YMMV / The Simpsons S4 E17 "Last Exit to Springfield"

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Is Grandpa's "story that doesn't go anywhere" just him being senile, or is he secretly supporting Homer's efforts to help Lisa get good braces while also sticking it to a man he personally despises? A little of both?
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: Did the "100% Loyal" Worker Robots turn against Burns because the company he bought them from lied about the quality of their products, or is Montgomery Burns such a horrible person that even robot workers programmed to obey him cannot stand working for him?
• Franchise Original Sin: Much like "Marge vs. The Monorail", this episode is widely considered one of the show's best, but in hindsight has all the elements (here still kept under control to the point of not really being flaws) that would go completely out of control later and become hallmarks of the much-maligned latter-day episodes. Namely, celebrity cameos, Homer being cartoonishly stupid, repeated jokes added to pad out the show, and the Family Guy-esque Imagine Spots and pop culture references.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Mr. Burns gets mad at a monkey failing to rewrite Dickens by writing that "It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times", instead of "worst of times." Years later and the word "blursed" has come into fruition to mean a fusion of blessed and cursed so the monkey was almost writing something sensical, though not Dickens and definitely a little unprofessional.
  • McBain's line "Ice to see you" as he bursts out of an ice sculpture — an Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque action star being encased in ice and making horrible ice/cold puns would become a reality in an infamous superhero movie.^note To the point that the quote "Ice to see you" is often mistakenly attributed to said movie.
  • The scene where Burns gets replacement worker robots that turn against humanity is more hilarious now that there is a full episode based on the idea.
  • In 1993, Lisa finally managing to get a set of braces so subtle you can "hardly see" them (which are completely invisible to the audience) was a transparent Hand Wave to maintain Status Quo Is God. 1997 would see the development of clear aligners, and now "braces" like Lisa's are a standard option — if, as in the episode, a more expensive one.
• Humor Dissonance: Parodied. At the dentist, Lisa ends the episode by making a ridiculously cringeworthy "tooth/truth" pun. The rest of the family and the dentist burst out laughing as though it's the greatest joke ever told... at which point the dentist realises he's accidentally left the laughing gas on.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Dental plan! Lisa needs braces." Repeat ad nauseum. Also usable as a call and response in live chats.
  • Lenny's request for Lisa: "Now do Classical Gas!"
  • "It was the blurst of times?!?"
  • "...hired goons." (Homer: "Hired Goons?")
  • The entirety of Abe Simpson's Rambling Old Man Monologue, but particularly the bit about wearing an onion on his belt (which was the style at the time).
  • Where's my burrito? Where's my burrito? Where's my— Ow!
• Parody Displacement: The novel Last Exit to Brooklyn is very much a Cult Classic, highly-regarded, and was given a well-reviewed film adaptation in 1989, but among the wider public, it's best-known for inspiring this episode. Hubert Selby, Jr.'s other major novel, Requiem for a Dream, has more wide recognition, though that's also due to Adaptation Displacement by the film version.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: Lisa's strike song was originally modeled on "The Times They are A-Changin'", though it eventually took on its own style (except it still retained "Come gather 'round" as the opening phrase of the lyrics).
• Values Resonance: The Epic Fail described on the main page where a great deal of security is thwarted by a stray dog wandering in through the back door works as an allegory for "backdoor" cyber-security flaws that are in the mainstream consciousness far more today than when the episode was made.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The writers were very conscious of this trope, knowing that in doing an episode about unions they ran the risk of being accused of favoring one side or the other. Instead, they tried to keep things fair, satirizing corruption and incompetence on the part of corporations and unions.

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