Marge opens up a sandwich shop, but it soon becomes more than they had hoped. Homer works so hard that he loses a few pants sizes, but the business starts to sink when Cletus and the Spuckler family open up the exact same franchise right across the street. This leads Marge to think of creative ways to get out of her contract so they can go back to their normal lives.
Tropes:
- Big Eater:
- Or "Big Drinker" in this case. Homer mentions bankrupting a Pizza Hut just from taking advantage of their unlimited drinks offer.
- Chief Wiggum, twice; the first involves him entering Marge's Mother Hubbard's Sandwich Cupboard during afternoon rush, wanting a six-foot party sub with 'a lot of mayo'. Wiggum later enters the Express version across the street, ordering a sub so long, Eddie and Lou help carry it for him.Lou: Eh, Chief, uh, who are you fooling with this 'one sandwich a day' diet?
Chief Wiggum: It's on whole wheat, Lou. Cleans up your insides. (after the sandwich is fitted into the car) I'm gonna sit next to it.
- Graceful Loser: Marge decides to fire Gil, despite the entire Simpson family helping out poor Marge at that point. However, Gil accepts the firing with dignity and - with Marge allowing it - taking some bologna heels to go.
- Hash House Lingo: Lisa does this during the family's plan to get Marge out of her contract.Homer: I'm a litigious business man, and I need a coffee to go.
Lisa: One Jumbo Joe to go!
(Bart "accidentally" spills coffee over Homer's crotch)
Marge: Get the first aid kit!
Lisa: One Florence Nightingale in a box, and make it snappy! - Humiliation Conga: Homer is intentionally attacked in his groin with hot coffee, medical needles, and a fire extinguisher just to sell Marge's attempts to get out of ownership of the restaurant to the executive. Though it is implied he's was wearing some kind of protection under his pants.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: After being fired for trying to steal cash from Marge's sandwich store, Shauna retaliates by making the squeaky-voiced-teen quit. She accomplishes this by showing him her boobs.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Marge gets so depressed that her Mother Hubard's Sandwich Cupboard was being put out of business by the Mother Hubard's Sandwich Cupboard Express directly across the street, that she goes to Moe's Tavern to drown her sorrows.
- Read the Fine Print: Averted. Marge read the contract. The executive who convinced her to sign it was surprised that she did so because it took two lawyers to write it and they had to keep waking each other up while making the contract.
- Restaurant-Owning Episode: Marge opens up a sandwich shop.
- Scatterbrained Senior:
- Grandpa mistakes an open window for a drive-thru.
- Mr. Burns tries to come onto a Mother Hubbard standee and takes her on a date.
Grandpa: Son, if I ever seem that senile, just take a gun and - (Homer cocks a shotgun) What’re you doing? - Shown Their Work: The ground sloth in the epilogue is correctly shown knuckle-walking as opposed to ambling on its hind legs.
- Sluggish Sloths: The sandwich origin epilogue involves a caveman version of Homer trying to hunt a ground sloth and chase it down. Both of them are proven to be very slow and the chase takes a few days before the caveman finally slays the sloth.
- This Explains So Much: When Marge can't understand why Trudy can be so cold towards her misery, the woman tells her she grew up on the pageant circuit. Marge says that now she completely understands her.
- Too Dumb to Live: In the sandwich origin epilogue, the ground sloth decides to wake up caveman Homer in the middle of the night, which proves to be fatal for the animal.
