YMMV / The Simpsons S3 E3 "When Flanders Failed"

• Accidental Aesop:
  • While the main lesson of the story is "don't wish suffering onto others", the other lesson of the episode seems to be "don't sink your family's financial future on a gamble." While Homer does behave like a spiteful Jerkass to Ned, Ned's problems aren't at all Homer's fault: Ned gave up a perfectly lucrative career in pharmaceuticals and suffered because he made a very bad investment. Ned even admits he was foolish to do that.
  • Also if you start a business, success doesn't just come to you; you have to market and promote it. Homer helps rescue Flanders' business by simply telling people about it, but if Flanders had known what he was doing, he would've done those things himself.
• Franchise Original Sin: Depending on who you ask, this episode was the originator of Jerkass Homer. The motivational core of the plot is seeing how far Homer's spite and vindictiveness would take him before he regretted his decision, which would be used as the baseline for a lot of Homer's crueler tendencies in later episodes. This is also the episode which fundamentally shifted Homer's envy of Ned to sympathetic to unreasonable and established his willingless to essentially (eventually literally) steal from his neighbor. The big catcher here however is that Homer still has clear limits in his pettiness and doesn't actually play an active role in ruining Ned, he just takes pleasure in the latter's own incompetence. When he realises that had genuine repurcussions, he is sincerely remorseful, a contrast to later episodes, where Homer is often a huge instigator who will feel half hearted regret at best.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • That happy ending gets heavy after Season 11. Homer was the Unwitting Instigator of Doom in Maude's untimely death. In the long run, Ned and his whole family would have been infinitely better off if they'd just moved out and sought a new life elsewhere, even if they were broke.
  • The state of the Leftorium falls under this after many seasons later when Ned is facing increased competition competing against left-handed mega-stores forcing him to be reduced to a kiosk. Finally, his store closes down for good in Season 29 due to being unable to compete against online shopping and eventually gets a new job as the new fourth grade teacher.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Flanders accounts having his house and assets repossessed by some "nice man at the bank who was only doing their job". At first, this seems like a standard Extreme Doormat disposition from the character. Then comes "I Married Marge", which features the Simpsons couple having a visit from a repo man who is genuinely cheerful, affable and apologetic about collecting their possessions ("Repossessing is the hardest part of my job").
  • Bart brushes off reading The Art of War (Sun Tzu) as a lame way to learn how to fight. In "No Good Read Goes Unpunished", he reads The Art of War to get back at Homer and make him do his bidding.
• One-Scene Wonder: "Just Stamp the Ticket" Man, the random customer who demands that Flanders validate his parking ticket, made such an impression in his few seconds of screentime that he became a regular for similar miniscule roles throughout the show’s classic era.
• Tear Dryer: Homer getting the word out to save Ned's store, and Ned thanking him for making it possible.

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