YMMV / The Simpsons S5 E14 "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy"

• Harsher in Hindsight: When an elderly fan mob ambushes Andy Griffith, Grampa swipes his heart medication, leading to a Funny Background Event of an ambulance taking Griffith to the hospital while a doctor defibrillates the latter. Griffith ended up dying of an actual heart attack in July 2012.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Kent Brockman doing a feature dedicated to the Malibu Stacy doll and taking up time on air when the President has apparently arrested for murder was a silly self-aware joke at the expense of mass media priorities in 1995. Come 2023 and the Barbie movie would become a global phenomenon with promotional spots airing on its studio's parent company's news channel CNN during the period when former President Donald Trump would be facing criminal charges for allegedly taking classified documents from the White House, thus continuing the 2010s ongoing meme of The Simpsons predicting the future.
• Memetic Mutation: In some circles, "Malibu Stacy has a new hat" is shorthand for anything that advertises the smallest gimmick as something new and improved.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Some people have taken the in-universe commercial failure of Lisa Lionheart as An Aesop you should just let children be children and not try to "indoctrinate" them via toys or media. However the actual intended aesop from Lisa Lionheart's failure is more along the lines of how hard it can be to get your message out there when someone with much more money and resources can just drown it out. In fact, it's demonstrated in the episode that Lisa Lionheart actually was a good toy that kids would love if they played with it (Kent Brockman's daughter loved it); it just couldn't compete with the entrenched brand.
  • Some viewers have commented that Stacy's infamous line, "Don't ask me, I'm just a girl" could be read as her just being modest. This isn't too different from people defending Teen Talk Barbie's infamous "Math class is tough" line for reflecting the fact that math is hard for some students, regardless of their gender.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The gag where Krusty records his Talking Krusty lines in about ten seconds. Nowadays, Krusty could've easily saved himself the trip to the studio by recording his lines from home over the internet.
• Values Resonance: Sexism aimed towards children, whether in toys or on television and the push for a more progressive and diverse alternative is more of an issue today than back in the 1990s.

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