After a radiation scare due to Homer's usual brand of idiocy, Springfield is placed under closed-circuit TV surveillance but has a group of civilian control, which includes Flanders. On the sub-plot, Lisa is forced to dye her hair brown after being called out for not being a
Dumb Blonde.
Tropes featured in this episode include:
- Ad Hominem: Lisa is humiliated in the debate at the beginning (and thus starts her sub-plot) when the defense the other speaker at the debate uses (which ends up working) is constantly pointing out that she's blonde, so that means that she's a Dumb Blonde, so anything she says must be automatically wrong because she's blonde.
- Adults Are Useless: Except for Ned and Marge, everyone in Springfield refuses to listen to Lisa due to believing that she’s a Dumb Blonde, despite nearly everyone in Springfield knowing that Lisa is a genius.
- When Lisa calls out the judges for agreeing with her deliberately weak argument simply because she dyed her hair brunette rather than the content of her words, the male judges try to deny it, while the female judge all but admits to it, because Lisa's brown hair makes an excellent point
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Mayor Quimby tries to bait people who aren't satisfied with him into admitting to bestiality by saying that those in favor of term limits should say "I...have sex with animals." Cletus Spuckler admits that he actually does have sex with animals, but isn't in favor of term limits.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Ned Flanders literally nags Springfield into submission in this episode. Even referenced by Ned when he has his My God, What Have I Done? moment, saying that he didn't wanted to be a "Big Brother", but rather a "little sister", tattling on everyone so the town would be a nicer place.
- Call-Back:
- Prince Charles tells Queen Elizabeth II that "My cat's breath smells like cat food". This line was also said by Ralph Wiggum in "Lisa's Rival". Prince Charles says the line right after the Queen comments that Ralph reminds her of him.
- The music heard when Homer and Flanders are destroying all of the security cameras was last heard in Treehouse of Horror II (when Homer and Bart are spending quality time together in the latter's nightmare).
- The Cameo: Shary Bobbins, who died in her initial appearance (although the show is known for Retcon), is seen in England but transforms into a Terminator–esque robot.
- Control Freak: There is no better term to describe Ned Flanders looking through Sinister Surveillance 24/7 and nagging people into correcting minor peccadillos like putting one toe in grass or having butt crack showing.
- Drunk with Power: The closed-circuit television system is meant to keep track of actual crimes, terrorist threats, and emergencies. Ned instead uses it to literally nag the whole town into becoming a submissive dystopia, while the British terrorist expert who sold it to them uses the footage to have the Springfieldians as unknowing participants in a British reality TV series.
- Dumb Blonde: Lisa's sub-plot involves people thinking that she's this. She tries proving to people that she's not this and that generalizing people based on certain traits is a bad thing.
- Expy: That bomb squad specialist is clearly based on Clint Eastwood.
- Everyone Has Standards: Marge has two moments of this.
- She soon leaves her job in surveillance because she felt uncomfortable with getting involved with peoples' privacy.
- This is also why she (inadvertenly) tattles on Homer and Bart's leading the civilians' troublemaking in the blind spot to Ned.
- The Fundamentalist: Ned, as usual. He takes over the surveillance station and spends 24/7 watching through the cameras and literally nagging anything and anybody he deems wrong into submission. Being who he is, "anything he deems wrong" is an absurdly long list.
- Genius Ditz: Bart maybe a rebellious student, but he did find a blind spot... the Simpsons’ backyard.
- Hero Antagonist: Ned, crossing this with Well-Intentioned Extremist. Due to his constant nagging of the town, he essentially becomes the antagonist of the episode. He "pulls off" a "Heel–Face Turn" by breaking the cameras with Homer at the end of the episode.
- Hurricane of Euphemisms: After Bart moons the cameras and discovers there is a blind spot, he tests where it is by keeping his pants down and walking around his house marking the moment where Ned tries to nag him by using a barrage of synonyms for "butt" (like "fannie" and "heinie"). The Time Skip implies that Ned tossed said euphemisms for at least a whole hour.
- Hurricane of Puns: the book "Sally Circle in Rectangu-land" is full of circle and rectangle puns.
- Jerkass Ball: Most of Springfield forgets for this episode that Lisa is a genius and treat her like a dumb blonde.
- Jerkass Has a Point: After discovering a blind spot in their backyard where Ned can't see and nag them through the cameras, Homer and Bart exploit it by turning it into a hotspot where people pay them for access so they can do the things Ned nagged them for over the cameras. When Ned finds out through an unwitting Marge and goes to put an end to it, Homer defends his actions by pointing out Ned's invasion of everyone's privacy made them desperate to find a haven where they could be themselves and forced their unwholesome behavior into one small spot, causing them to act out more than if Ned left them alone.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Nelson is like this to Lisa. Being more specific, he's one of the few characters that don't demean her as a dumb blonde in this episode.
- Knight Templar: Ned tried to force Springfield into a paradise by oppressing them via surveillance cameras and then directly speaking to them by microphone in order to ruin their activities. When Homer finally tells Ned that the town is sick of Ned's actions and demands that Ned should allow them to keep their privacy as well as allow them to have the freedom of choice. Ned tells him that he was trying to mould Springfield into a paradise by tattling on them.
- Loose Lips: Ned finds out about the blind spot because Marge mutters about it in annoyance right next to a camera when she becomes fed up with all of the debauchery.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Ned feels like this when Homer tells him that he inadvertently drove people to the Simpsons' backyard to do all the things Ned chastised them for doing.
- Mythology Gag: This episode is basically a less terrifying version of the Dictator Flanders timeline in "Time and Punishment" from Treehouse of Horror V, with Flanders watching over Springfield into a fundamentalist dystopian society.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Bart discovers the blind spot by trying to moon the cameras when he gets fed up with Ned's nagging and doesn't have Ned instantly tattling on it.
- Overused Running Gag: When pointing out mistakes in Nelson's logic, Lisa comments, "your 'haw-haw', through overuse, has lost its power." Nelson actually agrees and applauds her for it.
- Playing God: Homer claims that Ned trying to control the whole town's actions came off as him trying to play God. This horrifies Ned.
- Poke the Poodle: Ned's Sinister Surveillance is not "do what we tell you or we will arrest you/kill you", it's "do anything I don't like and I'll click my tongue until you stop." He achieves his goal of turning the city into a Police State through sheer relentless pestering.
- Police Are Useless: At least we found out who can do better than Wiggum.
Lou: Uh, Chief, I think we got a misuse of police equipment on ZZ-99.
(Wiggum looks, before switching the cameras back to normal after looking at Edna sunbathing topless)
Chief Wiggum: Killjoy.
- The Reveal: The entire episode -at least the main story- is a hidden-camera reality show that airs on British TV and is considered the Queen's and Prince Charles' favorite show.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: That bomb squad specialist decides to break up the plutonium rather than do the countdown
- Shout-Out:
- The gay bar is full with Sesame Street like people.
- Flanders becomes a one-man milquetoast Thought Police. Nineteen Eighty-Four gets a more direct reference once Ned actually understands what he's done, by saying that he didn't wanted to be anybody's "Big Brother".
- While watching Bart's reckless skateboarding, Ned warns him to "Stop gleaming that cube!"
- Sinister Surveillance: Flanders very quickly turns the town's surveillance system into a Played for Laughs version.
- Stepford Suburbia: A milder version than usual for this trope, Played for Laughs: all Ned has on his side, aside from the Sinister Surveillance, is nagging through tactics like constantly clicking his tongue, things that wouldn't dissuade a rebellious child, let alone a criminal. Springfield is still forced into becoming a nicer place to live, because he is just that relentlessly annoying.
- Take That!: After The Reveal is discovered, the Queen says that she will miss Ralph Wiggum, comparing him to her son. Cue Prince Charles coming in with his own cat and spouting Ralph's famous line about his cat's breath.
- Tempting Fate: Lisa angrily calls out the debate crowd for adhering to old stereotypes, arguing for example that blondes aren't always dumb and old people aren't always bad drivers. Immediately afterwards, Grampa crashes through a nearby wall and angrily yells that the building cut him off.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Ned's reason for tattling on the entire town is a variation of this. It ends up as an inversion, though, having created the town into a Dystopia instead.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ned, crossing this with Hero Antagonist. He nags the entirety of Springfield so that they follow the rules and make it a better place.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Where did the Van Houtens, Helen Lovejoy, Julius Hibbert, and Elizabeth Hoover go after Ned Flanders and Marge Simpson took over with cameras?
- White Hair, Black Heart: Alluded to by Bart when Lisa points out his hypocrisy for laughing at a blonde joke.
Bart: Blonde
guys aren't dumb, they're
evil. Like in
Karate Kid or
World War II.
- Wretched Hive: After discovering that the surveillance network has a blind spot located on the Simpsons' backyard, Homer and Bart invite everybody to do whatever they can't do because of Ned's incessant nagging right there. It quickly becomes a miniature den of debauchery, and Homer's What The Hell Hero Speech at Ned (once he finds out about the blind spot, courtesy of Marge) is that this is the result of his actions, saying that in no uncertain terms that no matter how hard he tries, he can't make evil go away. He just makes it more determined to find a place where it can go on undisturbed.
Bart: Welcome to Chaos Corners, the Pleasure Patch, Satan's Triangle. The one place in town where no camera can see you and no laws can touch you.
