YMMV / The Simpsons S4 E12 "Marge vs. the Monorail"

• Accidental Aesop: Although Lyle's monorail scheme is presented more as the actions of a Snake Oil Salesman and a satire of government spending priorities more broadly, a lot of transit enthusiasts see the episode as a bit of forward-thinking commentary on the issue of gadgetbahns, a term used to describe experimental and often propriety public transport systems that are criticised for being heavily influenced by private sector demands, difficult to expand and maintain long-term, and taking political and economic capital away from more traditional but proven infrastructure projects.
• Awesome Music: The "Monorail" song.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • The Flintstones part (where Homer sings the Flintstones theme as he's driving home from work) at the beginning of the episode. It has no place in the actual plot and it's never mentioned again. It's just there because it's funny.
  • The commercial for Truckasaurus: The Movie with Marlon Brando as "John Truckasaurus".
  • Leonard Nimoy, after using most of his appearance time just doing some standard Adam Westing (and being annoying to one of the monorail's passengers, and saving Krusty and being overly dramatic about it) teleports away. The episode's commentary even points it out as an example of Reality Is Out to Lunch that the writers considered excessive even after showing things like mutated animals in this same episode.
  • The ending, narrated by Marge, where she describes other Springfield disasters, like the skyscraper made of popsicle sticks and the escalator to nowhere.
• Catharsis Factor: Lyle getting a brutal beatdown and very likely killed by the people of North Haverbrook.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The enigmatic Mr. Snrub. Fans really seem to enjoy pretending that he isn't Mr. Burns, or making up all sorts of crazy explanations for why he is. He even has his his own page on the show's wiki, detailing all the evidence the two characters are one and the same.
• Franchise Original Sin: This episode, considered one of the greatest of all time, is now the most fan-rewritten as a "modern" Simpsons episode to illustrate how badly the show has fallen into Seasonal Rot as it has a lot of elements present in later episodes that fans have criticized: celebrity cameos (Phil Hartman as Lyle Lanley and Leonard Nimoy as himself), the plot involving Homer having a new job that only lasts one episode, Bart's role being largely that of Kid Sidekick in Homer's escapade, the Big Lipped Alligator Moments mentioned above, and a musical number that could be replaced with more jokes and general scenes. However, the reason said elements were better received here was because (on top of the episode having pretty solid writing and a plethora of funny jokes and memorable moments) they were either new or at the very least not done to death yet (such as the Big-Lipped Alligator Moment at the beginning or Homer getting a one-episode job) or the way they were used (Lyle Lanley is considered a very charismatic, entertaining and memorable villain, while Leonard Nimoy's appearance was fairly small and got a few funny jokes at his expense). To some these days, this would be more at home as a Family Guy episode, not a Simpsons one.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The first shot of the lounge car of the monorail is a painting of The Hindenburg disaster, an obvious tongue-in-cheek foreshadowing of the disaster to come on the monorail. But the second painting we get a glimpse of appears to be a large rectangular skyscraper eerily similar in appearance to the World Trade Center, covered in smoke. ^note It should be noted this was not only many years before 9/11, but the episode aired only a month before the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When Marge tells Homer that Sebastian Cobb is here to help stop the out-of-control monorail, Homer asks "Is it Batman?", Marge tells him "He's a scientist.", Homer tells her "Batman's a scientist...", making Marge say "It's not Batman!". Years later, the climax of Batman Begins has Batman trying to stop an out-of-control elevated train. Even more hilariously, he doesn't actually stop the train at all; he just thwarts Ra's al Ghul's plan, then lets the train crash.
  • The mutated squirrel and the appearance of the EPA become this when watching this episode after having seen The Simpsons Movie.
  • The photo of Homer with his mouth full of cigarettes is this because of the Gentlemen Meme involving a certain French Spy.
  • Bart writes "I will not eat things for money." for the chalkboard gag. Bart would eventually do just this in "Diggs".
• Memetic Mutation:
  • This episode — specifically the "Monorail" song — is frequently referenced in videos and discussions about monorails.
  • Leoard Nimoy commenting on the "cosmic ballet" of a solar eclipse is also a popular joke; especially when an actual solar eclipse is happening or about to happen in real life. And sometimes, the "cosmic ballet" part is used for jokes about lunar eclipses as well.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Lanley is clearly an amoral flimflam man from the get go, but the drawing that shows him gloating over the success of his plan really put him over the line. Failing that, the state of North Haverbrook post-monorail does a fine job of demonstrating how much of a snake Lanley is.
  • Burns left it behind some time ago by the start of this episode by dumping radioactive waste in places children play (and Burns declines to dump this particular run at his regular spot because people are starting to suspect something as a result of so many kids falling sick). He gets away with only a slap to the wrist.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • What happened to the monorail in North Haverbrook.
  • Also, on a related note, the Bait-and-Switch Jumpscare of Sebastian Cobb suddenly appearing behind Marge and reaching towards her like a zombie. Don't worry, he turns out to be harmless, but still.
• Play-Along Meme: That mysterious Mr. Snrub, a man who happens to look just like Mr. Burns, but with a large mustache. Of course, they're one and the same, but that doesn't stop the fans from jokingly interpreting them as two entirely separate people.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • One of the gags regarding how much Lanley has cut corners with his swindle is a Take That! at Gallagher, who died in November 2022.
  • Leonard Nimoy being a major character also places the episode before his death in February 2015.
  • One gag involves the starring actor of a Springfield-filmed Expy of Beverly Hills, 90210 (both iterations of the show airing 1990-2000 and 2008-2013) who resembles Luke Perry (died March 2019).
• Values Dissonance: Dr. Hibbert at one point refers to a pair of conjoined twins as "Siamese Twins", a term which is now considered outdated. The show itself would later indirectly acknowledge this in "Treehouse of Horror VII", with Lisa pulling Hibbert up on his usage of the term.
• Vindicated by History: The voice actors all agreed that this was one of the worst episodes they had ever done. To fans and critics, this is considered one of the show's best and most-remembered episodes.

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