Original air date: 11/19/2006
Production code: HABF-19
Lisa helps Moe publish a poem, but Moe takes all of the credit for it.
This episode provides examples of...
- …And That Little Girl Was Me: In-Universe in Homer's "Rapping Tomato" poem.
- Forgotten Birthday: Moe ends up celebrating his birthday alone on the Simpsons' porch, due to Homer believing he's supposed to remember to watch his father compete in the Senior Olympics rather go on a fishing trip with Moe.Moe: Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me.
I feel so damn lonely,
Won't someone kill me? - Fun with Alphabet Soup: Homer wakes up to various reminders telling him not to forget... something, and he doesn't know what. One of these happens at breakfast when Maggie coughs up some alphabet cereal that says "DON'T FORGE".Homer: Don't forge? Don't forge what?(Maggie coughs up a letter T.)Homer: Ohhh, don't forget. Don't forget what?!
- Honor Before Reason: Moe is initially happy to mention Lisa helped him, until the other stuck up poets comment on how low it is to get help from others to write poems, causing Moe to take all the credit until Marge makes him accept the truth.
- Innocently Insensitive: When Lisa's family returns from their tour of Vermont after her fallout with Moe, Homer shows her a pair of teddy bears he got dressed like Lisa and Moe. Seeing these teddy bears causes Lisa to cry, and Homer tries to cheer her up by claiming they're not made from real bears, "just their fur and noses".
- Large Ham:
- Tom Wolfe. When Lisa tells Moe that Wolfe uses more exclamation points than any other major American writer, Wolfe walks up and exclaims, "IT'S TRUE!!"
- As always, J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson, especially when he tells his assistant the rhyme scheme for the poem about Spider-Man.
- Mistaken for Prank Call: Having never heard of Tom Wolfe before being invited to a wordloaf festival, Moe initially assumes that the invitation was a prank by someone using a made up name.
- Non Sequitur, *Thud*: Homer dances around Moe's apartment, mocking him for being a poet. He ends up falling out a window and tumbling down a fire escape, and he manages to continue mocking Moe on the painful way down.Homer: Moe's the princess of Lollipop Land! He lunches on lavender and potpourri!
- Papa Wolf: Combines with Big Brother Instinct when Lisa tells Bart and Homer about Moe taking full credit for Lisa's poem. This angers both of them and leads them to get revenge on Moe by pouring a large jar of maple syrup on him. Fortunately for Moe, he and Lisa make up just in time, and even after the syrup is poured, it is so viscous that Moe is easily able to walk away long before it gets near him.
- Reminder Failure: Homer left many reminders so that he wouldn't forget Moe's birthday. Unfortunately, he didn't leave any indication of what the reminders were for, leading to him mistakenly believing that he was actually supposed to remember going to watch Grandpa at the Senior Olympics instead after Marge brings it up.
- Rule of Three: Moe Tempting Fate three times straight. First, after Lisa tells him she's making a book report about him, he declares he's suddenly having his best birthday ever, only for a startled Santa's Little Helper (after lightning strikes a tree branch, causing it to fall on top of the dog house) to run up and accidentally have Moe's arm down his throat (and scaring away Lisa, who was holding an umbrella over Moe's head). Moe shrugs, saying, "Still in the Top 3." Then another lightning bolt knocks a bird's nest of eggs off a nearby tree and onto Moe's head, leading to the mother bird to fly down and peck at his head. After she flies away, Moe mutters, "Still in the Top 10." Then the bird comes back and pecks him some more.
- Shout-Out: The editor is J. Jonah Jameson, with J. K. Simmons reprising his role from the Spider-Man Trilogy, still trying to get pictures of Spider-Man, which he switches to a demand of poems of Spider-Man upon being pointed out that he's supposed to be head editor of a poetry magazine. In fact, his line "What are you waiting for, Chinese New Year?!" showed up in Spider-Man 3 the following summer.
- Vacation Episode: The Simpsons are going to Vermont! Although, in this case, it isn't the entire focus of the episode.
- You Fight Like a Cow: During the punch up between Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chabon, after Franzen lands a cheap shot, an angry Chabon retorts that "You fight like Anne Rice!"
