Tropes:
- Accidental Truth: Bart wanted to scare a free lunch out of his classmates so he came up with a fake story about a murderous chef. Except he didn't know it was real... ...or that Stanley killed Dr. Swanson's son...
- As Himself: Stephen Sondheim, Andy Dick and James Patterson.
- Art Shift: The "Dark Stanley" sequences are based on the illustrations of Edward Gorey.
- Big "NO!": Krusty gives one after being told by Brandine that only two of the seven Spuckler children were fathered by Cletus—the one that can't sing and the one that can't adlib.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: Bart tells Dr. Swanson that he once dreamt that the Simpsons were cartoon characters, and that their success led to a "crazy propaganda network called Fox News."
- Brick Joke: Bart was sent to therapy for making up a story about a child murdering chef known as "Dark Stanley." But when Dr. Swanson goes to see her own psychiatrist, it turns out that Dark Stanley was actually real—not only that, but Dr. Swanson's own son was murdered by Dark Stanley, by whom she's still deeply traumatized.
- Crashing Dreams: Marge is dreaming of James Patterson, and he's about to ask her to kiss when he suddenly sounds like an alarm clock, waking her up.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Krusty largely hijacked the main plot on whether or not Lisa can teach the Spuckler children by getting them into a contract on his show.
- Musical Episode: Half the plot has several songs.
- Never Learned to Read: Cletus merely signs the contract after pretending to read through it.Cletus: Hamburger, hamburger, hamburger, hamburger...
- Outliving One's Offspring: Dr. Swanson's son was killed by Dark Stanley.
- Pimp Duds: Cletus wears them after becoming his kids' manager.
- Real After All: Shockingly enough, Dark Stanley.
- Shout-Out:
- Lisa's story is a Whole Plot Reference to The Sound of Music, complete with parodies of songs from said musical. The ending parodies The Honeymooners.
- At one point, she takes Cletus's kids to see Un Chien Andalou.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Cletus, after signing on to being a manager to the children. Ultimately subverted when Brandine saves the Spuckler family and is able to get the kids out of their contract by revealing Cletus is only the father of two of the seven children ("the one that can't sing and the one that can't ad-lib," she claims).
- Wham Line: While Bart's therapist is talking with her own doctor about how she can't stop thinking about Bart, her doctor theorizes she's looking at Bart as a replacement for her own son. Who was killed by Dark Stanley.
- Wingding Pupils: Enforced. Krusty gets dollar signs on his eyes when he learns that the Spuckler kids don't have agents. He then takes off the dollar sign contact lenses and comments that he knew he would find a use for them someday.
- Wrongfully Attributed: Krusty thinks Stephen Sondheim was the one who wrote Cats.
