YMMV / The Simpsons S4 E10 "Lisa's First Word"

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Modern audiences might not realize that the Krusty Burger Olympic promotion and the subsequent financial backfiring due to the Soviet boycotting of the Games was based on a real McDonald's promotion that had the same results.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Homer strangling Bart when he was an infant (for not calling him "Daddy") is pretty awful. It is immediately followed by a montage of Bart being a hellion to Homer (injuring Homer by jumping on him, throwing his car keys down the toilet, etc), making clear the abuse was two-way from an early point as well.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Bart spends the entire episode resenting Lisa because he feels that his parents were disregarding him as she was getting all the attention. Eventually, he is about to run away until Lisa says her first word, "Bart". Then comes "Lisa's Sax" where Bart being disregarded by his parents as Lisa gets all the attention is exactly what happens. Taken even further when Marge eventually admits she sees all of her children as Replacement Goldfish, making Lisa a serious case of the Middle Child Syndrome.
  • Krusty is told by one of his aides that the cards for his Krusty Burger Olympic promotion are rigged to display only events that Communists can win. While already based on a real marketing blunder by McDonald's, the joke would take a darker turn in 2000, when McDonalds' annual Monopoly promotion was discovered to have been rigged by a disgruntled employee and his circle of friends since 1989.
  • Also the scene with the Korean gymnast dismounting onto a broken leg became this in 2019 when an Auburn University gymnast broke both of her legs while doing a dismount.
• Jerkass Woobie: Bart may be a brat, but considering how much he suffers before Lisa is even born, and considering it never seems to occur to his parents to reassure him that they still love him and that Lisa isn't replacing him (Homer outright says that Bart can kiss his ass, while Marge does nothing to ensure Bart doesn't feel neglected despite initially being concerned that he will be jealous), one can't help but feel sorry for him.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • CAN'T SLEEP, CLOWN WILL EAT ME.
  • I AM SO GREAT! I AM SO GREAT! EVERYBODY LOVES ME, I AM SO GREAT...!
  • Homer mirroring Drederick Tatum's victory dance.
• Padding: The scene where Homer sings "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" was suggested by animation director Chuck Sheetz when the length of the final version of the episode was too short.
• Squick: Krusty spitting out a chewed-up piece of burger on the floor when his commercial is over. Then he swivels some alcohol in his mouth to get rid of the juice and spits that on the floor, too.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Abe during the flashback of him selling his old house to give Homer and Marge a home. Them inviting Abe to come and live with them, only to send him to the retirement home a mere three weeks later (complete with the whole family laughing about it) would be a huge Kick the Dog moment against him, but earlier in the scene, it was mentioned that he won said house on a crooked 50s game show where he "ratted on everybody and got off scot-free", making this turn of events seem more karmic than anything.
• Values Dissonance: Marge expresses concern that Homer's plan to just have Bart sleep with them in the master bed in lieu of buying a new bed for the baby would warp Bart. Homer blows her off, stating his cousin Frank did it and turned out fine. When Marge presses, Homer casually and obliviously reveals that "he's" now Francine and joined a cult. As this line seems to imply that changing gender is the result of mental instability, it now comes off as an extremely insulting depiction of transgender people.

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