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Recap / The Simpsons S 21 E 11 Million Dollar Maybe

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Homer wins a million dollars in a lottery and must hide his winnings when he realized that he left a wedding reception just to get the ticket. Meanwhile, Lisa teaches the elderly how to play video games.


Tropes:

  • Character Catchphrase: Ricardo attempts this before crashing into a cliffside.
  • Continuity Nod: The novelty checks have Governer Bailey's signature on them.
  • Elder Abuse: The workers at the retirement home are shown to destroy the Funtendo Zii that Lisa brought so they wouldn't have to actually serve to the residents' needs.
    Lisa: I can't believe you would ruin their fun to make your jobs easier.
    Worker: They should have had their fun before they came here!
  • Gratuitous Spanish: While waiting in line to buy the lottery ticket, Homer picked up a book to learn Spanish and managed to describe his day in that language to Chespirito the Bumblebee Man.
  • It's All About Me: Zigzagged. Homer stands up Marge to buy a lottery ticket, but upon actually winning the jackpot, he spends all of it on gifts for his family until Bart corrupts him. He still uses his final earnings on a lavish gift for Marge.
  • Jerkass Ball: For once not (as much) Homer, whose actions are thoughtless but prove to have well meaning intent. Bart however hijacks Homer's plan to indulge himself and essentially make Homer his slave.
  • Karma Houdini:
    • Bart receives no comeuppance for blackmailing Homer for privileges except that he finally stops obeying him.
    • Also, the retirement home workers for destroying the Zii in the dishwasher (though that goes along with the fact that the elderly are always getting screwed over on the show, with the abusers not getting what's coming to them).
  • Killed Mid-Sentence: The new character, Ricardo Bomba.
    Ricardo: Soon you will be...
  • Porn Stash: Parodied when Homer rewards Barney for helping him by letting him browse his stash of adult magazines... like The Economist.
  • Shout-Out: The Zii getting ruined in the dishwasher is based on the myth that the NES was dishwasher-safe.
  • Special Guest: Chris Martin of Coldplay.
  • Take That, Audience!: An unintentional one to the creator of Ricardo Bomba, Peggy Black. Following the Best. Character. Ever. Contest (which her character won), after making his debut in the episode intent on starting his new life in Springfield as of tomorrow, he unceremoniously dies in a car crash while Tempting Fate.
  • Taxman Takes the Winnings: When the million-dollar prize was collected, there's one Giant Novelty Check for the winner's share, and another one for the taxes — nearly one third of the total. Also, it's revealed that the money taken for taxes will go to cover a survey to decide what to do with the money... which had already been spent on the survey.
  • Those Wacky Nazis: There was a video game where the player kills Nazis. As Mr. Burns was playing it, he commented that's not how he remembered it.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Ricardo falls under this as he took too much time to gloat at Homer driving off the cliff. He attempts to say his catchphrase, only to get his car struck by a cliffside.

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