YMMV / The Simpsons S 19 E 18 Any Given Sundance

• Jerkass Woobie: Nelson's film depicts him as this, bullying other kids to cope with his horrible home life.
  Nelson: I come to the ocean because only there do my tears seem small.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • The episode was made at a time when the Sundance festival dominated the "indie" side of the movie industry (with many a mainstream film of the late 2000s taking some cues from the sentimental and gritty films that became synonymous with the festival—Nelson's documentary being a parody of the style). By the following decade, "indie" filmmaking would move from the fringes of the industry, and other festivals such as Telluride, the TIFF (Toronto Independent Film Festival), SXSW and Banff (which was briefly mentioned in the episode) have stolen Sundance's thunder, while the cloying "kitchen-sink films" of the 2000s became a mildly embarrassing memory.
  • Homer's Imagine Spot about a "film festival," which he envisions as strips of film partying together until they're attacked by the technology then rendering them obsolete, DVDs. If they remade this joke today, it would be streaming service logos attacking the film strips and DVDs.