YMMV / The Simpsons S5E22 "Secrets of a Successful Marriage"

• Genius Bonus: Reverend Lovejoy states that the Bible technically forbids one from using the bathroom. If you interpret Deuteronomy 23:13 a little uncharitably, he has a point.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • This episode takes the Parenting the Husband dynamic between Marge and Homer to extremes, showing Marge to be a Living Emotional Crutch for Homer as well as a caretaker. Later episodes introducing the character of his mother, Mona Simpson, give him a hell of a Freudian Excuse by showing that his development was pretty much stalled at the point where she left him at a young age.
  • While exiled from the house, Homer goes a little mad and uses a potted plant as a replacement for his wife. He then accidentally drops it from the treehouse and starts panicking about having "killed" her. In the following season, which is also the next episode, "Bart of Darkness" Ned would kill a plant as well and have a similar reaction, leading Bart to think he killed his wife.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Homer laments that he doesn't go to museums or read books because he's addicted to television ("It's those TV networks, Marge. They won't let me; one quality show after another, each one fresher and more brilliant than the last. If they only stumbled once, just gave us thirty minutes to ourselves. But they won't! They won't let me live!"). Of course, the joke was that in the early 90s, TV was experiencing a low point and most shows were crap (cable back then was a "dumping ground" for old shows and movies, and "premium" networks were still a rarity), meaning Homer will basically watch anything, regardless of quality. But TV soon began to raise its standards substantially in the 2000s and 2010s, and nowadays there's so MUCH TV out there (on traditional TV, cable/satellite, and Internet streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, etc.) that it's almost impossible to keep up.
  • The chalkboard gag for this episode is "Five days is not too long to wait for a gun." Four seasons later, The Cartridge Family would have a scene where Homer struggled to get through the five-day waiting period to get his own gun.
    Homer: Ohhhhh...How am I supposed to last five days without shooting something?
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Moe's dancing for self defense gag has become an insanely popular meme. With the clip, dialogue, and dance moves being parodied to hell and back.
  • Homer obliviously finding a terrified Moe in his house has also become a popular template.
  • Homer goes to apply to teach a class. The instructor asks what special talents he has; Homer says "I can tell the difference between butter and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter", to which he is told, "No, you can't, Mr. Simpson! No one can!" Replacing Homer's line with something else seemingly impossible has been done often.