Original air date: 9/25/1994
Production code: 2F33 note
In the second Simpsons clip show, Marge reads The Bridges of Madison County and calls for a family meeting to discuss romance, but every family members' encounters with love has either ended in heartbreak or near-infidelity.
This episode contains examples of:
- All Love Is Unrequited: For the kids, at least; Bart's older Love Interest wasn't interested in him while Lisa didn't like Ralph Wiggum back. Downplayed with Homer and Marge, who did have feelings for their would-be romantic interests which ultimately proved insufficient to topple their marriage. Then Subverted, of course, by that same marriage.
- Clip Show: The episode intentionally takes this to its extreme and barely has any new animation (except for the beginning where Marge is reading The Bridges of Madison County, a shot in the living room, and a few quick moments in the kitchen), meaning that even the framing scenes of The Simpsons in the kitchen are recycled from past episodes (mostly from the season two episode "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish".) The episode was allegedly put together at extremely short notice after the start of the new season was shifted forwards a few weeks by Fox, which may account for the small amount of new animation (even by a clip show's standards) and the
Alan Smithee writing credit. - Couch Gag: The family sits and is crushed by the foot from the opening of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
- First Love: Bart calls Laura Powers from "New Kid on the Block" "the only girl I ever loved." Up to this point in the series, she has in fact been his sole Love Interest.
- Hand Wave:
- During Lisa's story, Lisa's explanation of why nobody was wearing jackets despite it being the middle of February: It was unusually warm for that time of year.
- The Recycled Animation of Homer throwing a book into the fireplace (despite their bedroom not having a fireplace) was hand-waved by Marge grumbling, "I knew we shouldn't have put a fireplace in the bedroom..."
- Homer tells Marge what happened to Mindy Simmons after Homer told her that they can never be together: she hit the bottle pretty hard and lost her job at the plant, even though later episodes would have her clean and sober and still employed at the plant (though silent). She could have gone to rehab and become a recovering alcoholic, or the story could be a rumor and Homer, being gullible, believes it. Or Homer could be lying.
- Hypocritical Humor: Lisa mentions the use of Recycled Animation in cartoons while watching Itchy and Scratchy. This episode makes liberal use of recycled animation itself, even for a Clip Show.
- Internal Reveal: While "Life on the Fast Lane" and "The Last Temptation of Homer" both end with Homer and Marge reaffirming their love for each other, it isn't clear that they told each other how close they came to being unfaithful, whereas in this episode they freely discuss it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The scene of the kids watching Itchy and Scratchy (the one where Itchy ties Scratchy's tongue to the moon) and Lisa explaining that this particular cartoon is using Recycled Animation is clearly using animation from an early episode of the show itself (specifically "Homer the Heretic").
- Recycled Animation: Parodied when Bart and Lisa watch an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon that we as an audience have seen in a previous episode, causing Marge to ask them how many times they can watch that particular cartoon. They lampshade by answering that it's a new episode made from stock footage. This is also self-referential comedy because nearly the entire episode itself is made from stock footage from previous Simpsons episodes, only with occasional new dialogue spliced over them, and maybe five minutes at best of brand new animation.
- Special Guest: Albert Brooks as Jacques (credited as A. Brooks); Sara Gilbert as Laura Powers; Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob; Phil Hartman as Troy McClure; Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff; Michelle Pfeiffer as Mindy Simmons; Marcia Wallace as Edna Krabappel (All voices are only within clips.)
- Take That!: Lisa's line about Ren & Stimpy recycling footage to make new cartoons, and Marge's line, "Yes, but when was the last time anyone talked about Ren and Stimpy?" At the time this episode aired, Ren and Stimpy was run by Games Animation (after its original creator was fired) and its popularity was on the wane.
