Moe dates a little person named Maya while Homer leaves Maggie at a park next to Moe's Bar while he drinks and she is bullied by the local kids.
Tropes:
- Adults Are Useless: Homer, initially, who was completely oblivious to the bullying that Maggie suffered and ignored the warning signs, to boot. Eventually subverted in The Reveal, where he does arrive to see Maggie getting bullied and comes to the rescue, only to get overpowered by the buff infant.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Homer meets Maya, he asks Maya a "mechanical" question he feels might be inappropriate... how a nuclear plant makes electricity from nuclear power (which she answers correctly.)
- The Bartender: Parodied and Subverted.Moe: Guys, after all the years I've given you advice, now I need a little advice from you.Carl: We never follow your advice.Lenny: The one time I did, I went to jail for three years!Moe: You made some good friends, didn't ya?!Lenny: Just 'cause you're chained to a guy don't make him your friend!Moe: Tomayto tomahto.
- Big Brother Instinct: Seeing Maggie upset by her bullying situation, Bart plays on some bongos to cheer her up. Unfortunately, it doesn't help.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The babysitter in the Nanny Cam commercial, who not only hated children, but was willing to eat her two charges once left alone in her care by their parents.
- Bread Milk Eggs Squick: After apologizing to Maya for accidentally thinking that she lived in a tree, Moe explains that many others do, such as Tarzan, The Berenstein Bears and flood victims.
- Continuity Nod:
- Moe mentions that he's a snake handler as his religion.
- Moe hides the book Little Women, the book he reads to sick children in the hospital.
- Daycare Nightmare: Maggie's subplot is that a new daycare center has opened right next to Moe's bar and Homer places her there while he goes out to drink. The daycare center itself is not bad... but all of the other babies are hyper-territorial bullies that make Maggie's stay a living hell and take measures to not act like this in front of adults.
- Drums of War: The other babies at the playground threaten Maggie by drumming on upside-down pails. When she's clearly edgy upon arriving home, Bart makes it worse when he tries to soothe her by playing his bongo drums.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Maya is very turned off by Moe's little person jokes after initially finding them funny, so much that she breaks up with him.
- Enfant Terrible: Homer repeatedly leaves poor Maggie on a playground populated entirely by terrifying infant thugs. Of course, as we've seen before, when push comes to shove Maggie is no slouch herself.
- Epic Fail: Homer's attempt to save Maggie from her bullies gets him beaten up by literal toddlers.
- Everyone Has Standards: Dr. Hibbert refuses to shorten Moe's legs because it's completely unethical and no licensed doctor would do that.
- Extremely Protective Child: Maggie, as usual, with regard to Homer, this time going to bat against the baby bullies who were cowing her before when they start taking swings at her dad.
- Gilligan Cut: Right after Dr. Hibbert says that no licensed physician would perform that kind of operation, we cut to Dr. Nick who is all ready for it.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: Moe thinks that reducing his own height to be with Maya will convince her that he loves her. Instead, she gets upset and breaks up with him.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Moe is quite taller than Maya who is half of Moe’s size. Her height is a source of conflict for the relationship.
- Innocently Insensitive: Subverted. Moe is surprised to see his date, Maya, is a little person, then immediately apologizes and asks what the correct term is. Maya tells him that he got it right with "little person".
- Noodle Incident: Lenny apparently ended up in prison for three years after following a piece of advice from Moe.
- Not-So-Innocent Whistle: The babies who threaten Maggie do this when Homer shows up and he's fully taken in by it.
- Papa Wolf: Homer, who finally wises up and saves Maggie from the other babies. Well, he tries, until they get the better of him, prompting Maggie to slug the main bully and save her father.
- Pet the Dog: Homer consoles Moe after the break-up, saying how he if he can have someone love him once, he can have someone love him again.
- The Reveal: Marge bought a Spy Cam to see exactly what Homer was doing on his outings with Maggie, with a number of distractions hiding the fact he would run into the bar. When she finally sees the full video and Maggie getting harassed by the other kids, Homer actually comes to the rescue (or at least attempt to).
- Shipper on Deck: When Maya correctly answers the power plant question above, Homer is quick to show his support for her and Moe's relationship.
- Spy Cam: On the third act, Marge and Homer buy a micro-nanny cam that they put on Maggie's bow to see why she's acting so afraid of going to the daycare center. Needless to say, they are astonished by what they end up seeing.
- Toilet Seat Divorce: Maya playfully pokes fun at her own height with Moe both before and after he asks her to marry him, but asks him to leave when he takes it a (mild) joke or two too far, admitting he's been holding a lot of lines back. His subsequent attempt to surgically make himself shorter in a very twisted Grand Romantic Gesture only seals the deal, as the problem for Maya is that he demonstrates awareness of her height at all. Given that she was overjoyed to marry him after knowing him for only a short time and that her height really doesn't matter to him, you can't help thinking it's the kind of problem that could have been settled with one mature conversation.
- Trans Equals Gay: Moe attempts to have his height surgically reduced so that he can be with Maya, but stops the process when he realizes Dr. Nick mixed him up with a patient who wanted a sex change. Cue a comedically short Mr. Largo, who wanted to look like "a beautiful woman" (Julie Newmar, specifically). Largo is consistently portrayed as gay before and after this episode, with no hints of being transgender.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The kids at the playground do everything from stalking Maggie to playing menacing bongo music to harass her.
