Original air date: 1/17/1999 (produced in 1998)
Production code: AABF-07
Chief Wiggum enforces a curfew on the town's children after blaming them for vandalizing the school (when, in fact, it was the fault of Homer and his drunken buddies, Lenny, Carl, and Barney, celebrating the Springfield Isotopes' first win in years), and the kids rebel by hosting a pirate radio show about the adults' embarrassing secrets.
This episode contains examples of:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Eddie accidentally gives the children Glowing Eyes of Doom (from shining a police light) and frightens Chief Wiggum, he lets out a good chuckle.
- Always a Bigger Fish: In the end the adults are themselves put under a curfew instituted by the seniors, who see them much as they see the kids.
- Artistic License – Law: The child curfew law that Chief Wiggum enforces is nowhere close to how most cities enforce similar child curfew laws. For starters, these laws usually state when a child can't be out at night without adult supervision (as kids do tend to be out late to attend sporting events, movie screenings, and other activities), not when a kid must be at home. Second, most cities' curfew time is usually a set time (e.g. 9:00 p.m.), not as soon as the sun sets (and even if the time is based on when the sun sets, the curfew starts at least an hour after this).
- As Herself: The Cameo of Cyndi Lauper, singing "The Star Spangled Banner" in the style of "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" in the first scene.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: Milhouse sings "Adults, they're always tellin' us to..." but is interrupted by Abe Simpson telling him to shut up.
- Awkward Collar Pull: When Lisa announces on the radio that she will reveal the name of someone who has been practicing medicine without a license, Dr. Julius Hibbert is seen nervously pulling his collar. Fortunately for him, Lisa was talking about Homer.
- Back-Alley Doctor: It is not unsubtly implied that Dr. Hibbert is one of these in reality. In a Bait-and-Switch moment, Lisa then says that Homer is the one that is one of these.
- Bait-and-Switch Accusation: During one of the radio broadcasts:Lisa: (On air) And guess who's been practicing medicine without a license?(Listening in town hall, Dr. Hibbert nervously pulls his collar.)Lisa: That's right, Homer Simpson.Homer: (Distant) D'oh!
- Black Comedy: When Homer's friends tell him that the Isotopes are doing well, Moe remarks "That sniper at the All-Star Game was a blessing in disguise!"
- Brick Joke: Milhouse is seen spending his curfew watching Teletubbies. Later, as they sneak into the drive-in theater, his underwear gets exposed, showing it has pictures of the Teletubbies cast.
- Bring My Brown Pants: In the opening scene of The Bloodening:Boy: You're thinking about hurting us.
Girl: Now you're thinking, "How did they know what I was thinking?"
Boy: Now you're thinking, "I hope that's shepherd's pie in my knickers." - Buccaneer Broadcaster: The kids get back at the adults by setting up a pirate radio broadcast that tells all of their dark secrets with the demand to remove the curfew or they will continue to embarrass them otherwise.
- Call-Back: The old people playing outside to the tune of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is a reference to the season 2 episode "Itchy and Scratchy and Marge".
- Conflict Killer: The whole debate about the curfew dies when the elderly get fed up and apply for an extension of the law that would affect everybody under 70. It ends up passing by a single vote, ending the episode with the whole Simpson family (and the town) being forced to stay in their homes after dark.
- Comically Missing the Point: Homer still thought it'd not make a difference if he voted despite the curfew for people under 60 having been Decided by One Vote.
- Continuity Nod: Superintendent Chalmers is still dating Agnes Skinner.
- Couch Gag: In a parody of Dr. Strangelove, the Simpsons sit on the couch and a trapdoor opens, and they scream "Yahoo!" as they plummet towards the ground.
- Counterpoint Duet: "Adults/Kids" is a group version of this
- Creative Closing Credits: The closing credits of this episode roll by while one of the old people keeps on ranting about how one of the others (Jasper) mistreated his stuff, ending with him getting angry at the woman that shushes on the Gracie Films logo.
- Creepy Child: The kids from The Bloodening.
- Crowd Song: "Adults/Kids"
- Cuckoosnarker: Ralph gets in one of the more memorable retorts to the interfering seniors.Ralph: You're wrinkly! Somebody should iron you!
- Dark Horse Victory: Played with for Black Comedy: the Springfield Isotopes, dead-last at the beginning of the season, manages to pull off a Miracle Rally and makes it to the finals and wins... because a sniper apparently went on a rampage at the All Star Game, taking out top players from rival teams.
- Decided by One Vote: The curfew for people under 70. Turns out that there are still enough old people left in Springfield to win the vote... if people like Homer decide not to vote because they believe otherwise.
- Description Cut: At the town hall meeting, Mayor Quimby reassures the people that the police are tracking down the wayward children "using the latest in crime-fighting technology." Cut to Chief Wiggum and Professor Frink driving through town wearing old-fashioned Ear Trumpets.
- Disproportionate Retribution: When Wiggum declares that a curfew now exists in the town, he then says that kids being caught breaking it will be shot before making a Verbal Backspace that they will just be arrested and taken back to their parents... as the situation demands.
- Evil Brit: The kids in The Bloodening."We can't have that..."
- False Reassurance: When the adults trace the source of the kids' radio station, Chief Wiggum assures the kids they won't be in trouble, only for Homer to contradict him by saying he wanted to kill them.Wiggum: Alright, come on down, kids. We promise we won't kill you.Homer: Speak for yourself. Bart, get down here! I'm gonna spank you back to the Stone Age!
- Fascists' Bed Time: The children are placed under a curfew because Wiggum automatically assumes they were responsible for the school's vandalism. Later on, the adults get slapped with one by the seniors.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: The kids from The Bloodening. The kids watching the movie appear to do this when Chief Wiggum catches them, but it's just Eddie shining a police light on them.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Milhouse's Teletubbies underwear is exposed when Nelson kicks him through a fence.
- Hands-Off Parenting:Nelson: Breaking curfew, Mom!
Nelson's mom: (off-screen) We're out of Skoal! - Instant Costume Change: Played for Laughs when Homer, upon hearing that the Isotopes are actually winning, runs offscreen and comes back in full Isotopes regalia in a moment.
- Instantly Proven Wrong:
- When Marge tries to assure Bart and Lisa that nothing really great happens after dark, Homer comes in cheering that there's a carnival in the street.
- After the kids' first broadcast, Homer was relieved because they already talked about him... only for Bart to announce they had plenty more dirt on him.
- After the adults confront the kids, Chief Wiggum tells them to come down from the billboard with the promise that nothing would happen to them... only for Homer to declare he was going to kill Bart.
- Jerkass Ball:
- Chief Wiggum in particular. He took a nastier edge throughout this episode, with him going above and beyond what was necessary to punish the children of Springfield and to make sure his rules were enforced by all means (at the expense of more pressing crimes in the city). He goes as far as warning that kids will be shot if they break curfew before taking it back.
- Many of the adults reveled in the curfew more than any adult ever should. Even Marge, who is one of the nicer Simpsons, made a few jokes. When the kids get even, the adults act as if they did nothing wrong and that the kids are to blame. Even their half of the song is needlessly cruel with Homer singing that Bart and Lisa were accidents because Marge forgot her pill. Marge doesn't even shout at him like she did in "Radio Bart" or correct him. She just murmurs and gives a guilty or embarrassed smile to the other adults, which is out-of-character, as she will tear the world to shreds if her children are harmed in some way either emotionally or physically. Moe sang about how the all kids should be "drowned like cats".
- Marge also not so subtlety implies near the beginning of the episode that she's staying with Homer out of pure stubbornness rather than any affection saying that her mother told her to stick out a situation to the bitter end even if she picked a "loser", Homer however is too dim to notice.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Bart may be a jerk but when it comes to the adults and their rules against kids, he was right to call them out on that. Even Nelson, a Jerkass himself, agrees to help Bart.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Downplayed. Although they, along with everyone else in town who is not elderly, end up being smacked with a curfew (which is more of a blanket punishment), Homer and his idiotic gang are never directly punished or even called out on their drunken behavior which set all the episode's events in motion. Nobody even finds out that they were responsible. Until way later, in "At Long Last Leave" (though only Homer was found to be responsible and Lenny, Carl and Barney are still unpunished).
- Kick the Dog: Wiggum's treatment of the kids (except for Rod and Todd).
- Kids Punishing Parents: The children of Springfield are subjected to a curfew after wrongly being accused of vandalizing Springfield Elementary. They get back at the adults by exposing their parents' darkest secrets on the radio.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The adults made an unfair curfew for children but got the same fate in the end by the seniors.
- Lawful Stupid: Rod and Todd are the only two children in the whole town that follow the rules of the curfew to the letter. They get pelted with produce by the other kids when they point it out on the "Adults/Kids" song.
- Logo Joke: During the Gracie Films logo...Crazy Old Man: Don't tell me to shush, you stupid lady!
- Made of Incendium: Homer drives through a metallic backstop which somehow catches fire.
- Misplaced Retribution: The curfew, which was put in place because the police thought children had vandalized the school when it was Homer and his drunken friends.
- Musicalis Interruptus: Just when Milhouse is about to sing his verse in the "Adults/Kids" song, he's cut off when Abe and his fellow seniors appear on the scene.
- Never My Fault: Homer punishes the kids for wrecking the school when he actually did it himself, and mourns how the kids got his car wrecked in the backyard, despite the fact that he drove it there himself. Justified, since he was drunk and doesn't remember what really happened.
- Noodle Incident:
- Apparently, at one point, Homer practiced medicine without a license. And Dr. Hibbert was practicing without one, too.
- Moe also references one that assisted the Isotopes in getting into the championship.
Moe: That sniper at the all-star game turned out to be a blessing in disguise! - Paper-Thin Disguise: To break curfew, Nelson disguised his voice and got a fake I.D. Chief Wiggum actually believed Nelson was Dr. Hibbert.
- Pet the Dog: Nelson kicks Milhouse's butt to get him through the drive-in's fence faster, but pulls it aside for Lisa to make it easier for her to crawl through.
- Produce Pelting: Rod and Todd are pelted with tomatoes during the "Adults/Kids" song.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Chief Wiggum imposes the curfew without getting Mayor Quimby involved, or whatever Springfield has as a City Council.
- Ship Tease: Nelson is his usual thuggish self for most of the episode, but acts as a gentlemen towards Lisa when she's coming to see "The Bloodening".
- Shout-Out:
- The big musical argument between Springfield's children, adults and eventually senior citizens, is a parody of the song "Kids" from Bye Bye Birdie.
- Homer's bizarre recollection about his drunken escapades, "Homer's Night Out", parodies the Charlie Chaplin short film "A Night Out".
- A registered nurse is on hand for those who die of shock from seeing "The Bloodening". This mirrors The Screaming Skull, which includes free burial services for anyone who dies of shock from watching the movie.
- "The Bloodening" itself and the page image is a parody of Village of the Damned (1960), infamous for its Creepy Children having glowing eyes.
- The kids gathering supplies and convening in the backyard alludes to The Little Rascals.
- Bart sings about the adults running the kids' lives like Colonel Klink.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: The kids' half in the song until the seniors take over.
- Silent Movie: Homer's attempt to remember what happened the previous night is a pastiche of one.
- The Stinger: The Crazy Old Man's Jewish Complaining occurs while the credits play.Crazy Old Man: (During the Gracie Films logo) Oh, don't tell me to shush, you stupid lady!
- Sudden Anatomy: When Chief Wiggum announces the curfew on the news, a fingernail suddenly appears on his pointing finger.
- Take That!: What drives Bart and Lisa to the breaking point? Sassy primetime TV, like Don't Go There (a parody of NBC sitcoms at the time, the characters patterned off Mad About You, and the set literally lifted from Friends) and Talk To The Hand ("starring" David Faustino. note )
- Tempting Fate:
- During the first time the kids started exposing adults' secrets, they started with Homer. When Homer expressed relief that at least they'd already done him, they announced there'd be more about him.
Bart: ([in a faux British accent) Tune in tomorrow, and every day until the curfew is lifted because we’ll be revealing embarrassing secrets about Springfield's other adults.
Homer: Well, at least they’ve already done me.
Bart: And we have plenty more on Homer Simpson.
Homer: D'oh!- Later on, people start asking what the senior citizens will do if their demands aren't met. The next scene features a curfew for people under 70.
- Title Drop: In-Universe with Don't Go There.
- Trivially Obvious: "Adults treat kids like children!"
- Would Hurt a Child: Wiggum promises that kids who break curfew "will be shot. Or returned to their parents, as the situation may warrant.
