.Grampa: Am I dead yet?Marge: No.Grampa: How 'bout now?Marge: No.Grampa: Now?Marge: I'll tell you when you're dead, Grampa.Grampa: Thank you.
- Artistic License – Biology:
- A "kidney blowout" due to holding in urine for a long time is physically and medically impossible, as the kidneys (much like the liver) are just a filter that makes body waste. If any organ in the urinary tract was going to suffer from having too much urine in it, it would be the bladder (and he would have wet himself before dying of sepsis). Also, if Grampa's urinary system was compromised and Homer didn't want to donate a kidney, they could have put Grampa on dialysis until a donor could be found, but this is never brought up.
- Homer having his kidney more or less harvested. Even if it was a consenting operation, no surgeon in their right mind would remove a kidney meant to be donated when the patient's body is in such bad shape from an accident. If anything, Homer's kidney would be deemed unfit for donation. There's also the issue that Homer is both overweight and an alcoholic (on top of being middle aged). Even if he hadn't been in an accident, it's very unlikely his kidneys would be in any shape to be donated.
- Artistic License – Music: The "accordion" the Frenchman on the ship is playing, which he mentions that he stole from a blind monkey, is actually a concertina, a similar but distinctly different instrument. Presumably, the writers used the accordion instead because most viewers wouldn't know what a concertina is.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- While touring the ghost town that was famous for its prostitution rings.
Tour Guide: First on our tour is the whorehouse. Then we'll visit the cathouse, the brothel, the bordello and finally the old mission.Marge: Oh, thank heaven.Tour Guide: Lots of prostitutes in there.- While on his deathbed, Grampa tells Marge and the kids that he's going to a better place...Shelbyville Hospital.
- Bathroom Control: Played for Black Comedy. Grandpa Simpson has to use the bathroom, but he can't because his son Homer won't stop the car. This makes his kidneys explode.
- Christianity is Catholic: When Marge asks Reverend Lovejoy to perform the last rites for Grampa, Lovejoy retorts, "That's Catholic, Marge. You might as well ask me to do a voodoo dance."
- Clueless Aesop: The episode doesn’t really seem to have any overall message since Homer runs away again after coming back.
- Continuity Snarl: Grampa is said to have two functional kidneys, but in "Old Money"note , he told Bea he had one kidney (unless he meant one that was functioning).
- Couch Gag: The Simpsons are frogs (with Maggie as a tadpole) jumping onto a lily pad. Homer uses his tongue to turn on the TV.
- Dirty Coward: Homer, big time. Despite being the one who caused Abe's kidneys to explode, he runs away twice instead of giving up his kidney which could have saved his life.
- Dirty Old Man: Played with by Grampa. While in the saloon and after one of the robotic can-can dancers' plastic butt flies off and lands next to him, he pinches it and calls it "sweet cheeks", only for a plastic hand to come flying by and slapping him across the face.
- Distinction Without a Difference: Homer insists to Moe and his fellow bargoers that his upcoming kidney extraction surgery is a "procedure," not an "operation."
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Edited for Syndication: Years after this episode debuted in syndication, certain networks began editing the robot saloon scene, putting blur effects over the bare butts of the robot dancers, including the severed butt that lands next to Grandpa. Its uncensored on FXX and Freeform, however. - Embarrassing Hospital Gown: At the port, Homer's butt is exposed from his hospital gown to several onlookers, much to their disgust.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- The Frenchman may have stolen his accordion (actually a concertina) from a blind monkey, but he (and the other passengers on the Ship of Lost Souls) would never dream of leaving their fathers to die in the hospital after promising them a kidney.
- Neither would Bart, a boy once hailed as "America's Bad Boy." Though, he is reluctant to give his kidney away to Homer when he plans to steal it in the future.
- Even Dr. Hibbert, who usually laughs at inappropriate moments, is upset by the turn of events. He does laugh, but there's no humor in it and no joy in his expression.
- French Accordion: One of the members of the "Ship of Lost Souls" is a Frenchman with an accordion (which he says he stole from a blind monkey).
- Ghost Town: The family visits one converted to a tourist trap in the first act.
- Great White Hunter: A Englishman dressed in the usual fashion is among the passengers of the Ship of Lost Souls, and mentions his story has tigers.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: Neither side has the moral high ground in this episode:
- On one hand, Homer refuses to let Grampa stop to pee, resulting in a kidney blowout, then backs out of the operation after promising him a kidney (twice).
- On the other hand, Dr. Hibbert lied to Homer about the severity of the operation to get him to go through with the donation, then outright stole his kidney while he was unconscious, with none of the rest of the family objecting to this.
- Complicating matters further, Homer's decision to run away was partly spurred by Hibbert lying to him, while Hibbert only stole Homer's kidney after he ran off the second time, and it's implied that if Hibbert hadn't done so, Grampa would have likely died.
- Handicapped Badass: The bartender, apparently.Homer: Hey, robot! Get your metal ass down here![the bartender walks down to Homer]Bartender: First of all, I'm not a robot. And second, I got this metal ass in 'Nam, defending this country for lazy jerks like you. Now what'll ya have, pard'ner?
- Ironic Name: Bloodbath Gulch: The friendliest town in the old west.
- Jerkass Ball: Homer grabs it by declining to stop the car and allowing his father to pee (he really doesn't wants to miss an episode of Inside the Actors Studio interviewing F. Murray Abraham) and then continues by refusing to donate a kidney to his father, even running away and leaving him to die. Everyone in the Ship of Lost Souls, themselves no saints at all (including one murderer and a man who stole from a blind monkey) is disgusted by what he did.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Homer's fears were pivoted by the fact Dr. Hibbert (and everyone else) outright lied to him about the dangers of the operation so he'd agree. When they can't make him donate willingly, Hibbert outright steals his kidney while he's unconscious. While it's Dirty Cowardice at its finest, would you trust your body in the hands of a quack that deceives and outright mutilates you without your consent?
- Laser-Guided Karma: Homer getting crushed by a car and having his kidney removed while unconscious after he bailed on the operation for the second time.
- Last Request:Homer: If I die during the operation, will you do one thing for me?Marge: Oh, anything sweetheart!Homer: Blow up the hospital.Marge: Hrmmmm. Well, I said I'd do it, so I guess I'll have to.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Homer's cowardice is partially pivoted by the fact Dr. Hibbert lied about the dangers of the operation to make him go through with it. When he fails to get Homer to willing go through with it, he outright steals the kidney from him while he's unconscious.
- My Car Hates Me: Homer's car breaks down and won't start just outside the Retirement Castle.
- Never My Fault:Homer: This is everyone's fault but mine.
- Noodle Incident: A whole Ship of Lost Souls full of them, barring the French man with the accordion (see Even Evil Has Standards above) and the woman who robbed a bank with a frozen loaf of bread. The Lorre Lookalike mentioned that he did something that got him banned from a car wash, though we never find out what it was.
- Organ Theft: Near the end of the episode, Homer escapes just as the operation is about to go underway. However, he gets hit by a car that falls on top of him from Hans Moleman's car carrier trailer, and since he wasn't going to give up the kidney willingly, Dr. Hibbert took it from him and gave it to Grampa while nursing Homer back to his normal self.
- Politically Correct History: Averted, Bloodbath Gulch openly advertises it's sordid history in the history tour, very open about the fact that the whole town was basically one giant bordello.
- Potty Failure: Played for Drama; because Homer wouldn't stop to let Grampa use the bathroom, Grampa's kidneys exploded and is now near death.
- Rash Promise: Played for Laughs. Homer asks Marge to make him a promise if he should die during an operation. After Marge replied, "Oh, Anything, Sweetheart," Homer asks her to blow up the hospital. Marge then comments to herself, "Hmm... Well, I said I'd do it."
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Homer about the bartender having a metal ass. Homer's reason to call him that is because he believed that the bartender is a robot. The bartender is actually a human who "got this metal ass in 'Nam".
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Grampa acts rudely towards the bartender, but when he mentions that, like Grampa, he's also a military veteran, Grampa simply says "Up yours, hippie!"
- Shout-Out:
- The episode title references the Roger Rabbit short "Tummy Trouble" that opened up the beginning of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
- Grampa slowly walking to Homer's car while he tries to restart it parodies Night of the Living Dead (1968).
- The robot cowboy chasing the robot hooker on a balcony is based on a similar scene in the original Pirates of the Caribbean Disneyland ride.
- The passenger wearing a tuxedo looks and sounds just like Peter Lorre.
- One of the shops on the pier that Homer escapes to is a taffy shop named "Call Me Delish-mael."
- Someone over the hospital intercom goes "Doctor Bombay, come right away."
- One of the people on the "Ship of Lost Souls" is a woman in a wedding dress whose tale is about jilted love, not unlike Miss Havisham from Great Expectations.
- Tempting Fate: Hans Moleman almost runs over Homer with a car transporter. Homer remarking how close it was is interrupted by a car rolling off the transporter and crushing him.
- "Wanted!" Poster: Bart gives Marge a flyer of Homer, who is apparently wanted for bad behavior in the short time he and the family are at the spot. While Marge initially believes that it was just a novelty poster Bart got at the gift shop, Bart then points out that actual posters are being distributed of Homer.
