The Simpsons S13 E8 "Sweets and Sour Marge" / Recap

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Original air date: 1/20/2002 (produced in 2001)

Production code: DABF-03

Marge starts a protest to rid the town of sugar and sugar-laced foods after Springfield is named America's fattest town. The source? The Motherloving Sugar Corporation, owned by the Affably Evil Garth Motherloving (guest star Ben Stiller). In protest of her protest, Homer goes into sugar-smuggling.

This episode contains examples of:

Artistic License – Law: Judge Snyder passes a law that bans sugar from the town. In real life, a judge is only supposed to interpret existing laws, preside over trials and pass judgement, and would not be able to make up new laws on the spot. Lampshaded at the end of the episode when Snyder admits that he didn't actually have the authority to enact the sugar banning law, and it is repealed.
Bait-and-Switch Comment: After the non-Simpsons abandon them aboard the Gone Fission, Burns angrily yells at Apu: "Stroke, stroke, stroke!" Apu tells Burns he's stroking as fast as he can, to which Burns clarifies that he meant he was actually having a stroke.
Biting-the-Hand Humor: While burning most of the sugary sweets and food products in town, the police throw a pile of Butterfingers into the flames. The fire rejects the Butterfingers, causing Chief Wiggum to comment that "even the fire doesn't want them.” The Simpsons used to advertise Butterfingers (with Bart commenting "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger!") and it's a well-known urban legend that this joke allegedly got Nestlé to get rid of the show as an advertisement venue.
The Cameo: Among the participants of the human triangle is Roy.
Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Marge derides sugar for being harmful to your health because you could turn fat and sluggish from it, but also concludes a lifetime without sugar can also be detrimental.
Captain Ersatz: Count Fudgula, an obvious parody of Count Chocula.
Card-Carrying Villain: Garth Motherloving. Not only is his birth name apparently "Hitler", but the button to drop sugar on the docks is labelled “obey bad guy,” and every entry in his day-planner is just “evil deeds”.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: Parodied with Garth Motherloving; the very concept of corporate ethics is completely alien to him.
Decoy Protagonist: Marge is the protagonist for the first half of the episode, wanting to get sugar banned due to how unhealthy it is (especially after seeing that Springfield has been named "The Fattest Town in America). Homer takes over the protagonist role in the second half, with the rest of the episode centered on his attempts to smuggle sugar after the ban.
Didn't Think This Through: Whichever one of the sugar smugglers that wrote out the contract which said that they would give Homer and the others the sugar without getting paid.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: The entire episode plays with the idea of sugar being equatable to a drug, especially during the scene where Homer, Mr. Burns, Apu and Count Fudgula smuggle sugar into Springfield. The scene that best hammers this in is when Disco Stu sucks up lines of sugar through a straw in a manner akin to snorting cocaine (which is funny, considering a report in 2012 stated that sugar addiction is similar to cocaine addiction).
Don't Look At Me: Count Fudgula has this reaction when Homer discovers him being part of the sugar smuggling ring, despite being one of the main proponents of the lawsuit, and cowers under his cape in shame.
Driven to Suicide: An anonymous Springfield resident leaps off a building to commit suicide, only to land in the people ball that forms from Homer's people pyramid.
Guy: Goodbye, Cruel World!. [he lands in the pile.] Hello ironic twist!
Everyone Has Standards: Lisa is a Granola Girl and Soapbox Sadie who is (from a statistical point of view) the family's greatest supporter for healthy living, but she immediately supports Bart's and Homer's plan to smuggle sugar into the city when the alternative is eating steamed limes.
Face–Heel Revolving Door: Despite testifying on Marge's behalf on how he got addicted to sugar, Count Fudgula is part of the conspiracy to smuggle sugar back into Springfield. Lampshaded by Homer:
Homer: Count Fudgula? I thought you were trying to get off the stuff.
Count Fudgula: I'm a monster; don't look at me.
Fat and Proud: Most of Springfield is overjoyed when they're announced the world's fattest town. Only Marge is concerned that they're celebrating obesity.
Fate Worse than Death: Lisa doesn't initially believe that getting sugar back is worth Homer and Bart risking their lives. Until Marge announces she steamed limes for dessert, and Lisa shoves them out the door, saying "Godspeed."
Fat Flex: Homer states that he can stop sucking his gut in now that everyone's happy about being fat. He has to exhale twice to let it all hang out.
Going Cold Turkey: The whole town goes weak and depraved from a complete sugar withdrawal thanks to Marge.
G-Rated Drug: What sugar comes off as.
Guinness Episode: Homer tries to get into the Duff Book of World Records, and Springfield is eventually named "America's Fattest Town".
Foreshadowing: While Homer is reading the Duff Book of World Records to his family at breakfast, a bowl of cereal called "Frosting Gobs" can briefly be seen on the table, hinting at the plot to come.
Hard Truth Aesop: Having the government try to force people into healthy lifestyles doesn't work.
Marge: I guess you just can't use the law to nag.
Heel–Face Turn: Judge Snyder decides to overturn his previous decision to ban all sugar from Springfield. He started to miss sugar himself, plus he realized he went beyond his legal authority.
Jerkass: Garth Motherloving is a total jerk, ironically. A bit of Fridge Brilliance here; "Motherloving" sounds like a bowdlerized take on "motherfucking," making him as bad as his name implies.
Literal Metaphor: Homer's Not in My Contract line.
Mood Whiplash:
- The jumper mentioned in Driven to Suicide seems pleasantly surprised that his suicide attempt was foiled by landing in Homer's people ball.
- When Marge wins her case against Motherloving, Homer tells Marge that he's so proud of her. Then Judge Snyder immediately bans sugar from Springfield based on Marge's evidence, prompting Homer to angrily state to her "Get in the car."
Never My Fault: Judge Snyder sides with Marge in enacting a sugar ban on the town claiming that it's the Motherloving Company's fault that he himself got so obese.
Noodle Incident: Apparently, Homer once suggested that he'd only go to Moe's whenever someone said the word 'tavern' (in this case, Lisa).
Homer: She said 'tavern'! I'm going to Moe's!
Marge: I never agreed to that rule!
Not Hyperbole: The sugar smugglers' contract literally did not had a written clause that demanded Homer to pay them. The leader of the smugglers gets angry and demands to know which of his goons wrote the contract once Homer leaves and he gives the document a once over.
Not in My Contract: Homer doesn't pay the sugar smugglers because he claims it wasn't part of the deal. Their leader double checks the contract, finds out it really wasn't, and demands to know which of his subordinates actually wrote it.
Oh, No... Not Again!: Hans Moleman screams this when running from the ball of people.
Reverse Psychology Backfire: Homer tries this on a toucan that steals his map to the sugar rendezvous point. It fails — the toucan just flies away with the map.
Rewatch Bonus: Viewers rewatching the episode might notice the "Obey Bad Guy" button in a scene◊ from right after the non-Simpsons aboard the Gone Fission take a life boat.
Riddle for the Ages: Exactly who wrote that sugar contract, and why would they write a contract that means they have to give a bunch of smugglers an illegal substance for absolutely free?
Rule of Three: Readied in his diving gear, Homer falls backwards off the top of Burns' yacht, landing on the lower deck. He tries again, landing on the flat surface of a nearby whale. He quips "I'm only gonna do this one more time" before managing to land in the water.
Sarcasm Mode: Garth Motherloving "agreeing" to Marge's suggestions.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the cops try to stop sugar from being smuggled into Springfield, Homer declares his team won't give up, only to see the team's non-Simpsons using a life boat to escape.
Sheet of Glass: After sugar becomes illegalized and Homer attempts to smuggle it from an island, he gets chased by Chief Wiggum's police boat. During the chase, Homer comes across two workers on boats holding a sheet of glass, ducking to avoid breaking it. Chief Wiggum swerves to avoid crashing into the glass and a mother on a jet ski pushing a baby carriage, eventually getting his police boat beached.
Shout-Out:
- Homer refers to Marge throughout the second half of the episode as variations of Erin Brockovich (such as "Erin Chocosnitch").
  - The first time the comparison is made, Bart refers to Brockovich as "the prostitute with a heart of gold," obviously confusing Julia Roberts' role as Erin with her character in Pretty Woman.
- One of the sweets burned in the fire is a promotional chocolate statuette of Johnny Depp from Chocolat. It melts in a horrifying, human-esque manner.
- The same remix of the "Axel F" theme used in "Marge vs the Monorail" and "The Springfield Connection" plays when Homer attends the sugar smuggling meeting with Apu.
- Chief Wiggum's boat chase with Homer and Bart while they're trying to smuggle in the sugar is set to the Miami Vice theme.
- Motherloving bribes Homer into helping his plot by showing him a smoking Oompa-Loompa.
- After Maggie gets splattered with fudge, she wipes it off in homage to Oliver Hardy.
Smarter Than You Look: Cletus, a stereotypical slack-jawed yokel, knows how to write in perfect cursive.
Special Guest: Ben Stiller as Garth Motherloving.
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Judge Snyder repeals the ban on sugar after realizing he didn't actually have the authority to enact it.
Take That!: To Butterfingers.
Chief Wiggum: Not even the fire wants them.
Throw the Dog a Bone: Not only does Gil win his first case as a lawyer, but he also defeats the Blue-Haired Lawyer (whose only real courtroom defeat up to this point was in "The Day the Violence Died") in order to do so.
The Tooth Hurts: Count Fudgula lost his fangs to tooth decay from his sugar addiction, and has been forced to use dentures as replacements.