History YMMV / TheSimpsonsS11E1BeyondBlunderdome

** While in Hollywood, the Simpsons see Creator/RobertDowneyJr in a shoot-out with the LAPD, which Marge thought was a movie being filmed until Bart pointed out that there weren't any cameras, parodying his drug problems and arrests at the time. Downey would go on to basically pull a reverse of what happened to Gibson, becoming clean and sober and resurrecting his career thanks to his roles as ''Film/IronMan1'' and ''Film/{{Sherlock Holmes|2009}}''.

** In the CouchGag, the Present Day Simpsons [[MeetYourEarlyInstallmentWeirdness meet their]] ''[[Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow Tracey Ullman Show]]'' counterparts and all 10 of them run out of the room scared. The two families would meet again 15 years later in the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXV Treehouse of Horror XXV]] segment "The Others".

** In the CouchGag, the Present Day Simpsons [[MeetYourEarlyInstallmentWeirdness meet their past]] ''[[Series/TheTraceyUllmanShow Tracey Ullman Show]]'' counterparts and all 10 of them run out of the room scared. The two families would meet again 15 years later in the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXV Treehouse of Horror XXV]] segment "The Others".

** In the CouchGag, the Present Day Simpsons [[MeetYourEarlyInstallmentWeirdness meet their past]] Creator/TraceyUllman counterparts and all 10 of them run out of the room scared. The two families would meet again 15 years later in the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXV Treehouse of Horror XXV]] segment "The Others".

** At the end, Homer suggests several movie ideas to Gibson, including an ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' movie. Homer then asks if anyone owns the rights to that franchise. In 2012, the ''Indiana Jones'' franchise became the property of Creator/{{Disney}} when they bought Creator/{{Lucasfilm}}, which was followed in 2019 by them buying Fox, meaning that both ''Indiana Jones'' AND ''The Simpsons'' are now owned by the same company.

* FridgeHorror:
Assuming Gibson's remake includes the character of Clarissa Saunders, there's every chance she may have been killed in the revised ending, either during Smith's indiscriminate shootout or when he blew up the Capitol.

** Creator/EllenDeGeneres and Creator/AnneHeche are shown to be a couple; in real-life their relationship ended not long after the episode aired, and Heche passed away in 2023.

** Creator/EllenDeGeneres and Creator/AnneHeche are shown to be a couple; in real-life their relationship ended not long after the episode aired.

** Mel in the episode looks shocked as Homer yanks Marge's wedding ring-adorned hand to him pointing out that "This symbolizes she's my property and that I own her!". A decade later, Mel's ex-girlfriend records audio of him unleashing several misogynistic and racist rants towards her. Sentiments that aren't too far from that quote about Marge.

* SalvagedStory: Feels like one to [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E15OhBrotherWhereArtThou "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"]]. As seen in the trivia section, this episode follows the exact same beats as the aforementioned one, with the exception that, unlike Herb, Mel Gibson supervises all of Homer's work, gets to see the finalized product before releasing it to the public, and takes responsibility when it inevitably crashes and burns rather than blaming it entirely on Homer.

** In the remake of ''Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington'''s filibuster scene, Mel Gibson's character shoots and kills various Senate members, [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impales the United States Senator]], blows up the Senate with a fire extinguisher, and [[spoiler: [[OffWithHisHead beheads the President with a Senator seal]]]], much to the disgust to the audience and Jimmy Stewart's granddaughter. On January 6, 2021, a group of Trump supporters protesting UsefulNotes/JoeBiden's victory during the 2020 Presidential Election stormed into the U.S. Capital resulting in a violent insurrection.

** This episode [[TropeNamer names]] [[TheDogWasTheMastermind a hilarious (and often used) trope]]. A few years later, one of the [[MultipleEndings endings]] of ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' has [[spoiler: a dog inside of the control room, apparently engineering the events of the game. It seems like the dog really ''was'' the mastermind!]]

** The episode is a Creator/MelGibson vehicle. Gibson complains that people love him too much and that violence is dead in cinema (he partly blames the "swing revival", now seen as part of the "corporate reaction" on the music industry of the late '90s against the alternative boom). [[CreatorKiller He ruins his career]] by filming a [[Film/ThePassionOfTheChrist hyper-violent adaptation]] of a [[Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington classic story beloved by many.]] This is [[RealityIsUnrealistic not an ironic statement.]] Also, while in Hollywood, Marge sees Creator/RobertDowneyJr in a shootout with police and thinks they're filming a movie, to which Bart replies that there are no cameras. This was a joke. [[CareerResurrection Back in the day.]]

* IdiotPlot: Creator/MelGibson does the acting gig of his (InUniverse) life by doing a pitch-perfect stand-in for ''Jimmy Stewart'' in a remake of ''Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington'' (or at least that's what it sounds like from the reaction of everybody in the screen test, including Marge). So what does Gibson do? Take notice of '''the single''' reaction suggestion sheet that is ''clearly'' written by an idiot (one of the executives even notices that Homer didn't write the thing right) that bemoans the fact the movie didn't have any carnage in it, believe that this is the one guy that has the balls to be truthful, hire him to assist him with remaking the film's climax with the aforementioned carnage, and derail his career.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Feels like one to [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E15OhBrotherWhereArtThou "Oh Brother, Where art thou?"]] (besides [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E24BrotherCanYouSpareTwoDimes "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?"]], of course). As seen in the trivia section, this episode follows the exact same beats as the aforementioned one, with the exception that, unlike Herb, Mel Gibson supervises all of Homer's work, gets to see the finalized product before releasing it to the public, and takes responsibility when it inevitably crashes and burns rather than blaming it entirely on Homer.

* FridgeBrilliance: Homer suddenly shifting gears as soon as Mel comes to the house seems completely random, and is indeed disconcerting to even his family, but to a certain extent it could make some sense- Homer's grudge against Mel wasn't against the guy himself, but rather that Marge seemed to have a bit of an infatuation with him (presumably from having enough time on her hands to read the tabloids.) And if a major Hollywood star came to ''your'' home because of your opinion and asked you to work on his movie, ''anyone'' would have a case of MoodWhiplash and be excited as can be about that.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Feels like one to [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E15OhBrotherWhereArtThou "Oh Brohter, Where art thou?"]] (besides [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E24BrotherCanYouSpareTwoDimes "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?"]], of course). As seen in the trivia section, this episode follows the exact same beats as the aforementioned one, with the exception that, unlike Herb, Mel Gibson supervises all of Homer's work, gets to see the finalized product before releasing it to the public, and takes responsibility when it inevitably crashes and burns rather than blaming it entirely on Homer.

** In the remake of ''Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington'''s filibuster scene, Mel Gibson's character shoots and kills various Senate members, [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impales the United States Senator]], blows up the Senate with a fire extinguisher, and [[spoiler: [[OffWithHisHead beheads the President with a Senator seal]]]], much to the disgust to the audience and Jimmy Stewart's granddaughter. On January 6, 2021, a group of Trump supporters protesting UsefulNotes/JoeBiden's victory during the 2020 Presidential Election stormed into the U.S. Capital resulting in a violent insurrection, killing five people including police officer Brian Sicknik.

** During the CouchGag, the Modern-era Simpsons [[MeetYourEarlyInstallmentWeirdness meet their]] Creator/TraceyUllman-era counterparts and all ten of them run out of the room scared. The two families would meet again 15 years later in the [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS26E4TreehouseOfHorrorXXV Treehouse of Horror XXV]] segment "The Others".

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Feels like one to [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E15OhBrotherWhereArtThou "Oh Brohter, Where art thou?"]] (besides [["Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E24BrotherCanYouSpareTwoDimes "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?"]], of course). As seen in the trivia section, this episode follows the exact same beats as the aforementioned one, with the exception that, unlike Herb, Mel Gibson supervises all of Homer's work, gets to see the finalized product before releasing it to the public, and takes responsibility when it inevitably crashes and burns rather than blaming it entirely on Homer.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Feels like one to [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E15OhBrotherWhereArtThou "Oh Brohter, Where art thou?"]]. As seen in the trivia section, this episode follows the exact same beats as the aforementioned one, with the exception that, unlike Herb, Mel Gibson supervises all of Homer's work, gets to see the finalized product before releasing it to the public, and takes responsibility when it inevitably crashes and burns rather than blaming it entirely on Homer.

* AuthorSavingThrow: Feels like one to [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E15OhBrotherWhereArtThou "Oh Brohter, Where art thou?"]]. As seen in the trivia section, this episode follows the exact same beats as the aforementioned one, with the exception that, unlike Herb, Mel Gibson supervises all of Homer's work, gets to see the finalized product before releasing it to the public, and takes responsibility when it inevitably crashes and burns rather than blaming it entirely on Homer.

* WhatAnIdiot: Creator/MelGibson has mounted a remake of the Creator/JimmyStewart classic ''Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington''. Despite getting a positive response from test audiences and the assurance of the producers that he's got a hit on his hands, Mel can't shake the feeling that something's wrong with the film, believing that the test audiences like him too much to give him honest criticism. He then reads a very negative review from Homer, who was part of the test audience as a prize he won but is angry that it wasn't the prize he wanted, and because Mel was flirting with Marge earlier.\\
'''You'd expect:''' Mel would dismiss the ridiculous letter for the absurd and totally misplaced piece of anger that it is, or that he would listen to the producers who tell him that it's a load of nonsense.\\
'''Instead:''' Mel thinks that Homer is literally the "one guy with the guts to tell [me] the truth", tracks Homer down and asks him to be a consultant on the film, which leads to Mel retooling the ending of the film to replace the original impassioned speech about liberty with an ultra-violent and bloody climax at the advice of Homer, despite the producers trying to warn him that he's destroying his own film.\\
'''Result:''' Homer and Mel's actions lead to a very bad reaction from audiences, who hate the film, with Mel even getting hit with a defamation lawsuit from Creator/JimmyStewart's own granddaughter.