Bart fakes his way into being a piano-playing virtuoso to impress a Russian girl named Zhenya (voiced by former 30 Rock cast member, Jane Krakowski). Meanwhile, Marge helps Zhenya's father, Slava (voiced by former SNL cast member Bill Hader) pass his driver's test, and Homer hides his baldness when the last two hairs on his head fall out.
Tropes:
- Art Shift: The Couch Gag is done up in the style of Robot Chicken.
- Bilingual Bonus: In Bart's daydream, Zhenya sings in Russian.
- Brick Joke: Slava bribed Chief Wiggum with tight, counterfeit jeans. Later in the episode, when Slava told Marge he got the license to be a chauffeur, Patty and Selma (who work at the DMV) were seen wearing tight, counterfeit jeans.
- Briefcase Full of Money: When Chief Wiggum had Slava stop his car, Slava got a briefcase and it seemed the trope would be played staright. Then it was revealed it contained jeans. Which Wiggum accepted.
- Comically Missing the Point: Carl invites Homer to Moe's. Homer says it's not even noon yet. Carl gets offended that Homer acts like he doesn't have a watch.
- Funny Background Event: Bart is setting up a trap while Skinner and Marge are talking about him and then you see several students are in the trap.
- Gilligan Cut: When Slava offered pants as bribe to Chief Wiggum, Marge said that wasn't how Springfield Police worked. The next scene proves her wrong.
- Imagine Spot: Bart imagines his piano teacher Zhenya as The Chanteuse while he's accompanying her on the piano.
- Insult Backfire: When Zhenya tells Bart that every note he plays sounds like a dying animal writhing in pain, he thinks that's awesome.
- Lady in Red: Bart has a huge crush on Zhenya, his piano teacher. He imagines himself as playing the piano while Zhenya as a seductive chanteuse who is dressed in a tight-fitting red dress.
- Loophole Abuse: As punishment, Bart had to take Gramps a cookie plate. He ate the cookies on the way to the retirement home. Gramps was happy to have found crumbs.
- Negative Continuity:
- This isn't the first time it's been suggested that Bart take up a musical instrument as a productive outlet, and the last time it happened (in "Jazzy and the Pussycats"), he really did discover a rare talent, only to suffer a Career-Ending Injury (which you'd have to imagine would affect his ability to play piano as well as drums).
- Marge should know very well that the Springfield PD absolutely would accept a bribe of counterfeit jeans, as she was on the force when it happened the first time (in “The Springfield Connection”).
- The Pollyanna:
- When Zhenya's father crashes into Flanders's car, Flanders considers it an opportunity to make a new friend.
- Grandpa is overjoyed to receive a cookie plate that still has crumbs on it.
- Precocious Crush: Ten-year-old Bart falls in love with Zhenya who is a young adult.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: While Zhenya is finishing up Bart's piano lesson, Slava, getting a driving lesson from Marge, drives her car through the wall and into the room. Bart simply gets in the car.
- Sensual Slav: Zhenya is a young Russian woman and very beautiful. She speaks with a strong accent which makes her more interesting and adds an exotic touch to her beauty. Bart has a huge crush on her.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Martin and the other nerds get hung by their underwear for using the word "cache" were the bullies could hear them.
- Shout-Out: When Homer asked a man if he was an angel, he asked the "angel" to turn a pumpkin into a carriage.
- Sitting Sexy on a Piano: Bart imagines Zhenya singing a seductive song while he's accompanying her on the piano. As they're performing, Zhenya is seen in various poses on the piano (either sitting and lying on it).
- Take That!: The Justin Bieber cameo (which consisted of Bieber being barred from entering a talent show because he's over-age, despite looking underage, as well as the fact that he's already a well-known celebrity singer), in probably one of the few times a celebrity cameo on The Simpsons wasn't put there as a transparent attempt at over-hyping the voice actor. There were even warnings stating that Justin Bieber's cameo was coming and for all viewers to tune out, and once his cameo ended a notice saying it's safe to watch again.
- Verbal Backspace: Bart turns off the TV, stating that it has become too lame. Millhouse takes the opportunity to wonder out loud whether hippos think rhinos are unicorns, causing Bart to turn the TV back on and say that it's not so bad.
