The Simpsons go to a crappy theme park (like they did in "Itchy and Scratchy Land") that has one good ride: a rocket ship that blasts the family off to space and onto Kang and Kodos' home planet (again) (cf. "Treehouse of Horror I").note
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion: The end credits parodying Star Trek features Akira in the role of Sulu in ''The Naked Time", referencing how Sulu's actor George Takei voiced Akira in his first appearance.
- A-Cup Angst: The Rigelian Queen's only regret is that her breasts aren't bigger. To rub salt in the wound, the last words she hears before dying are Bart saying "I don't see any breasts!"
- Are We There Yet?: Bart and Lisa keep annoying Homer with this question while he drives them to the theme park.
- Continuity Nod: While in a spaceship with no gravity, Homer tries to eat floating potato chips the same way he did in Deep Space Homer and the scene even has the same background music from then. This time, however, other characters snatch the chips as soon as Homer tries to eat them.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Whoever built Dizzneeland is clearly only interested in money. For one thing, outside baby pacifiers are banned, and families are forced to rent pacifiers for $25. They also kill guests who stay in misting stations for too long, and resell their hats. At one point, there's even a plane with a banner ordering guests to continue spending money.
- Did Not Think This Through: It's only after the Queen eats a piece of Homer that her subjects bother to completely check if humans are really edible for their species—and because of Homer's (and, to a certain extent, the rest of the family's) general unhealthiness, the Queen ends up dying.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Staying in the Dizzneeland's misting station for too long results in the park owners switching it from water to acid, dissolving all patrons present except their souvenir hats, which are then resold.
- False Reassurance: After the Simpsons finally find a place to park their car, Homer says he'll write down the place where they park so they won't forget. He writes "Parking Lot."
- Famous for Being First: In Dizzneeland, a suited employee dressed as a parody of Mickey Mouse named Mitchy Mouse says to the children attending that their cartoons weren't good, they just were first.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Kang and Kodos (two characters more commonly associated with Treehouse of Horror) make their presence known, Homer responds that it isn't Halloweennote .
- Negative Continuity: It's said offhand that once the Simpsons return to Earth their memories of the alien planet will fade. The episode in general is very extreme for a non-"Treehouse of Horror" segment, which are Canon Discontinuity from the start.
- Political Overcorrectness: The park's pirate-themed ride is turned "politically correct" because of constant complaints from two people. It features a pirate being executed for being biased.
- Revolutionaries Who Don't Do Anything: Even Homer questions why the Rigelian resistance that rescued him don't seem to do anything much but party, which they claim is practice for the epic celebration they'll eventually have when they win. It's where they're pouring almost all of their budget.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: After everything that goes down, it turns out humans are inedible to Rigelians to the point of toxicity and the Simpsons are free to go.
- Shout-Out:
- Dizzneeland having bought the Cosmic Wars franchise is a reference to Disney buying the Star Wars franchise.
- The "ethnic Princess" featured in a poster looks like Princess Jasmine.
- The leadup to the ceremony where Homer is to be eaten takes a number of cues from The Hunger Games, with an announcer modeled after Caesar Flickerman and the Rigelian who takes out the tools (who describes himself as the kindest of them resembling Cinna.
- The end credits emulate Star Trek: The Original Series with the same music and snapshots of individual scenes, replicating many of the same classic images but with Simpsons characters (Carl and Lenny/Lou and Eddie are the half-white/half-black aliens with each side of each other literally being split in half, Mr. Burns is stylized to look like the big-headed alien).
- Stock Audio Clip: The audio of Bart's "Aw, jeez!" among seeing the "Jim Jam Bonk's Wild Ride" attraction is recycled from "Homer's Enemy" (when Bart sees his factory had collapsed during the night.)
- Take Me Instead: Since the resistance took Homer, the Rigerians said the rules meant that the rest of the family would be sacrificed. When Homer returned to turn himself in, he tauntingly asked what the rules said about that, with Kang answering that all the Simpsons would be sacrificed, much to Homer's chagrin.Lisa: You know, this system's rigged against us.
- Take That!: Dizzneeland is a grossly-exaggerated version of Disneyland (and Disney Theme Parks in general) in the mid-90s to early 2000s, when Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harriss were in charge of the park and essentially turned the park into a giant outdoor shopping mall.
- The Unfavorite: When the Simpsons vote on which member of the family to kill, Homer's initial vote (before deciding to make a Heroic Sacrifice) is for Bart.
- Voodoo Shark: The Simpsons prove toxic and inedible to Rigelians because of their unhealthy fast food-heavy diet. Lisa, a vegetarian, points out that this shouldn't apply to her and is told that the hummus and rice cakes she eats combine in her stomach to form the equivalent of "formaldehyde and animal fat."
