Recap / The Simpsons S4 E17 "Last Exit to Springfield"

Dental Plan! Lisa Needs Braces!

Original air date: 3/11/1993 (produced in 1992)

Production code: 9F15

In this episode, cited by Entertainment Weekly and several other critics as the series' magnum opus, Homer is unwittingly made the leader of the nuclear plant's labor union so he can fight back against Mr. Burns revoking the workers' dental plan, which Lisa needs for invisible braces.

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This episode contains examples of:

• Abnormal Dental Growth: Lisa's dentist shows a prediction of what will happen to Lisa's teeth if she doesn't get braces. A series of pictures shows her lower incisor growing larger and larger, until it eventually pierces through her cheek and skull by age 18. Bart, of course, advocates for letting nature take its course, because then Lisa would be a freak who could make money on the carnival circuit.
• Accidental Bargaining Skills: Homer is unqualified to lead a union, but events coincide to make him look successful at it. Notable examples include playing hardball with Mr. Burns' offers via needing to go to the bathroom and thinking Burns is hitting on him, and his attempt to quit the job is mistaken as the cue to strike.
• Affably Evil: In between the threats and attempted bribery, Mr. Burns is surprisingly polite to Homer.
• The Aggressive Drug Dealer: Mendoza creates "swank", a drug ten times more addictive than marijuana! The hidden joke there being that marijuana is barely addictive in the first place.
  Mendoza: To human misery!
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Burns' fantasy sequence of him and Smithers running the plant includes them opening crates marked "Robot Workers — 100% Loyal." The scene switches to the robots chasing Burns and Smithers while saying "crush, kill, destroy".
• Alternate Species Counterpart: Mr. Burns's pet vulture bears a strong resemblance to himself.
• Anachronism Stew: When Mr. Burns shuts off all the power to the city, one shot of a street shows several people dressed like they're from the 1930s.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  Mr. Burns: [reading the union contract] Benefits? Perks? A green cookie on St. Patrick's Day?
  • After giving Homer a tour of his estate, which includes the world's biggest TV, an aviary filled with vultures that look like him (at least one does), and 1000 monkeys working at 1000 typewriters, Mr. Burns finishes up inside his otherwise ordinary basement.
    Homer: Gee, it's not as nice as the other rooms.
    Mr. Burns: Yes, I really should stop ending the tour with it.
• Bad People Abuse Animals: Mr. Burns, twice:
  • When a stray dog gets in, he literally kicks the dog.
  • When the Monkeys on a Typewriter fail to write "the greatest novel known to man", Mr. Burns yells at one of them, throws the balled-up paper from the typewriter at its head, then tells it to shut up after it starts screaming frantically.
• Baldness Mockery: Discussed by Homer and Marge; when the former points out that his coworkers like to rub his bald head for good luck and pinch his stomach to hear his girlish laugh, the latter points how it doesn't sound like they respect him. He gets angry and then vows to punch Lenny in the back of the head, which he does while he unsuspectingly drinks a cup of coffee.
• Behind a Stick: McBain hides in a Venus de Milo ice sculpture narrower than his torso.
• Big Entrance: In the McBain scene that opens the episode, McBain bursts out of an ice sculpture.
  McBain: Ice to see you!
• Bloodier and Gorier: The McBain movie that begins the episode is filled with violence and blood going everywhere, including at least one on-screen headshot, complete with splatter.
• Bookcase Passage: Burns uses one to get to his secret control room.
• Braces of Orthodontic Overkill: The trope was originally called "Lisa Needs Braces" after the set Lisa is forced to wear, instead of the invisible ones they could afford with the dental plan. The dentist warns her not to get them wet, as they predate stainless steel.
• Bratty Food Demand: Homer explains to Marge and Lisa that he has a dental plan due to a strike he and his fellow employees held in 1988. He's not telling the whole truth; his coworkers were certainly participating in the effort, but Homer was merely pounding on the counter of a nearby catering truck chanting "Where's my burrito?!" Instead of a meal, he receives a lasting scar from the shutter door slamming shut on his head.
• British Teeth: The dentist scares Ralph Wiggum into healthy dental habits by showing him a book called "The Big Book of of (sic) British Smiles."
• Broken Record: The "Dental plan! Lisa needs braces!" sequence playing in Homer's head.
• The Cameo: Dr. Joyce Brothers appears in a single scene as the third member of Kent Brockman's discussion panel. Her only line of dialogue is, "I brought my own mic!"
• Card-Carrying Villain: The bad guy in the McBain movie ("To human misery!"). Homer reassures Bart there's no one that evil in real life.
• Comically Cross-Eyed: Principal Skinner tells a pupil, "Uncross those eyes." When the boy answers, "But I can't," he realizes his mistake and says, "Oops, sorry, Quigley!"
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Homer, for several seconds, is unable to make a link between the proposed disappearance of the dental plan and Lisa's need for braces.
  • Homer again during the scene mentioned in the Innocent Innuendo entry.
  • When Mr. Burns asks Smithers to get him some strikebreakers, "the kind they had in the '30s," he brings actual strikebreakers from the '30s.
• Constructive Body Disposal: When Mr. Burns asks Smithers where the leader of the union is so they can discuss the new union contract, Smithers mentions that he hasn't been seen since he declared his intent to clean up the union — cue Cutaway Gag of a football player tripping over a body-shaped mound in the end zone of a football stadium.
• Contrived Coincidence: Mr. Burns hits back at the union workers by removing one of the provisions from their contract. The one he removes at random is the one Homer turns out to need the most, as Lisa went to the dentist at the exact same time and said dentist just so happened to be a quack who convinced Marge that Lisa's teeth would grow to the point of piercing her skull unless she got braces as soon as possible.
• Continuity Nod:
  Mr. Burns: [watching Homer tear up the contract on a hidden camera] Who is that firebrand, Smithers?
  Mr. Smithers: That's Homer Simpson, sir.
  Mr. Burns: Simpson, eh? New man?
  Mr. Smithers: Actually, sir, he thwarted your campaign for governor, you ran over his son, he saved the plant from meltdown, his wife painted you in the nude...
  Mr. Burns: Doesn't ring a bell.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Mr. Burns almost convinces his employees to renounce to their dental plan for a keg of beer, tried to disperse the strikers with a water hose and strikebreakers (even if he fails), and he preferred to cut the power supply to Springfield than provide the dental plan back. As though to further drive home the point, Burns picked the dental plan at random, indicating he didn't care what he was cutting so long as he could get one over on the union.
• Couch Gag: The family sits on the couch, which transforms into a monster that swallows them all.
• Depraved Dentist: Doctor Wolfe isn't depraved, but he is unflinchingly strict, and torments Ralph with "The Big Book of British Smiles," which reduces poor Ralph to tears. He also knows when someone's lying.
  • Bart invokes this trope to scare some younger kids in the waiting room. He tells them he pulls kids teeth out to sell them and the rattle in spray-paint cans is a kid's tooth.
• Description Cut:
  • While watching the film at the beginning, Homer tells Bart no one could be as evil as the villain from it. Cut to Mister Burns watching a window washer dangling from a wire and laughing.
  • Later on, the trope is inverted when Homer discusses his work relations with Marge:
    Homer: Guys are always patting my bald head for luck, pinching my belly to hear my girlish laugh.
    Marge: Hmm, that doesn't sound like they like you at all.
    Homer: You know, I think you're right. First thing tomorrow morning, I'm gonna punch Lenny in the back of the head!
    [The next morning, Homer does exactly that.]
• Disproportionate Retribution: Mr. Burns blacks out the entire city when his employees go on strike.
• Double Entendre: See Innocent Innuendo. Homer announces that he's not interested in "backdoor shenanigans" as he's convinced that Burns is coming on to him. Burns instead takes it as a sign that Homer is a tough negotiator.
  Homer: Sorry, Mr. Burns, but I don't go in for these backdoor shenanigans. Sure, I'm flattered, maybe even a little curious, but the answer is no!
• Dramatic Irony: Despite Mr. Burns thinking Homer is immune to bribery, it's heavily implied Homer actually would have accepted the bribe had Burns been more upfront about it instead of merely hinting at it:
  Homer: Hey, what does this job pay?
  Carl: Nothing.
  Homer: D'oh!
  Carl: Unless you're crooked!
  Homer: Woo hoo!
• Dumbass Has a Point: Homer notes that Mr. Burn's basement looks plain compared to the rest of the house. Burns admits he's right and that he should stop ending the tour there.
• Entitled Bastard: When Mr. Burns falls out of a helicopter, he asks Homer to help him... even though this was right after he threatened Homer.
• Epic Fail: After going through all those security doors, the underground control room has a falling apart screen door that leads outside, which was left open and a stray dog came in.
• Every Scar Has a Story: Homer tells us where he got his scars.
• "Everybody Laughs" Ending: The family laughs in the dentist office in response to Lisa's lame pun (see below). Then it turns out they are laughing because the dentist left the laughing gas on.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Mr. Burns cuts the power to the town during a strike, and is shocked that the union doesn't break.
• Evil Laugh:
  • Mendoza in the Fake Action Prologue, which then fades over to Monty Burns laughing the same way.
  • Later Lisa laughs like this on the dentist chair, parodying the Joker in Batman (1989).
• Evil Stole My Faith: Parodied. When the school photographer sees Lisa's braces, he goes from being happy-go-lucky to gasping, "There is no God." For extra esteem-shattering points, he encouraged her not to be shy to smile because he assumed it'd be a beautiful one.
• Failed a Spot Check: How did nobody notice the human-shaped lump on the football pitch?
• Failed Attempt at Drama: After Burns returns Homer after abducting him to negotiate the employees' contract, he threatens to crush him, flies off in his helicopter and delivers an Evil Laugh...only to immediately fall out of it and badly injure himself. The next scene sees him being flown away via an air ambulance as he once again threatens him.
  Burns: [weakly] Simpson, be a dear and rub my legs until the feeling comes back...
• Fantasy Twist: The moment in Mr. Burns' fantasy of how easy it would be for himself and Smithers to run the plant alone when their robot workers attack them.
• Frank's 2000 Inch TV: Mr Burns owns the largest TV in the free world, which he has in his mansion.
• Funny Background Event: When Homer has to go to the bathroom, while Mr. Burns uses a lot of euphemisms for urination, a pipe is leaking a lot and Smithers is pouring coffee from a really long spout.
• Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: Homer hesitates before telling Mr. Burns he found the bathroom.
• Homage: Plenty, including:
  • Hubert Selby Jr.'s novel Last Exit to Brooklyn.
  • The urban legend of Jimmy Hoffa being buried at Giants Stadium.
• Idiot Ball: Why, after gunning down all of the members of Mendoza's party (including the waiters and musicians!), does McBain then take a salmon puff from Mendoza?
• Ignored Expert: During Burns' flashback back to 1909 as a child, he witnessed his grandfather detaining a teenage worker for having six atoms in his pockets, and the boy warned about the rise of the workers' union, to which Burns' grandfather ignored. However, as time grew, Burns learns that the teenager worker's predictions to be correct; even admitting his brief remorse in letting his grandfather locking the boy up in a coke oven.
  Burns: If only we had listened to that boy, instead of walling him up in the abandoned coke oven.
• Imagine Spot: When the family points out that union leaders had links to organized crime, Homer imagines himself as a Fanucci-esque mob boss receiving favors from the people while listening ot their pleas.
  "Mmm ... organized crime ..."
• Inherently Funny Words: Kent Brockman begins his news broadcast by asking if the Power Plant Strike is "argle bargle or foofaraw". While these words may sound silly at first, it turns out these are real words in the dictionary.
  • Argle Bargle means "copious but meaningless talk or writing; nonsense". ^note Definition courtesy of Google
  • Foofaraw means "a great deal of fuss or attention given to a minor matter". ^note Definition also from Google
• Innocent Innuendo:
  • When Mr. Burns proposes a bribe to Homer, he mistakes it for a romantic pass.
    Mr. Burns: We don't have to be adversaries, Homer. We both want a fair union contract.
    Homer: [thinking] Why is Mr. Burns being so nice to me?
    Mr. Burns: And if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.
    Homer: [thinking] Wait a minute. Is he coming on to me?
    Mr. Burns: I mean, if I should slip something into your pocket, what's the harm?
    Homer: [thinking] Oh my God! He is coming on to me!
    Mr. Burns: After all, negotiations make strange bedfellows. [Winks with a chuckle]
    [Homer screams in his mind.]
  • Later, Mr. Burns watches Homer apparently exercising (he's not, he's trying to get a Sugar Daddy off his back).
    Mr. Burns: Look at him, strutting about like he's cock of the walk. Well, let me tell you, Homer Simpson is cock of nothing!
    Mr. Smithers: [who's caught the innuendo] Hrrm.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Marge tells Lisa she looks fine in her braces. Cue Santa's Little Helper taking one look at them and running from the room.
• Japan Takes Over the World: A boy at the atom-smashing plant warned Mr. Burns' grandfather that the American workers would one day form their union, get the fair and equitable treatment they deserved, grow corrupt and shiftless, and allow the Japanese to overtake their industry. The elder Burns had a hard time believing it.
  "The Japanese? Those sandal-wearing goldfish tenders? Ta-ha! Bosh, flimshaw!"
• Jerkass Has a Point: Mr. Burns isn't exactly wrong that some of the provisions in the union contract are ridiculous ("a green cookie on St. Patrick's Day"?).
• Job-Stealing Robot: Mr. Burns tries to replace his workers with robots. They turn on him.
• Karma Houdini: The small guy who never plays along with his coworkers and blames the muscular guy sitting next to him, who gets beat up by just about everyone else in the room, while the actual dissenter chuckles to himself. The coworkers are another example because they never receive any sort of punishment for beating up the muscular guy.
• Kent Brockman News: Averted, for once Brockman's newspiece isn't frivolous, since it's covering the power plant strike. But he does brush off Mr. Burns' ranting about hellish vengeance.
• Kick the Dog: A literal version when Burns and Smithers head towards the underground control room which gives Springfield its electricity, and find a stray puppy had wandered into the room. Burns says "Oh, for God's sake!", kicks it out of the shack, and slams the door shut.
• Large Ham:
  • Doctor Wolfe takes his dentistry seriously.
  • Mr. Burns during his "opening tirade" on the news.
    Burns: Ten minutes from now, I will wreak a terrible vengeance upon this city! No one will be spared! NO ONE!
• The Last Title: The name of the episode.
• Laughing Mad: Lisa upon first seeing her Braces of Orthodontic Overkill.
• Living Lie Detector: Dr Wolfe instantly knows when Ralph is lying to him about his brushing routine, and when Marge lies about Maggie using a pacifier.
• Misplaced Retribution: The workers who voted for the strike beat up the guy they believe to be the one who voted against it. He didn't.
• Mistaken for Flirting: When Homer becomes the head of the union, Burns tries using the standard euphemisms to offer him a bribe. Homer, stupid as ever, thinks Burns is flirting with him.
• Mistaken for Profound: Throughout the episode Burns interprets Homer's idiocy and oafish behaviour as the work of a tough and skilled negotiator. Only right at the end does he realize he was mistaken.
• Monkeys on a Typewriter: Burns shows Homer a room containing a thousand monkeys chained up to a thousand typewriters. He's hoping that they'll write "the greatest novel known to man". He also appears to have gotten them addicted to nicotine, as one has a cigarette and another is seen with a pipe.
• Monochrome Past: Burns' flashback to his youth is shown in shades of sepia.
• Mood Whiplash: The triumphant scene of the strike ending is followed by the power going back on across Springfield... including at the Red Light district and the fake vomit factory. Yay?
• Mushroom Samba: The gas the dentist give Lisa make her hallucinate and enter a dream in the style of Yellow Submarine from The Beatles.
• Mutants: Mr. Burns' fantasy of how easy it would be for him and Smithers to run the plant by themselves includes them encountering and playing with a dog that has A Head at Each End, implicitly having been mutated by the radiation.
• National Stereotypes: "The Big Book of of (sic) British Smiles" mocks the idea that British people have bad teeth.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: For legal reasons, the "Beatles" in the Yellow Submarine parody were drawn so they don't completely resemble John, Paul, George, or Ringo. They look close enough to tell who is supposed to be whom, but different enough to allow plausible deniability should the scene get in any legal trouble. Also, the submarine is purple.
• Noodle Incident:
  • What exactly happened to the last union representative that wound up with him buried in a football field. It's implied later that his colleagues know exactly what happened to him.
  • Homer keeps asking Lenny to get his Sugar Daddy (the candy, not a rich, old man who dates a young gold-digger) off his back.
• Oh, Crap!: At the end of Lisa's Mushroom Samba, The Beatles get this when their submarine is about to crash into a drawing of Queen Victoria.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Mr. Burns attempts to bribe Homer, but Homer thinks Mr. Burns wants him sexually. Averted in the Brazilian Portuguese dub, which portrays Homer realizing Mr. Burns wants to bribe him. It actually fits.
• One-Liner, Name... One-Liner: Burns' line before the flashback to his youth: "Oh-ho, it didn't used to be this way, Smithers. No, it didn't used to be this way at all."
• On One Condition: Mr. Burns decides to give in to the union's demands and reinstates their dental plan, but on the condition that Homer resigns as union president. Homer is ecstatic.
• Overly Long Gag:
  • Homer mentally replays Lenny saying "Dental plan!" and Marge saying "Lisa needs braces!" back to back for quite some time.
  • Grandpa's rambling speech about onions, which drags on for almost a full minute.
• Paper Destruction of Anger: Homer rips up a copy of the union's new contract after realizing what the lack of a dental plan will mean for his family.
• The Parody
  • Homer has an Imagine Spot that's a parody of Don Fanucci's first appearance in The Godfather Part II (Homer as a mob boss, taking bribes and tribute in the form of donuts).
    Homer: That's-a nice-a donut.
  • Lisa's surreal dream under narcosis is a parody of Yellow Submarine, complete with an appearance by The Beatles.
  • The scene where she checks her reflection in the mirror and laughs demonically is a parody of the Joker looking into a mirror after his facelift in Tim Burton's Batman (1989).
  • The montage Burns and Smithers heading towards the power grid is a parody of Get Smart.
  • Mr. Burns quotes Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick (or Khan Noonien Singh) when he shuts down the power in Springfield.
  • The scene where the power plant workers sing in a big circle, overheard by Mr. Burns, is a parody of How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.
    Mr. Burns: Look at them all, in the darkness I'm bringing!
    They're not sad at all! They're actually singing!
    They sing without juicers! They sing without blenders!
    They sing without flunjers, capdabblers and smendlers!
  • The closeup of a bird giving a Burns-like shudder references the infamous loudly-squawking parrot with a transparent eye from Citizen Kane.
• Potty Emergency: Homer is brought to Mr. Burns's mega-mansion to engage in union negotiations. The negotiations are quickly cut short by Homer's overindulgence in coffee and watermelon and his subsequent need to rush to the nearest bathroom. Unfortunately for Homer, the nearest bathroom is about a hundred doors away and down a long hallway. (Homer does eventually relieve himself, although it is implied that he didn't quite make it to the bathroom.)
• Proscenium Reveal: The episode opens with a villain revealing a new drug and making a toast "to human misery!" Suddenly, McBain appears and kills the villain's accomplices, only to be gassed by a salmon puff. During the Evil Laugh, it is revealed that Bart and Homer are watching a McBain movie.
  Bart: That is one evil dude.
  Homer: It's just a movie, son. There's nobody that evil in real life.
• Protest Song: A parody of a 30s style union folk song, though the main refrain is good enough to pass for the real thing:
  "So we'll march day and night
  By the big cooling tower
  They have the plant
  But we have the power"
  Lenny: Now do "Classical Gas"!
• Pun:
  • "And that's the tooth!"
  • Also, McBain's Pre Ass Kicking One Liner in the beginning sequence:
    McBain: [having burst out of an ice sculpture at a supervillain's party] Ice to see you!
• Put on a Bus: This is the only episode in which the workers at the power plant are unionized. The union is never mentioned again after this and they are treated more like minimum-wage workers.
• Rage Against the Reflection: Lisa does this upon seeing her horrific Braces of Orthodontic Overkill when the family has no dental insurance.
• Rambling Old Man Monologue: Grandpa's favorite tactic in how to break up strikes is to tell stories that don't go anywhere.
  "Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville? I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. 'Gimme five bees for a quarter,' you'd say. Now where were we? Oh, yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones..."
• Reluctant Ruler: Homer as president of the Springfield Power Plant Union. When Burns "pressures" him to resign to have the dental plan reinstated, he is overjoyed.
• Resignations Not Accepted: Homer wants to step down as local union president, but the other members misinterpret his resignation speech as a call to strike action.
• Riddle for the Ages: How the hell did McBain get inside that ice sculpture?
• Rousing Speech: When it finally sinks in that giving up the dental plan will mean he won't be able to pay for Lisa's braces, Homer rallies the union into rejecting Burns' proposed contract, citing the times the dental plan helped his co-workers.
• The Runt at the End: That one guy with the Droopy-esque voice who keeps voting "nay" on everything.
  Homer: Who keeps saying that?
  [the crowd parts to show a beefy blonde guy and a little guy]
  Little guy:...It was him. Let's get 'im, fellas. [everyone dogpiles the beefy guy] Heh-heh-heh.
• Scare 'Em Straight: Dr Wolfe uses a picture book of people with deformed British Teeth to terrify Ralph into brushing his teeth.
• "Shaggy Frog" Story: Since the strikebreakers can't bust heads like they used to, their main tactic is to tell pointless, rambling stories, like the time Grandpa took the ferry to Shelbyville...
• Shout-Out: The fate of the previous union boss ending up buried under a football stadium is a reference to the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. An urban legend says that he was buried underneath Giants Stadium.
• Skewed Priorities: The power plant workers gave up their dental plan for a free keg of beer. Homer, of all people, has to remind them how important the dental plan is.
• Slow Electricity: The Big Blackout caused by Burns shutting down the plant is traveling from neighborhood to neighborhood.
• Stalker Shot: After Homer slowly realizes that he has to pay for Lisa's braces if they give up their dental plan, he rejects the contract and convinces everyone to reject it too. The camera cuts to the keg to reveal the beer tap has a hidden camera inside and Mr. Burns watching them through the monitor.
• Status Quo Is God:
  • Thanks to recovering the Dental Plan, Lisa's Braces of Orthodontic Overkill are replaced with braces so high quality you can't even see them.
  • Homer resigns as union president in a deal with Mr. Burns.
• Strike Episode: Homer becomes the leader of the power plant's union and leads a strike against Mr. Burns when he revokes their dental plan (because Lisa needs braces).
• Strong Family Resemblance: During the flashback to Mr. Burns' youth, Burns' grandfather looks just like him, only with facial hair. Also, one of the thugs who drags away the young thief is identical to one of the hired goons from the present. ^note Hired goons?
• Storyboarding the Apocalypse: The Depraved Dentist laying out Lisa's future without braces does so with computer-generated images of what she'll look like.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Homer has to excuse himself during a union negotiation with Burns to use the bathroom. This leads to an Overly Long Gag of Homer looking through doors to find the bathroom, which cuts back to Burns discussing how the negotiation is going with Smithers. When Homer comes back:
  Mr. Burns: Find the bathroom all right?
  Homer: Uh... yeah.
• Symploce: A Shout-Out to the first lines of A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times": Mr. Burns shows Homer his thousand Monkeys on a Typewriter who are writing him the greatest novel ever written. He scolds one of them after typing "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times."
• Take That!: One of the pictures in the "Big Book of British Smiles" shows then-Prince Charles (now King Charles III).
• Tempting Fate: Homer comforts Bart during a McBain movie by claiming nobody as evil as the movie's villain exists in real life. Cue Mr. Burns performing an Evil Laugh very similar to the one the bad guy let out.
• Too Dumb to Live: McBain eats a snack offered by the drug dealer he's trying to arrest. It doesn't end well for him.
• Turned Against Their Masters: In Burns' fantasy sequence, he and Smithers find crates containing 100% loyal robot workers. Suffice to say, the robots turn out to be anything but loyal; they chase Burns and Smithers throughout the plant.
• Uncatty Resemblance: One of the vultures in Burns' aviary looks (and even sounds) like him.
• Unions Suck: Mr. Burns' decision to revoke the dental plan stems from him becoming fed up with the various stipulations in the plant's union contract (the workers are guaranteed a green cookie on Saint Patrick's Day). It's also implied that the previous union president was murdered for trying to clean up the corruption in it.
• Unishment: Homer resigning as president of his union's chapter in exchange for the dental plan's restoration. Mr. Burns intends for this to be Homer having to give up something, but he doesn't know Homer wanted to quit.
• Worthy Opponent: Mr. Burns comes to regard Homer as this, as all his attempts to buy off or thwart Homer fail spectacularly. Of course, it's really all because Homer is Too Dumb to Fool.
  Mr. Burns: [as Homer enthuses about the successful conclusion to the strike] Smithers, I'm beginning to think that Homer Simpson was not the brilliant tactician I thought he was.
• Wretched Hive: Springfield, best exemplified when the power comes back on.

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