YMMV / The Simpsons S 3 E 11 Burns Verkaufen Der Kraftwerk

• Designated Villain: Horst and the other Germans, which also makes Homer the Designated Victim. Aside from not being threatening or even the least bit unpleasant like everyone expected them to be (barring their "threat" to Mr. Burns at the end of the episode) and the numerous and expensive repairs in need at the plant which were still out of Homer's reach even as the safety inspector, his own incompetence and inability to explain his job or provide any ways to improve productivity at the plant got him fired, and rightfully so. Even a later scene had him complaining that they had no right to fire him, while using a fork inside of a toaster oven. In spite of his Moment of Awesome of telling off Mr. Burns at Moe's, you can't blame the men for taking action, especially since he was the only employee to be let go (even if they admittedly point this out in the most gratuitously humiliating way possible).
• Harsher in Hindsight: Mixed with Black Comedy Hilarious in Hindsight, Burns speaks with the German businessmen in near-perfect German. Later in the series, he reveals that he made shells for the Nazis.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The episode ends with Mr. Burns re-hiring Homer because he keeps his enemies close so that he can exact revenge one day. Very amusing when you consider that Burns forgets who Homer is in virtually every subsequent episode that deals with their relationship; kind of hard to exact revenge on someone you can't remember.
  • Patty and Selma joke that Homer probably spent the money from selling his shares in magic beans. Two seasons later, in "Homer the Vigilante", we find out that Homer did buy a jar of magic beans when Marge sent him to get insurance.
• Signature Scene: Homer's "The Land of Chocolate" fantasy. So iconic that it was later recreated for the first level of The Simpsons Game.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The music that plays during Homer's Land of Chocolate fantasy sounds nearly like "Captain of Industry" from Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The first two Germans Homer meets introduce themselves as a West German and an East German; each had a "big company", and after unification they have a "very big company". This dates the episode to the early 1990s, shortly after Germany reunified.

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