Homer and Marge find out that Moe is having a big fight with his father (Ray Liotta); the two try to reconnect their relationship.
Tropes:
- 555: During the ending, Moe is recording a Mattress King ad where he gives 555-0146 as his store's phone number.
- Broken Pedestal: Moe's Dad became this upon asking him to sabotage a rival business.
- Disappointed in You:Moe: My pop's never said how disappointed he was, but he let me know in his own way: by kicking me out and turning my room into a home gym he never used.
- Dysfunctional Family: Moe's brood is in some ways worse than The Simpsons. His siblings actively ruin his business and store, leading a war that escalates between them. (Case in point, they have a flyer promising a free mattress if the patron burned Moe with a cigar.) And Morty's no better. When Moe reveals his intent to infest their mattress supply with bed bugs, Morty gleefully encourages what he knows would destroy his other children's business. To say nothing of the constant shoe fighting.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Moe patches things up with his family. However, his siblings reveal their true colors and sabotage his grand opening with a doctored and condemning advertisement. When he was a kid, Moe was tasked with planting bed bugs on a rival company's mattresses but backed out at the last second due to a conflict of conscious. Not knowing the rival family had already left to plant bed bugs on the Szyslak company mattresses.
- Get Out!: Moe tells this to everyone at his bar (and smashes their drinks with a baseball bat in the process) when he gets angered by receiving a phone call from his estranged father.
- Hard Truth Aesop: Families are complicated; while most families are able to patch up their differences due to their blood relations, some families don't have that privilege. You can't excuse bad behaviour just because you share blood with your aggressor.
- I Have No Son!: Moe's father Marty cut off connections with him when he refused to go with his orders to sabotage a rival mattress company, which led to their own business getting ruined.
- I Warned You: Homer does his best to resist the temptation of telling Marge this, but he eventually gives in during the climax after they've all been preyed upon by bed bugs.
- Imagine Spot: Marge has three with the destructive ways Bart could use his musical instruments of choice. The violin option includes a Falling Chandelier of Doom.Marge: Well, at least that one had him wearing a tuxedo.
- Mattress-Tag Gag: One of Moe's attempts to ruin his younger siblings' business is tearing off the tags in the mattresses, which horrifies Marge.
- Missing Mom: Moe's childhood flashbacks feature his siblings and his father but not his mother.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
- Moe refused to sabotage his family's rivals in business since they were a family too. But then that family sabotaged his own family's business, leading to Marty cutting Moe out of his life.
- Marge tries to mend the damage between Moe and his family. However, the peace she's brokered is short-lived, and a war breaks out between Moe and his siblings at their respective stores.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: While helping Moe against his siblings, Homer takes advantage of this to drop paint on his sisters-in-law in spite of them having nothing to do with the story.
- Running Gag Stumbles: Moe getting a call from his dad is played out like a typical prank call from Bart, minus Moe calling out a Punny Name to the amusement to the bar patrons.Moe: Moe's Tavern, Moe speaking... What? You have the nerve to call me? Why don't you delete my number from your phone, then put the phone in a sock, and then beat yourself in the head 'til your face looks like motor lodge buffet eggs?!
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Moe resists giving into his dark side and infesting his siblings' mattress stock with bed bugs. But after being hugged by Marge, the jar is dropped and smashed on an extra firm mattress, ruining the entire stock and leaving Moe, his family, Homer, and Marge bitten and clawed by bed bugs.
- Shout-Out: Moe has a small train delivering beers. Homer says he loves The Little Engine That Could make him drunk.
- Take That!:
- Moe considers the mattress business worse than illegal drugs and legal drugs even worse.
- Marge considers keeping contact only through LinkedIn to be worse than nothing.
- White Sheep: Moe is this in comparison to his siblings and his father.
- World's Smallest Violin: Homer hallucinates Bart's $430 violin taunting him with this.
