Recap / The Simpsons S4 E8 "New Kid on the Block"

Original air date: 11/12/1992

Production code: 9F06

When the Simpsons' other neighbours, the Winfields decide to move to Florida to run out the clock, a new family consisting of a divorced mom named Ruth and her teenaged daughter, Laura, move in. While Bart falls for Laura (and gets his heart broken when he discovers that Jimbo Jones is her boyfriend), Homer and Marge go out to eat at Captain MacAllister's seafood restaurant "The Frying Dutchman" — and Homer sues the establishment for not getting his fill at the "All-You-Can-Eat" buffet.

Of note, this is the first of four episodes written by Conan O'Brien in his pre-talk show host days.

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This episode contains examples of:

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: This trope is why Laura develops a crush on Jimbo...until Jimbo wusses out in front of Moe. Lisa also swoons with Laura when Bart says Jimbo is just "a good-looking rebel who plays by his own rules".
• Ambulance Chaser: Lionel Hutz showcases he's one of these once again, taking in Homer's Frivolous Lawsuit and mentioning he once tried to sue the writers of The NeverEnding Story (1984) for false advertising.
• And Show It to You: Bart's Imagine Spot of Laura ripping out his heart. "You won't be needing this!"
• Artistic License – Law: In reality, Homer would not have had the legal right to sue the buffet. The vast majority of buffets only allow "all-you-can-eat" in one time period of either breakfast, lunch or dinner and they make a note of that on your receipt. After your time period ends, your allotted time to eat is over and you have to pay again to keep eating.
• Babysitter's Nightmare: Homer tries to call up Abby, the kids' usual babysitter, but her sister answers instead, telling him that her last encounter with the Simpsons destroyed her.
  Abby: [rocking in her chair] No, Bart, put it down...Put it down, Bart...Bart, put it down...
• Backfire on the Witness Stand: Invoked and Subverted: When Lionel Hutz summons Marge to the witness stand to testify how Homer was a victim of the Frying Dutchman's "false advertisement", she tries to dodge the answer by lying. However, Hutz reminds Marge that she's under oath and she instantly caves in and, in tears, tells the court about how Homer spent the rest of the night looking for more seafood to eat after being kicked out of the restaurant.
• Bait-and-Switch: During Homer's lawsuit against the Frying Dutchman, the Blue-Haired Lawyer prepares to show the court just how much shrimp Homer ate. In come over half a dozen men carrying two large sacks apiece...of letters addressed to Santa Claus. Turns out they're part of a case against Kris Kringle which is happening in the courtoom next door.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In line with Marge's blackly humorous victimization and Homer's ignorance, Homer was about to win the case, until Captain McCallister comes to him for an out-of-court settlement. Homer gets to eat all he can eat...while being touted as the Frying Dutchman's resident freak show "Bottomless Pete" for publicity.
• Behind the Black: The waiter at the Frying Dutchman tries to give Homer instructions on what to do at the buffet. In the few seconds he does so, Homer's already at the buffet stealing a boiling steam tray.
• Big Eater: Homer is at his hungriest in this episode, and few other instances of his gluttony have matched this one. At the Frying Dutchman, he eats continuously for literal hours without stopping until midnight, not because he's full but because the waiters have to force him out. Unsatisfied, Homer drives around looking for another all-you-can-eat fish place, and when he can't find that, he makes Marge go fishing with him. During the trial, Homer even orders a pizza.
  Captain [McCallister]: Tis no man! Tis a remorseless eating machine!
• Blatant Lies: Homer will claim that the main character of Don Quixote is unnamed before admitting that Marge was right about his name and he was wrong.
• Broken Tears: Marge, when Lionel Hutz gets her to confess what Homer did after they were kicked out of the Frying Dutchman.
• Buffet Buffoonery: Homer Simpson goes to the Sea Captain's restaurant when he sees that it has an "all-you-can-eat" buffet, and he not only eats all of the restaurant's existing food stock (several times over), but once he's kicked out (because he still kept on eating past the restaurant's closing time and the staff got fed up and wanted to go home) he and Marge spend the rest of the night seeking other open buffets and, upon finding none, going fishing. The experience is incredibly embarrassing for Marge to remember, and to her further dismay, the Captain decides to exploit Homer's never-ending appetite by turning him into a one-man freakshow to advertise his restaurant.
• Cannot Tell a Lie: Marge tries to lie in court, only for Hutz to coldly remind her she's under oath.
• Cerebus Call-Back: All of those times before and after this episode in which Moe swears bloody revenge on whoever is making prank calls to his bar? Turns out they're not empty threats. Jimbo gets a Twerp Sweating worth several lifetimes when Moe barges into the Simpsons home wielding a big knife and looking for him.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • When Ruth says she almost considered not moving to Springfield after reading the Time cover story "Worst Town in America", Marge just cheerfully comments that it's possible to see the Simpsons's house in the photo.
  • When Homer goes to Ruth's to ask her about sending Laura over to babysit.
    Homer: Oh, uh, and there was something else. Something I was supposed to tiptoe around.
    Ruth: My divorce.
    Homer: That's it! Whoo-hoo! I'm glad one of us remembered. That could have been embarrassing.
• Common Nonsense Jury: Lionel Hutz packs the jury with obese food-lovers that sympathize with Homer.
• Cool Big Sis: Laura more or less acts like this towards Bart and to a lesser extent towards Lisa.
• Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Laura gives off a big vibe of this to Bart blended in with his Precocious Crush.
• Couch Gag: The family sits down on the couch and it falls through the floor.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Although it's usually cut out in syndication, after Bart and Laura prank call Moe with the "Ivana Tinkle" joke, among those laughing at the joke includes Homer and Captain McCallister who toast each other while having drinks.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Moe tries to cut Jimbo with a knife when Bart frames him for making all the prank calls to the bar.
• Distracted by the Sexy: When doing her school work, Jimbo attempts to play through to making out with Laura by claiming his "shirt is chaffing [him]". It works, but considering the kind of character Jimbo is like, it doesn't help that this is presumably one of the few early dates they've been on, and next thing the viewers know, he thinks that he has a home run and claims "now my pants are chafing me". Thankfully, Moe comes in to ruin this moment slasher movie-style.
• Does Not Like Spam: Adding to Marge's grief is that she hates sea food. In fact, she's violently allergic to it, but Homer cares not.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: This is one of many early episodes in which the Simpsons home address was not 742 Evergreen Terrace. Bart says it's 1094 Evergreen Terrace while on the phone with Moe.
• Euphemism Buster: The subversion is subverted:
  Homer: Heh, heh, heh... I know what you mean. (pause) Just let me make sure we're not talking about food.
  Ruth Powers: I'm not.
  Homer: Right! Me, neither. (pause) We're talking about sex, right?
  Ruth Powers: Right.
  Homer: I hear you loud and clear.
• Even Evil Has Standards: As vengeful, ruthlessly vigilant, and bloodthirsty Moe was putting on in his outing for Jimbo's blood, he was just going to cut the guy skin deep to scare him off from crank calling the bar.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Averted, although Homer wants it enforced at the "all-you-can-eat" restaurant. He's determined to make the restaurant hold to its word that it is, indeed, an "all-you-can-eat" establishment... by his standards. Played straight with the "Clumsy Student Movers" company.
• Extreme Omnivore: Homer eats two plastic lobsters at the Frying Dutchman without suffering any ill effects.
• Fan Disservice: In-universe; a couple of potential buyers for the Winfields' house immediately pull out when they catch sight of Homer lounging around naked in a paddling pool.
• Freudian Excuse: Lightly implied with Laura's love of "bad boys" and "quasi thugs". Considering her dysfunctional family life, she might has some daddy issues that are vaguely hinted to in retrospect considering Ruth's actions and motives in Marge On The Lam.
• Fictional Video Game: Escape from Death Row. Players must, as the name suggests, escape from a death row jail. If they encounter a conservative judge, they can press for a "change of venue" button, but may wind up in an even harsher prison, such as the electric chair in Texas, and must button-mash the "remorse" option to escape.
• Frivolous Lawsuit:
  • Homer vs. "The Frying Dutchman". Homer tries to argue that they kicked him out before he has had "all he can eat", thereby making the restaurant guilty of fraudulent publicity. However, he stays hours past closing time, single-handedly empties their stock multiple times and forces them to make runs to the grocery store and eats far more than any thoughtful person would. In the end, it's settled out-of-court; they invite him back, but set Homer up in a glass display and let all the people gawk at him pigging out. It draws boatloads of customers who came to watch, but they decide to try some food because this restaurant has to be pretty good if he's eating like that.
  • Hutz also mentions that he sued the makers of The Never Ending Story for false advertising, disregarding that a movie that actually lived up to that title would logically never finish production.
• Generation Xerox: Whether she likes it or not, Laura of her mother, Ruth Powers. Some In-Universe Harsher in Hindsight Sins Of The Mother too: if it weren't for Bart, Laura would have likely suffered the same kind of embittering dysfunctional love life her mother had with her divorced deadbeat dad, with a robbed teenage youth and jaded view on men in all.
• Girl Next Door: Though Laura fits the bill of being next door, everything about her is charmingly subverted 1990s style. A lot more in line with Bart's mischief making and rebellious personality, but with a teenage street smart tomboy surface and a feminine side to show deeper in. Also pretty cultured and loves to mess with people psychologically.
• Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: When called to testify, Marge quickly states how she and Homer just abruptly left the premises when he got thrown out. Either by play or by noticing his client's emotional whim, Hutz reminds Marge she is under oath, and she then spills the beans about how they both went out fishing into the late, late night.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Granted, though Laura's rebellious spirit gets her to bond with Bart, this also gets her to stray off to jerkasses like Jimbo Jones and his friends when she isn't careful enough.
• Imagine Spot: Laura ripping out Bart's heart and drop-kicking it into the trash after she tells him she has a boyfriend.
• Informed Attractiveness: Jimbo Jones is considered as attractive in this episode by even Bart, calling him "a good-looking rebel who plays by his own rules"...in spite of the fact that he has such a severe overbite that his front teeth are constantly showing.
• Innocent Inaccurate: A flashback reveals how Homer learned about sex.
  "Zookeeper! Zookeeper! Those two monkeys are killing each other!"
• Innocently Insensitive: Laura excitedly tells Bart that she's found a boyfriend, very much unaware of how hard he's crushing on her. His sunken feeling immediately afterward is palpable.
• Inopportune Voice Cracking: Bart’s voice cracks a few times in this episode, probably due to being around Laura.
• I Resemble That Remark!: Moe, knowing his most prominent barfly well, tells Barney not to steal any beer while he's out. Barney is offended, but...
  Barney: What kinda pathetic drunk do you take me for? (gasp) Someone spilled beer in this ashtray! (immediately downs the contents of the ashtray)
• Jerkass: Mrs Winfield asks Homer to do a few things to help them sell their house; wear pants when he walks in front of a window, take in previous jack-o-lanterns he's got out from past Halloweens (some of which have rotten down to mush) and cover his garbage so it won't attract wildlife. Homer refuses to do any of them.
• Joker Jury: A rare heroic example. The entire jury of Homer's trial against the all-you-can-eat restaurant is composed of obese individuals who side with Homer.
• Just a Kid: A few words from Laura that eats at Bart the moment she departs with Jimbo. He's not particularly happy that he's not as "mature" enough to impress her.... Then Played for Laughs out of Cringe Comedy when Marge announces he comes in for his jammy-jams before going to bed.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: For Jimbo, if the stipulations were likely in word, it would probably be around "Steal another guy's girl who you are not worthy of having and try to get into her pants".
• Knight of Cerebus: Moe. His portrayal in this episode is one of the few times we get to see the truly vicious side of him, intending to cause serious harm to Jimbo for a simple prank call.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • After years of getting away with tormenting Springfield Elementary's students, Jimbo finally gets his comeuppance from Moe of all people.
  • Homer also gets some for refusing to cover his garbage to help the Winfields sell his home. A moose attracted by said garbage angrily charges him after Homer tries to shoo it off.
• Literal-Minded: Homer watches a show where a bachelor says he likes "makin' bacon on the beach". Homer takes this literally and imagines himself on a beach cooking bacon over a fire.
• Love Informant: Apu notices that Bart is in love when the two play video games at the Kwik-E-Mart. He's seen it more times than he could tell.
• Love Makes You Stupid: One of Laura's biggest flaws. Though she didn't know it because of moving in so recently, but considering the kind of scumbags Jimbo and his posse are, she nearly learned the hard way of the proverb "beauty is only skin deep".
• Mad Woman In The Attic: Bart makes up a horror story about the Winfields hiding a mutated son in their basement.
• Metaphorgotten: When attempting to give the Talk to Bart, Homer compares a woman to a refrigerator, then to beer. A case of beer later, Homer's story has wandered a bit.
• Military Brat: Laura, as strongly given with her olive green military trenchcoat and her love for Middle Eastern food, from one of her dad's postings.
• Mind Screw: Upon Kearney and Dolph introducing themselves into Bart and Laura's hangout time with a crude hit on to Laura, Laura returns the favor in kind responding if Kearney's "boyfriend" wouldn't mind. Instantly messed with a good deal of smarts, the two back off in surprise.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Homer calls Abigail, one of the kids' past babysitters to watch them while they go out to dinner. Abigail's sister answers instead, saying she takes care of her because something Bart did caused her to have a mental breakdown and is now sitting on a rocking chair with a thousand-yard-stare muttering to herself.
  Abigail: No Bart put it down... put it down Bart... Bart put it down...
  • And then there's Lionel Hutz suing The Never Ending Story as a "blatant case of fraudulent advertising" (although the film is *about* a neverending story, so he presumably didn't win).
  • Homer's court hearing is briefly interrupted by people trying to present evidence to a "Springfield Vs. Santa Claus" case going on elsewhere in the courthouse.
• Not So Above It All: Despite being a freewilled, authority sticking, and mischief loving teen, Laura will easily fall in teenage sensation fangirling obsession if the target of her affections is but a "bad boy quasi thug", no questions about their character asked and all the hormones included.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: The reaction of one of the "Clumsy Student Movers" after a lamp is dropped and shatters:
  Mover: (lamp shatters) Oh, not again!
• The One That Got Away: Coming from Abe Simpson, Bart pays him a visit for some wisdom on relationships, and especially on dating older girls. Abe recalls how one of his loves was that of the "oldest woman in the world", but this soon turns into a sad story of unrequited love and even a bit of foreshadowing; his flame soon joined the Guinness Book of World Records holders crowd and her life eventually saw little time to see him again. Not even getting 15 pounds of bees to hang off of his chin as a beard and getting into the record books was able to rekindle their relationship again, and sadly, Grandpa had to let their relationship pass onto the wayside.
• Paper Tiger: Jimbo likes to act like the tough guy, which is why Laura was attracted to him. However, this "outlaw" breaks down in tears and begs for his life upon being confronted by a knife wielding Moe. Upon seeing this, Moe cools off and says that he wasn't going to kill Jimbo... just cut him a little.
• Parallel Porn Titles: One of the items in Ruth's gift basket is a video tape of Das Butt which Marge embarassingly tells her it's supposed to be for "the man of the house".
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Though considered Disproportionate Retribution and framing him for stuff he never did, the kind of crap that Jimbo and his gang put most of Springfield through never really was given proper justice. Going out with a girl who is leagues ahead far worthy than his kind of personality and probably was going to take advantage of her for the action simply because he fits the bill of her hots checklist gave Bart a proper window to show what kind of loser wannabe "quasi thugs" like Jimbo really were like when faced with real consequences.
• Plot Allergy: Marge claims to be allergic to seafood despite eating fish in other episodes.
• Precocious Crush: Bart develops a crush on new neighbor Laura Powers, who is in her mid teens. When he finds out she's going out with Jimbo, one of the bullies who picks on him, he arranges a plan to break them up. It's successful — by the end of the episode, Laura's broken up with Jimbo and even tells Bart that she would date him if he were older.
• Put on a Bus: The Winfields, an elderly couple who live next door to the Simpsons, had made a decent amount of appearances in the previous seasons, and were referenced more than that. In this episode, they sell the house (that Ruth and Laura Powers buy), move to Florida, and are never seen or mentioned again.
• Rebellious Spirit: As stated in her character profile, Laura dislikes authority.
• Recycled Animation:
  • The shot of Homer drooling at the commercial for The Frying Dutchman is recycled from "Bart's Friend Falls in Love" (the scene where Homer is drooling over a food commercial) and is mirror flipped in this episode.
  • This also goes for the scene of Moe wielding a knife while running to and from the Simpsons' home: it's just the same shot inverted.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Homer compares himself to Don Quixote, which he obliviously believes is a figure to emulate. His own grievance is so absurd, and his quest to correct it so doomed to failure, that he is indeed being quixotic.
• Running Gagged: Believe it or not, the storyline of this very early episode effectively served as a Grand Finale to the iconic Running Gag of Bart's prank calls to Moe. Subsequent incidents appeared in the form of a variation or Continuity Nod rather than being Played Straight (i.e. Bart harassing Moe with made-up names on an attendance sheet in Season 6's "The PTA Disbands", Moe mistaking Burns for the caller in Season 7's "Homer the Smithers", or Bart calling Homer while he's filling in for Moe in Season 13's "Homer the Moe").
• Scare 'Em Straight: Moe goes after who he thinks is prank-calling him with a brutal looking butcher knife that, in his own words, is "rusty and dull"
  Moe: I wasn't really gonna kill you. I was just gonna cut ya.
• Shout-Out: During the trial, a group of men bring in bags of what turn out to be 18,000 letters addressed to Santa Claus.
  "You want The People of Springfield vs. Kris Kringle. That's next door."
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When Bart visits Grandpa at the retirement home, Grandpa assumes Bart remembered his birthday. Bart plays along by giving him a bus schedule he happened to be carrying.
• Tempting Fate: In the following exchange;
  Moe: Barney, don't steal any beer while I'm gone!
  Barney: What kind of pathetic drunk do you take me for?! [Beat] Someone spilled beer in this ash tray!
• Thinks of Something Smart, Says Something Stupid: After Bart freaks out Lisa into running away from the basement of the house next door, he's shocked into unconsciousness by someone sneaking up behind him. When he wakes up:
  Laura Powers: Hey, kid, wake up.
  Bart: Who are you?
  Laura Powers: I'm Laura, your new neighbor. You all right?
  Bart's Brain: She's beautiful. Say something clever.
  Bart: I fell on my bottom.
  Bart's Brain: D'oh!
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Lionel Hutz actually manages to win a case—or at least manages to push Captain McCallister into coming to a settlement with Homer—by making it clear that Homer did not in fact have all he could eat.
• Tomboy: Laura has a tomboyish personality, but it is also part of her charm.
• Villainous Breakdown: As this episode reveals, the devious and cunning Jimbo is but a coward when faced with anyone who can either mop the floor with him, has him cornered like a rat, or both.

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