YMMV / The Simpsons S5 E2 "Cape Feare"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: When Bob lists everyone in the neighborhood he's not going to kill, he names Ned and Maude, but not their kids, Rod and Todd. While it's likely just a Blooper, or that Bob wouldn't know about Rod and Todd's existence, it's more interesting to imagine what sort of motive Bob could possibly have for wanting to kill them.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation:
  • When Sideshow Bob exclaims, "By Lucifer's beard!", Chief Wiggum responds, "Yeah, it's a good thing you drifted by this brothel." The joke could be solely in the second statement...or else that brothel has a really weird name ("Yes, we caught you by 'Lucifer's Beard', it's a good thing you drifted by.")
  • Homer's "Two against one" before driving through the cactus patch. Was he oblivious and/or assumed it was Maggie objecting, or did he figure out Bob's Underside Ride and was trying to get rid of him?
• Awesome Music: Sadly, we only get to hear snippets of Sideshow Bob's H.M.S. Pinafore performance, but what we do hear is excellent.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • When Lisa calls Moe and warns him to stop (thinking he was the one who sent the threatening letters), Moe, in panic, frees a group of pandas he held captive.
  • The letter sent by Anya and then hijacked by General Krull comes out of nowhere and is never mentioned again.
• Bizarro Episode: The writers really ratcheted up the wackiness for this episode, which some viewers back then found to be out of character for the show. On the DVD Commentary, they said it was the last episode for the original writing staff^note "Cape Feare" was made during the fourth production cycle but held over into Season 5, so they just gave up on making the show down-to-earth and went nuts. The humor style seemed to catch on with the new creative team, making this episode actually seem rather tame compared to some later entries.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Sideshow Bob driving an ice cream truck just to announce which residents of Evergreen Terrace he will not be killing. Aside from deliberately not mentioning Bart, he also doesn't mention either Rod or Todd Flanders or the Van Houtens for some reason.
  • Homer charging into Bart's room wielding a knife and asking maniacally if he wanted brownies. If that wasn't bad enough to rattle poor Bart, he then charges in with a chainsaw and hockey mask he just bought for no reason just seconds later.
• Franchise Original Sin: Sideshow Bob takes a lot of comedic abuse in this episode. While this was accepted at the time because it balanced out the fact that he was at his most threatening and murderous yet, it foreshadowed the notorious Villain Decay he would undergo later on.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Homer requests to be John Elway in the witness protection program, despite being quite displeased at being made the owner of the Denver Broncos later in the series. Well, he imagined himself as the reason Denver lost to San Francisco by 56-7 instead of 56-0. And on that note, it was made as a Take That! to Elway, who was best known as a great quarterback who also lost in three Super Bowls, and in humiliating fashion. Then came Super Bowl XXXII in 1997 and Super Bowl XXXIII in 1998, which the Broncos both won, and in Elway's twilight years.
  • The Super Bowl being played out was Super Bowl XXX. One of the few instances The Simpsons failed to correctly predict something in the future, as Super Bowl XXX was won the by Dallas Cowboys over the Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-17, although the 49ers did happen to win Super Bowl XXIX in 1995, in a blowout over the San Diego Chargers 49-26.
  • Also, the cigar Homer was smoking when the Simpsons first met Sideshow Bob in the episode was from Knoxville's World Fair.
  • When the family is examining the death threat letters on the kitchen table, Homer admits to writing the one that says "I KILL YOU SCUM!". "I KILL YOU" would later become part of the catchphrase of Achmed the Dead Terrorist.
• Padding:
  • The "Rake Scene". It was supposed to be just one rake: the writers decided to loop Bob's "nhrghghrh" over and over and make it about fifteen rakes when they realized they still needed to fill up time. This actually made the scene about ten times funnier than it would've been with just one rake. It became one of the show's all-time most popular jokes.
  • The longer than average couch gag (the "chorus line" one, which was often used for that exact purpose) and the inclusion of an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon were also to eat up time. Despite all that, the episode was still running short. Even Sideshow Bob's performing the libretto to H.M.S. Pinafore, one of the episode's signature scenes, was padded with extra visual gags.
• Parody Displacement: The episode's well-known leitmotif for Sideshow Bob was actually a Suspiciously Similar Song parody of the original main theme for the film Cape Fear. However, the theme has become so strongly associated with Bob in his subsequent appearances on the show that for many younger fans unfamiliar with Cape Fear, it is generally known as just the "Sideshow Bob theme."
• So Bad, It's Good: The intent with the extended rake scene, according to executive producer Al Jean, was to make the scene funny, then drag the joke out so that it is no longer funny, and then drag it out even longer to make it funny again.
• Special Effect Failure: When the marching band walks over Sideshow Bob, they are pretty clearly animated on another layer in front of Bob... while Bob is in another layer. With that being said...
• Squick: Seeing Bob get stepped on by that last elephant and hearing the crunches during that moment may make some either shudder or laugh.
• Values Dissonance: "Look what happened without my pills" wouldn't fly now as it plays Transgender people for laughs.

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