Just another day when your son meets an eccentric man in strange clothing who offers to sell his novelty t-shirts across the country.
Original air date: 12/12/2004
Production code: FABF-21
When the last of his baby teeth fall out, Bart is hit with a sobering realization: he's getting older. After giving a Viking funeral to his toys, Bart becomes depressed about growing up, but combats it by writing sarcastic slogans on T-shirts and selling them, prompting a Willy Wonka-esque salesman to buy them off him.
This episode contains examples of:
- Alliterative Name: Goose Gladwell.
- And Some Other Stuff: Homer looks up directions online for how to build a home nuclear reactor. The descriptions of the "other stuff" are obviously based on Rule of Funny, while the single named ingredient is both the most dangerous and nigh-impossible to get hold of anyway.[The text on Homer's computer screen is too small for the viewer to read.]Homer: Let's see... [pointing to different parts of the text] I can make that...you can get that by smashing open a golf ball...that you can find in any player piano...all I need is some plutonium!
- Arson Murder And Jay Walking: The dial settings on Homer's nuclear reactor, in order, are "Off", "Low", "Nuclear Holocaust", and "High".
- Artistic License – Geography: Goose Gladwell claims to own 20 stores in 30 states. This means his math is wrong too. However, it is possible that several of the stores are located on borders between two or more states.
- Bait-and-Switch: In the credits scene, Bart tries insulting Nelson in hopes that he will punch him and knock his loose tooth out. Nelson comments, "you've given me a lot to think about" and walks away.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Homer's beard mouth detaches from his face for a few minutes after he states that it should be easy to make a nuclear weapon since Korea did it, despite their reputation for crappy overseas animation.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: In the French dub, "ScratchBob ItchPants" is translated to "Scratchy bob l'eponge." "Bob l'eponge" is the correct name of SpongeBob in French, but the translator must have missed that the character depicted is Itchy, not Scratchy.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Krusty's T-shirts include designs of Itchy, Poochie, and Itchy Poochie.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Gladwell's lawyers wear stuff that seem as silly as the bunny ears but it's thanks to them he doesn't need to give Bart a share of the money he obtained from selling the novelty t-shirts' rights to Disney.
- Call-Back:
- The T-shirt reading "Pobody's Sherfect, Nithead" is similar to the cap reading "Pobody's Nerfect" from season six's "Bart vs. Australia."
- Milhouse tries to trade Puppy Goo-Goo (from "Barting Over") for one of Bart's T-shirts.
- When Homer quits his job, Mr. Burns orders him to remove the fillings he got using the dental plan. The Power Plant's dental plan is a major plot point in "Last Exit to Springfield."
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Deconstructed with Gladwell. After a whole episode of him being just weird, he reveals in the final act that his eccentricities are the result of PTSD.
- Comically Missing the Point: Flanders interprets a shirt that reads "get bent" as meaning "kneel down and pray."
- Cope by Creating: Bart makes his T-Shirts to cope with his "midlife crisis".
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Goose Gladwell takes all of Bart's work and sells it, plus the rights to produce any off-spring media out of it, and gives Bart nothing in return. The fact he speaks about how Vietnam drove him crazy when Homer comes to demand the money implies that he was expecting to get violent with his rebuffing.
- Creative Closing Credits: Playing over the credits is a scene in which Bart tries to lose his last baby tooth by insulting Nelson.
- Dirty Cop: Wiggum shuts down Bart's attempt at selling the shirts on his own because he lacks a license, and immediately demonstrates that he did it just to steal the shirts.
- DIY Dentistry: Bart tries to get his last baby tooth out by tying it to the fender of Otto's bus. He doesn't drive far enough through, because he crashes into Superintendent Chalmers' car a few feet away.
- Early-Bird Cameo: This episode, along with "'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky", is an early appearance of Declan Desmond before his major role in "Springfield Up" two seasons later.
- Expy: Goose Gladwell is an expy of Willy Wonka with a big Corrupt Corporate Executive angle and a more awful Freudian Excuse to act so goofy.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: After boasting that Bart will never get any money from the Disney movie versions of his t-shirts, Goose Gladwell attempts a flashy exit, only to get caught by a nail in the trap door vital for his exit. Things get more humiliating for him once he falls down upon being freed from the nail.
- Godzilla Threshold: After Gladwell scammed Bart out of the rights to his work with no form of compensation, Homer goes into his store, armed with his nuclear reactor, and threatens him into paying Bart.Homer: (plants reactor onto the counter) Sir, this is a class two plutonium fissure reactor. If I turn this dial, the resulting blast would destroy the entire tri-city area, (points out the window) including that guy who sells those Blu-Blocker sunglasses people sometimes wear. (turns to wave at him) Damn him to hell.Gladwell: You can't be serious.Homer: (spins around; grabs the dial) Are you prepared to take that chance?(turns the dial slightly; some nearby plastic vomit begins bubbling)
- Gone Horribly Right: Homer decides to help Lisa out with her miniature nuclear reactor project for school... by stealing some plutonium from the Power Plant, and converting it into a real reactor.
- Growing Up Sucks: Bart experiences this first hand when it seems like all of his childhood wonder has vanished, leading him to become cynical enough to make parody T-shirts. As he learns of adult life's more challenging and worst ends of its experiences that aren't so funny or ironic to make fun of, the end of the episode though, he's back to being a kid.
- Gunboat Diplomacy: Homer pulls a hell of a Papa Wolf act at the climax by threatening to set off the miniature nuclear reactor he built right inside Gladwell's store unless he gives Bart the money he earned by making the shirts Gladwell sold. Gladwell wisely concedes to Homer's demands.
- Honking Arriving Car: Goose Gladwell makes several entrances in a wacky Cool Car while sounding a novelty horn that plays "La Cucaracha."
- I Just Want to Have Friends: The Sea Captain tries comforting and befriending Bart while he gives his toys a Viking funeral. Sea Captain just wants a friend who's not a work friend.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Homer brags about how financially independent he is, then asks Bart for money.
- Insult Backfire: In the mid-credits scene, Bart tries to anger Nelson to lose his last baby tooth:Bart: Hey, idiot! You're fat, and your mom's naked on the Internet! You also smell.
Nelson: Hmm... You've given me a lot to think about. - Irony: After some failed attempts to make his last baby tooth fall, Marge accidentally made it happen.
- Karma Houdini: Wiggum gets away with shutting down Bart's first attempt to start up his business.
- Kick the Dog: Wiggum shuts down and steals all of Bart's merchandise for not paying protection money to him as well as Nelson.
- Knight Templar Parent: A particularly impressive example. Homer is furious at hearing Gladwell conned Bart and is willing to risk nuclear devastation to help his son.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After announcing that he sold the rights to Bart's T-shirts and is crewing him out of his cut in the middle his own T-shirt signing, Gladwell attempts a flashy disappearing act, only to wind up hurting himself going through the trapdoor, when his shirt got caught on a nail near the top.
- Last-Second Word Swap: In the opening to the episode, Homer sees Lisa and Janie singing nursery rhymes, and gasps in surprise when it seems they're going about to say something vulgar. However, the nursery rhymes end up being completely fine.
- Major Injury Underreaction: In the beginning of the episode, Marge accidentally lobs a potato peeler in the middle of Homer’s forehead, and at most, all he gives her back is a slightly disappointed look.
- Meaningful Funeral: Parodied. Bart says farewell to his childhood possessions by imitating a Viking funeral, pushing the box out into the lake and burning it.
- Oh, Crap!: Lisa's reaction to finding out Homer has built a working nuclear reactor.
- Older Than They Look: Gladwell looks to be in his late 30s, but since he served in the Vietnam War, he would have been in his 50s at the time the episode aired.
- Perma-Stubble: Homer indicates how in the right light, Bart is starting to get one as a sign of adulthood. Bart remarks that he thought it was chocolate milk.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Variation: When Lisa uses a Krusty Brand Geiger Counter on Homer's reactor, the toy actually recommends dropping it and running away.Geiger Counter: (Krusty's voice plays) That thing's gonna blow! Drop this toy and run!
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Apparently, Gladwell was driven nuts in Vietnam.
- Shout-Out:
- "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" are the nicknames of the atomic bombs created by the Manhattan Project and dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Quite meaningful considering Homer builds a nuclear device.
- Goose Gladwell is based on Willy Wonka.
- The Pink Panther theme is heard when Homer sneaks into the Power Plant.
- Krusty's T shirt designs include "Austin Powers Itchy" and "ScratchBob ItchPants".
- Moe asks if Bart has any T-shirts with Calvin peeing on Hobbes. When Bart says he doesn't, Moe asks, "Well, what do you got him peeing on?" This is a reference to the comic Calvin and Hobbes, but more specifically a series of bootleg car stickers of Calvin urinating on various random brands or objects the user doesn't like.
- The Sea Captain recites "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost.
- The premise of Bart writing on T-shirts to communicate his feelings about growing up bears resemblance to The Yellow Kid, whose main character used this practice as a method of communication, similar to advertising billboards. It's unknown if this was intentional though, considering how obscure the source material is.
- Spoof Aesop: According to Gladwell, Bart should learn not to trust weirdos.
- Spoonerism: One of Bart's T-shirts read "Pobody's Sherfect, Nithead".
- Take That!: Marge views "Support the Troops" as a meaningless slogan. Homer compares it to "Keep On Truckin'."
- Tempting Fate:
- Lisa bets Bart he can't twist his baby tooth. Bart confidently states that he can. Cue him screaming in pain with an exterior shot of the treehouse.
- Bart walks away from the novelty expo saying that while he didn't sell his shirts, at least he still has his health. He is promptly hit by Gladwell's car.
- The Vietnam Vet: Gladwell mentions that he was a Green Beret in Vietnam in the third act... and that he's crazy because of what he saw.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: One of the few instances where Homer sticks up for Bart and is successful in the end for it. When Bart becomes financially destitute and broken after being hoodwinked by corporate extortion and backstabbing, Homer brings the miniature replica nuclear reactor he built for Lisa, and demands the certifiably insane Gladwell to fork up Bart's fair share of residuals.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Homer wants to help Lisa with her science project and win the science fair. He does so by adding plutonium and turning it into a potentially makeshift explosive device. Taken to full definition when Homer hears of Bart being ripped off and mistreated in his T-shirt business, and threatens to take out the entirety of Springfield to psyche out a PTSD crazed Vietnam War vet turned skeazy and insane businessman if he doesn't pay up Bart's share of profits.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Lisa and the science fair disappear from the episode after Bart gets the rights to his shirts sold. Homer and Bart plan to throw the nuclear reactor in the dump, but who ended up winning the science fair?
- The Wonka: Goose Gladwell is a highly unethical variant of the type.
- Your Mom: As the credits roll, we learn that one of Bart's failed attempts to get his last baby tooth to fall consisted on insulting Nelson's mother so he'd punch Bart. It failed because Nelson decided to think about the things Bart said.
