On his way home from a poker game, Homer befriends a pregnant woman, then is forced to help her when the elevator gets stuck and she goes into labor. Meanwhile, Lisa helps the town's cheerleaders unionize so they can negotiate for better wages and on-the-job conditions, leading the Rich Texan to hire scabs.
This episode contains examples of:
- All Guys Want Cheerleaders: Lisa gathers the Atomettes in Bart's treehouse, causing a crowd of men (from Nelson to the Mayor) to circle around them.
- Born in an Elevator: The plot of the episode kicks off with Homer serving as an emergency Delivery Guy for a woman named Gretchen when their elevator breaks down.
- Bystander Syndrome: We don't find out until Homer's already finished delivering Gretchen's baby that a third passenger has been on the elevator ignoring them the entire time. He shows up again later in the episode when Gretchen is telling the story to Marge."And the really funny thing is I'm a doctor."
- Child Prodigy: Homer's unfitting teachings for babies in how to open a beer bottle teach baby Homer how to do it himself, to the amazement of his parents.
- Continuity Nod: The pregnant woman names her baby Homer and Homer calls him "Homer Junior", or "Ho-Ju". Homer recommended Bart to change his name to that back in the Monorail episode.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Homer sings the word "sleep" to the show's instrumental theme tune, describing it as "a lullaby my father sung to me."
- Disappeared Dad: Throughout the episode we're lead to believe that Gretchen, who says that her boyfriend hasn't been around in a while, is a single mother, making Homer the only father figure in her baby's life. At the end Homer Junior's dad returns and we find out that he was in the army, giving mother and baby a happy ending even though Homer won't be involved anymore.
- Disproportionate Retribution: At the zoo, Maggie and Homer Junior bickering ends with baby Homer getting off their carriage and pushing it off to the direction of an otter sanctuary. He grins and waves at Maggie.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Marge objects to Homer's idea of bringing Homer Junior to the zoo with the family. Her objection comes to fruition when Maggie nearly falls in the prairie dog sanctuary.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Before she hears the full story, Marge thinks that Homer cheated on her with Gretchen. Homer doesn’t help his case by saying that they “did it in an elevator” when he was talking about delivering her baby.
- New Child Left Behind: As it turns out, Homer Junior's father was serving in the army and had no idea that Gretchen was pregnant, since she didn't want him to marry her solely for that reason.
- Secret Other Family: This is what Gretchen and Homer Junior, naturally, appear to be to Homer when Marge discovers them. Though the relationship between Homer and Gretchen is itself completely innocent with no sign of interest on either end, the situation otherwise checks all the boxes, with Homer providing various kinds of support for Gretchen and serving as a Parental Substitute for her baby while fibbing to Marge about what he's been up to.
- Skewed Priorities: Marge finds it odd that Homer isn't ogling the cheerleaders with all the other men and is more angry that he's supposedly playing poker with his friends. Averted when in the end, Homer realizes there were cheerleaders and he missed them completely due to looking after Homer Junior.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Whatever Homer teaches Homer Junior to do like opening beer bottles and holding grudges on other babies. Homer Junior's mother doesn't seem to care (or wasn't told about it).
- Weird Trade Union: After Lisa unionizes the cheerleaders for the Springfield Atoms and calls a strike, they are joined by their fellow unions, The Weather Girls local 143 and the United Federation of Ungrateful Au Pairs.
