YMMV / The Simpsons S 6 E 2 Lisas Rival

• Accidental Innuendo: "I bent my Wookee!"
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Mr. Taylor (and maybe Allison herself too) really trying to mock Lisa's intelligence at the anagram game, since there are no coherent anagrams that can come out of "Jeremy Irons"? Or it was just a joke about how complicated are the things that Allison and her father like to do and they honestly wanted to integrate Lisa to their hobby?
• Common Knowledge: Everyone "knows" that Lisa attempts to sabotage and humiliate Allison out of petty jealousy. Except it's not Lisa who comes up with the idea and plan to sabotage her, but Bart, who talks a desperate Lisa into going along with the idea so that she can win. This is why Lisa relents after witnessing Allison break down crying.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Allison Taylor has a few fans who think that she should have had more appearances in the show as a regular friend or rival to Lisa instead of becoming a speechless background character in later episodes.
• Fanon: Due to their similarities in appearance, Allison is sometimes played with as a long lost or estranged daughter of Ruth Powers. This is Call Forwarded and given an Ascended Fanon easter egg later in the Season 24 episode, "A Tree Grows In Springfield".
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • This is the first episode focused in Lisa meeting a new friend played by a guest star, plot that would be repeated many times in later seasons to the point of boredom for fans.
  • The B-plot of Homer hoarding sugar is also arguably the most bizarre side story found in the first 8 seasons. The episode was written by Mike Scully, whose tenure as showrunner during seasons 9-12 would see a noticeable uptick in absurd plots, making this episode a sign of things to come.
• Genius Bonus: In an ironic way. Anyone who tried various anagram combinations for "Jeremy Irons" would have a very difficult time coming up with something that doesn't sound forced and awkward, let alone an accurate description of the man, which suggests Lisa was set up to fail with that game.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The episode ends sweetly with Lisa and Allison becoming best friends, but in her continued role as an extra in the series she'd be a Fair-Weather Friend to Lisa at best, shunning her along with the crowd.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When Lisa's plan to humiliate Allison goes wrong and results in Ralph winning the contest, it results in Lisa having a My God, What Have I Done? moment, and setting her feud with Allison aside. Later, in "Homer's Enemy", when Frank Grimes' plan to humiliate Homer goes wrong and results in Homer himself winning a contest, it results in him having a mental breakdown that leads to him (accidentally or otherwise) killing himself. Granted, Lisa is more mature than most of the show's adult characters anyway, but Frank's detractors have wasted little time in pointing out how an eight-year-old girl had a much more mature (and much less lethal) reaction to her plan going wrong.
  • After Lisa’s “Born to Runner-Up” Imagine Spot, she wakes up and asks “Why would [the audience] come to our concert just to boo us?”. Welcome to the now-prevalent concept of hatewatching, Lisa.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The scene where Milhouse is confronted at the dam during The Fugitive parody, has become a hugely popular shitposting meme.
  • Ralph gives us some often-quoted lines: "I bent my Wookie!" — "My cat's name is Mittens." — "My cat's breath smells like cat food."
  • "The strong must protect the sweet."
• One-Scene Wonder: The Sugar Thief, who not only provides a pretty memorable The Cuckoolander Was Right moment, but also an excellent reaction image.
• The Woobie: Allison. She was bullied because of being too smart, and the girl she wanted to befriend with sabotaged her, causing Skinner to scold and belittle her in front of the school, making her cry. And even when Lisa fixed everything, she still lost the diorama contest against Ralph's entry, who didn't even know what a diorama was. Sure, she forgave Lisa and didn't mind about winning the contest, but the bad time she went through is still there.
• Woolseyism:
  • In the Swedish sub, the bully Sara's insult to Lisa, "brain queen," is translated as hjärnlady (meaning "brain lady," but also a homophone of järnlady or Iron Lady).
  • The Finnish sub on Disney+ manages to playfully translate Marge's Freudian Slip without affecting the joke at all, even when a more direct translation could have been done.
    What she meant to say: "Älä toitota saksofonia!" ^note "Stop making loud noises with that saxophone!"
    What she blurts out: "Älä suututa seksioria!" ^note "Stop upsetting the sexy stallion!"

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