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YMMV / The Simpsons S3 E22 "The Otto Show"

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  • Aluminum Christmas Trees: While he is waiting in the car for Bart and Milhouse to finish the concert, Homer sings seemingly made up lyrics to Spanish Flea. Most people don't realize that those are the actual lyrics, having only ever heard the instrumental by Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass (which is what Homer is singing along to), rather than the original by Julius Wechter.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Ten weeks after the episode aired, Guns N' Roses abruptly ended a concert in St. Louis, sparking a massive riot very similar to the Spinal Tap fiasco in the episode. Coincidentally, Slash made a guest appearance on the song performed by Spinal Tap in the episode.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: At the DMV, Patty and Selma talk about a time Homer got his nose stuck in the toaster. The "Treehouse Of Horror V" segment "Time And Punishment" would start with Homer having his hand stuck in his toaster several times.
  • Memetic Mutation: And a pre-Internet one at that. Even for the British and Australians, Bart's use of "Slag off!" was recent; slag in British slang essentially means "a sexually promiscuous woman, specifically an ugly or fat one". For those in the States, slag refers to cast off waste from steel refinement, but its vernacular sounds pretty British enough to pass off as a PG-rated insult, and so a new way of saying "get lost" was born.
  • Strawman Has a Point: Otto's trying to make out that Homer is being a jerkass for calling him a "sponge", considering that everything seen in the episode — namely Otto repaying the Simpsons' hospitality by attempting his driving test once, failing miserably, and then doing nothing but mooching off the Simpsons (a family that already has three children, with only one of the adults working) while generally making a nuisance of himself — indicates that this accusation is 100% deserved. At worst, Homer's perhaps a little hypocritical considering that he himself is indicated to be as much of a nuisance to Marge as Otto is, but his assessment of Otto's personality doesn't seem very far off the mark.
  • Unintentional Period Piece: One of the hobbies Bart has quickly lost interest in is listening to a short-wave radio set. When this episode aired, the widespread use of internet streaming was still in the future and many children asked for short-wave sets in order to experience the novelty of listening to foreign countries' short-wave stations.

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