Original air date: 1/28/2007 (produced in 2006)
Production code: JABF-05
Another anthology episode — this time, centered on the consequences of taking revenge.
Tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: After Martin suggests that he and his fellow nerds go to the principal to report the bullies, Principal Skinner appears before them tied up and used as a puck for the bullies' game.
- Alternate Aesop Interpretation: In-Universe, Homer insists that the real moral of Lisa's storynote was to never put down your weapon.
- Ambiguous Time Period: "Bartman Begins," spoofing the Batman franchise, of course.Bart: My story takes place in a time I call the past.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- While Lisa and Marge both talk about why revenge is bad, Bart's story tries to convince his dad that revenge is good. What he didn't realize is that Homer and the Texan had talked things out off-screen.
- As well, the Simpson family was en route to the airport to take a flight to Hawaii (which means the first two minutes look like yet another "travel episode"), but the Rich Texan cut Homer off and Homer got upset by it. By the time he catches up to the Texan (and decides to make up), it's night already and the flight has long since departed.
- Black Comedy Rape: In the "Monte Fatso" segment, Burns mentioned that he frequently violated Homer while he was sleeping.
- The Chosen One: Milhouse is chosen to use the Getbackinator because he's the only nerd with hand-eye coordination.
- Clark Kenting: When revealing himself, the Count must remove his fake dot from his face.
- Composite Character: In Marge's version of The Count of Monte Cristo, Moe is a composite of two of the four rivals, Danglars (who was jealous of Edmond Dantès' financial success) and Fernand Mondego de Morcerf (who wanted Edmond's fiancée Mercedes for himself).
- The Cowl: Bartman, since he's a Batman parody.
- Demoted to Extra: Bart is annoyed that Lisa only gave him a single part in her story which is him crying out "Aye Caramba!" during Milhouse's rampage.
- Downer Ending: The "Monte Fatso" and "Revenge of the Geeks" segments end with the protagonists suffering the consequences of their revenge quests (Homer being so focused on his revenge that he neglected to return to his family, Milhouse having the Getbackinator used on him by Nelson). They're justified examples since Marge and Lisa are trying to convince Homer that seeking revenge was wrong.
- Disproportionate Retribution: One man (Rich Texan) cuts off Homer in traffic and Homer wastes the whole day chasing after him with full intent to beat him up with a baseball bat out of road rage.
- Heel Realization: Milhouse realizes his revenge scheme has gone too far when he almost uses the glove on Lisa.
- He Who Fights Monsters: The lesson of Lisa's story. Homer, on the other hand, believed that the moral was "Never put down your weapon".
- Hurricane of Puns: The Serpent uses a hurricane of snake puns as he robs the rich patrons of their jewels and money.The Serpent: I'll be snaking those jewels and venom gotta go! Sorry I didn't asp your permission. Hope that's cobra-cetic.
- Irony:
- Homer is a fan of The Count of Monte Cristo but doesn't pay attention when Marge retells the story to show why revenge is a bad thing.
- Marge and Lisa try to talk Homer out of taking revenge with their stories, but he doesn't listen. Bart encourages revenge with his story, but Homer makes up with the Rich Texan by the time Bart's finished.
- Lame Pun Reaction: After the Serpent performs his Hurricane of Puns, Krusty calls him out saying puns are lazy writing. He gets shot for stating his opinion.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:Bart: So you see, revenge is great, and there's three ways to talk about it. Although two of the ways were kind of the same way, and even the third one might have worked better as a Halloween story.
- Legacy Character: Averted. In the third story, Bart is trained by the Crimson Cockatoo and offered a chance to replace him but decides to become Bartman instead.
- Mass Hypnosis: The Serpent's pipers are able to hypnotize the gala attendants into dancing on command leaving them susceptible to the villain's thievery.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the end, Milhouse decides that he's gotten Drunk with Power and takes off the Getbackinator... but does absolutely nothing else, which allows Nelson to pick it up and brutalize him with the gadget.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Homer ultimately decides against taking revenge on the Rich Texan... because, as he learns, they both come from Connecticut.
- Off with His Head!: Willie ends up being decapitated by the Getbackinator. Though he's self-conscious enough to clean up his bloody mess.
- Precrime Arrest: Milhouse, while on his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, decides to bully a new student (it's his first day at Springfield Elementary) by justifying it as "prevenge".
- Pun: Two of Milhouse's targets on his revenge list include Willie and Nelson. But the way they're placed together makes it seem like Milhouse also wants revenge on Willie Nelson.
- Race Against the Clock: In essence, this is what the wraparound story is: Homer is chasing after the Rich Texan, intending to beat him up with a baseball bat because he cut Homer off on the highway. Marge, Lisa, and Bart (respectively) try to talk Homer out of it with stories before Homer manages to catch up and follow through with his plan.
- Revenge: The overarching theme of the episode.
- Revenge is Sweet: This trope is discussed with Bart's story to contrast to Marge and Lisa's stories on how revenge only brings more pain and misery (Marge's story) and how revenge makes a person as bad as their target (Lisa's story).
- Same-Sex Triplets: Marge's story features three Moe-faced Maggies.
- Self-Serving Memory: Homer intends to pin the blame on attaching the Rich Texan on Maggie if he gets caught, "just like the time [he] shot Mr. Burns".
- Shout-Out: One of the prisoners is The Man in the Iron Mask.
- Skewed Priorities: Again, the Simpsons had a trip to Hawaii booked, but Homer decided that getting revenge on the guy that forced him to brake suddenly was much more important.
- Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Milhouse in Lisa's story. He starts off reasonably enough, wanting to get back at the bullies who tormented him and his friends For the Evulz for so long, but he later begins exacting revenge against people who only minorly inconvenienced him. The final straw comes when Milhouse targets a kid who did nothing to him, just because the kid might wrong Milhouse at some point in the future; at this point, Milhouse has sunk to the level of his bullies.
- Spoof Aesop: The moral of Bart's story is that Revenge is Sweet.
- Superhero Episode: The Bartman Begins segment.
- Take That!:
- Homer's early response to Marge:
Marge: Homer, no! Revenge doesn't solve anything!
Homer: Then what's America doing in Iraq?!- The credits are dedicated to everyone who died in the Star Wars films... which includes this:Unfortunately, not Jar Jar Binks.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Homer isn't thrilled with having to listen to Bart's story.
- Training Montage: With Grandpa's help, Bart undergoes an impressive training montage that makes him ready to take on the criminal underworld.
- We Can Rule Together: Milhouse tries to make Lisa his "queen" under the threat that he could use the glove on her.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The episode makes clear that it's not in Connecticut, although Homer and Rich Texan were born there (this episode).
- Whole-Plot Reference: Each story is based on a different work:
- "The Count of Monte Fatso" is a parody of The Count of Monte Cristo
- "Revenge of the Geeks" is a parody of Revenge of the Nerds
- "Bartman Begins" is a parody of you-know-who.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Milhouse after using the Getbackinator.
- You Killed My Father: In Bart's story, the protagonist wants to avenge his deceased parents.
