After Bart pulls a particularly horrible prank, Ned offers to spend time with him to make him better. Homer is jealous and tries to mentor Nelson.
Tropes:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parent: Nelson is embarrassed by his mother visiting the school while drunk.
- Ass Shove: Milhouse saves himself from the grenade by jumping into the backflap of Kirk's costume. After it's revealed to be a prank, Milhouse tells Bart, "You have no idea how far I went up there."
- Beware the Nice Ones: Even Ned isn't too forgiving of Bart's prank. Even when he defends Bart from getting expelled, he gave the boy a Death Glare after it's revealed. Later, he angrily calls Bart a punk after Bart quite idiotically pulls another prank pretending to cut himself washing a knife with ketchup blood.
- Bilingual Bonus: Bart asks Lisa and the French club not to make fun of him in French, to which they apparently proceed to do just that, to his irritation. However, with the exception of Martin Prince (who calls him an "imbecile"), they're simply using conversational French phrases such as "A demain" ("See you tomorrow"), and Lisa tells him to enjoy his day with the Flanders.
- Brats with Slingshots: Nelson plans to activate the giant hands prop in the parade with a slingshot he improvised from a cross.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Ned appeals to Skinner that he'll correct Bart's behavior, claiming he'll be improved with the three P's: persistence, prayer, and persistent prayer.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Bart's fake grenade prank makes Skinner — a war veteran — wet his pants. The next scene shows Skinner wearing a kilt as a replacement.
- Carry the One: When Homer tries to help Bart with a math problem (4 2/3 + 5/6), he mutters, "Carry the math..."
- Disappeared Dad: When Homer takes to mentoring Nelson, his mom mentions that pretty much every paternal figure in Nelson's life has abandoned him at some point, pointing to three cork boards, plus one on a fourth, filled with pictures of the men who showed up and later abandoned the two of them.
- A Dog Ate My Homework: After failing to teach Bart to add fractions, Homer puts the paper in Batznote 's mouth and exclaims, "Oh no, the dog ate it!" Batz instead puts the paper back on the table and straightens it out.
- Everyone Has Standards: Nobody, not even Milhousenote , Ms. Hoover or Ned Flanders found Bart's grenade prank funny—albeit Ms. Hoover wasn't amused because she wanted the school to be destroyed and Bart got her hopes up.
- Fake in the Hole: Grampa pranks Bart with a dummy grenade that he claims is live. Bart then borrows the grenade and pulls the same prank at a school assembly, which leads to him being expelled before Flanders offers to set him straight.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Homer is jealous of the time Ned and Bart spend together.
- Hated by All: During the Christian pride parade, Mr. Burns is booed and Lenny asks why he won't die.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Ned attempts this by throwing himself onto the fake grenade.
- After learning Homer was only mentoring him to make Bart jealous, Nelson tries to crush Bart with a parade mechanism. Homer pushes Bart out of the way.
- Insane Troll Logic: When everyone at church praises Ned for mentoring Bart, Homer feebly points out that he and Marge messed him up in the first place.
- Operation: Jealousy: The Parental Substitute variant, in which Homer starts hanging out with the fatherless and miserable Nelson to make Bart jealous after Bart bonds with Ned.
- Pair the Spares: Homer regrets using Nelson to practice Operation: Jealousy on Bart and introduces him to Ned, who serves as his new mentor.
- Parental Substitute: Ned to Bart, Homer to Nelson, and eventually Ned to Nelson.
- Prank Gone Too Far: Bart brings a fake (yet very realistic-looking) grenade into school and tricks everyone into believing it's real, causing mass hysteria. The prank is so dangerous that Bart would have been expelled, if it weren't for Ned.
- Ungrateful Bastard:
- Homer reluctantly brings Ned a pie and still calls him "Stupid Flanders" until Ned tells him to stop.
- At the end of the episode, Bart and Homer are attending the same baseball game as Ned and Bart asks why he "traded" Ned for Homer, apparently having forgotten that Homer saved him. Homer responds by throwing a peanut at Ned and they both laugh it off.
- Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Kirk Van Houten makes a guest appearance at Springfield Elementary as the local semi-amateur hockey team's new mascot, Vinnie the Vulture.Bart: Milhouse, you didn't tell me your dad got another bad job.
Milhouse: Actually, he's the understudy. The main guy got shingles. - You Monster!: Ms. Hoover calls Bart this when he reveals his fake grenade prank.
