YMMV / The Simpsons S2 E4 "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish"

• Accidental Aesop: Keep your relationship with your boss strictly professional and don't meddle with their personal affairs, even if your intentions are good, it may end up biting you in the ass. Arguably, the episode's conflict begins when Homer notices Mr. Burns sobbing in his car and stops to ask him if he's alright. If Homer had just left Mr. Burns alone to sort out his personal issues and walked away, Burns probably would have cried himself out eventually and went home without further incident.
• Base-Breaking Character: Who's more sympathetic, Homer or Marge?
  • Homer's supporters argue that he didn't have a choice in the matter (as he bluntly pointed out), that he didn't force Marge to play hostess to Mr. Burns, and that he was simply trying to ensure that his family kept a roof over their heads. His critics argue that his pleading with Marge to cooperate is little different from coercion, and that Mr. Burns' threats toward him are Laser-Guided Karma for unintentionally kick-starting the episode's plot by half-heartedly suggesting that Mr. Burns run for governor when he should have just ignored his boss's crying and gone home.
  • Marge's supporters see her as a righteous crusader who prevented the ascension of a tyrannical despot, and that Mr. Burns' threats against Homer are empty, as she herself points out. Her critics regard her as a cowardly, unsympathetic shrew who knowingly (or recklessly) endangered her family's livelihood, proceeded to toss her husband into Burns' line-of-fire for something she did, and that her reassurances are incorrect—Mr. Burns could destroy everything she listed off by simply firing Homer, which would render him unable to afford even the simplest of luxuries.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Long before Lisa would embrace vegetarianism, she goes "fishing" with Bart without using any bait, admitting that she's just in it for the tranquility.
  • In 2023, during a controversy over the release of radioactive water from Fukushima, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ate a piece of fish from the area to show there was nothing wrong with it, much like the ending where Mr. Burns eats the three eyes fish.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: A large poster of Burns in one of his rallies has a creepy headshot of him with more realistic details than usual, including visible cheekbones and eyelids. This is in fact a parody of a near-identical bit of scenery in Citizen Kane with a similarly eerie headshot of Charles Foster Kane.
• The Woobie: Blinky, a fish mutated by radiation poisoning, is caught by Bart and becomes the scapegoat of Burns' media scandal and later run for Governor. Ultimately even the people advocating against Burns' evironmental pollution treat Blinky as a mere pawn, with Marge killing and serving him to Burns to sabotage his run.