YMMV / The Simpsons S4 E8 "New Kid on the Block"

• Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite not appearing in the show since, Laura has her fans.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Bart/Laura Powers is very beloved due to the chemistry between the two's rebellous prankster personalities, and hearing Laura's claims that she'd definitely go out with Bart if he were the same age as her was icing on the cake. In addition to this, several of Bart's future love interests are considered uninteresting and bland, adding even more support to the pairing.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • When watched back to back with "Marge on the Lam". It appears Laura gets her standards for men from her mother and their dysfunctional family life, apparently (specifically, that Ruth's ex-husband was a Lazy Bum who ate, slept, drank beer, and refused to pay child support when they finally did end their marriage).
  • The scene with Kearney hitting on Laura comes across as a lot creepier when later episodes suggest that he's much older than he looks, old enough to have a young son and to have been to school with Otto.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In another of the many instance of life imitating this show, Homer sues seafood restaurant, The Frying Dutchman, for false advertising after getting kicked out for eating too much at the all-you-can-eat buffet. Twenty years later, a man named Bill Wisth pickets a seafood restaurant for kicking him out when he takes advantage of their all-you-can-eat policy. Many people have made comparisons to this episode. This also happened to a man who appeared on a 2015 episode of Jeopardy!.
  • Among everything else he consumed at the all-you-can-eat buffet, Homer ate two plastic lobsters (whether he knew they were plastic or not isn't explained). A later episode would have Homer buy a real lobster in an attempt to fatten it up and eat it, only to adopt it as a pet.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Laura Powers would have no more speaking appearances after this episode, while her mother, Ruth, would feature heavily in Season 5's "Marge on the Lam" and only make cameos from there. This is despite the fact that this episode and "Marge on the Lam" established them as next-door neighbors to the Simpsons, and Ruth is seen living in the house next door to them as late as Season 15's Christmas Episode.
• Values Dissonance: Marge's uneasiness with Ruth being a single mom dates the episode back to when single parenthood was still somewhat of an issue, although it was gradually normalizing.
• Values Resonance: It's a rather brief moment, but at one point the Camp Gay real estate agent is looking at a prospective buyer for the house, an interracial couple. Although it was all to lead up to the joke of Homer being a terrible neighbor, the fact that none of these characters were there as a stereotype or any kind of social commentary in 1993 is pretty impressive.

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