Original air date: 11/26/2006
Production code: HABF-22
Homer becomes the town's newest ice cream man after the old one dies and Homer once again is fired from his job at the nuclear plant. Meanwhile, Marge worries about not being as rich and successful as TV talk show host Opal, so she gets into making statues out of popsicle sticks.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: When Homer notices a sad boy on the curve, he thinks that the boy has no money to buy ice cream, leading to the implication that he'll give him free ice cream out of selflessness. It turned out that the boy was lactose intolerant, which Homer misinterpreted as him being prejudiced towards food that contains lactose, leading him to force the kid to eat the ice cream and have an allergic reaction.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: Homer tries to convince Marge to leave their room by saying she needs to eat something. He asks her to cook something.
- Closed Door Rapport: When Marge refuses to speak to him for ruining her art show, thinking he did it on purpose, Homer tries to reason with her from behind their closed bedroom door, eventually resorting to slipping photographs of his sad face under it to show how much he cares about her.
- Comically Missing the Point: In one scene, Homer is driving away from the kids and wondering what they want until he finally remembers he's selling ice cream. Later, when Marge rips up his $300 check, Homer assumes she wants another form of payment.
- Distant Finale: The episode ends with people looking at Marge's giant sculpture of Homer at a museum 200 years later, and it is shown that iPods have enslaved humanity by then.
- Double Entendre: Homer tells Marge that this is the happiest he's ever been giving her wood.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Homer thinking intolerance is a bad thing while making a kid, who is lactose intolerant, eat an ice cream bar. When the kid starts to pass out and asks Homer to call the number on his medical alert bracelet, Homer makes fun of him for wearing a bracelet. Upon taking a closer look at the bracelet, Homer finally understands.
- Exact Words: Krusty argues against being described as a "TV Clown" because he also has a "one-man show" on Broadway. He calls it "one-man" because there's only one man in the audience, not one man on stage.
- Groin Attack: Homer receives one from Lenny when he realizes that unnecessary roughness is allowed when playing Cincinnati Time-Waste.
- Kick the Dog: Homer coldly forces the lactose intolerant boy to eat ice cream, and when the boy becomes ill, Homer mocks him for wearing a bracelet and presumes the boy to be gay.
- Legacy Seeker: Marge, after watching a morning talk show, becomes obsessed with creating a legacy (or "lega-she") for herself.
- Loophole Abuse: When Marge makes a statue of Krusty the Clown, Krusty brings his lawyers to oppose displaying the statue with his name on the sign, so she then changes it to "TV Clown".
- Meat-O-Vision: Homer imagines Mr. Burns as an ice cream cone that tells him "Lick me, big boy". He is disgusted when he finds out it's not ice cream.
- Mistaken for Racist: Homer force-feeds ice cream to a kid because he misconstrued his assessment that he's lactose intolerant, proclaiming that he "will not stand for intolerance".
- Mood Whiplash: As Homer slips photos of his sad face under their bedroom door to show Marge, one photo shows him laughing. He says it was because he saw the cat falling down their stairs, and he gives her a photo of that as well.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In his rush to get to the opening of Marge's art show on time, Homer accidentally plows through it and destroys her artwork.Marge: Well, Homer, you've destroyed my artwork and my dreams. Good job. Very thorough.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Opal is a parody of Oprah Winfrey and her talk show.
- Rejected Apology: To make up for ruining her art show, Homer writes Marge a $300 check for all the sculptures he destroyed and slips it under her door. Marge tears it up and blows the confettied remains through the keyhole.
- Shout-Out:
- The scene of Homer dressing into his ice cream man uniform spoofs the title sequence for Da Ali G Show.
- Marge's giant popsicle stick sculpture of Homer has him posed like Michelangelo's David. Homer initially believes that it's a sculpture of Magilla Gorilla.
- Swivel-Chair Antics: Homer and his friends goof off at work by playing a hockey-like game called Cincinnati Time-Waste, and Mr. Burns makes them do fifty swirls as punishment.
- That Came Out Wrong: As Lenny and Carl observe the wreckage at Marge's show and see popsicle stick figures of themselves merged together.Lenny: I don't know where Carl ends and I begin.Carl: See, statements like that are why people think we're gay.
- Would Hurt a Child: Homer forces a lactose intolerant boy to eat ice cream, and mocks him after the boy begins to faint.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Marge has a Popsicle stick sculpture of Krusty. Krusty objects, saying that his name is trademarked. Marge changes it to "TV Clown", and Krusty still isn't satisfied because he had a Broadway show which only one person attended.
