Original air date: 1/30/2005 (produced in 2004)
Production code: GABF-01
When Moe's Tavern is shut down by the health department, Homer takes out a second mortgage without consulting Marge to finance the bar’s return, but Marge finds out and decides to protect her investment by becoming Moe's business partner and renovating the tavern into a pub.
Tropes:
- Art Shift: The Cards trailer is animated in CGI.
- Ascended Meme: Homer calls himself "Jerkass Homer," the disparaging nickname given by the show's fans for his characterization ever since season 9.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Moe's loneliness means that he becomes obsessed with Marge after they become business partners and (on her side) friends.
- Blatant Lies: One week after a sanitary inspector died at Moe's, Moe said his corpse was still there because the garbage was collected at Wednesdays.
- Continuity Nod: This isn't Moe's first attempt to court Marge, although the first time (in the season 5 finale "Secrets of a Successful Marriage") she was at least theoretically separated from Homer—or had been for a couple of hours.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Moe, to the point the suicide hotline has to block his calls.
- In Aruba, Moe comments that he "doesn't want to feel anymore pain" and lays splayed out on the sand next to the ocean. A big wave comes over him and a stingray hits him in the face.
- Food Fight: Bart instigates one between himself and Lisa by launching a hot dog down her throat ("You ate meat! You ate meat!"), ruining the brunch for Homer.
- Honorary Uncle: When Marge and Moe leave for the airport, Bart asks where "Uncle Moe" is going.Homer: He's only your emotional uncle! I'm your real uncle!
- Inflationary Dialogue: Moe objects to the idea of Marge as his business partner.Moe: Now, wait just a minute. One thing Moe Szyslak has never had is a partner. Nor a wife, a friend, a chum, a casual acquaintance, a pen pal, a parrot, a meaningful conversation, a brief hug, or eye contact. [Beat] I'm just going to call the suicide hotline now.
- I Was Never Here: Wiggum after seeing Moe and his customers huddled around the corpse of the old health inspector, even throwing money at them on the way out to buy their silence ("Buy yourselves a nice dinner!").
- Karmic Death: Moe had a friend who used to work as a sanitary inspector and overlook Moe's irregularities. He died by eating one of Moe's eggs.
- Musicalis Interruptus: Marge, Moe, Bart, and Lisa get a song about renovating Moe's tavern. Moe comes to like the idea, but communicates this in plain verse. Carl tells him to do it in song, and he briefly ad-libs a bad verse, before giving up on that and just saying to get on with it.
- My Card: During the flight to Aruba, a crying Homer tells Marge, "If you ever feel like cheating on Moe, here's my card." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a card saying, "Homer Simpson — Plus-Size Butt Model".
- Noodle Incident: How Bart, Lisa and Maggie got into a European balloon race at the end.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Homer won't visit Marge's mother because he hates her (as established in "Bart vs. Thanksgiving").
- Paper-Thin Disguise: When Homer starts wondering what Marge would say upon the idea of mortgaging their home to save Moe's Tavern, a thought balloon shows up with a 'Marge' who was obviously Moe dressed like her and using tape to keep his Marge-like blue wig. Homer falls for the trick even after the real Marge shows up at the balloon.
- Portmanteau: When Homer leaves the brunch after being embarrassed by his children, he says, "I'll see you all at 'lupper'."
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Homer is about to have a glass of beer, when a man interrupts and says that the place is so dirty it might kill him. Homer asks, "Who are you, the health inspector?" Turns out he is, and he immediately proves it.
- Rule of Funny: Why Marge ended up sleeping on the couch instead of Moe.
- Scenery Dissonance: Invoked by Homer. When Lenny and Carl are about to suggest that Marge likes Moe more than Homer, Homer asks if he can learn the sad truth "at a happy place". Homer, Lenny, and Carl then discuss the situation while riding a log flume ride at Itchy and Scratchy Land.
- Show Within a Show: A trailer for the fictional Dreamworks movie Cards ("With Eddie Murphy as the Jack of Clubs") plays when Marge and Homer are at the Googlplex. Also counts as an Art Shift as the trailer is animated in CGI, much like their films.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: When Marge tells Homer she would never have an affair with Moe:Marge: You're my Homie-womie-romie-domie.
Homer: And you're my Margie-wargie-bargie-fargie-gargie-Margie-targie-largie.
Moe: (visibly disgusted) I may have dodged a bullet here. - Something We Forgot: When Marge is in Aruba with Homer and Moe, she suddenly remembers that nobody is watching the kids back home. Cut to Bart, Lisa, and Maggie in a hot air balloon...Lisa: Are you sure Mom and Dad want us to enter a European balloon race?
Bart: Sure, why not? - The Stinger: Over the credits is a scene of Homer and Marge at Moe's, singing a parody of "Love Will Keep Us Together" (this was actually an outtake from Season 15's "Co-Dependent's Day").
- There Is Only One Bed: Moe plans to exploit this with Marge on their business trip by booking them in the same room and telling her that the hotel made a "mistake." He still tries to pull it off after Homer joins them on the trip, with the result that he's forced to share the bed with Homer while Marge takes the couch.
