YMMV / The Simpsons S4E14 "Brother from the Same Planet"

• Aluminium Christmas Trees: The Corey Hotline that Lisa runs up the phone bill by repeatedly calling was a real 1-900 number.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The whole episode is full of cartoonish and nonsensical gags that clash with what was until then a mostly realistic animated series. These include:
  • The female driver who looks like Homer and sings "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar" (leading to Bart assuming that she is his father).
  • The random nun who is carried away by the wind while Bart waits and then blows up.
  • Bart having inexplicable Psychic Powers that influence Milhouse ("Trab pu kcip")
  • Bart zapping Martin's brain with an experimental Army laser pistol.
  • Skinner's mother living in the house from Psycho that is visible from the school.
  • Homer using starfish as ninja throwing stars against Tom and the fight between the two going all around Springfield.
• Fridge Logic: One of the workers at the Big Brother program had been saving Tom for someone special. Pepi, meanwhile, has apparently been checking in on an hourly basis for someone to be his Big Brother. Somehow it was never considered that Tom would be the perfect fit for him.
• Nightmare Fuel: The scene where Bart, who's absolutely furious with his father for forgetting to pick him up for so long, imagines his father's face melting as the two drive through a hellish landscape.
  Homer: (distorted) NOW HOW ABOUT A HUG?!
• Parody Displacement:
  • Plenty of people are more familiar with this episode than the independent film, The Brother from Another Planet, that inspired the title.
  • Similarly, many fans (especially younger fans) had no idea that the scene of Bart shoving a grapefruit into Homer's face originated from the film The Public Enemy (1931) and not this episode.
• Questionable Casting: A mild case here. As Tom Cruise turned down the role of Tom, it instead went to Phil Hartman. While very few would argue that it ruins the episode, it goes majorly against Phil Hartman's strengths. Hartman was known for playing older, more charismatic characters, often with a streak of unscrupulous and/or shady behavior, especially on the Simpsons. It may seem odd to hear this young, muscular, affectionate man have the voice of a 44-year-old more equipped to play fathers and white-collar professions.
• Signature Scene: The unexpectedly disturbing Imagine Spot of Homer's face falling apart is very well-known.
• Unintentional Period Piece:
  • By the Turn of the Millennium, 1-900-numbers fell out of fashion, so this episode's B-plot may seem alien to those who were too young to remember when they were popular.
  • While a world of people streaming music and downloading music legally and illegally has caused these to vanish, the basic concept of a service that offers a massively discounted rate for a limited period and jacks up the price for those who did not Read the Fine Print has only gotten more mainstream thanks to the Internet.
  • Also, The Ren & Stimpy Show being popular enough to be parodied puts this in the 1990s. These days, thanks to the failed reboot, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon" and news of series creator John Kricfalusi's sexual misconduct and aggressive behavior that cost him his career, Ren and Stimpy (while still popular among '90s kids) has largely fallen out of popularity.
  • Saturday Night Live (in the form of Tuesday Night Live) being mocked for its Seasonal Rot and one-note sketches is also very 1990s, as the show was going through a major lull period at the time.

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