Homer angers Marge by binging their favorite show without her, and has to pick up a new skill in order to make amends. Meanwhile, Bart prepares to compete in "Krusty's Holiday Trample".
Tropes:
- Call-Back: Marge's Gainsville-dwelling elderly aunt Eunice, first seen in "Lisa Gets the Blues," is the reason Marge has to travel to Florida when she's thought to be dying, only for her to pull through after all.
- Clothing Damage: While training in dancing, Homer accidentally ends up ripping the top of his teacher. She takes the accident in stride though.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: The day after Homer agrees to wait for Marge's return to watch "Odder Stuff", Homer sees several coworkers talking about the show.
- Compressed Vice: Homer is now bad at dancing to Epic Fail levels and has embarrassed Marge in the past through his tendency to injure himself in any attempt, while Marge admits she knows nothing about dancing herself, applying Negative Continuity to episodes like "Some Enchanted Evening" and "Take My Wife, Sleaze" in which the two showed impressive skill on the dance floor, even winning a local dance contest in the latter episode.
- Consolation Prize: Bart and Milhouse receive paddle balls after losing the Holiday Trample.
- Dark Horse Victory: Ralph defeats Bart and Milhouse during the Holiday Trample.
- Exiled to the Couch: Inverted. Homer is ready to accept that punishment but Marge wants him sleeping next to her so he can feel her cold aura.
- Hand-or-Object Underwear: After Homer accidentally rips off his dance instructor’s top, she uses some nearby fans to cover her chest.
- I Can't Dance: Marge's reaction when Homer tries to dance with her.
- Nice Girl: Homer’s dance instructor is a nice and supportive woman who doesn’t give up on him and doesn’t get upset when he messes up.
- Rattling Off Legal: After Krusty says the winner gets to spend a day with him, someone quickly says it'll be with Sideshow Mel instead.
- Rule of Three:
- Krusty mentions three reasons to deem the Holiday Trample a good idea. The third one is that it's the third idea presented to him.
- The Holiday Trample has three finalists.
- Shout-Out:
- Homer and Marge's favorite show is called "Odder Stuff". Homer later has a nightmare styled in the "upside down" world.
- One of Krusty's assistants gives him an idea to hold a contest similar to Willy Wonka's but Krusty says the only children allowed inside his factory are those who work there.
- Take That!: During the Holiday Trample, Bart and Milhouse deliberately avoid touching Solo merchandise.
- When trying to avoid watching Odder Stuff, Homer imagines Marge as one of the monsters, begging him to wait for her. He then imagines her as BoJack Horseman, saying it's okay to watch that show. Homer says, "Too depressing."
- Later, when still trying to avoid watching "Odder Stuff", Homer comes across other series with a similar theme of "80s show with a monster in it", among them are ALF, Roseanne, Moonlighting and The Cosby Show, which he deems "Too scary."
- When Bart and Milhouse are running around in the toy store, they shout in horror at nearly crashing into a display full of Solo: A Star Wars Story toys and avoid it like the plague.
- Woman Scorned: Marge gets mad at Homer for watching season two of “Odder Stuff” without her and refuses to talk to him. She also wants him to resume sleeping next to her in bed so that he can feel her icy wrath.
