The Simpsons (animation)/Tropes M-Z

M

• Magic Brakes: Marge experienced this in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge".

Marge: The "brakes cut" light!

• Magic Pants: Referenced in "I Am Furious Yellow." After a series of incidents give Homer the appearance of the Hulk, Bart comments, "Thank God his pants stayed on."
• Male Frontal Nudity: Subverted mostly in a few episodes such as "Brother From the Same Planet" and "Natural Born Kissers". However, in The Simpsons Movie, Bart Simpson skates nude around Springfield until for a brief moment we literally see his "you know what".
• Man in White: Gabriel from the episode "Brawl in the Family", who claims to be a social worker, but Homer sees him as an angel.
• Man-Made House Flood: In the episode where Lisa has to contend with being the authority figure of the house when Marge ended up injured from a clock falling on her, Lisa is calling Marge, and it's revealed after briefly talking to Marge that Lisa is currently on a stool in a flooded house, with Homer and Bart playing Marco Polo. It's strongly implied that Bart and Homer caused the flood.
• Man of a Thousand Voices: Dan Castellaneta, Harry Shearer and Hank Azaria qualify for that trope from their work on this show alone.
• Make a Wish: The wishbone in the Leftorium episode.
• Make-Out Point: Springfield being what it is, it overlooks the nuclear plant.
• Make Room for the New Plot: Appears every so often as a way of forcing the Halfway Plot Switch.
• Malignant Plot Tumor: It's the standard plot format.
• Manatee Gag: Oddly enough, Simpsons used it do a lot but then stopped for no real reason. Then Family Guy came along and used them constantly. Then when Simpsons tried to use them again, people accused them of ripping off Family Guy.
• Mandatory Line: In "Simpson Safari", Bart says an out-of-character and out-of-nowhere line after it's revealed that Bushwell has been using chimps to work in her diamond mine: "I think we should look at her research before we condemn her entirely. (everyone stares at him) I haven't said anything in a while."
• Manipulative Editing: In "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show", Bart admits to a comatose Homer that he often made him angry, and what follows is a long string of brief clips where Homer says "D'oh!" However, in some of the episodes that these clips come from, it wasn't Bart who was making him say "D'oh!", but somebody or something else entirely.
  • In "Homer Bad Man", a sensationalist news show blatantly edits an interview with Homer.
• Marilyn Maneuver: In "Gone Maggie Gone", a nun named Sister Marilyn standing on an air vent gets a draft under her dress and she enjoys it, blowing it up and as she's holding the front of it down, it lifts at leg level.
  • A parody of this trope appears in "Home Away from Homer", in a scene with Ned standing on a wind vent in the street. The air blows up his mustache and his shirt, as he's holding the bottom of it down from the front.
• Matryoshka Object: A couch gag in Season 9 has Homer run in front of the TV alone and the top half of his body pops off to reveal Marge. Inside Marge is Bart, inside him is Lisa and inside her is Maggie.
• May–December Romance: The Simpsons did it as one episode shows that Apu is significantly older than Manjula. Also, Mr. Burns fell in love with Marge at one point. Then there's Bart and his older babysitter Laura Powers, and Homer + Mindy, and Sideshow Bob + his Italian wife Francesca, and probably a few others.
  • Mr. Burns also fell in love with a girlfriend of Snake's...she appears to be in her late twenties to early thirties.
  • Apu and Manjula were shown to be relatively the same in age in The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons. The Simpsons is notorious with its regard to continuity. Apart from that one flashback, Manjula generally seems to be younger than Apu (who is slightly greying).
  • A recent episode had Krusty and his new co-star, Princess Penelope. Their exact ages are uncertain, but Penelope is "under thirty-three," and was a fan of Krusty's show when she was a little girl.
  • Comic Book Guy and Agnes Skinner.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: When Bart sells his soul in the eponymous episode, things start becoming a bit odd for him, such as not being able to open automatic doors, his pets hissing wildly at him and...not being able to breathe on glass...but it's never firmly established if he diegetically lost his soul.
• McLeaned: Maggie Roswell/"Maude Flanders". Maggie eventually came back, but Maude Flanders is still dead.
• Medium Blending: The 3D CGI Homer and live action bits in "Treehouse of Horror VI." It was done by Pacific Data Images of all companies.
  • 3D, CGI, and claymation are also used when the characters watch parodies of Pixar, Davey and Goliath, the California Grapes, etc.
  • Homer lands in live action L.A. at the end of "Homer 3" (part of "Treehouse of Horror VI"). Similarly, in "The Terror of Tiny Toon" (part of "Treehouse of Horror IX"), Bart, Lisa, Itchy and Scratchy fall into the live action "Live With Regis & Kathie Lee" show.
• Meet Your Early Installment Weirdness: In one of the couch gags, the Simpsons run in and their Tracey Ullman-era selves are already sitting on the couch. Both pairs scream in terror and run out.
  • Another couch gag had Homer walking onto a parody of The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, where the Tracey Ullman Simpsons are part of the crowd.
• Memetic Mutation: Parodied in-universe in "Bart Gets Famous", where we see people laughing at uses of the phrase "I didn't do it" during inappropriate moments (during a hold up at the Kwik-E-Mart after Apu sounds an alarm, Diamond Joe Quimby getting caught in bed with another woman by his wife, and during a fire when Patty and Selma are suspected to have caused it).
• Men Can't Keep House: In the episode "Little Big Mom", Marge is recovering in the hospital, so the family maintains the house. The lazy males Bart and Homer turn the place into a filthy sack in minutes, much to the dismay of Lisa who is the only one trying to introduce some order and cleanliness, but with no success. She later tricks them into thinking they got leprosy from living in very dirty conditions so they would clean the house, again with no good results.
  • Also seen in "Marge in Chains", when the house becomes a dump in ten minutes due to Marge being in jail. Grampa even fights off a wily toilet croc.
  • A less extreme version occurs in "Take My Wife, Sleaze" when, after Marge is kidnapped by the Hell's Satans, Homer is baffled why the breakfast isn't made and why Bart and Lisa aren't at school.
• Meta Guy: Comic Book Guy.
• Metaphorgotten: From "A Star is Born-Again":

Flanders: Why would that Twinkie want to go out with a ding-dong like me? Homer: Flanders, I mix Twinkies and Ding-Dongs all the time. In Europe, they call it a Dinkie!

• • In "Secrets of a Successful Marriage":

Homer: For you see, marriage... is a lot like an orange. First, you have the skin... (lustfully) then the sweet, sweet innards. (devours orange)

• • In "The New Kid on the Block":

Homer: Son, a woman is a lot like a... a refrigerator! They're about six feet tall, 300 pounds. They make ice, and... um... Oh, wait a minute. Actually, a woman is more like a beer. They smell good, they look good, you'd step over your own mother just to get one! (drinks a beer) But you can't stop at one. You wanna drink another woman!

• • In "Homer the Heretic":

Homer: Kids, let me tell you about another so-called "wicked" guy. He had long hair and some wild ideas, and he didn't always do what other people thought was right. And that man's name was... I forget. But the point is... I forget that, too. Marge, you know who I'm talking about. He used to drive that blue car?

• Mickey Mousing: Occurs on occasion.
• Midnight Snack: A favorite habit of Homer.
• Mighty Lumberjack: In the episode, The Blunder Years, Marge becomes infatuated with the lumberjack that is the mascot for a brand of paper towels.
• Military Moonshiner: Referenced in "Brother from Another Series" after Sideshow Bob is released from prison:

Cecil Terwilliger: Now make yourself at home. Perhaps a glass of Bordeaux? I have the '82 Chateau Latour and a rather indifferent Rausan-Segla. Sideshow Bob: I've been in prison, Cecil. I'll be happy just as long as it doesn't taste like orange drink fermented under a radiator. Cecil Terwilliger: ...that would be the Latour, then.

• Missed the Bus: A recurring occurrence is for Bart & Lisa to miss the school bus. Once Bart's missing the bus eventually led to him being tried as the head of the Springfield Mafia.
  • Another example: The early version of the series' intro had Bart steal the sign from a bus stop while riding by on his skateboard, resulting in the bus passing right by the waiting crowd of people standing there, forcing them all to chase after it in a humorous manner.
• Missing Trailer Scene: A commercial for "Homer at the Bat" depicts Barney and Wade Boggs engaging in a burping contest.
• Mistaken for Exhibit: In "Mom and Pop Art," Mr. Burns mistakes Homer's failed attempts at D.I.Y. crafting for fine art and buys them for large amounts of money.
• Mistaken for Gay: "Homer's Phobia", in which Homer thinks Bart is gay.
• Mistaken for Masturbating: In "Like Father Like Clown", it is implied that Krusty's father thinks he is masturbating in the bathroom, it turns out he was doing a comedy routine with a seltzer bottle.
• Mistaken for Profound: "Bart's Inner Child" has this as a plot point.
• Mistaken for Terrorist: "Mypods and Boomsticks."
  • Also that one time when Apu started yowling after having his tongue scalded with hot coffee, and then put a wet towel on his head (that looked like a turban)...
• Mister Seahorse: Arthur Fortune gets the two male pandas he donated to the zoo to mate.
• Model Planning: A few episodes, such as when they try to use a rocket to stop the comet in "Bart's Comet". Each time, the model ends with Moe's Bar destroyed in flames.
• Money, Dear Boy: Harry Shearer is the only voice actor on the show who has admitted that it's gone downhill. But he'll still gladly take those paychecks.
  • Also invoked in-universe with Krusty, who frequently puts his name and image on all kinds of low-quality merchandise for money.
• Monkeys on a Typewriter:

Burns: It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times!?!" You stupid monkey!

• Moral Dilemma: "Homer vs. Dignity": Burns tempting Homer to throw fish guts at the crowd for $1 million. Homer is torn between staying lower-middle class and being hated by the entire town. Ultimately, though, he chooses the right path.
• Motivational Lie: When Bart gets super glue all over him, Dr. Hibert tells him about the painful in jections Bart will have to get in his spine. Bart begins sweating in terror, causing the glue to come off.

Dr. Hibbert: Nothing dissolves glue better than human sweat. I knew Bart would panic and start perspiring at the sight of this button applicator! Bart: Couldn't you have just turned the heat up a little? Dr. Hibbert: [sinister] Oh, heavens no! It had to be terror sweat!

• Motorcycle Jousting: happens in an episode where Homer wins a motorcycle in a steak eating contest.
• Mouth Flaps: The Simpsons was revolutionary for TV animation in that there were upwards of 30 different mouth positions used to correspond to the dialog. On many shows, you're lucky if you get half that.
• Ms. Fanservice: Tabitha Vixx from "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play".
  • Mayor Quimby's fling in "Whacking Day" and "Bart's Inner Child".
• Multi-Armed Multitasking: A cutaway shot of the Earth shows a vaguely Hindu-esque being frantically pressing buttons in the core, apparently to keep the world working. He pauses briefly to wipe his forehead with one of his hands and sigh with exhaustion.
• Multiple Choice Past: The details of Grandpa's war service change depending on the telling. Sometimes he wasn't even there at all.
• Murder by Cremation: "Funeral for a Fiend".
• Mushroom Samba: a few episodes, but "El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer," Bart and Milhouse's syrup Squishee bender on "Boy Scoutz N The Hood," and the sequence in "Selma's Choice" where Lisa drinks the tainted water on the "Little Land of Duff" ride and freaks out are the most well-known.
  • Also "D'oh-in' in the Wind" when the townspeople hallucinate from the carrots and peyote drink that Homer made.
• Musical Episode: "My Fair Laddy", "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious", "The President Wore Pearls"; "All Singing, All Dancing" is pretty much non-stop musical numbers, aside from the first couple of minutes.
• Mutilation Conga: frequently heaped upon Homer.
• The Mutiny: "Simpson Tide" although it is more-or-less unintentional.
• Mundane Wish: in the second Treehouse of Horror, Homer gets a monkey's paw good for four wishes. The first wish is used by Maggie, who wishes for a new pacifier. The second is used by Bart, who wishes for the Simpsons to be rich and famous. Third is Lisa, who wishes for World Peace. (Homer: "Lisa, that was very selfish of you!") After aliens Take Over the World because nobody knows how to fight back (due to the world peace thing), Homer decides to use the final wish by getting very specific so it won't backfire.

Homer: "I wish for a turkey sandwich, on rye bread, with lettuce and mustard, and, and I don't want any zombie turkeys, I don't want to turn into a turkey myself, and I don't want any other weird surprises. You got it?" [The monkey's paw closes its finger in understanding. A turkey sandwich materializes. Homer takes it.] Homer: "Hey!" *digs in* "Not bad. Nice, hot mustard. Good bread. The turkey's a little dry." *In realization* "The turkey's a little dry! Oh, foe, the cursed teeth! What demon from the depths of hell created thee!?"

• Mundane Utility: In "Cape Feare", Ned Flanders wears Freddy Kruger's glove... to trim hedges.

Ned: Maude, these new finger razors make hedge trimming as much fun as sitting through church.

• My Card: Malloy again.
  • Also Lionel Hutz in his debut appearance.
• My Eyes Are Up Here: Demonstrated in "The Frying Game" when Homer is talking to Carmen Electra.

Carmen Electra: Uh, Homer, my eyes are up here. Homer: I've made my choice. (continues to stare at her breasts)

• My Grandma Can Do Better Than You: Bart and Lisa used a variant of this on the players when they were at a minor league baseball game:

Bart: You throw like my sister! Lisa: Yeah! You throw like me!

• My Little Panzer: Many Krusty brand products aren't safe for children.
• My Name Is Not Durwood: Referenced in a Treehouse of Horror episode, with Marge and her sisters as witches (which makes this also an actual Shout-Out to Bewitched).

Patty: So, you finally left Durwood. Marge: His name is Homer!

• • Moe often calls Marge things like Madge or Midge, though this is more of affectionate nicknaming since it's obvious he has a crush on her. There's also this scene from "Eeny Teeny Maya Moe":

Homer: See Marge, it's just what you wanted. Me spending the day with Mugsy. Marge: Maggie! Homer: Marge, you're not naggy. You just set the bar impossibly high. Marge: Well can you at least bring a sweater for Maggie? Homer: Impossibly high.

• • The season two episode "Bart's Dog Gets an F" had the dog's name read as "Satan's Little Helper" by the dog trainer instead of "Santa's Little Helper".
  • When Bart fills out a credit card application using Santa's Little Helper's name, he gets a card in the name of "Santos L. Halper."
• Myopic Architecture: Played for Laughs. One scene in the nuke plant involved going through several layers of increasing security to reach a control room, which was seen to also feature an ill-fitting, flapping screen door leading directly to the parking lot.
• Mysterious Informant: Smithers, in the "Sideshow Bob Roberts".
• Mystery Box: What Mr. Burns tries to bribe some safety inspectors with.

N

• Native American Casino: Marge (who has a gambling problem) gambles away the family car during a stop at a casino just to ask for directions. In the same episode, Homer makes an indian chief promise him that they will build a casino in exchange for Homer breaking the dam that has flooded the natives' valley. The chief says Homer will also be offered free breakfasts.
• N-Word Privileges: Parodied in "The Haw-Hawed Couple". Milhouse calls Bart a bully after he starts hanging around with Nelson, to which Bart is offended. Soon after, we see Jimbo and Kearney calling each other bullies from across the street. Milhouse asks, "How come THEY can say it?" Bart sighs and says, "They just can, OK?"
• Natural Spotlight: Straight sometimes and parodied sometimes.
• Negative Continuity: For some details, such as whatever reason Homer is dumb.
• Nested Story: The episode "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story."
• Never Learned to Read: Homer, apparently, as mentioned in "When You Dish Upon a Star".

Homer: I can't read. Kim Basinger: But you just read that card from the Gersh Agency. Homer: I recognized the logo.

• • Which is inconsistent even within that episode, as Homer is clearly able to write (his screenplay about the Killer robot driving instructor who travels back in time for some reason).
  • As revealed in "Krusty Gets Busted", Krusty is totally illiterate. Somewhere along the line, though, he must have learned how to read, because he's been seen reading cue cards and written speeches in subsequent episodes.
• Never Recycle a Building: Parodied and averted in one episode where Homer tries to hide in an Abandoned Warehouse... only to find it's now no longer abandoned.
• Never Sleep Again: "Can't sleep, clowns will eat me."
• New Age Retro Hippie: Homer's mom Mona, although she's much more sympathetic and less out-there than many NARTHs.
• New Job Episode: More than any other franchise, ever, and an Overly Long Gag of a Lampshade to show for it.

Bart: Do you even have a job anymore? Homer: I think it's pretty obvious that I don't.

• • Lampshaded in "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife."

Homer: Guess what! I quit my job as a used car salesman! Marge: You work at the nuclear plant. Homer: Get with the program Marge. Your husband is now an ambulance driver.

• • Also lampshaded in "Marge Gamer. Homer volunteers to referee for Lisa's soccer games and is inexplicably already dressed for it.

Lisa: Dad, where'd you get that outfit? Homer: I got fired from Foot Locker.

• Nice to the Waiter: Aversion: Freddy Quimby is a complete asshole to everyone, but nobody gets it worse than the french waiter who serves him. It doesn't helps Quimby when he's accused of the savage beating the waiter received. He's innocent.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: The Swedish mixed Ice Curling team, apparently, with the quote "Joy is but the shadow pain casts..."
• Nightmare Fuel: Referenced in-universe in "Some Enchanted Evening":

Bart: All right! America's Most Armed and Dangerous! Lisa: Oh no, Bart! We'll have nightmares! Bart: Relax, this is cinema vérité. When the brutal, slow motion killing starts, I'll tell you to shut your eyes.

• Nightmare Sequence: Numerous instances, often accompanied by the Catapult Nightmare.
• Ninja Prop: A family portrait where Bart holds up an "I Stink" dialogue balloon behind Homer

Homer: I don't remember saying that.

• "El Niño" Is Spanish for "The Nino": "The Italian Bob" has this dialogue:

Sideshow Bob: I hereby swear... a... VENDETTA! Marge: (searching through an Italian-English dictionary) "Vendetta" means... "Vendetta"! (all Simpson family members scream)

• No Accounting for Taste: Marge's marriage to Homer has been seriously questioned in the show several times, and compared to her taking care of a Manatee... unfavorably compared, since when she cared for them they gave her a sense of usefulness and accomplishment.
• No Animals Were Harmed: "Dog of Death": "NO DOGS WERE HARMED IN THE FILMING OF THIS EPISODE. A CAT GOT SICK AND SOMEBODY SHOT A DUCK, BUT THAT'S IT."
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Arnold Schwarzenegger Rainier Wolfcastle and Mike Tyson Drederick Tatum, to name two.
  • Lucius Sweet. "He's one of the biggest names in boxing! He's exactly as rich and as famous as Don King, and he looks just like him, too!"
• No Except Yes: Played with in "Tennis the Menace", after Homer replaces Lisa with Venus as his tennis partner. The following exchange occurs:

Lisa: You're replacing me? Homer: "Dumped" is such a strong word. Let's just say I'm "replacing" you.

• No Indoor Voice: It seems impossible for Superintendent Chalmers to say "Skinner" without shouting it. This is lampshaded quite a few times, most notably in "Marge's Son Poisoning":

Chalmers: And now our next act, SKIN-NER! and Mrs. SKIN-NER!

• • In part one of "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", during the meeting, everyone seemed to have picked up a habit of shouting out what Burns had recently done to their lives.

Marge: He's causing us all to yell!

• No-Nonsense Nemesis: Sideshow Bob's brother Cecil to Bart, having learnt his brother's lesson.
• Nonsense Classification: Dr. Nick's recommendation, when Homer wants to gain weight: "You'll want to focus on the neglected food groups such as the whipped group, the congealed group and the chocotastic!". See the tropes page illustration.
• Non-Specifically Foreign: Dr. Nick Riviera; possibly Moe Syszlak.
  • Moe self-identified as a Dutch immigrant in one episode, although Syszlak is not an ethnically Dutch name.
• Noodle Incident: Bart's mortal enemies are Sideshow Bob...and Dr. Demento. This is best left unexplained.
  • In "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace," Bart finds Homer reading in the elementary school library:

Bart: Dad, what are you doing here? Homer: Reading about this Edison character. They won't let me in the big people library down town. There was some... unpleasantness. I can never go back.

• • The season eight episode "My Sister, My Sitter," had Lisa trying to get in line at a clinic so she can get Bart medical attention, but Smithers won't let her through because of an injury he sustained that makes it hard for him to sit down (though given his sexuality, it's really not that hard to figure out what could have happened to him).
  • Season five's "Homer and Apu" (the one where Apu becomes the Simpsons' servant after Apu gets fired for his unsanitary Kwik-E-Mart conditions) had a scene where Lisa played an Indian instrument called the shenai. After a few notes, Homer shudders and comments that it's worse than the album his father [Grampa] released without a flashback or further explanation.
  • Season seven's "Team Homer" had a scene where Mr. Burns mistakes a check for boweling for a check for bowling (which he wrote to Homer while high on ether). Smithers then reminds Mr. Burns about the time he skipped his monthly boweling. The only information we get about the incident is that "It was unpleasant for all concerned."
  • Season four's "Marge Gets A Job" had Mr. Burns talks to Smithers about arranging a date with Marge:

Mr. Burns: Yes, well, Smithers I want you to arrange a party for two at my estate. Marge. Me. And do you think you could dig up Al Jolson? Smithers: Uh, do you remember we did that once before? Mr. Burns: Oh, that's right, he's dead. And rather pungent. The rest of that night is something I'd like to forget.

• • Season ten's "Lisa Gets An A" has Bart's line before he lets Lisa in the boys' bathroom: "Relax, there's nothing here you didn't see when Dad boycotted pants," though this stops being a Noodle Incident when you think back to the times that Homer has gone bottomless ("Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy," where after a wild night of love-making, Ned and Maude Flanders find Homer's pants in a tree and try to get it down, thinking that it's possessed by the Devil, and "D'oh-in in the Wind," where Homer goes naked and sits on his couch out on the lawn during his hippie phase).
  • In "Bart Gets an Elephant", when the kids hug Homer while he's covered in tar:

Bart: Uh, Mom? We're stuck to Dad. Marge: Mmm, this is just what happened at the caramel factory. Homer: Mmm, caramel.

• • • From the same episode, after Homer pulls his head out of Stampy's mouth, he says "Now I've had my head inside an elephant, a hippo, and a giant sloth."
  • "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore": When Mr. Burns was about to show his employees a movie, he asked for a moment of silence for the employees who died at some heroic, well, whatever it was, we never got to learn because Homer demanded the movie when Burns was about to say and the issue has never been brought up again.
  • In order to make Bart take his shots, Dr. Hibbert had some people dressed like him. That got Dr. Hibbert banned from the library for something Moe did while on disguise.
  • In "The Book Job", whilst setting up their ghost-writing operation, Homer and Bart make several references to something that happened in Kansas City. Apparently it did not end well.
  • In "Lisa the Simpson", Abe apparently had a grudge with his barber, Louie, that is never elaborated upon:

Abe: (reacting to Marge's attempt at a haircut) No! No, no, no, no! The George Raft look is dead! I want an Audie Murphy! Marge: Well if you'd just apologise to Louie, you could get your hair cut the way you want! Abe: No apology! Not until he admits he's a jerk!

• No Poverty: In Hank Scorpio's company town.
• Nostalgic Narrator: Sideshow Mel in "All About Lisa".
• No Such Thing as HR: Played for comedy as there's not only no HR department to complain to at the power plant, there's absolutely no layer of management at all besides Mr. Burns.
  • Although due to the series inconsistent continuity, this does change. "Homer and Delilah" depicts an executive committee of some sort, Frank Grimes was initially supposed to be hired as an executive vice president a la "Homer's Enemy," and the episode where they go to Florida shows an on-site psychologist to help Homer with his insanity.
• Note to Self:: In "Lisa's Rival", Bart comforts Lisa over Allison, saying, "I can't stand to see you so miserable, Lis... unless it's from a rubber spider down your dress." He then turns away and records a note on doing this into a pocket tape recorder. Afterwards, he offers to dig up dirt on Allison and attempts a My Card, but Lisa reminds him that he lives in the room next to her. Bart promptly records another note on his recorder: "Next year, order fewer cards."
• No Time to Explain: Parodied in "Lemon of Troy". Nelson bursts into Krabappel's class and says something terrible has happened, and that there's no time to explain. A group of fellow students run out and follow Nelson. Nelson stops to get a drink at a fountain before continuing to run.

Milhouse: Are you sure it wouldn't be faster to just tell us what happened? Nelson: No, I said there's no time to explain, and I stick by that!

• No Time to Think: In "Homer Defined", Homer uses "Eeny, meeny, miney, moe" to guess which button to press to prevent the nuclear reactor from melting down. Successfully. Twice.
  • Which makes perfect sense, since the rhyme has a consistent number of syllables and he started on the same end both times.
    • That only works if the Shelbyville plant uses the same console that Homer uses at Springfield's plant.
    • Since Shelbyville and Springfield are in the same state (and in fact border each other), and Springfield gets its hardware from a certain place, it makes sense that nearby Shelbyville gets its hardware from the same place.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: In a mock behind-the-scenes exposé, Lisa accuses the producers of slipping her "anti-growth hormones".

Homer: That's ridiculous. How could I even get all five necessary drops into her cereal? *Beat* What?

• • Lampshaded in the Couch Gag of the episode Them, Robot
• Not in the Face: In "Homer the Moe", a bird starts pecking Moe's face. He says:

Moe: Ow ow! Not the face! (the bird pecks his crotch) Ooh! OK, the face! (bird pecks his face again) Whoo... to think that actually feels good after the, after the crotch.

• • The Treehouse of Horror XV segment, The Ned Zone, has Flanders seeing a future in which he kills Homer.

Lisa: Well, you can't fight fate. But if you must shoot our father, please remember our family motto, "Not in the face."

• Not Me This Time: Happens in "Lisa the Vegetarian," when it was Lisa who did something bad for a change:

Marge: "Bart, Nooooo!" Bart: (Standing beside her) "What?" Marge: "Sorry, force of habit. Lisa, nooooo!"

• Not So Above It All: Marge and Lisa, while usually much smarter and Closer to Earth than Homer and Bart have frequent moments of equal stupidity or callousness, especially later on.
• The Not-So-Harmless Punishment: Homer, portrayed King Henry VIII, responds to Ned Flanders' (as St. Thomas More) objections to seceding from the Church by offering to canonize him. Cut to Ned being fired out of a cannon.
  • The episode "Lisa On Ice" features a daydream Lisa has where she worries that failing her gym class would greatly damage her reputation later in life. In the daydream, the Supreme Justice of the United States learns this just before swearing Lisa in as the new President.

Supreme Justice: I sentence you to a lifetime of horror on Monster Island... Don't worry, it's just a name. Cut to Lisa and others being chased by monsters. Lisa: He said it was just a name! Man: What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula.

• "Not Wearing Pants" Dream: Homer has one in "Homer Goes to College".
• Not What I Signed on For: The original settlers of Springfield and Shelbyville split into two feuding groups when some of them found out their pilgrimage wasn't about getting to marry their cousins.
• Nothing Can Stop Us Now: Combined with Hope Spot in "Team Homer":

Homer: Nothing's going to stop us now! (in Mr. Burns's office) Burns: Stop everything! I don't remember writing a check for bowling. Smithers: Uh, sir, that's a check for your boweling. Burns: Oh, yes. That's very important. [...] Anyway, back to the checks... Stop everything! I don't remember writing a check for bowling.

• Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep: The clown bed Homer botches up for Bart recites parts of the prayer. "If you should die before you wake, hoohuhuhhyukhyukhyuk..."
• The Nth Doctor: Dr. J. Loren Pryor has always been played by Harry Shearer. However, in his first few appearances (such as "Bart the Genius" and "Separate Vocations"), he had a Mr. Burns-style voice, only calmer and younger. However, when he appeared in later episodes (such as "Lisa's Sax") he has a much lower voice, sort of like Reverend Lovejoy or Smithers.

O

• Object Ceiling Cling: Bart sticks a waffle onto the ceiling, which Homer mistakes for God. Marge pries the waffle off the ceiling and Homer eats it.
  • "Mmmm, sacrelicious."
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Patty & Selma. Subverted as usually the obnoxious in-law in a family sitcom is a mother-in-law, but here, it's twin sisters-in-law. Marge's mom (Homer's mother-in-law) has nothing against Homer—though in "Bart vs. Thanksgiving" and "The Way We Was," it is implied that Marge's mom is disappointed in Marge marrying Homer, though she's not as vocal about it as Patty and Selma are. And even then, out of the both of them, Selma is the one who probably has some grudging respect for Homer (she told Marge where Homer disappeared to before Bart was born, and he played a big part in helping her adopt Ling), while Patty just flat-out hates him.
  • In "The Real Housewives of Fat Tony," Selma admitted that she hated Homer out of jealousy for their happiness and she's willing to start over. Whether or not this sticks remains to be seen.
• Obstacle Ski Course: Along with Stupid Sexy Flanders.
• Odd Couple: Homer and Marge, obviously.
  • Also, Homer and Skinner while they are "sequestered" due to a jury "deadlock". Skinner points this out. Homer tells him to shut up.
  • When Lisa is forced to share Bart's room due to the cell phone tower built in her room. Homer lampshades it by singing "The Odd Couple" theme while informing her of the arrangements.
• Oddly Small Organization: All over the place, but most often the Springfield Police and Mafia.

Chief Wiggum: Uh oh, all the lights are out. We better get the entire force working on this. Lou: Chief, we are the entire force. Chief Wiggum: Okay, we've gotta start recruiting, Lou!

• • Homer's private force Springshield was no larger, prompting Homer to say that if he were to die, someone would take his place, but admit that after killing two more people, Fat Tony's Mafia would have the run of the town.
• Off-Model: Very evident in the first season. It was so bad that the first episode, Some Enchanted Evening, was sent back to the animators at AKOM for reanimation.
  • This was parodied in Fat Man and Little Boy when Homer's mouth shifts away from his face after criticizing the quality of Korean animation.
  • There's a very easy way to tell who did what episode according to SNPP's review of Trash Of The Titans:
    • AKOM's work is slick and professional.
    • Rough Draft Studios is less refined, though makes up for it in the technical areas
    • Anivision lacks in pretty much everything. Anivision also tended to make the pupils larger then the other two studios.
• Office Sports: In one episode, Homer, Lenny, and Carl are playing chair hockey at work. Mr. Burns comes in to yell at them, but it turns out he's the coach and he's yelling at their poor teamwork.
• Off on a Technicality: Snake, in "Stop! Or My Dog Will Shoot". It's the reason Santa's Little Helper (a canine cop in that episode) becomes disgruntled.
  • Inverted and invoked in "My Mother the Carjacker"

Lisa: Dad, I'm just as sad as you are. What happened to Grandma is an outrage. Homer: How do you figure? Lisa: She was acquited! Then they put her back in jail on a technicality! Homer: You're right. People should only be let out of jail on technicalities!

• Oh Crap: Troy McClure after he tries Dr Nick Riviera's Sun 'n Run: A Sun Tan Lotion/Laxitive cream.
• Oh God, with the Verbing!: Professor John Frink is known for this.
• Oh, Hi There.: "...Welcome back to our Spin-Off Showcase!"- Troy McClure
• Oh, the Humanity!: parodied a few times.
• Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: When Bart and Milhouse volunteered to run the Comic Book Guy's shop in "Worse Episode Ever", the instructions left for them turn out to be a shopping list.
• The Old Convict: 'The last registered Democrat' in "Bart-Mangled Banner".
• Older Than They Look: Kearney (one of the three bullies): Despite looking old enough to be in high school (yet is held back in elementary school), Kearney is actually older than that (around 20–30 years old), according to "Lisa the Iconoclast," when Principal Skinner told the kids at an assembly that the only person who's old enough to remember the 1976 Bicentennial is Kearney (who is shown shaving and commenting on how the Bicentennial took everyone's mind off the Watergate scandal). Later episodes showed that Kearney has custody of a son from a divorce, has been tried as an adult and sent to an adult prison, has a car (yet one episode showed him on the school bus with his son) -- yet doesn't appear to have a job or any source of income, voted in a U.S. general election (you have to be 18 to vote in American elections—the age used to be 21), and was in the third grade around the same time as Otto the bus driver (who could also be older than he looks, despite looking and acting like a teenager).
  • Ned Flanders: Before "Viva Ned Flanders," it was assumed that Ned was around the same age as Homer (late 30s/early 40s, depending on episode writer). In "Viva Ned Flanders," Flanders revealed that he was 60 years old and looks young because he's never done anything crazy and sinful.
• Old Shame: "A Star is Burns" didn't sit well with Matt Groening, who felt it played out like a 20-minute ad for The Critic. He was so ashamed of it, he removed his name from the opening and closing credits.
  • If the commentaries and backstories are any indication, everyone (except perhaps Klasky-Csupo) was ashamed at how the first version of "Some Enchanted Evening" turned out, from an animation standpoint.
• Omniglot: Bart and Homer share the ability to rapidly become fluent in any language they encounter, despite being genetically predisposed to become dumber as they grow older. Bart has spoken French ("Crepes of Wrath" while living with the abusive French winemakers), Japanese ("Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo" when he and Homer were in jail), and Spanish ("Grift of the Magi," while watching Spanish daytime TV), while Homer is fluent in German ("The Canine Mutiny" when Lisa goes over her German verb wheel and "The Heartbroke Kid" when Homer sings the original German version of "99 Red Balloons") Spanish ("Simpson Tide"), Mandarin Chinese (also "Simpson Tide"), Japanese ("Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo"), and penguin ("Simpson Tide," though that was just there for a gag).
• Once For Yes, Twice For No: Or, in this case, 63 times for 'out of air', 64 times for 'found the treasure'.
• One Mario Limit: Homer used to mean one of the greatest poets in western literature, thus denoting a certain amount of sophistication. Nowadays...
  • Jeopardy! gets some mileage out of this, occasionally having a category about Homer the poet, with Dan Castellaneta reading the clue in his Homer Simpson voice.
• One Phone Call: Done to Homer in "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish".
• One-Shot Character: Too many to list, but often the one-shots are the characters played by celebrities, such as Garth Motherloving (Ben Stiller) and Ray Patterson (Steve Martin).
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: In "Colonel Homer", where Homer's new job as Lurleen Lumpkin's manager is driving him away from his family:

Marge: You've got a wonderful family, Homer. Please don't forget it when you walk out that door tonight. [Homer leaves.] Bart: Much as I hate that man right now, you gotta love that suit.

• Only a Model
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Mild examples in the form of Krusty (real name Herschel Shmoikel Pinchas Yerucham Krustofski), Sideshow Mel (real name Melvin Van Horne) and Sideshow Bob (real name Robert Underdunk Terwilliger). Also a semi example with Mr. Burns, as it's easy to forget that "Monty" is actually his middle name (his full name being Charles Montgomery Plantagenet Schicklgruber Burns). Parodied when Homer pretends to be Mr. Burns in order to get back an insulting letter that he posted to him from the post office.

Homer: Hello. My name is Mr. Burns. I believe you have a letter for me. Postal clerk: Okay, Mr. Burns, uh, what's your first name? Homer: ...I don't know.

• • Again parodied when Homer pretends to be Mr. Burns's mother on the phone to him (after accidentally disconnecting the call from his real mother). After originally calling him "Mr. Burns" and being reprimanded by Smithers for doing so, Homer calls him "Montel".
  • Better examples of this trope would be Squeaky Voiced Teen (real name Jeremy Freedman) and Comic Book Guy (real name Jeff Albertson).
• Only One Name: Lou states that he and Eddie don't have last names, like Cher.
• Only Sane Man: Parodied by Frank Grimes in "Homer's Enemy".
  • Ray Patterson, the Springfield sanitation commissioner Homer ousts of office in "Trash of the Titans", played by Steve Martin.
• Only Smart People May Pass: In "Lost Our Lisa", Comic Book Guy refuses to let Lisa take the seat next to him unless she can answer "these questions three". An annoyed Lisa doesn't even bother and walks away.
• OOC Is Serious Business: Lisa's reaction when Marge actually supports Homer's beer baron activities in "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment".
• Open the Door and See All the People:
  • Happens when Homer has been accused of sexual harassment.
  • As well as the episode featuring Mulder and Scully. Immediately after Lisa argues that the townspeople aren't going to take three seconds of blurry video as proof that Homer met an alien, Homer opens the door to find half the town on his lawn.
• Operator From India: Seen in "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bangalore" with Apu's relative. He juggles several different phone lines and talks with a different fake accent for each call.
• Operators Are Standing By: Parodied in an advertisement Homer sees. Homer, convinced that his time for buying the product is running out, hastily calls and asks if there are any left. The operator there replies "Yeah, a couple." The camera then pans out to reveal that the warehouse is, in fact, full of the product.
• The Operators Must Be Crazy:
  • In "Treehouse of Horror III," Marge tries to let the toy company know a Krusty Doll is attempting to drown her husband as she speaks. She holds and gets a song about how much fun it is to be clown.
  • In "Homer Alone", Homer's on hold with the police department waiting for word on Maggie, and the song he hears on told, "Baby Come Back," brings him to TEARS.
  • In "Stark-Raving Dad", Marge is also driven to tears by the song "Crazy" (a country song, not the Aerosmith version) while being placed on hold with the Springfield Mental Hospital.
  • In "Saturdays of Thunder", Homer is on hold for the Father/Son Institute and hears the song "Cat's in the Cradle". He sniffs.
• Opium Den: In "Four Beheadings and a Funeral" (part of Treehouse of Horror XV).
• Opposed Mentors: In a gag on The Simpsons Lisa makes a square on a family heirloom patchwork quilt honoring her two musical mentors:

Look Mom, I've finished my patch. It depicts the two greatest musical influences in my life. On the left is Mr. Largo, my music teacher at school? He taught me that even the noblest concerto can be drained of its beauty and soul. And on the right is Bleeding Gums Murphy. He taught me that music is a fire in your belly that comes out of your mouth, so you better stick an instrument in front of it.

• Our Founder: Jebediah Springfield.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Subverted in "The Mansion Family": Homer says he wishes he won an award, and clarifies "an award worth winning" when he's told he won a Grammy. Immediately after he says this, a disclaimer runs at the bottom of the screen:

Legal Disclaimer: Mr. Simpson's opinions does not reflect those of the producers, who don't consider the Grammy an award at all.

• Our Nudity Is Different:
  • Skinner is horrified when his mother goes on a date in an outfit that reveals her...figure.
  • In an episode set in the 1800s, the buy-your-photo section of a log flume ride has to deal with a shot of a lady "flashing her private parts". It's her ankle, and the man running the shop claims he'll take care of it before shiftily stowing it in his pocket as if it were porn.
• Outlaw Couple: Homer and Marge are a bank-robbing couple in "Bonnie and Clyde" (part of "Love, Springfieldian Style"), a parody of the movie of the same name, which in turn was based on a real couple.
• Out of Focus: Many over the course of the show's run. The first was Lewis, the black kid who was Bart's second-best friend in the early days of the show and got pushed into background character status as other classmates developed personalities.
  • Lampshaded a couple times. For example, a gag in "Homer to the Max" where Lisa commented about characters that don't get used, and then Mr. Largo (the music teacher) and the Capital City Goofball (as seen in "Dancin' Homer" [the episode where Homer tells his bar buddies the story of how he became famous as a sports mascot]) walked past the window.
• Outrun the Fireball: Homer, after causing an explosion at the candy convention in "Homer, Badman".
• Oven Logic: Marge and her Raisin Sponge Cake.
• Overly Long Gag: Used very sparingly in the early seasons, and up to a couple of times per episode in more recent ones.
  • With the exception of the Rake Scene from "Cape Feare." The animators even admitted that the episode was running low on time and, since it was the last episode with some of the original writers, they didn't care if it was too long.
    • In fact, it was actually CUT in syndication!
• Overly Long Name: Selma's full name is Selma Bouvier-Terwilliger-Hutz-McClure-Stu-Simpson.
  • There's possibly another Terwilliger in there if she amended the name to the end when she married Bob again.
  • A vintage Rainier Wolfcastle commercial:

Rainier: Mein bratwurst has a first name, it's F-r-i-t-z. Mein bratwurst has a second name, it's S-c-h-n-a-c-k-e-n-p-f-e-f-f-e-r-h-a-u-s-e-n.

• Overly Long Scream: In "The Blunder Years", the family goes to a nightclub/restaurant. Homer gets hypnotized by a stage hypnotist, and unearths a traumatic childhood memory and starts screaming. He continues screaming as they leave, he tips the valet, drives home, brushes his teeth, and lies in bed. The next day Lenny and Carl bring him home from work still screaming; it was interrupting naptime at work.
  • In "Brother From Another Series", Bob and Bart fall from the dam and scream so long that they have to catch their breath.
• Overly Long Tongue: Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie at the end of "Time and Punishment" have lizard-esque tongues.
• Overly Narrow Superlative: Lisa calls Yertle The Turtle "possibly the best book written on the subject of turtle stacking".
• Overt Rendezvous: When Homer is forced into working for the feds, he meets his handler in a public park.
• Overused Running Gag: Homer strangles Bart all the time.

P

• Packed Hero: Parodied. Bart goes missing on a school trip at a box-making factory. Homer sees a completely ordinary cardboard box with Bart's lucky red hat on it, and immediately assumes the worst.
• Padding: "The Adventures of Ned Flanders" at the end of the episode "The Front".
• Pants-Positive Safety: In "Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes", Homer becomes a bounty hunter and starts carrying a taser, which he shoves down the front of his pants because it looks cool. The results are predictable.
• Panty Shot: In "To Surveil with Love", a pair of Duff girls get a shot of their white undies under their short skirts, from the front.
  • In "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace", a cheerleader in Bart's dream gets a couple as she jumps up and down while giving a cheer.
• Paper-Thin Disguise:

Homer: (disguised as Ed McMahon) You've just won $10 million from that Publisher's Cleary Dealie!

• Parallel Porn Titles: Occurs quite frequently on the show whenever there's a theater on the screen. Some examples: "Sperms of Endearment", "I'll Do Anyone", "Five Sleazy Pieces", "The Godfather's Parts, II", and "Jeremiah's Johnson", among many others.
• Parental Favoritism: Marge is more upset over the fact that Lisa is sad that she has to give up the animals she adopted after one crippled her son, then the fact that her son was crippled in "Jazzy And The Pussycats".
• Parental Hypocrisy: Homer claims that Bart getting his ear pierced as a 10-year-old is completely different from the crazy things he did as a kid, like getting his ear pierced as a 10-year-old.
• Parental Neglect: Homer never shows concern for what Bart might be going through in "The Crepes of Wrath". Lisa eventually called him out on this when he ended up blaming Bart for the family’s dysfunction.

Lisa: Your paper thin commitment to your children sends shivers down my spine. 

• Parking Problems: Homer tries to park the family's station wagon in a stall marked COMPACT ONLY against his passengers' advice. He squeezes the vehicle in, grinding both sides of the station wagon against the parked vehicles on either side and asks Marge in the passenger seat: "How am I doing on your side?"
• Parodic Table of the Elements: The Oscar Meyer periodic table.
• Parrot Expowhat:
  • From "Team Homer":

Burns: Listen here...I want to join your team. Homer: You want to join my what? Smithers: You want to what his team?

• • And from "Who Shot Mr Burns, Part 2":

Jasper: You shot who in the what now?

• • And from "The Joy of Sect":

Marge: You what? Homer: Come again, Marge? Marge: You what? Homer: I've joined the Movementarians, and so have all of you! Marge: We what?

• • From "HOMR":

Lisa: Dad, how could you? We were connecting in such a meaningful way. Homer: We were what what in the what what?

• Paste Eater: Ralph Wiggum is known for eating glue, crayons and worms, among other things.
• Patriotic Fervor: Parodied in "Bart Mangled Banner".
• Pay Evil Unto Evil: Subverted in the "Who Shot Mr. Burns" two parter; Burns is portrayed as an opportunist with no moral restraint. When he decides to block sunlight from Springfield, a town hall meeting is called on the subject, and everyone brings a gun to the meeting. But when someone actually SHOOTS Burns (hid behind a Shadow Discretion Shot) he is perceived as a victim, despite his obviously evil nature, and the attempted murder is investigated anyway. This is VERY out of character for Springfield, the kind of town that would leave a boy in a well for previously pranking the town into thinking someone else fell into a well.
• The Peeping Tom: Groundskeeper Willy outs himself as one when he reveals he has a videotape proving that Homer didn't sexually harass a college girl.

Willy: "Homer! I love amateur video, and your show is the most amateur video I ever saw. My hobby is secretly videotaping couples in cars. I dinna come forward because in this country, it makes you look like a pervert -- but every single Scottish person does it!"

• Performance Anxiety: Seen in "The Lastest Gun in the West" when Krusty tells Buck McCoy not to be nervous.

Krusty: Just remember: There'll be millions of people watching you. MILLIONS. (Buck takes a drink from his flask) And TV Guide's Cheers and Jeers editor! And he's already given out all his Cheers.

• Permanent Elected Official: Mayor Quimby, through lack of opposition, general corruption, and general apathy from the population.

Birch Barlow: You know, ther-- there-- there are three things we're never going to get rid of here in Springfield. One: the bats in the public library. Two: Mrs. Mc Feerly's compost heap. And three: our six term mayor. The illiterate, tax-cheating, wife-swapping, pot-smoking, spend-o-crat, Diamond Joe Quimby. Quimby: Hey! I am no longer illiterate.

• Perpetual Motion Machine: Lisa is going crazy while the teachers are on strike and creates a perpetual motion machine. Homer later tells Lisa that no physics law should be broken in his home.

Homer: This "perpetual motion" machine that she made today is a joke — it just keeps going faster and faster.

• Phosphor Essence: Subverted: the green-glowing space alien who claims to come in peace [[spoiler:turns out to be Mr. Burns addle-brained from medication side effects and glowing due to years and years and years of irradiation from nuclear power (which he perceived as healthy).
• Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Parodied in "Much Apu About Nothing": When Proposition 24 comes into the public awareness, the Springfield Elementary students harass foreign exchange students like Uter. Willie cuts through the crowd and says, "You want to pick on immigrants? Then pick on Willie!" Skinner replies with, "Willie, please. The students want to pick on someone their OWN size."
• Picked Last: The episode "King of the Hill" simultaneously plays this straight and subverts this in a few ways with Bart and Rod Flanders picking teammates for a game of Capture The Flag. Bart picks Nelson over his best friend Milhouse, who naively comments on how he must be "saving the best for last." Rod, on the other hand, chooses his brother Todd as his first pick.
• Ping-Pong Naivete: Bart.
• Pink Is for Sissies
• Pin-Pulling Teeth: Grampa Simpson is shown doing this in his flashback to World War Two in "Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"".
• Piss-Take Rap: In "Pranksta Rap", Homer and Marge embarrass Bart by rapping to him about why he can't go to the rap concert:

Homer: You did it on the straight / Got your dad's permission / But your mom dropped a bomb / So I flipped my position! Marge: Don't argue with Marge / I know what's best / The only rap in this crib / keeps sandwiches fresh!

• Planet of Hats: Bronson, MO.

Child: 'Ey ma, how 'bout some cookies? Mother: No dice. Child: Dis ain't ova.

• Playboy: The cover girl for the November 2009 issue? Marge Simpson herself.
• Playing Pictionary: In "A Milhouse Divided," the Simpsons host a dinner party with a game of Pictionary. Maude Flanders guesses "cornstarch" from three dots drawn by Ned, while Kirk Van Houten is unable to draw "dignity."
• Playing the Victim Card: In "There's Something About Marrying" not only is Patty being a lesbian played in universe as being blatantly obvious, but she has never really hid it. There’s even a flashback of her making out with another women right in front of Marge. However because she Failed a Spot Check Marge is angry at Patty.
• Plea of Personal Necessity: After Bart and Lisa proved Sideshow Bob rigged the election to win his Engineered Public Rant ends with one of these. Essentially making this statement the source of his downfall.

Sideshow Bob: Because you need me, Springfield. Your guilty conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you secretly long for a cold-hearted Republican to lower taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king. That's why I did this, to protect you from yourselves! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a city to run. Judge: Bailiff, place the mayor under arrest. Bob is handcuffed* Bob: What!? ...oh yes, all that stuff I did.

• Police Are Useless: Chief Wiggum is every bit as competent as you'd expect the father of Ralph Wiggum to be.

Marge: Look, I know I don't have any proof, but this woman is trying to kill me. Wiggum: [sigh] Fine. Let me tell you what I tell everybody who comes in here: the law is powerless to help you. Marge: Do I have to be dead before you'll help me? Wiggum: Well, not dead. Dying. Y-- no, no, no, don't walk away! How 'bout this? Just show me the knife. In your back. Not too deep, but, uh, it should be able to stand by itself.

• • Later, as Marge is being arrested for attacking the women she thought was trying to kill her:

Marge: I thought you said the law was powerless! Wiggum: Powerless to help you, not punish you.

• Poor Man's Porn: On the season seven premiere, "Who Shot Mr. Burns, part II," Moe is forced to admit under a lie detector test that he spends his evenings ogling the women in the Sears catalogue (even though Sears stopped sending out Sears catalogues at the time of the episode's first airing, but who's to say that Moe doesn't have a stash of them from around the time that they were sent out through the mail?)
  • Sears catalogues are still published to this day in Canada, so maybe Moe was getting new catalogues from there?
  • Moe invokes this trope again when he brings up "this porn channel i'm too cheap to descramble," which turns out to be an infomercial for shoe inserts.

Moe: I've been writing creepy letters to that?

• Porn Stash: Subverted in the episode "Million Dollar Maybe"; Homer offers Barney access to the hollow tree where he keeps his "adult" magazines... Namely, "The Economist".
  • Played straight on "All's Fair In Oven War," where Homer finds his old Playdude magazines in the wall of the house (all of which have the pornographic pictures cut out) and Bart uses them to act like a swinging bachelor.
  • In "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming", "We have searched every square inch of this base and all we have found is porno, porno, PORNO!"
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Nedna, in-universe.
• Portrait Painting Peephole: Demonstrated in "Bart Gets Hit By a Car" when Burns listens to Homer and Marge's conversation while staring at them through the eyes of his own portrait.
• Post-Mortem Conversion: The stonecutters claim that (among others) the signers of The Declaration of Independence and Washington were Stonecutters, according to their Secret World History.
• Post-Robbery Trauma: Marge, after having her pearls stolen, in "Strong Arms of the Ma".
• Posthumous Character: Snowball I
  • The town's founder, Jebidiah Springfield
• Potty Dance: Homer does it after drinking way too much crab juice.
• Practical Joke: Bart violently shakes Homer's beer can, hoping it will merely spray him in the face when opened. It backfires when the beer can opening actually causes an explosion.
• The Pratfall: Bart awakens after falling, to find himself staring into the eyes of an attractive young girl.

Bart's brain: She's beautiful! Say something clever. Bart: I fell on my bottom. Bart's brain: D'oh...

• Prayer Is a Last Resort: From "Bart Sells His Soul":

Bart: Are you there, God? It's me, Bart Simpson. I know I never paid too much attention in church, but I could really use some of that good stuff now. I'm... afraid. I'm afraid some weirdo's got my soul and I don't know what they're doing to it! I just want it back. Please? I hope you can hear this.

• • Played for laughs in "Lost Our Lisa":

Homer: I'm not normally a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me, Superman!

• • From "Bart Gets an F":

Bart: Well, old timer, I guess this is the end of the road. I know I haven't always been a good kid, but, if I have to go to school tomorrow, I'll fail the test and be held back. I just need one more day to study, Lord. I need your help! Lisa: Prayer: The last refuge of a scoundrel. Bart: A teachers strike, a power failure, a blizzard... Anything that'll cancel school tomorrow. I know it's asking a lot, but if anyone can do it, you can! Thanking you in advance, your pal, Bart Simpson.

• Prayer of Malice: When Sideshow Bob's after Bart, Bart prays to God to kill him.

Bart: ...and please, God, kill Sideshow Bob! Marge: No, Bart! You can't ask God to kill someone! Homer: Yeah! You've got to do your own dirty work!

• Precocious Crush: The episode "Lisa's Substitute", where Lisa gets a crush on (substitute) teacher Mr. Bergstrom.
  • Not to mention her obsession with Corey magazine (and the hotline) in earlier seasons, all full of boys who were at least in their teens. One example in the "Brother From The Same Planet" subplot, when Marge found out about Lisa's phone calls to the hotline, she revealed to Lisa that she was in the same situation in her childhood when she had a crush on Bobby Sherman:

Marge Simpson: Oh, honey, I know how you feel. When I was a girl, I had a crush on Bobby Sherman... [Lisa bursts out laughing] Marge Simpson: [annoyed] The point is, I want you to stop making these calls! Lisa Simpson: [serious] All right, Mom. I promise you, you will never be billed for another call. [giggling uncontrollably] Lisa Simpson: Bobby Sherman? Marge Simpson: Mmm...

• • Bart also had a crush on new neighbor Laura Powers, who was in her mid teens. When he found out she was going out with Jimbo, one of the bullies who picks on him, he arranged a plan to break them up. It was successful—by the end of the episode, Laura had broken up with Jimbo and even told Bart that she would date him if he were older. The character was never seen again.
  • In one episode, in regards to Marge, Milhouse says "She's HOT! ...sorry it just slipped out."
  • Also happens in "The Devil Wears Nada" with Nelson and Milhouse looking at a pin-up calender featuring Marge.
• Premature Encapsulation: "Homer's Odyssey" is a season 1 episode that has nothing to do with Homeric epics. Later episodes that actually do Whole Plot References to The Iliad and The Odyssey are therefore forced to have less intuitive names.
• Pride Parade: In one episode, a gay pride parade goes through town.

Marchers: We're here, we're queer, get used to it! Lisa: You do this every year. We are used to it!

• • There was also a float dedicated to those still in the closet.

We're gay, we're glad But don't tell mom and dad

• • When there was a bear "attack" in Springfield Homer led an angry mob to the mayors office with this chant:

Crowd: We're here, we're queer, we don't want any more bears. Lenny: Hey, that's a pretty catchy chant. Where did you hear it? Homer: Oh, I heard it at the mustache parade they have every year.

• Princess Curls: Taffy in the "Homer Scissorhands" subplot.
• Prison Episode: Several of them, mostly involving the villains, but occasionally major characters (especially Homer, sometimes Marge) end up in jail as well.
• Prisoner of Zenda Exit: Big Daddy makes one in the "Chief Wiggum, P.I." segment of "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase".
• Produce Pelting: Happens to Krusty in "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious" when he realizes his comedy special of Krusty Komedy Klassic is abbreviated as "KKK".
  • A variant occurs in "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson" when the angry baseball spectators throw pretzels onto the field at Whitey Ford in response to Mr. Burns winning the Pontiac Astro-Wagon.
• Product Placement: Parodied in "Lady Bouvier's Mother".

Jackie: I remember Lisa's third birthday. She and Bart did this adorable little song and dance routine. Abe: Oh, heh heh! That was a real horn-honker! Let's see it. (Bart and Lisa feel uneasy) Now! Do it! (They groan) Do it! Bart and Lisa: (get into position and singing flatly) Hot dogs, Armour hot dogs... Abe: Sing it like you mean it! (They fully launch into a song and dance routine at this point, complete with Homer walking by with a sign promoting the hot dogs at the end.) Lisa: Doesn't this family know any songs that aren't commercials? (Lisa walks off while everybody else does the Chicken Tonight song and dance)

• Product Promotion Parade: Featured as part of a larger spoof of Merchandise-Driven kids' shows, The Mattel and Mars Bars Choco-Bot Hour. The group's leader tells them to "put down those fun Mattel toys, we've got work to do!" This is followed by An Insert showing the characters' hands as they place the toys very carefully on a blank background to show kids what they should ask their parents for this Christmas.
• Professional Slacker: Homer, when the need arises.
• Progressively Prettier: Marge, twice. She was quite dumpy in the Tracy Ullman show shorts. Early in the show's run she was more of an example of Hollywood Homely. Now of course she's treated as if she's supermodel-attractive.
• Proof I Am Not Bluffing: Spoofed in "You Only Move Twice":

Scorpio: Good afternoon, gentlemen. This is Scorpio. I have the Doomsday Device. You have 72 hours to deliver the gold or you'll face the consequences. And to prove I'm not bluffing, watch this. UN Man 1: [all the men look at the explosion] Oh My God, the Fifty-Ninth Street Bridge! UN Man 2: Maybe it just collapsed on its own. UN Man 1: We can't take that chance. UN Man 2: You always say that. I want to take a chance!

• Public Secret Message:
  • In "My Mother the Carjacker", Mona Simpson encodes secret messages to her son in the newspaper, in food articles, using the first letter from each word.
  • Homer sends a message to Lisa in the New York Times Crossword Puzzle. Defictionalized by the NY Times running that same puzzle.
• Pun-Based Title: "A Star is Burns", "You Kent Always Say What You Want", "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken", etc. These would only increase over time, to the point where nearly every episode title was a pun of some sort.
  • Including three different puns on "Mona Lisa".
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In "The Old Man and the Key", after Grampa drives Homer's car through his yard, Homer shouts:

Oh that's IT! Abraham J. Simpson, you are NEVER. DRIVING. AGAIN. EVER!!!

• Put Me in Coach: Parodied in "Bart Star"; at the big game, Chief Wiggum announces that Nelson has an arrest warrant and wants to know which one of the players is Nelson. Homer laments that he's about to lose his star quarterback, but Bart says, "It's OK, dad: I can fill in for Nelson!" But instead of assuming the role of quarterback as expected, Bart is next seen in the back of Wiggum's police car.
• Put Off Their Food: In the episode where Homer becomes a food critic, some chefs plan to assassinate him with a lethal eclair. After other attempts to stop Homer from eating it fail, Lisa tells him that it's low-fat, causing him to throw it away in disgust.

Q

• Queer People Are Funny
• Quest for Identity: In "Smart and Smarter", after realizing that she's no longer the smartest, Lisa attempts to gain new identities for herself, such as being a cowgirl, taking up rapping, stand-up comedy, soccer, cheerleading, and even becoming a Goth.

R

• Ranked by IQ: Springfield is left under the control of local Mensa members after the mayor skips town. They disagree on how the town should be run and eventually start arguing by stating their IQ at each other. Frink insists his 199 IQ qualifies him to be in charge—but is soon "outranked" when Stephen Hawking arrives on the scene!
• Rattling Off Legal: Occurs all the time when a commercial appears on the show.
• "Reading Is Cool" Aesop: Played for Laughs in "Summer of 4 Ft. 2."
• Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud
• Readings Blew Up the Scale: Professor Frink invents a sarcasm detector, which of course explodes in the presence of overwhelming sarcasm.
• Really Seventeen Years Old: Parodied. Grampa Simpson says that he fought in World War I -- "of course, I had to lie about my age to get in." In the ensuing Flash Back, he's five.
• Rear Window Investigation, Rear Window Witness: "Bart of Darkness".
• Recognition Failure: In "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", Homer meets George Harrison. At first he appears to recognize him, but then he cries out, "Where did you get that brownie?!"
• Reference Overdosed
• Refuge in Audacity: Vietnam War jokes aren't that funny. The attempted escape of Principal Skinner's platoon (without him) an elephant with a Raiden hat and eating them all are hilarious.
  • The portrayal of Republicans as an evil cult (including a vampire) who have meetings in a spooky castle is so over-the-top that it's hilarious.
• Rebus Bubble: Homer + Beer = Car Crash President Homer.
• Remember When You Blocked Out The Sun: Mr. Burns in the episode with his love interest and her ex-boyfriend Snake. After she leaves Burns for Snake because Snake is such a "bad boy", Burns complains that he is truly evil and recites a number of his evil schemes, such as blocking out the sun in Springfield.

Burns: Play along, chubsy. There's a pie in it for you. Homer: Oh! Yeah, Monty's a wild man! He ran his own casino, stole the Loch Ness Monster, got shot by a baby, and blotted out the sun! Gloria: Wow, that was you?

• Remonstrating with a Gun: When Homer was accused of the attempted murder of Mr. Burns.

Say I never shot you!... Before.

• Retired Badass: Grandpa Simpson, as apparent in episodes that take place during the War.
• Retirony: Many examples, coming from the Trope Namer:
  • From "Saturdays of Thunder", McBain's partner getting shot dead. He had only two days until retirement.
  • From "Homer and Apu", Homer smashing the camera hat, believing there's a bee in it. Kent Brockman told Homer the hat had one day until retirement.
  • From "Natural Born Kissers", a police dog trained to sniff out Homer runs off, frightened by Homer's scent. Wiggum laments that the dog had one day left until retirement.
  • From "Homer to the Max", another example featuring Wiggum: His one-day-'til-retirment car is smashed by a falling tree.
  • A variant from "Marge Simpson in Screaming Yellow Honkers": Marge accidentally breaks down the prison walls, allowing them to escape. Wiggum runs up and tells Marge that the prisoners were one day away from being completely rehabilitated.
  • From "Homer vs. Dignity", Wiggum himself uses the words "retirony" as a Conversed Trope when talking to a financial planner. This episode was the Trope Namer.
• Retraux: The episode "The Day The Violence Died" is one big love letter to classic cartoons.
• Retroactive Wish: "I sure hope there isn't an ice-cream round!"
• Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Chief Wiggum does this to a recording with Chincy Pop in the background to isolate it.
• Rhetorical Question Blunder: From "Homer to the Max", regarding "Police Cops":

Bart: This isn't bad! Homer: "Isn't bad"? Tell me one thing mankind has ever done that's any better? Lisa: The Renaissance? Homer: This is better.

• • Also this example from "Mountain of Madness":

Bart: Teamwork is overrated. Think about it: I mean, what team was Babe Ruth on? Who knows. Lisa and Marge: Yankees.

• • In "The Last Temptation of Krust", Krusty attempts an act of observational humor. It doesn't work: His observations are flawed because they have actual answers.

Krusty: Did you ever notice how there are two phone books: A white one and a yellow one? What's the deal with that?! Lisa: (flatly) One's residential, the other's business. Krusty: Oh. (animated) What'll they think of next: BLUE pages?! Marge: (flatly) They have those; they're government listings.

• Riches to Rags: Homer ruins his long-lost brother Herb—the head of a Detroit car company—by designing a terrible car.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense: Mr. Burns.
  • The entirety of Springfield when they come into any money.

Lyle Lanley: You know, a town with money's a little like the mule with a spinning wheel. No one knows how he got it and danged if he knows how to use it.

• Riddle for the Ages: How Mr. Burns beat Bart and Lisa to the bottom of a laundry chute.
  • (And how Grandpa took off his underwear without taking off his pants)
    • Oh, that's an easy one.
  • In "The Last Temptation of Homer", Homer, Charlie, Carl and Lenny are trapped in a room filling slowly with poison gas. Cut to Charlie standing in Mr. Burns' office, saying: "Well, sir, I won't bore you with the details of our miraculous escape, but ..."
  • In "Viva Ned Flanders," as the Monty Burns Casino is being destroyed:

Marge: Remember how excited we were when this place opened? Then, a week later, we just forgot about it. Lisa: I'm surprised they bothered to move it when they moved the town. Homer: Oh, I can explain that. You see-- [The demolition begins, interrupting Homer]

• • From "The Great Money Caper"

Homer: Wait a minute. You're telling me the police force, the TV news, a courthouse full of people, and a popular entertainer had nothing better to do than to teach me and Bart a lesson? Lisa: I know it seems far-fetched, even insulting to your intelligence. But there's a simple and highly satisfying explanation. You see-- Otto: [burts in suddenly, carrying a surfboard] Hey, everybody, surfs up! [Everyone leaves excitedly]

• • From "Brother's Little Helper"

Mark McGwire: Young Bart here is right. We are spying on you, pretty much around the clock. Bart: But why, Mr. Mc Gwire? Mark McGwire: Do you want to know the terrifying truth, or do you want to see me sock a few dingers? Crowd: Dingers! Dingers!

• A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside An Enigma: The episode "Lisa's Date With Destiny" sees Lisa describe Nelson as "a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a vest."
• Ridiculous Future Sequelisation: The Simpsons brought us "Star Trek XIII: So Very Tired" a couple years before Star Trek Generations was released.
• Ridiculously Long Phone Number: When Bart calls Antarctica. For the record, the number he dials is 577562374257635623567462357736257635725.
  • Also, beautifully drawn out as Homer requests to use the phone at the library for a local call before dialing Hokkaido, Japan.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: Mr. Burns has a pack of hounds which he likes to release on those who disturb him at home.
• Right-Hand Hottie: In one episode, Homer gets an attractive male secretary (voiced by Harvey Fierstein) and in another episode, Homer fell for a female coworker who was basically his Distaff Counterpart, only skinnier, with red hair, and voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer.
  • Also Mr Smithers, assistant to Mr Burns, as far as some of the viewers are concerned.
• Risky Business Dance: In "Homer The Heretic" (dancing to "Who Wears Short Shorts?" instead of "Old Time Rock 'n Roll").
• Road Trip Across the Street
• Rooftop Concert: Homer's barbershop quartet, The Be Sharps, reunite on the roof of Moe's Tavern for a performance. George Harrison, when passing by, comments "It's Been Done." Meanwhile, Chief Wiggum, the band's Pete Best, arranges for them to be tear gassed.
• Rule of Funny: The series practically abuses this trope.
• Rule of Three: Sometimes they stop short after the second time. For example, in the episode "Radioactive Man", Bart's hat flies off upon the news that Radioactive Man is getting a movie, prompting Comic Book Guy to say, "I have got to do something about that air conditioner suction." The same gag occurs when the students hear about the auditions for the role of Fallout Boy, and Skinner follows this by saying, "Oh, and the air conditioner will be fixed this afternoon." By this point you'd expect the "hat and air conditioner" gag to come up one final time at some point, but it never comes.
  • Played straight in "Homer the Great", with Lenny saying "It's a secret.", followed by Carl twice and Homer the last time saying "Ssssssshut up."
• Running Gag: Mr. Burns not remembering who Homer is, and having to ask Smithers, who gives different descriptions each episode ("That's Homer Simpson, one of your carbon blobs from sector 7G"; "One of the fork and spoon operators from sector 7G"; "One of your organ banks from sector 7G").
  • During seasons 3-5, there was frequently a joke about Homer saying that doing something was his "life-long dream". Marge quickly shot him down by saying that his life-long dream was actually to (fill in wacky scenario here), and that he did it last year.
  • There are lots of episodes with similar names:
    • Bart Gets an F, A, Z, Bart's Dog gets an F.
    • Loan-A-Lisa, Moanin' Lisa, Mona Leaves-a.
  • From "Kill the Alligator and Run", the restaurant owner saying, "I like that.", no matter the circumstance.
  • During the Scully seasons, there was a repeated gag of Homer waving his fist threateningly and repeating a word from his previous sentence. Examples:

Homer: I paid full price for this freak show. Now nourish the child within me! (shakes fist) NOU-RISH! Homer: So you better catch the fever! (shakes fist) CATCH IT... Homer: Well, we are not boarding that plane unless you waive that tax. (shakes fist) WAIVE IT...

• • In "Bart the Mother", Homer falling down the stairs to the basement after the lights refuse to come on when he flicks the light switch.
• Russian Roulette: In "Simpson Tide", Moe has a Deer Hunter-esque scenario going on in a back room of his bar.

S

• Sadist Teacher: Bart's kindergarten teacher. You do NOT tell a five-year-old boy that the moral of The Ugly Duckling is that there is hope for everyone but him.
• Sadistic Choice: Parodied in "Rosebud" with an example more trivial than most. Burns takes over all television networks available to Springfield, telling the whole town that he's not giving them back their television until someone steals Maggie's teddy bear and puts it on his desk. Cut to an angry mob outside the Simpson home stealing the teddy bear from her, only to return it out of regret once they see Maggie, visibly upset, trying to crawl over to take it back.
• Safety Worst: In one episode, Homer becomes so obsessed with child-proofing that everything on the playground is covered in bubble-wrap, and he then regrets it when he learns that children not being injured means doctors make less money and child injury greeting card factories close down.
• Samus Is a Girl: Parodied in Homer Of Seville when Homer is saved by a motorcyclist opera fan and The Reveal is overplayed by the woman and by Homer. The former says it too overdramatically and the latter says it with Dull Surprise and with a comparison to The Twilight Zone.
  • In "Girls Just Want to Have Sums", Lisa (disguised as a boy named Jake Boyman) reveals that she's actually a girl to the entire school.
• Sapient Cetaceans: In a Treehouse of Horror episode dolphins invade the land and take over. They can speak English.

Snorky: [in high pitched voice] Snorky ... talk ... man ... [clears throat and reverts to deep male voice] I'm sorry, let me start over. Eons ago, dolphins lived on the land. Then your ancestors drove us into the sea, where we suffered for millions of years. I, King Snorky, hereby banish all humans to the sea!

• Saw Star Wars 27 Times: In the episode "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie," Milhouse brags about seeing the Itchy & Scratchy movie 15 times and Nelson brags that he saw it 17 times. Bart (who has been grounded from seeing the movie after failing to watch Maggie) tries to joke that the two must have been sick of seeing it and ends up getting chased by Nelson and Milhouse.
• Say My Name: "Mendooooozzzaaaaa!"
  • "SKINNER!"
    • "S-Superintendent Chalmers!"
  • "Barrrrrrttttttttt!!!"
    • Even Lisa says his name whenever Bart pisses her off or pranks her.
  • Marge: Homer!
    • Marge also says "Homie/Homey" whenever she kisses or has sex with Homer.
• Scale-Model Destruction: Mr. Burns stomps on a model of Springfield Godzilla style.
• Scam Religion: Movementarianism.
  • In the same episode ("The Joy of Sect"), Mr. Burns attempts to create his own religion after he hears that the Movementarian's leader has tax exempt status. The unveiling ceremony went horribly wrong, however, as a wayward spark from a firework destroyed his costume, and he fell from the balcony trying to put himself out.

Lenny: Meh. He's alright, but he's no bowl of Special K!

• Scandalgate: Subverted where Kent Brockman reveals that the trial of Mayor Quimby's nephew for assaulting a waiter is being dubbed by the media as "Beat Up Waiter":

Kent Brockman: This reporter suggested "Waitergate" but was shouted down at the Press Club.

• Scenery Censor: Demonstrated with Marge's portrait of Mr. Burns, where something thin always obscures his tiny penis.
  • "Natural Born Kissers" features much of this in the final act when Homer and Marge are trying to find cover while naked.
• Schmuck Bait: In the fourth Treehouse of Horror, Bart come across a lever for a "Super Happy Fun Slide" while escaping some vampires. He even lampshade it before he pulls it and slides right into the clutches of the undead and his own vamping. Homer nearly does the same later in the episode.

Bart: I know I shouldn't, but when will I be here again?

• • In another early Treehouse of Horror episode, the aliens' cookbook "How to Cook For Forty Humans" caused Lisa to think they were going to eat The Simpsons, first thinking the dust covered title was "How to Cook Humans" until Kang blew some dust off to reveal that it said "How to Cook For Humans" until Lisa blew more dust off revealing "How to Cook Forty Humans" before the final dust was blew off revealing its full title. Unfortunately, Lisa's distrust ruined their chances of being pampered by the alien civilization and they were returned to Earth.
• The Scrappy: in "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show", Poochie is a new Itchy & Scratchy character voiced by Homer, who is Totally Radical (and in Itchy's face) even in his post-episode aesops. No-one likes him, and is hastily canned, leading to the Shoo Out the New Guy trope.
• Scout Out: The Junior Campers in "Boy Scoutz 'n the Hood".
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Homer does it the most, but Ned's screaming actually sounds like a woman's (his singing as well, which Bart finds disturbing [because he found it attractive]).
• Sdrawkcab Name: Mr. Burns "disguises" himself as "Mr. Snrub" in "A Star is Burns".

Smithers: I like the way "Snrub" thinks!

• • In the credits of Treehouse of Horror VII, Dan Castellaneta's name is spelled backwards.
• Second-Person Attack: In "Husbands and Knives", a triple Second-Person Attack is made by Art Spiegelman, Daniel Clowes and Alan Moore, who all simultaneously punch Comic Book Guy when he was trying to destroy a rival comic book store that's ruining his business.
• Secret Ingredient:
  • Marge's secret ingredient for pork chops is salt.
  • The secret ingredient for making a Flaming Homer cocktail is "Krusty Brand Non-Narkotik Kough Syrup".
• See You in Hell: "...from Heaven." ("Two Dozen and One Greyhounds", Lovejoy)
  • "See you in Hell, candy boys!" (throws explosive) ("Homer Badman", Homer)
  • "See you in Hell, God bless this house." ("Mom and Pop Art", Bart)
  • "See you in Hell, dinner plate." ("The Cartridge Family", Homer)
  • "Thank you for coming! I'll see you in Hell!" ("Homer the Vigilante", Apu)
  • "I'll see you in Hell yet, Homer Simpson!" ("Treehouse of Horror IV", Flanders/Satan)
  • "See you in Hell." "Still pushing that boulder?" "Uh-huh." ("Treehouse of Horror III", various zombies returning to their graves)
• Selective Enforcement: In one episode, Barney and Lenny play pranks on Moe which involve setting him on fire and setting a cobra on him. Homer, in an attempt to join in the "harmless" fun loosens the lid on a sugar shaker. He gets kicked out of the bar.
• Self-Serving Memory: In $pringfield, when Homer accuses Marge of being against the casino, flashes back to a very bizarre scene. Also used by Burns and Bart in the trial in Bart Gets Hit By a Car.
  • In "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace", Homer claims that Marge told him to quit his job and become an inventor, or she'd torch the house.
• Senior Sleep Cycle: Homer's father even falls asleep mid-sentence.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Milhouse and Bart.
• Sequel Episode: "Brawl in the Family", which followed up on Homer's second marriage to Amber from "Viva Ned Flanders".
  • Similarly, "Papa Don't Leach" is a follow-up to "Colonel Homer".
  • "My Mother the Carjacker" and "Mona Leaves-a" follows up on the "Homer's mother" plot thread started in "Mother Simpson".
  • The earliest example would probably be "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?" being a follow up to "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"
  • "The Great Louse Detective", which was a follow-up to "Homer's Enemy".
• Serenade Your Lover: It happens a lot—see trope page.
• Sesame Street Cred: Celebrity voices have been rumored to line up for years to get on the show. Even playing themselves.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Homer in "Bart's Friend Falls In Love", after getting a subliminal vocabulary-building tape since they were out of weight-loss tapes.
• Severely Specialized Store: A borderline example appears in "When Flanders Failed". Ned Flanders opens The Leftorium, a store with left-handed products for left-handed people; despite having a wide range of products, it initially fails due to interference by Homer.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Not shying away about sex even when left to the imagination, this trope happens in several episodes:
  • The episode "Grade School Confidential" has Principal Skinner and Edna Krabappel having a conversation, eating applesauce, and then making out in Edna's apartment only to have sex on the kitchen floor; thus explained with the Charlie Brown Wax Candle burning down to it's feet.

Edna: Seymour, swallow that applesauce and kiss me. Skinner: I'm afraid I already swallowed it while you were talking.

• • • They fooled around that night, they didn't have sex. Later in that very episode, Skinner reveals that he is a virgin. According to the DVD commentaries, that was truthful and not some trick.
  • "Insane Clown Poppy": In Krusty's flashback about how Krusty met Sophie's mother in the Gulf War, we see Krusty and her kissing and embracing each other in a army tent and then it pans to the window shot of the burning torches in the desert which 'burned out' like candles in the morning.

Krusty: There was your mother -- looking like a beautiful mirage. Maybe it was the anthrax in the air, maybe it was the fact that the Arab women weren't biting, whatever it was, it was magic.

• • "Mr. Spritz Goes to Washington": The still 'far out' shot of the "Ye Olde Off-Ramp Inn" when Mayor Quimby has sex with one of his lady friends.

Mayor Quimby: Vote Quimby, vote Quimby, vote Quimby, VOTE QUIMBY! [orgasmic moan]

• • "She Used to Be My Girl": After rescuing Chloe, Barney is rewarded with pity sex in which we see the shot of the helicopter humping up and down.
  • "Treehouse of Horror XVI": Happens at the end of the second segment, "Survival of the Fattest", in which after everyone dies by Mr. Burns hunting rifle on a reality show with Homer surviving and after Marge bops both Burns and Smithers with two frying pans, both of them immediately have sex only to have commentator Terry Bradshaw as the 'Discrection' shot.
  • Subverted in "Lisa's First Word" which happens in this scene:

Bart: Mom, what was my first word? Marge: Hmmm... [Flashback to baby Bart walking on his parents having sex] Baby Bart: Ay caramba! [Returns to present] Marge: I don't think I remember.

• • "The Devil Wears Nada": Near the end in which Marge (after eating strawberries with whipped cream and spending a brief but near-kiss moments twice with Ned in the Simpsons house) and Homer (back from his trip with Carl in Paris) immediately have sex, as usual. Cut to shaking family pictures in the living room, cut to SLH and a white dog(similar to the Lady and the Tramp dog) nose rubbing in the doghouse, and finally cut to birds forming the shape of a heart.
  • "Dangerous Curves": In a scene in this flashback episode, Ned and Maude (seducing him modestly) kiss and then turn out the lights while Homer and Marge, unmarried, are separated in different rooms.
  • Subverted in the flashback episode "And Maggie Makes Three" in this scene after Homer and Marge spent a romantic evening celebrating their new life:

Homer: [sighs] I love you, Marge. Marge: I love you too, Homey. Homer: Everything in our lives is finally perfectly balanced. I hope things stay exactly like this forever. Marge: Mm hmm. Seconds later" scene shows lots of little Homer sperm bumping their heads and going "D'oh! D'oh! [one breaks through the egg and goes "Woo hoo!"] [scene switch to present day, Homer swimming like a sperm] Marge: Did you have to be so graphic? Homer: It's OK, Marge: they pave the way for this kind of filth in school.

• • "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy". After telling Abe about how weak their sex life is, Abe gives Homer some tonic to improve his sex life with Marge leading to shots of a train going into a tunnel, a rocket blasting off, and hot dogs falling in a factory which pans back to reveal Bart, Lisa and Maggie in a movie theater watching stock footage of all three:

Lisa: Whaddya think Mom and Dad are doing right now? Bart: I dunno.

• • • Later in the episode, the same goes for many other married couples who took the tonic leaving Bart, Lisa, and Milhouse to believe different conclusions:

Bart: OK, it's not 'painfully' clear the adults are 'definitely' paving the way for an invasion by the saucer people. Milhouse: You fool! Can't you see it's a massive government conspiracy? Or have they gotten to you too? [he and Bart start wrestling] Lisa: Hey! Hey, hey, stop it! Stop it! Why are you guys jumping to such ridiculous conclusions? Haven't you ever heard of Occam's Razor? "The simplest explanation is probably the correct one." Bart: [condescending] So what's the simplest explanation? Lisa: I don't know. Maybe they're all reverse vampires and they have to get home before dark. Everyone: Aah! Reverse vampires! Reverse vampires! [Lisa sighs]

• • • And later:

Bart: So finally, we're all in agreement about what's going on with the adults. Milhouse? Milhouse: [steps up to blackboard] Ahem. OK, here's what we've got: the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people -- Bart: Thank you. Milhouse: -- under the supervision of the reverse vampires -- Lisa: [sighs] Milhouse: -- are forcing our parents to go to bed early in a fiendish plot to eliminate the meal of dinner. [sotto voce] We're through the looking glass, here, people...

• • "I Married Marge": In this flashback episode in how Bart was born, Homer and Marge make out in the minature golf castle:

Marge: Maybe it's the champale talking, but I think you're pretty sexy. Homer: Really? It <must> be the champale talking. [Homer and Marge kiss] Marge: What if we get caught? Homer: Don't worry. This castle is impregnable.

• • • Then after that, a golfer putts a golf ball into the 'free game' hole which flashes.
  • "Catch 'Em If You Can": Near the end of the episode in which Homer and Marge finally make love, which we don't see explicitly, in an inflated castle floating in the Niagara River.
  • "The Boys of Bummer": Happens in the subplot of the episode. When trying to steal back their mattress from the Lovejoys' bedroom, Homer and Marge stare at each other seductively. Then it cuts outside to the Lovejoys arriving home excited to make love once again before spotting Homer and Marge in their bedroom. Then cuts back to the bedroom and we see Homer and Marge immediately naked between the sheets.
  • The very end of "Colonel Homer" in which Homer and Marge are making out and before they have sex, Homer throws his white cowboy hat toward the screen blacking it out till the credits appear.
  • "Black Widower": Happens after the end of Sideshow Bob and Selma's honeymoon video:

Sideshow Bob: Oh, Selma dear. You and your little camera. Whaddya say we shut it off for awhile... Selma: ...and make love? [Selma removes the sheets revealing her nude] Sideshow Bob: [sighs] I suppose. [tape ends] Marge: Aww, that's sweet.

• • "Some Enchanted Evening": Happens at the very end with these lines during the credits:

Homer: Can we make up again? Marge: Oh, my goodness.

• • "A Star is Born Again": After a concert, Ned Flanders, after consulting bible verses before he engages into pre-marital sex with Sara Sloane, makes out with her on the picnic carpet. Then it cuts to sunrise and it pans down showing both Ned and Sarah naked under the sheets along with their clothes lying on the grass.
  • Subverted in "The Haw-Hawed Couple". Happens at the beginning when Lisa complains about Bart drinking coffee(which is Pepsi, Bart claims) when they hear Homer and Marge arguing only for it to turn out to be a fake tape recording to distract Bart and Lisa, while the real Homer and Marge prepare to make love. When they do, they quickly took off their bed pajamas and Marge accidentally hits the 'play' button with her slippers causing it to play "A Horse With No Name". This leaves Bart and Lisa to curiously open the door to see what's 'really' going on only for Bart to feel traumatized ever since Homer told him about the 'facts of life' in "All's Fair in Oven War".

Milhouse: Trust me Bart, it's better to walk in on both your parents than on just one of them.

• • "Bart's Friend Falls in Love": Happens in the Troy McClure Fuzzie Bunny sex education film Mrs Krabappel shows to her students:

Troy (from film): That night came the Honeymoon. [sexual music plays] Class: Eww! Edna: She's faking it.

• • Treehouse of Horror XVIII: Near the end of "Mr. and Ms. Simpson" in which Homer and Marge kiss each other passionately realizing they're more attracted then ever, after killing Chief Wiggum together. Then it cuts to both of them lying on Wiggum's body seen naked in the morning.

Marge: What a wonderful night.

• • "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love": Happens when Homer takes a shot of Burns' aphrodisiac and races home carrying Marge to their bedroom. Then it cuts to both of them naked in the bed.
  • "The Burns and the Bees": To keep Lisa's bees from becoming extinct, Homer and Moe conduct a plan to mate them using Africanized bees. When they put the queen in the bottle before covering it with a cloth, both Homer and Moe spice up the moment lighting candles and dimming the lights with the song "Sea of Love" playing in the background.

Moe: Got the queen? Homer: Yep, and she's ready for a night of anonymous sex with multiple partners. [laughs] Moe: [Moe puts queen in Africanized bee water bottle and covers it] Now let's give them some privacy while they get down with the buzziness. [Homer and Moe play "Sea of Love" record, light candles and dim lights] Moe: [sighs] If they was me, they'd be done by now.

• • "The Scorpion's Tale": Subverted when Abe sleeps on the floor with Homer and Marge making love as noticed with their feet moving, despite Abe harshly compmenting them.
• Shaking Her Hair Out:
  • Parodied in Marge's novel The Harpooned Heart; the book's heroine wears her hair under a bonnet but her lover pulls it off and lets it out. Since she has Marge's hairstyle, instead of falling down it shoots up.
  • Played straight in "Last Tap Dance in Springfield" with Lisabella, the librarian.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Inverted in "I Love Lisa". Lisa Simpson to Ralph Wiggum. On a date. On live television. Preceded by a Big No.

Bart: You can actually pinpoint the second when his heart rips in half!

• Sheet of Glass: Subverted in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge": Marge's out-of-control car heads towards two workers carrying a giant sheet of glass. However, instead of the car smashing the glass to pieces, she merely knocks the glass down to the ground. The workers pick it up and comment on how sturdy the glass is.
  • Parodied in "Bart's Elephant", in which two workers manage to avoid having their sheet of glass get hit by both Stampy and Bart, then toss it into a recycling bin carelessly.
• Shipped in Shackles:
  • Burns was given the Hannibal Mask treatment once when he was dragged into court for illegally dumping radioactive waste in "Marge vs. the Monorail."
  • Bart, after being falsely assumed to have stolen the church's collection plate money, is given the Hannibal treatment at next week's service.

Marge: We really shouldn't have let them do this. It can't be helping his self esteem.

• Shoe Shine, Mister?: The creator of Itchy & Scratchy is a homeless hobo who makes a living in part by shining shoes. After he successfully sues I&S Studios for all their money, he lives in a mansion, where he hangs out in front offering people a shine.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: in "Homer the Moe", Homer throwing his unfinished robot away.

Robot: "Father, give me legs..." (Homer throws it away) Robot: "Father..." (Homer shakes his head) (the robot drags itself off-screen with its "arms")

• Shoot the Television:
  • One episode sees Bart and Lisa write a script for an "Itchy & Scratchy" cartoon that ends with Scratchy's head (now just a skull) going through a ceiling and into Elvis Presley's television set. Elvis promptly produces a revolver and shoots Scratchy's skull through the TV.
  • The trope is inverted in the episode "The Cartridge Family", where Homer uses the new revolver he bought to turn the TV on. Hilariously, the image that comes on the screen when it does turn on is of a cowboy, having been shot, falling off a roof.
  • In "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", Chief Wiggum, after he had been kicked out of The Be Sharps, becomes so upset while watching Johnny Carson that he begins wildly shooting the TV in a fit of rage. It then becomes apparent that Wiggum had accidentally left the remote control in his gun holster and got that and his gun confused for the other.
• Shooting Gallery: "The Springfield Connection," with Wiggum pointing out the unarmed victims Marge didn't shoot (the mom with her baby and the blind man in the doorway).
  • In "The Cartridge Family," Homer joins his NRA buddies at a shooting range. We see him make some very clean shots through a series of soda cans. Pull out to reveal that Homer just took out the display at the snack stand.
• Shotacon: Happens briefly in "Homerazzi" in which Homer in the Celebrity Nightspot takes many snapshots there including a snapshot of Milhouse, who is ten years old, and Rich Texan's daughter Paris Texan (Based off Paris Hilton), who is probably twenty years old, 'making out'. Also earlier in the episode, she kissed Bart on the cheek, who is also ten, when Bart annoys her for Homer to take a pictures both of them.
  • Subverted In "The Devil Wears Nada", in which Both Milhouse and Nelson commented and looked at a sexy pin-up calender featuring Marge which embarasses Bart.

Edna: Class, today we're going to talk about Washington crossing the Delaware. Nelson: I'd like to watch Bart's mom washing her underwear. Edna: The British were led by general Howe. Nelson: I'd give Bart's mom a general wow. Bart: Knock it off. That's my mom you're talking about. Nelson: Keep-away with Bart's mom. [Throws calendar to Milhouse] Milhouse: Mrs. S., you can tuck me in anytime. Bart: Okay, buddy, lower the eyebrows, Nice and easy. [Milhouse lowers eyebrows, but then raises his left one up again; Bart hits him with slingshot] Milhouse:Ow, it's stuck! I'll have a quizzical expression for the rest of my life. Nelson: I'd like to get quizzical with Bart's mom. Bart: Shut up! [Bart starts a fight with Nelson and ends up in Skinner's office]

• • Averted in "Bart the Lover" in which Bart pranks Edna in revenge by writing letters to her, pretending to be "Woodrow", until Edna wants to see Woodrow in person. However, in the third act of the episode, this quote from Edna subverts it after Bart realizes what he's done:

Edna: Bart, you're the closest thing to a man in my life. And that's so depressing, I think I'm going to cry.

• • Subverted in "The Cartridge Family" in which one of the prostitutes at the 'Sleep Easy Hotel' talks to Bart:

Prostitute: Lookin' for a good time, sailor? Bart: I certainly am. Marge: No you're not! [drags Bart inside the motel, then sticks her head out the door] He's really not.

• • Parodied and subverted in the "Yokel Chords" subplot. Dr. Stacey Swanson develops a close bond with Bart during the psychiatry session when she plays video games with him and reads Mad Libs to him in order to understand more about him and his family. In the second session, thanks to Marge using funds for Homer's breast reduction surgery to relieve Bart of his depression of not seeing Dr. Swanson, Bart reveals more to her about his family including how he got the name "Dark Stanley" which was Bart getting hit on the head with a Stanley hammer by Homer. The session ends and Bart is finally happy, but Dr. Swanson now starts to feel sad that he's leaving her, leading her to see her own psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Bogdanovich.
  • "The New Kid on the Block" has Bart having a crush on Ruth Powers' daughter, Laura Powers, while in "Little Big Girl", Bart makes out with Darcy (who is fifteen years old; five years older than Bart) in Homer's car after driving her to a drive in theatre.
• Should Have Thought of That Before X:

Principal Skinner: Over here, Simpson! The detention room is dangerously overcrowded so you'll be spending your time in the cafeteria. Student: Oxygen running out... Principal Skinner: Yes, you should have thought of that before you made that paper airplane.

• • Aside from that example, The Simpsons provides another example that sort of toys with this. In "Lost Our Lisa", Lisa can't go to the Isis Exhibit because Marge has to take Bart to the hospital to get the novelty items he glued to his face removed, leading to this exchange:

Lisa: Oh! It's the last day of the Isis exhibit! Bart: Well, you should have thought of that BEFORE I glued all this stuff to my face!

• • In "Mobile Homer", the movie Marge watches features dialog of this.

Man: I'm afraid your husband had no life insurance. Woman: But what will I do?! Man: You should've thought of that before you married a dead man!

• Shout-Out: Listing all the examples would fill a book, but notably the creators have said that they have parodied Citizen Kane so many times that one could recreate the entire movie just from The Simpsons clips. They have also said the same about the first two The Godfather movies.
  • A recent shout out to Family Guy (the not-quite-dead ostrich) is notable because the two shows tend to ignore each other.{{
  • Cheers has been explicitly given a Shout-Out a few times. One obvious nod is when Homer was looking for a new bar, and found Cheers, with suspiciously named characters "Sam-like character", "Woody-like character", and so on. In Flaming Moe's, a Diane Expy works at Moe's. She leaves, causing Moe to comment, "She left to pursue a movie career. Frankly, I think she was better off here."
  • The series has at least twice alluded to the movie Speed. In one episode, Homer used the video loop trick to skip work. When he told Lenny and Carl where he got the idea from and described the movie, he couldn't remember its name and called it "The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down". In another one, Bart and Lisa Missed the Bus and Marge tried to catch up with it but Otto thought Marge wanted to race him. Milhouse said it looked like Speed 2 except that it had a bus instead of a boat.
• Show Within a Show: The Itchy and Scratchy Show.
  • The Krusty The Klown Show, which usually airs Itchy and Scratchy, as well.
• Shrunken Organ: Mr. Burns' heart has been shown as a shriveled black lump that beats every now and again. Additionally, after crawling out from beneath a landslide, Mr. Burns tilted his head and banged his ear in hope of clearing out the gravel from his other ear. The gravel came flying out that ear, along with his walnut-sized brain.
• "Shut Up" Kiss: Nelson gives one of these to Lisa in "Lisa's Date With Density" when she won't stop talking. However, after a couple seconds, Nelson begins to enjoy the kiss.
• Sick Episode: None of these occupy the entire episode, but: Homer gets food poisoning in "Selma's Choice". Lisa gets the mumps in "Bart's Dog Gets an F". Everybody except Lisa gets queasy from eating organic foods in "A Star is Torn". Lisa gets a cold in "Lisa Gets an A".
• Sickly Green Glow: Anything radioactive.
• Significant Birth Date: On season 10's "Viva Ned Flanders," Homer casually mentions that Barney's birthday is the same as Hitler's [April 20] (in syndicated reruns and on the season 10 DVD version, the date was changed to July 15th, and the celebrity whom Homer knows has that birthday is Lassie the dog).
  • Word of God says Bart's birthday is April 1st.
• Silence, You Fool: One example near the end of the second act from the episode 'Bart sells his Soul':

Homer: Bart, you didn't finish your spaghetti and Moe balls! Homer's brain: Silence, you fool. It can be ours! Homer: [eating] Run, boy! Run! Run for your life, boy!

• • Also, Bart says one to Lisa after she teases him about Laura and Bart in the episode 'The New Kid on the Block':

Bart: Maybe Laura could watch us. Lisa: Oh, I get it. [seductively] Bart, the babysitter's here. Let me tuck you in. [making smacking noises] Bart: Silence!

• • Again in 'Skinner's Sense of Snow':

Skinner: All right, that's it. I'm writing all your names on the detention list in my mind. Bart: Silence, Seymour. We're in charge now.

• • And again in 'Girly Edition'

Lisa: Bart, get out of my anchorchair. Bart: Silence, Octopussy.

• • And again in 'Lisa the Skeptic' but from the so-called angel when it's revealed that it's not an apocalypse but instead turns out to be an opening for the Heavenly Hills shopping mall in Springfield:

Lisa: Well, there you go. I hope you all learned a valuable-- Angel: Silence! Prepare for the end... the end of high prices! Behold, the grand opening of the Heavenly Hills Mall.

• • Also one from Mr. Burns in 'Homer's Enemy', as well, when criticizing Frank Grimes in his office.
  • From "Sunday, Bloody Sunday":

Wally: Well, I'm convinced. Tell you what, Mr. Murdoch. Let's just split the difference. The boys and I will just crouch here quietly, and take it easy on the snacks ... Murdoch: Silence! [he throws something on the ground, and two puffs of smoke appear, revealing three policemen] Seize them!

• • • The trope also appears in the Gracie Films logo sequence in this episode, as well.
  • From "New Kids on the Bleech"

Skinner: Are you adequately prepared to rock? [The audience cheers wildly] Skinner: SILENCE!

• • This trope also appeared in a few Treehouse of Horror episodes: TOH VII segment, "Citizen Kang", has Kang (or is it Kodos?) say this trope, TOH VIII segment, "The H Ωmega Man", has Mutant Sideshow Mel saying this trope (subverted in that Mel quickly follows with: "...You're talking too loud."), TOH X has Maggie(in a different voice) say this to Lisa in the episode's couch gag, and near the end of the TOH XI first segment, "G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad", has the devil say "Silence, Sinner!" to ghost Homer.
• The Silent Bob: Maggie
• Silent Offer: In "Bart Gets Hit By a Car", Homer sues Burns for hitting Bart while in a car. After Burns destroys Homer's credibility in the eyes of the jury, he offers to settle with Homer.

Burns: I'm going to write a figure on this piece of paper. It's not quite as large as the last one, but I think you'll find it fair. [Burns draws a giant zero] Hutz: I think we should take it.

• Silent Snarker: Again, Maggie
• Similar Squad: It's been used several times: a nice version of the family, a cooler version of Bart and Lisa, the inbred version of Springfield in Shelbyville.
• Simple Country Lawyer:
  • When Homer addresses the church congregation about Ned's age in "Viva Ned Flanders", Homer admits he's not a "fancy big city lawyer", to which the congregation gasps.
  • When ranting against the recent area code changes in "A Tale of Two Springfields," Homer takes on the mannerisms of and sticks his thumbs under dynamite straps, as though they were suspenders, like a country lawyer.
  • The lawyer from "The Monkey Suit" falls into this trope as well.

Lawyer: As the chick said to her mama, "I hope I don't cluck up!" (audience says "Awwwww")

• Simultaneous Arcs: "Trilogy of Error".
• Sitcom Arch Nemesis: Homer has Ned Flanders, and Bart has Sideshow Bob (and for some reason, Dr. Demento).
  • Maggie has Gerald, the baby with the uni-brow.
• Shamed by a Mob: Burn in "Who Shot Mr. Burns, Part 1".
• Skinny Dipping: In "500 Keys", Homer remembers going skinny dipping with Duff Man. This might be how he ended up with the key to the Duff brewery.
• Skyward Scream: McBain, during one of his movies, after his partner is fatally shot:

McBain: MENDOZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

• • An example from "Bart Gets Famous", after Homer thinks Bart turned into a box:

Homer: DAMN YOU! A BOX!!!

• • And another when Bart and his elephant are missing. Homer had made a deal to sell the elephant, prompting:

Homer: He took Bart too? That wasn't part of the deal blackheart! THAT WASN'T PARRRRT!

• Slap Yourself Awake: Bart smacks himself to stay awake studying in the episode where he actually buckles down and tries to get a passing grade.
• Slow-Loading Internet Image: Comic Book Guy is seen downloading a nude image of Captain Janeway. Just as it gets revealing, a popup for Homer's internet service appears, leading Comic Book Guy to remark "Hmm... the Internet King. Perhaps he can provide faster nudity."
• Small Name, Big Ego: The town of Springfield itself. Listing everything with "Springfield" in the name would be a fruitless endeavor. Hell, they even have the Hollywood sign-style "SPRINGFIELD" spelled out on the mountainside!
• Small Town Rivalry: Between Springfield and Shelbyville.
• Smart People Know Latin: To cover going on a road trip, Bart tells his family he's going to the National Grammar Rodeo.

Lisa: I'm the best student in school, how come I never heard about this competition? Bart: Maybe because you are, as we say in Latin, a "dorkus malorkus." Lisa: That's not Latin. Mom, Bart's faking it. Marge: Lisa, you've had your glory. Now it's Bart's turn.

• Smart People Wear Glasses: Homer finds glasses in one episode and immediately starts acting smart, even though the math he starts reciting is nonsense.
  • His screw-up itself was a Shout-Out to The Wizard of Oz, where the Scarecrow makes the same mistake (uncorrected).
• Smelly Skunk: Homer's sprayed by some skunks after his panda rape in "Homer vs. Dignity".
  • "Sleeping With The Enemy": In revenge for teasing her, Lisa gets Nelson to play a prank on Terri and Sherri by giving them a present with a skunk inside which sprays them both.
  • Also used in "Ten Minutes Over Tokyo" when Marge gets a question wrong on a Japanese game show.
• Smoking Hot Sex: Season 15 episode, "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", has this trope in one scene with Artie Ziff and Selma after they had quick sex with Selma smoking.
  • "Regarding Margie": Happens near the end of the second act with Skinner and Edna seen with their ragged clothes on after sex and Edna smoking a cigarette afterwards.

Skinner: You know, I think about you all the time. Edna: Birthday's over, Seymour.

• Smug Snake: Mr. Burns sometimes takes this trope to ridiculous extremes. For example, one episode involved a plan on Burns' part to block sunlight from reaching Springfield, and a town hall meeting was held about it. During the meeting, the town was being shown what Burns' oil drilling operation did to Bart's pet dog, who was shown needing to use wheels just to walk down the hallway. Burns walks in at EXACTLY this moment, and, with a big smirk on his face, says this:

Burns: Oh those wheels are squeaking a bit. Perhaps I could sell him a little oil.

• Snub By Omission: have done this to Homer twice, with the Employee of the Week awards (which he loses to an inanimate carbon rod), as well as the Town Pride Awards (which everyone gets but him).
• Soapbox Sadie: Lisa.
• Soap Within a Show: "Search For the Sun", which was featured in numerous episodes.
  • Also "It Never Ends."
• Sock It to Them: When Homer and his buddies become a vigilante force because the police can't catch the Classy Cat Burglar stalking the neighborhood, Jimbo joins. He's told that his Weapon of Choice should be sack full of door knobs. A news anchor interviewing Homer later mentions that beatings with such a weapon have skyrocketted.
• Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass: Referenced in Marge's monologue at the end of "Marge vs. the Monorail".

And that was the only folly the people of Springfield ever embarked upon. Except for the Popsicle stick skyscraper. And the 50-foot magnifying glass. [the sun focused through the magnifying glass sets the Popsicle stick skyscraper on fire] And that escalator to nowhere.

• Soldiers At the Rear: In "Simpson Tide", Homer joined the US Naval Reserve expecting it to be like this. It doesn't quite go according to plan.
• Solemn Ending Theme: "Mother Simpson".
• Something Completely Different: "22 Short Films About Springfield".
• Sorry, Ociffer...: Homer and Barney get stopped by Chief Wiggum because he thinks they're both drunk (he's right). Then he asks Homer to dance and he does pretty well...Until Barney asks Wiggum to use the Breathalyzer.
• Sorry to Interrupt: Played with in "The Great Money Caper":

Marge: (enters the kitchen) Why are you frosting that old throw pillow? Homer: I could ask you the very same question! Marge: Uh... should I just back out of the room? Homer: Would you? (Marge leaves)

• Sound Effect Bleep: Done in "Guess Who's Coming to Criticize Dinner?" when Homer is driving and swearing at other drivers. Even worse, there are impressionable kids with him. Worse still, he's swearing at an ambulance.
  • Also present in other episodes like "Flaming Moe's" (on a TV program Homer was watching), "Homer and Apu" (in one of the scenes with James Woods), and "Treehouse of Horror IX" (the fact that one of the shorts features The Jerry Springer Show says it all).
• Special Guest: The show holds the Guinness World Record for Most Guest Stars Featured in a TV Series. They even got Tony Blair (when he was still Prime Minister) and Reclusive Artist Thomas Pynchon, which was the only time his voice has been broadcast in the media.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Frequently in the subtitles -- "Crusty the Clown" instead of "Krusty the Klown", "Mo" instead of "Moe", and most egregiously, "Crabapple" instead of "Krabappel". Obviously the subtitlers Did Not Do the Research.
• Sphere Eyes: A majority of characters.
• Spin-Off: Of The Tracey Ullman Show. And the whole concept is spoofed in the episode "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase".
• Spin the Bottle: The beginning of "The Way We Weren't" has Bart, Milhouse, Terri and Sherri (along with their cousin who has a crush on Bart) play this game in Bart's Treehouse. Milhouse spins the bottle and stops at Terri/Sherri's cousin. When Milhouse attempts to kiss her, he accidentally kisses Homer instead when he climbed Bart's Treehouse.
  • In "Colonel Homer", after being locked in the room with Lurleen Lumpkin and being kissed by her, flashbacks of Homer's kissing attempts is seen, when in his childhood, he is seen playing this game only to get slapped by the girl who the bottle is stopped at.
• Spinning Paper: Used all the time. One time, this was lampshaded with the headline: "Spinning newspaper injures printer."
• Spit Take:
  • In "Lisa's Date With Density", Milhouse interrupts Lisa's confession on her crush on Nelson by taking a suave drink of milk. When she finishes, he spits it back into his straw, causing the carton to explode.
  • Invoked Trope by Homer in "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes" when he sees the price of a top-of-the-budget computer and reacts by grabbing a cup of coffee, drinking it, and spitting it out.
• The Sponsor: In the Season 4 episode "Marge in Chains", Lionel Hutz calls upon David Crosby when he's tempted by "...that bottle of delicious bourbon. Brownest of the brown liquors..."
• Spoof Aesop: The end of "Blood Feud" has the family debating on what the moral of the story is, and eventually giving up by saying it was just a bunch of stuff that happened.
  • "Tennis the Menace" has one delivered by Homer, after all four have been replaced by professional tennis players on the court: "It's better to watch stuff than to do stuff."
• Stab the Salad: Several times, memorably in Sideshow Bob's first escape, Homer kept scaring Bart by wielding large deadly implements for innocent things.
• Stalker Without a Crush: The Old Man And Lisa has Burns going broke because of his Yes-Man underlings, and feeling convinced that hiring Lisa would get him back on track what with her integrity. However, Lisa refuses to work for him, because she is convinced he does not deserve to be helped. Burns, in turn, follows her around in a very stalkerish manner, begging that she take the job.
• Start My Own: Bart starts his own casino after getting kicked out of Burns's casino in "$pringfield", putting Squeaky Voiced Teen in his place.
• Status Quo Is God: Played straight most of the time, occasionally subverted.
  • Got a big Lampshade Hanging in "Pygmoelian", where Moe's face is crushed by a falling backdrop, undoing the Magic Plastic Surgery that made him handsome and reverting him to normal. The last scene has Moe asking why he got his old face back instead of being deformed; the episode ends before he can say "It makes no sense."
  • From "Bart vs Lisa vs the Third Grade"

Skinner: Well, if this episode has taught us anything, it's that nothing works better than the status quo. Bart, you're promoted back to the fourth grade. Bart: Yay! Skinner: And Lisa, you have a choice. You may continue to be challenged in third grade or return to second grade and be merely a big fish in a small pond. Lisa: Big fish! Big fish! Homer: [satisfied] The status quo.

• • "The Principal and the Pauper", anyone? The episode ends with the town agreeing that they should ignore the new real Seymour Skinner and stick with the fake one that they've known for years, including his own mother.
  • We now have a worse with "Donnie Fatso" After killing Fat Tony off his cousin Fit Tony takes over, puts on weight, and becomes known as Fit Fat Tony, or Fat Tony for short.
  • A similar (more minor) case with the death of Snowball II. Lisa finds replacement cats and eventually came upon an identical cat who she calls her "Snowball II" rather than "Snowball V" (to save money on a new dish). Lampshaded when Principal Skinner overhears this and Lisa replies with his real name mentioned above.
  • The Season 22 episode "The Blue and the Gray". Marge stops dying her hair and lets it revert to a natural gray color. This causes an uproar throughout the family and the town residents, and makes Marge the subject of many stereotypes about seniors. As it turns out, her sisters, Patty and Selma, have been dyeing their hair too. At the end, Marge goes back to blue, and everyone except Homer, in an interesting blue twist, he dyes what's left of his hair blue laughs it off and life in Springfield goes on as normal.
• Stealth Pun: Any title with "Annoyed Grunt" in the title.
  • The captain's name in "Simpson Tide" is Tenille.
• Sting: Used many, many times in the show by composer Alf Clausen.
• Stock Footage: "Another Simpsons Clip Show" not only is a Clip Show, but also re-uses old animation in new contexts and with new dialog. Only a few short scenes were animated specifically for this episode.
  • Aside from that, the earlier seasons had a few scenes reused. For instance, footage of Homer comforting a concerned Marge from the end of "Lisa's Substitute" was later reused in "Bart the Murderer". And "Marge on the Lam" has a brief scene of Bart saying "We don't need a babysitter." that is clearly from season 2. A list of reused animation can be found here.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Homer and his two kidnappers in "Blame It On Lisa".

Homer: Listen, um... I made a little scrapbook to remember the kidnapping. I'm still working on it but, uh, as you can see I've-- Aw, look, this is that cigarette butt you burned me with. Kidnapper One: You slept like a baby that night. [Everyone shares a laugh] Homer: Haha, I remember that, yeah. Marge: [arriving to deliver ransom money] Homer, why are you laughing? Kidnapper Two: He has the Stockholm Syndrome. He has come to identify with his captors. Homer: [excitedly] They let me stay up alllll night!

• Stock Lateral Thinking Puzzle: From "The Simpsons 138th Spectacular":

Announcer: Which popular Simpsons characters have died in the past year? If you guessed Bleeding Gums Murphy and Dr. Marvin Monroe, you are wrong. They were never popular.

• Stock Ninja Weaponry: The Comic Book Guy tries to win back his clients by offering them "Ninja Weapons" to buy. We get glimpses of katana, kusarigama and shuriken among other things.
• Stock Scream: In "Million Dollar Maybe", there's a video game on the fictitious Funtendo Zii console where every enemy kill would result in the Wilhelm Scream.
• Stopped Caring: Reverend Lovejoy at his worst.
• Invisible to Gaydar: Waylon Smithers.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: In the episode where Homer gets a new assistant who turns on him and takes his job, he uses a secret Flanders told him to turn the tables. When asked where he learnt the secret, he declines to say, but states the initials are S.F. She immediately recognizes this as Stupid Flanders.
• Straw Fan: Comic Book Guy.
• Strawman Political: On both sides, though Republicans get the brunt of it.
  • The shift in this is generally cited as one of the indicators of the show's Seasonal Rot, even by those who generally share the show's political alignment. While formerly hitting both sides (and just hitting Republicans slightly harder), the show has shifted towards a much shallower, more "They're poopy-heads!" style of strawmanning the right wing, much like Family Guy. Any swings at Democrats these days are kitten paw bats at best, and generally entirely absent; Mayor Quimby, once a mockery of the wishy-washiness and corruption of the Democrat party (and the Kennedy family especially) is now a third party independent so he won't make Democrats look bad.
  • The tone of these characters has also drastically changed. Characters like Rich Texan were once more parodies of peoples' perception of such characters than anything else... there was a silliness and lack of seriousness in how the character was portrayed. Now most of these characters are used to express how much the writers hate the people they represent, like some sort of animated voodoo doll.
• Straw Vegetarian: Lisa tries to convince everyone not to eat meat at Homer's barbeque and eventually throws away the roasted pig. At the end of that episode, Lisa learns from Paul and Linda McCartney not to be judgemental about non-vegetarians, after which she mostly settles down — but it doesn't stop her occasionally lapsing into aggression in later episodes, mostly as jokes.
  • Even the original example has the writers pretty firmly on Lisa's side... she's unable to admit that she's wrong without also declaring Homer to have been equally wrong (and Homer's wrongness winds up focused on more).
• Stripper Cop Confusion: Chief Wiggum, but he goes along with the assumption for the money.
• Stuck on a Ski Lift: This happens to Homer. He tries to get off but ends up hanging upside down. ("Come on, gravity! You used to be cool!")
• Stuffed Into a Trashcan: Bart in "Bart the General"; Milhouse and Homer in "24 Minutes" (though in the latter's case, it's actually a dumpster).
• Stupid Crooks: In "Dumbbell Indemnity", Moe spends so much money on things for his new girlfriend that he decides to come up with a plan with Homer to steal his car, have it destroyed, and collect the insurance money. Homer steals Moe's car and is supposed to leave it on the train tracks, but he gets sidetracked by a showing at a drive-in theater for a movie about a monkey who is president. Having missed the train, Homer decides to drive the car off a cliff in plain view of everyone, including the police, which gets himself arrested.

Moe: Homer, you moron. Homer: Homer, you genius!

• Subverted Trope: The show subverted most of these tropes at one point or another.
• Suck E. Cheese's: Wall E. Weasel's.
• Sucky School: Springfield Elementary.
• Sudden Anatomy: When a sub-plot hinges on Homer not remembering Marge's eye color, a Simpsons character is drawn with irises for the first time.
• Sudden School Uniform
• Summer Campy: "Kamp Krusty".
• Super Bowl Special: In the 2010 Super Bowl, there's the Coca-Cola commercial featuring Mr. Burns losing his money, followed by Apu giving him a Coke.
• Super Fun Happy Thing of Doom

Homer: Ooh! Super Fun Happy Slide!

• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Separate Vocations" used a sound-alike to "Axel F Theme" from Beverly Hills Cop.
  • Sideshow Bob's theme is a sound-alike to the theme in Cape Fear.
  • "Itchy & Scratchy Meets Fritz the Cat" (seen in "The Day the Violence Died") used a musical cue that's very similar to one heard in Earth, Wind & Fire's "Shining Star".
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Behind the Laughter", after Lisa reveals that Homer gave her anti-growth hormones:

Homer: That's ridiculous. How could I even get all five necessary drops into her cereal? (Beat) What?

• Sustained Misunderstanding: From "Marge vs. The Monorail":

Marge: Homer, there's someone here who can help you! Homer: Is it Batman? Marge: No, he's a scientist. Homer: Batman's a scientist. Marge: It's not Batman!

• • In "Bart After Dark":

Marge: I'm here to share my moral outrage. But this time it's not about that giant inflatable "Dos Equis" bottle. It's about a certain house in our town. Moe: Yeah, well what's wrong with this house? Is it the plumbing? Marge: No. It's a house of ill fame. A house of loose ethics. Kent Brockman: Is there a building code violation? A drainage issue? A surveying error? Marge: (annoyed) The house is perfectly fine! Chief Wiggum: Well, then quite bad-mouthing the house! Otto: Yeah, leave the house alone!

• • From "Much Apu About Nothing":

Lisa: You know, in a way, all Americans are immigrants. Except, of course Native Americans. Homer: Yeah, Native Americans like us. Lisa: No, I mean American Indians. Apu: Like me. Lisa: No, I mean...

• The Swear Jar: Homer having to deal with one of these whilst he's building a doghouse for Santa's Little Helper. He ends up shouting things like "Fiddle-dee-dee!" after stepping on rusty nails, and puts enough money into the jar to enable the purchase of a rather large and cosy doghouse — which is good, since the one Homer built sucked.

T

• The Tag: Seen in some of the newer episodes.
• Tag-Along Actor:
  • In one episode, James Woods researches the job of a Kwik-E-Mart employee as a reference to The Hard Way.
  • Another episode had Mr. Burns hire Michael Caine to impersonate Homer in order to convince Bart that he (Homer) didn't love him (Bart) any more. Later in the episode Homer mentions that Caine had followed him around trying to get a handle on his character.
• Take That: Several different targets, frequently for unknown reasons. For example, Arby's must have pissed some of the writers off really good, being the recipient of at least 4 cheap shots.
  • Even Christianity gets a big-time Take That in the form of a apparent reference to it in "Don't Have A Cow, Mankind"

Marge: We have the chosen one! Soldier: Welcome, son! To survive, all we must do is eat your flesh. Marge: Hold it right there, bub! What kind of civilized people eat the body and blood of their saviour? Cue Reverend Lovejoy looking visibly awkward.

• • The Amendment to Be cartoon details how if the amendment does not get through they'll sue Ted Kennedy, and claim he's gay if he fights back. This sounds suspiciously (as is, it is) the grubby tactics used by Senator Joe Mccarthy.
• Take That, Audience!: "Bye Bye Nerdie" ends this way.
• Taking the Bullet: Apu takes a bullet for James Woods in "Homer and Apu".
  • In a parody of the trope, Homer jumps in front of Bart to get hit with the baptismal water in "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily."
  • Homer also practices taking a bullet while in bodyguard training in "Mayored to the Mob".
• Taking You with Me: In "Deep Space Homer", one of the astronauts says that if he dies, he's taking Homer to hell with him.
• Tar and Feathers: Happens to Homer in "At Long Last Leave".
  • Also to Grandpa in "Bart of Darkness".

Grandpa: [appearing in doorway] Gonna be in the tub for a while.

• The Talk: In the episode, "All's Fair in Oven War", Homer gives one to Bart, traumatizing him and the rest of the springfieldian children when it spreads like a virus.
• Talking to Himself: Half the cast is voiced by the same three or four people.
• Talking with Signs: Seen in "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" (part of Treehouse of Horror VI"): After seeing Groundskeeper Willie (playing the role of Freddy Kruger) for the first time, Bart holds up a sign that reads: "Eep."
• The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Subverted in "I'm Goin' to Praiseland": While on a rollercoaster ride, the coaster stops and a King David animatronic asks the kids in the coaster who disturbs King David. Nobody responds and a couple seconds later, King David says, "...Silence!"
  • The foundation repair instructional video from "Marge Gets a Job":

Troy McClure: Now, do you have extruded poly-vinyl foam insulation? Homer: No. Troy McClure: Good.

• The Team Wannabe
• Teenage Wasteland: "Das Bus", which was a parody of Lord of the Flies.
• Telegraph Gag STOP: In "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacey":

Western Union X) SPR CGN PO=SPRINGFIELD 1 935= OCT 11 PM 6 Mr. Simpson STOP Your constant letters are becoming a nuisance STOP If you do not cease I will be forced to pursue legal action STOP Boris Karloff Hollywood CALF.

• Telephone Exchange Names: The Simpsons' phone number "KLondike 5-3226", which appears in a Phone Number Jingle in the episode "Mr. Plow" where Homer becomes a snow-plow operator.
• Telethon: The set-up to "Missionary: Impossible"

Rupert Murdock: You just saved my network! Bart: Wouldn't be the first time!

• Temporary Blindness: Marge gets this in "Gone Maggie Gone" after looking at the sun during a solar eclipse and burning her retinas.
• Tempting Fate: From "Homer at the Bat":

Mr. Burns: There's no way I can lose this bet. Unless, of course, my nine all-stars fall victim to nine separate misfortunes and are unable to play tomorrow. But that will never happen. Three misfortunes, that's possible. Seven misfortunes, there's an outside chance. But nine misfortunes? I'd like to see that!

• • He didn't get nine, just eight.
• Thanatos Gambit: Homer spreads his mother's ashes, sabotaging Mr. Burns's missile launch.
  • Also, there's Sideshow Bob's fake funeral, a ploy to kill Bart when he's saying goodbye to his old nemesis.
• That Didn't Happen: From "Bart the Mother":

Homer: (watching Bart's bird eggs hatch) Oh man, this is the most exciting thing I've ever seen since Halley's Comet collided with the moon. Lisa: That never happened, Dad. Homer: Sure it didn't...

• That Liar Lies: "You're lying! You're lying! What makes you lie?"
  • "You liar! You don't have a home business. Why would you make up a lie like that?"
• Theme Naming: Most of the last names of Simpsons side characters come from street names in Portland, Oregon (Matt Groening's hometown), such as Flanders, Quimby, and Terwilliger.
• There Are No Rules: In "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", the rules at Rock n' Roll Fantasy Camp are: "Rule #1: There are no rules. Rule #2: No outside food."
• Thermometer Gag: In "Marge Gets A Job"

Grandpa Simpson: "Oral thermometer, my eye! Think warm thoughts, boy, 'cause this is mighty cold."

• Thick Line Animation: Homer's flashback to the previous night in "The War of The Simpsons".
• Thing-O-Meter: Many times—Sarcasm-O-Meter, Monster-O-Meter, Love-O-Meter
• Thirteen Is Unlucky: The Treehouse Of Horror story "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace" starts "on the thirteenth hour of the thirteenth day of the thirteen month" with a meeting to discuss the misprinted calendars bought by the town.

Homer: Lousy Smarch weather!

• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch: Of all people, Mr. Burns before dueling Rich Texan in a scavenger hunt.
  • Another episode the family is touring a stamp museum when they come to a talking stamp of Alexander Graham Bell saying he's the inventor of the telephone. Next to him is a talking stamp of Elisha Gray who claims it was stolen from him, to which Bell replies "Read the patent, bitch!"
• This Just In: In "The Joy of Sect", Kent Brockman is negatively editorializing about The Movementarians, but is soon handed some papers from off-screen.

Kent Brockman: Ladies and gentlemen, I've just learned of a change in the station's management. Welcome, Movementarians! Continue to improve our lives! I love you, perfect Leader.. and new CEO of KBBL broadcasting!

• This Loser Is You: Homer and to a much greater extent, Frank Grimes.
• Three Shorts: Besides the annual Treehouse of Horror episodes, the following taken on the three shorts format:
  • Simpsons Bible Stories
  • Trilogy of Error (though this one is debatable, as all three stories are interconnected at points)
  • Tales From the Public Domain
  • Margical History Tour
  • Simpsons Christmas Stories
  • The Wettest Stories Ever Told
  • Revenge is a Dish Best Served Three Times
  • Love, Springfieldian Style
  • Four Great Women and a Manicure (this one is actually four stories, due to the new commercial formatting for season 20 and beyond. This aspect is also lampshaded)
• Through a Face Full of Fur: He has no fur on his face technically, but in "Mobile Homer", Homer's face turns blue from a lack of oxygen when a garage door repeatedly lifts up and down on him while he's lain in the garage's doorway, crushing his windpipe (or chest), caused by a book he tries throwing at a spider hits the garage door button instead.
  • In "Bart On The Road", Homer's face turns red frontally for a moment, after learning from Lisa of Bart and his friends' trip to the World's Fair, before angrily yelling some muffled obscenities while wearing a nuclear plant suit's helmet.
  • In "Stop or My Dog Will Shoot", Bart gets a python he names Strangles for a pet in place of Santa's Little Helper and Homer's whole head turns red, when Strangles wraps his coils around his neck, after Homer does the strangling routine with Bart.
  • In a Simpsons short from The Tracey Ullman Show ("Bath Time"), Bart is turned blue entirely and is shivering from the cold water with which Homer runs, and fills the bathtub. Bart regresses to his normal color when he mixes the hot water with the cold.
  • In "Home Sweet Home Diddily-Dum-Doodily", Rod and Todd turn pale in horror at the violence in an Itchy and Scratchy short they just watched with Ned, Bart and Lisa.
  • In "Selma's Choice", Lisa is pale from hypothermia after swimming in the beery river at Duff Gardens.
  • In the couch gag of "Bart Stops To Smell The Roosevelts", a John Kricfalusi/Spumco-esque Homer turns red when he thinks he broke wind, but Bart, who along with other members of the nuclear family were redesigned by John K. and Spumco here, placed a whoopee cushion in his spot on the couch on which he sits. Typically, Bart laughs at the prank and Homer gets ticked off, strangling Bart and as he does this, Bart's face gradually turns blue.
  • In one episode, Krusty's face turns blue when a remote-controlled gag bow tie spins rapidly and uncontrollably, choking off the air supply from his lungs to his windpipe while in the middle of hosting his show.
  • In "Lisa's Substitute", Martin Prince is later seen pale from the pressure and stress of running against Bart in the classroom presidential campaign.
  • In "The Ten Per-Cent Solution", Homer gets green-faced when he lies on the floor, acting as a bloated corpse.
• Throwing Out the Script: Homer rips up his notes, then realizes he can't think of anything to say and tries to put them back together again.
• Throw It In: A number of times, various cast members have ad-libbed lines during recordings. Perhaps the most well-known example is Homer's "I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T! I mean, S-M-A-R-T!" Dan Castellaneta misspelled by accident, but went with it because Homer is stupid.
• Ticker Tape Parade: In "Deep Space Homer", the carbon rod credited with saving the space shuttle from burning up in Earth's atmosphere gets a tickertape parade in its honor.
  • In "The Twisted World of Marge Simpson", Marge stages a tickertape parade to avoid littering laws when she throws flyers for her pretzel business off the buildings.

Chief Wiggum: Welcome back, space girl. (sniffs)

• Time for Plan B: In "Trash of the Titans", Springfield's contingency plan, aka "Plan B", is to move the entire town five miles down the road.
• Tired of Running: Homer, in "Beyond Blunderdome", eventually grows tired of running away from the studio execs who want to stop he and Mel Gibson from screening the alternate ending version of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", and decides to fight back instead.
• Title: the Adaptation
• Title Drop: Parodied in "Thank God It's Doomsday" during the fictional movie "Left Below":

Man: The virtuous have gone to heaven, and the rest of us have been... left below.

• • Also parodied in "Take My Wife, Sleaze" while Homer watches a movie which closely resembles a real one:

Mother: Oh, I don't know what's the matter with Jimmy. He won't do his homework, he only salutes the flag with one finger, and he comes home every night with other peoples' blood on his shirt. Father: He's a rebel, I tell you, a rebel without a cause... just like that boy in that popular movie we saw.

• Title Montage: "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" features a montage of couch gags from previous episodes as part of its opening sequence.
• Toad Licking: Homer in episode "Missionary: Impossible" is depicted at one point lying on a hammock and picking up toads at random and licking them to get high while stranded on a South Pacific island.

Bart: Dad, are you licking toads? Homer: I'm not not licking toads!

• Tomato Surprise: Referenced in Homer's poem:

There once was a rapping tomato That's right, I said "rapping tomato" He rapped all day, from April to May And also, guess what, it was me.

• Tongue on the Flagpole: One of the winter hazards faced by Lewis and Clarke (a.k.a. Lenny and Karl) in "Magical History Tour".
  • And Homer gets his tongue stuck to the ice sculpture at Otto's wedding.
  • And in "The Springfield Files", Channel 6 News uses a file photo of Homer that shows him with his tongue stuck to a lamppost.
  • In "My Fair Laddy, Bart stores Lisa's saxophone in the freezer and then hands it to her. Her tongue gets stuck when she attempts to blow it
• Tontine: In "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish", it's revealed that Abe Simpson and Mister Burns served together during World War II, and their squad (the Flying Hellfish) acquired a set of priceless German paintings, with the agreement that the last member of the Hellfish to die would get them. It ends when government officials and the descendant of the person they stole the paintings from arrive and reclaim them for the German. The descendent is not too worried about their safety, either.
• Too Many Babies: Apu and Manjula.
• Too Much Information: After Lisa is promoted to third grade in "Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade", Bart blurts out:

Bart: She's not so great! She got diarrhea when we went to Carlsbad Caverns!

• Too Quirky to Lose: Bart entered a school science fair with an entry called "Can Hamsters Fly Airplanes?" Even though his "experiment" clearly did not prove or disprove any hypothesis, Principal Skinner was so charmed by the sight of a hamster wearing flight goggles and a scarf and sitting in a model airplane that he pronounced Bart the winner.
• Too Smart for Strangers: Poor Ralph Wiggum... He just doesn't get the point of these.
• Torches and Pitchforks: Quite often. The citizens of Springfield love rioting.
  • Most notably in The Movie in which Loads And Loads Of Bit Players are featured in such a scene.
  • Lampshaded by Skinner, of all people

Skinner: Ah, there's no justice like Angry Mob Justice.

• Train Station Goodbye: Lampshaded.
• Tranquillizer Dart:
  • Bart has just been "taken" by a monkey at a local zoo, and Homer tries to save him by putting a tranq-dart into a tube and putting it into his mouth. He then inhales, and it gets self-explanatory after that.
  • Subverted in another episode when Barney is shot with a bear tranquilizer dart. He actually pulls out the dart and drinks the remaining sedative before passing out.
• Translation: "Yes": In "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo", Homer's "D'oh!" is much longer in Japanese.
• Travel Montage: Seen in "Dog of Death" when Santa's Little Helper goes off on his own; a map of the locations he travels to is shown while "Peter and The Wolf" plays.
• Tree Buchet: Homer launched a rabbit into the horizon with one of these.
• Tribal Face Paint: Appears in the Lord of the Flies parody episode, naturally.
• Triple Nipple: In "Kamp Krusty", Lisa uses Krusty the Clown's superfluous third nipple to confirm his identity.
• Troll: Milhouse claims to be one in the "Homer the Whopper" episode in which the Comic Book Guy says he posted his comic on the internet and names some accounts that deride it. Bart tells him that they were just "lame-os" and Milhouse says "Two of them were me!"
• Troperiffic: You'd be hard pressed to find a series more troperrific than this.
• True Love Is Boring: Zig-zagged. Despite the amount of separations (and a divorce at one point), Homer and Marge are still together.
• Trope 2000: The Spine-Melter 2000 from "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?"
• Trouser Space: Scorpio's offer of sugar and cream to Homer in "You Only Move Twice".
• T-Word Euphemism: From the episode "Bart Star":

Bart: Give me a "B"? Nelson: I won't give you a "B", but I'll rip you a new "A"!

• Two Rights Make a Wrong: Apu and his wife Manjula end up with octuplets, almost going broke due to the resulting expenses, when every member of the Simpson family independently decides to help along their desire to conceive by secretly slipping them fertility drugs.
• Two Shots From Behind the Bar: Moe keeps a sawed-off shotgun handy in case of cheapskate customers or when he loses his temper, which happens all the time.
• Trying Not to Cry: Marge says she didn't want to cry in "Kamp Krusty" when she and the family have the last meal together before Bart and Lisa go off to summer camp. She immediately starts crying when Homer, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie start hungrily eating.

U

• Undead Author: Groundskeeper Willie's story about the miner's strike.
• Underside Ride: Sideshow Bob does it in "Cape Feare" in a parody of the scene in Cape Fear.
• Unexpected Inheritance: "Selma's Choice"
• Unexplained Recovery: In "Simpsons Bible Stories":

Bart: (to Ralph) I thought you were dead! Ralph: Nope!

• • In "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife", Dr. Marvin Monroe appears at a book signing. When asked where he's been all these years, he replies that he's been very sick. Of course, we've seen his gravestone in previous episodes, but never mind.
• The Unfair Sex: We eventually learn that Abe and Mona weren’t actually officially together when herb was conceived. Mona however did cheat on Abe after they got married. However not only is she never called out when this is discovered, it turns into a Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe plot as the affair happened around the time Homer was conceived. So not only was this most likely done in revenge, but despite not knowing if Homer was his at the time she still held Herbs conception over his head.
• The Unpronounceable: Parodied with Apu's last name (Nahasapeemapetilon) many times.
  • Selma: *Refusing to marry Apu* [My name's] already long enough without Nahasapet-apeet-whatever.
  • Chief Wiggum: Homer Simpson, you are under arrest for the murder of Moe Szyslak and Apu Nahasa... pasa... ah, just Moe. Just Moe.
  • When Apu joins The Be Sharps, their agent tells him that his name will never fit on a marquee, and says "From now on, you're Apu Du Beaumarchaise". Apu replies "It is an insult to my culture and my country, but okay."
  • In the first Treehouse of Horror special, one of the aliens remarks that in order to pronounce his name correctly, he'd have to rip out their tongue.
• Unreadably Fast Text: Done in "The Simpsons 138th Spectacular" when the show pays tribute to everyone who makes The Simpsons possible; a ton of names scroll up the screen for only three seconds at a really fast pace.
  • In "Bart's Comet", Kent Brockman closed his news broadcast by saying, "The following people are gay:", which prompted a ridiculously fast scrolling list.
  • In "Days of Wine and D'oh'ses", a TV ad about the phone book cover contest repeatedly flashes the address for which to send the photos, due to the "Where Is Springfield?" running gag.
  • In "Homer Badman", the TV show "Rock Bottom" admits to making some journalistic mistakes over the years, and a fast list of said mistakes scrolls up the screen.
• Unrobotic Reveal: In the show's parody of Robot Wars, after completely failing to build a battlebot, Homer covers himself in armour plating and enters the arena himself.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Homer, who gets less sympathetic as the show ages.
• Up to Eleven: Krusty quotes this trope for word at the beginning of The Man In Blue Flannel Pants.

V

• Vehicular Sabotage: In order to smoke out a person trying to kill Homer, he is made the King of the Mardi Gras parade. The person trying to kill him as tampered with the brakes of his float so he can't stop.
• Verbal Tic: Ned Flanders adds "diddly" to his words.
  • He even writes it.

Homer: (reading) "Hi-diddly-ho, neighb-" Oh jeez, he actually wrote "diddly"!

• • • ...and a later episode revealed that Flanders' Verbal Tic is the result of suppressing his anger.
• Vertigo Effect: Seen more in the earlier seasons, such as "Principal Charming" (parodying Vertigo), "Bart Gets Hit By a Car" (when the camera zooms in on Marge), "Lisa's Substitute" (when the camera zooms in on Lisa when she's shocked to see Miss Hoover back), and "Treehouse of Horror" (when Lisa first sees the UFO).
• Victim Blaming: Marge did this to Bart in "Jazzy And The Pussycats" when she called him out for not being sad that Lisa had to give up the animals that crippled him. Going so far as to point out that him being better then her is the only reason she did it in the first place.

Marge: Your sister poured her heart into rescuing those animals to forget the pain of being upstaged in jazz, and now...

• Victory by Endurance: Homer has Homer Simpson Syndrome ("ohh, why me!?") where his brain is surrounded by 1/8 inch more cushioning fluid than usual, making him the perfect boxer. He just waits for the other guy to tire himself out punching him, at which point Homer can just push the other guy down for a KO.
• Video Phone: One episode taking place in the future, "Lisa's Wedding," showcased a conversation between Lisa and Marge using a "picture phone." Marge kept forgetting that Lisa could see her over the phone, and her body language made it more obvious to tell when she was lying.
• Video Wills: Used a couple times, once in "Selma's Choice" where Lionel Hutz dubbed over the deceased Bouvier's voice (Hutz told Marge she'd be surprised with the number of times the trick works), and again in "Mona Leaves-a" with Mona:

Mona: If you're watching this right now, I am dead. Or if not, you've gotten into my stuff. But if I'm dead, this is my will. And if I'm not, get out of my stuff.

• • Homer also attempted to film one in "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish":

Homer: Hi, Maggie! I'm speaking to you from beyond the grave. (makes ghostly noises and laughs) Hope that didn't scare you.

• Vignette Episode: Many, most notably the Tree House of Horrors series
• Vinyl Shatters: The episode "The Itchy And Scratchy Movie" has Bart breaking records for kicks.
• Violent Glaswegian: Groundskeeper Willie.
• Vocal Evolution: Dan Castellaneta originally voiced Homer by doing a Walter Matthau impersonation; around the halfway point of season 2, he began to give him new vocal inflections and a larger range. Any similarities to Matthau were essentially abandoned by "Blood Feud".
  • Nelson began with a very high-pitched voice. However, around season 7, Nelson began to have a deeper, scratchier voice.
• The Voiceless: Maggie, with a couple exceptions. In "Lisa's First Word", she utters her first word: "Daddy." In "Treehouse of Horror V", she is voiced by James Earl Jones in one of the alternate universes Homer created: "This is indeed a disturbing universe."
  • Lampshaded in "Lisa's Wedding" when a teenage Maggie keeps trying to talk (or sing), but is either interrupted before she can say anything or has her mouth full of food and is unintelligible.
• Volleying Insults: In "Worst Episode Ever" when Agnes and Comic Book Guy first meet:

Agnes: Out of the way, tubby! Comic Book Guy: Oh pardon me, Oldie Hawn! Agnes: Oh OH! Why you ill-mannered sack of crap! Comic Book Guy: Oh goodie. Now I know whatever happened to Baby Jane. Agnes: You are the rudest man who ever... bought me dinner! Comic Book Guy: Correction; I do not believe I have ever bought you... (realizes) Oh.

W

• Wacky Cravings: In the 'In the Na'Vi' segment of "Treehouse of Horror XXII", Kang reveals that pregnancy is particularly difficult for females of his species as their planet has no pickles and their only ice cream is butterbrickle.
• The Walls Are Closing In: When spoofing The Ten Commandments and the story of Moses, Milhouse and Lisa (as Moses and Aaron) are thrown in a room with spiked walls that close in on them. However, the spikes have all been installed opposite each other, so that the walls stop when the tips touch, leaving plenty of room for them to climb to safety (and for Lisa to remark, "Slave labor. You get what you pay for.").
• Walk On the Wild Side Episode:
  • This happens to Marge on many occasions, ranging from running from the law with her friend after stealing her ex's car, taking part in a monster truck rally and gaining road rage from a Canyonero. Driving seems to be her recurring Berserk Button.
  • In "Separate Vocations", Lisa becomes a delinquent after getting "Homemaker" in an Inept Aptitude Test and being told that she'll never become a professional Jazz musician due to her stubby fingers. This culminates with her committing an expulsion worthy offense (stealing all of the teachers' guides) to which Bart takes the fall, not wanting her to ruin her life.
• Wasn't That Fun?: Said by Bart when the family goes to Itchy and Scratchy Land and survive a rather deadly roller-coaster that ended in the family jumping out of the way of a buzz saw onto mattresses.
  • In "Brother From Another Series", Bart wants to go again after he, Lisa, and Sideshow Bob rode down the drainage pipe.

Bart: Let's go again! Let's go again! Lisa: (still catching her breath) NO!

• Wasteful Wishing: In the monkey's paw segment of "Treehouse of Horror II", Homer uses his wish by asking for a turkey sandwich. He regrets it when he realizes the turkey's a little dry.
  • In "Homer and Apu", Homer wastes his three questions to the C.E.O. of the Kwik-E-Mart by asking three times if the man is really the head of the Kwik-E-Mart.
• Watering Down: In "The Crepes of Wrath", the French winemakers dilute their wine with antifreeze, then test it on Bart.
• We All Live in America: Quite some examples. One example is when the Simpsons visit Ireland, and the local police cars have "POLICE" written all over them instead of "GARDA".
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: Seen many times when something goes wrong during Kent Brockman's or Krusty the Clown's broadcast.
• We Didn't Start the Billy Joel Parodies: "They'll Never Stop the Simpsons", a Jimmy Hart Version at the end of the 2002 "Gump Roast" episode (so far, they seem to be right).
• Welcome to the Big City: When Homer first goes to New York, he's robbed several times and falls into a sewer while being chased by a pimp.
• Welcome to The Real World: Homer goes through a mysterious portal behind the bookcase and ends up doing this at the end of the seventh-season "Treehouse of Horror VI."
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sideshow Bob. For example, the whole reason he framed Krusty was to provide 'Quality Children's Entertainment'. Yes, and because he got shot out of a cannon.
• We Should Get Another Tape: In "Alone Again, Natura-Diddly", Homer films Ned's dating video on a tape featuring Marge giving birth to Maggie.
• What Could Have Been: Parodied in-universe. The Corrupt Corporate Executive of a young-adult book publisher claimed that the original draft of Twilight was Bella falling in love with a Golem.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Parodied in "The PTA Disbands"—the original writer's pitch was, as the title suggests, a story about the Springfield Parent-Teacher Association threatening to disband because of a dispute between the parents and teachers. The episode was rewritten into one about the Springfield Elementary teachers going on strike because of a dispute with Skinner, but a reference to the original storyline was inserted, with a parent seemingly committing suicide by jumping out of a tall building because he thought the PTA had disbanded. Ned Flanders then revealed that the PTA hadn't actually disbanded, and the jumper then climbed back in through the window in relief.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?: Homer aghast at Marge for mixing polyapolane with polyurethane recyclables in "The Old Man and the Lisa".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Colin, from the movie most notably, and Janey Handerson, Lisa's friend who seemed to get pushed aside so the "Lisa has no friends" running plot could happen.
  • The Simpsons is a gold mine of this trope. A lot of the people the Simpsons have met (besides the celebrities) and the things the Simpsons or Springfield have disappeared and are no longer mentioned, or are mentioned later on, but only en passant.
  • A subversion is with Mike Scioscia. He appears in "Homer at the Bat" and suffers from acute radiation poisoning in the end. He appears MUCH later in "MoneyBART", eighteen years later, and when Marge reminds him that he suffered from poisoning, he said "I did. But it ended up giving me super-managerial powers."
  • Lampshaded now and then, such as in "Homerazzi," where Homer complains about celebrities not acknowledging him in any way after their first meeting. (Betty White then approaches him and asks him questions about the family.) Another episode has Homer mention "my seldom-seen half-brother Herb."
  • This trope was essentially why "Mother Simpson" was produced, as the then current writing team couldn't believe that Homer's mother had never been seen outside of a couple flashback cameos.
• What Have I Done: Bart sawing off the Jebadiah Springfield statue head in 'The Tell Tale Head'.
• What's a Henway?: From "The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase":

Marge: I said we were having a special guest tonight: Mr. Tim Conway! Homer: What's a Tim Conway? Tim Conway: Oh, about 120 pounds.

• Wheel of Pain: Homer is forced to work one that turns the wheel of a cupcake display in the cafeteria.
• When I Was Your Age: A perennial favorite of Grandpa Simpson.
• Where Are They Now? Epilogue: The ending of "Bart's Dog Gets an F" features still screen pictures and text of what happened to some of the dogs after obedience school.
• White Dude, Black Dude: Homer watches a black comedian do one of these routines in "Homer and Apu".

Homer: (laughing) It's true, it's true! We're so lame!

• • And tries one himself in "Monty Can't Buy Me Love"

Homer: White people have names like "Lenny", while black people have names like "Carl".

• Who Writes This Crap?: In "Faith Off", Kent Brockman complains about the writing on the teleprompter.

Kent Brockman: Big game fever is reaching a fever pitch as the fevered rivalry between Springfield U. and Springfield A&M spreads like wildfever. This is writing? Intern: Sorry, Kent, I lost my thesaurus. Kent Brockman: (muttering) "Lost your thesaurus." You'll lose more than that. In preparation for the big game, Springfield Stadium has caught additional seating capacity fever.

• • In "Children of a Lesser Clod", Krusty complains about the writing at the award ceremony. It turns out Mr. Teeny is his writer.

Krusty: Now, every year we find one good Samaritan so deserving that not recognizing him would make Santa Claus himself vomit with rage. Ugh, who writes this stuff?!

• Whoa, Bundy!: In one episode Homer, Moe, Apu and Barney Whoa Bundied when deciding upon the name of their barbershop quartet, minus the hand raising/lowering.
• Whole-Episode Flashback: "The Way We Was", "The Way We Weren't", "That '90s Show", "Dangerous Curves", "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", the episodes about the birth of the kids ("I Married Marge", "Lisa's First Word", and "And Maggie Makes Three").
  • Also "Dancin' Homer", which begins with Homer at the bar telling his friends about his short-lived stint as a baseball mascot. There's really no reason for the episode to be told in flashback, but it was done that way because the writers didn't know how to end the episode.
• Whole-Plot Reference: Hamlet, The Departed, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Mary Poppins, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dracula, Lord of the Flies, Sid And Nancy, Lady and the Tramp, Thelma and Louise, Rear Window, A Nightmare on Elm Street, 24, The Shining, My Mother the Car, Batman Begins, King Kong, The Island of Doctor Moreau...
  • This appears the most often in the Halloween episodes.
• Who's Watching the Store?: Seen in "Lisa the Beauty Queen" when both Apu and Sanjay are at the beauty pageant. Marge asks them who's watching the Kwik-E-Mart, and the scene cuts to Jimbo, Dolph, and Kearney stealing the Squishy machine.
• The Wildcats: Parodied in "Bart Star":

Ned: Who are we? Football team: The Wildcats! Ned: Who are we gonna beat? Football team: The Wildcats!

• William Telling: In "The Cartridge Family," after Bart finds the handgun Homer acquired stowed in the freezer, he aims it at Milhouse who sticks an apple in his mouth. Marge manages to find the two just before Bart could pull the trigger.
• Window Watcher: In an early episode of The Simpsons Homer takes the whole family out on a Window Watching escapade in order to demonstrate to them that their family's personal interactions aren't normal.
• With or Without You: Homer gives these occasionally. The follow-through, eh, not so much.
• Working on the Chain Gang: The episode "Kill The Alligator And Run" sees the entire family (yes, even Maggie) sentenced by the State of Florida to forced labor on a chain gang after Homer kills an alligator named "Captain Jack" (the Florida town's most famous resident) and addresses the jury at their trial as "Drunken Hicks."
• The World Mocks Your Loss: After Ned lost his wife he sees couples dancing and having fun at the Jellyfish Festival.

Marge: Poor Ned. This is his first Jellyfish Festival alone. Homer: I know. And it doesn't get any easier from here. There's the Tongue-Kissing Festival, Cinco de Ocho, the Hobo Oscars, days just made for lovers. Not widowers...lovers.

• The Worst Seat in the House: In "The Homer They Fall," Marge's seat for Homer's big boxing match was directly behind a pillar, so she couldn't see anything.
• Worlds Smallest Violin Lenny loses the bow
• Worst Whatever Ever: Comic Book Guy is the Trope Maker.
• Worthless Foreign Degree: Apu works in the Kwik-E-Mart despite being a top-of-the-class computing scientist back in India.
• Wraparound Background: Lampshaded in "The Front" when Roger Meyers Jr. says that a common way to keep costs down on a cartoon is to re-use the same backgrounds over and over again... meanwhile, he, Bart, and Lisa walk by the same background numerous times.
• Write What You Know: "Marge Be Not Proud" was based on a real experience that happened to Mike Scully, the writer of the episode.
• Write Who You Know: The Simpsons are named after Matt Groening's Real Life relatives, except Bart, whose name was chosen as an anagram of "brat". Other characters (such as Flanders) are named for streets near where Matt Groening grew up. Krusty the Klown was based on a real clown called Rusty Nails, who Matt Groening said kind of frightened him as a kid.
  • In-Universe example: Bart based the character in his web cartoon series Angry Dad on Homer Simpson, as well as a sidekick based on Lisa (A bit of an In-Universe Throw It In moment, as he created her so the person she's based on, Lisa Simpson, won't complain about the series' ripping off on Homer). Homer was initially not to happy with it, although after it was revealed that his angry reactions are the only reason he's still alive, he allows Bart to continue with the series, although only under the condition that he only does it semi-based on real experiences.
• Writers Suck: "The Front," "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show," and "Homer to the Max" have a lot of jokes about how awful television writers are (especially the ones who work on cartoons).
  • In "Bart vs. Lisa vs. The Third Grade", Homer laments the wave of reality shows, and blames the writers and actors for pricing themselves right out of the business.
• Writing Around Trademarks: Lampshaded by the Mary Poppins parody, who says she's an original creation like 'Ricky Rouse' and 'Monald Muck'.
  • And of course this bit from one of the Treehouse of Horrors.

Willie: You got the Shinning! Bart: Oh you mean the Shining. Willie: Shh, you wanna get sued?

• Wrong Side of the Tracks: Turns up a bit; in fact, the quality of life in Springfield shifts from white suburbia to abject poverty literally around the division of a single set of train tracks.
• Wrote the Book:
  • In "The Great Money Caper", Homer and Bart walk around Springfield conning people with the help of a book called "A Child's Garden of Cons". Later, Abe joins them in their grifting, saying he wrote the book on flimflamming. Bart verifies.
  • In the Spinoff Showcase's Lovematic Grandpa segment, Moe claims to have written the book on love. Abe responds, "Yeah, 'All Quiet on the Western Front'."

X

• X Called. They Want Their Y Back.: In "Homer the Clown", Krusty gets a call from George Carlin, who is suing him for stealing his "Seven Words You Can't Say on TV" bit. Krusty ends the call by saying, "Well, excuuuse me!"

Receptionist: Steve Martin on four. Krusty: Ten grand.

• X Days Since...
  • In the new opening: Lenny Carl are changing the "days without an accident" one higher, then the Quitting Time Horn goes off and Homer runs out, knocking them over in the process.
  • A prison holds a sign counting the number of days since the last break.
  • A redneck bar has a sign counting the number of days without a tornado. And it's reset between scenes.
  • When Apu takes his citizenship test, the sign outside says something like "130 years without a civil war".
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Krusty's Komedy Klassic, whose initials provided a funny, yet unfortunate implication ("K.K.K? That's not good!") Made worse by the fact that the letters are in white and the TV special itself was set at the Apollo Theater, where Showtime At the Apollo (a variety show featuring black performers) is filmed.

Y

• Yakuza: After Homer hires the Mafia to help Marge's pretzel business, the Investorettes hire the Yakuza to fight back.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In "Moaning Lisa", Bart keeps winning against Homer in a boxing video game. Homer gets lessons from a kid at the video arcade and that night, he uses the tips to wallop Bart in the game, but just before he's about to deliver his finishing blow, Marge unplugs the TV. So Homer didn't technically win the match, and Bart announces his retirement from the game.
• Yawn and Reach: Homer tries to teach it to Abe in "Lady Bouvier's Lover". Skinner does this to Patty in "Principal Charming", but she doesn't like it.

Patty: Don't be stupid.

• Yes-Man: Smithers.
  • Smithers is more of a subversion, though. Some of Burns' more extreme schemes had Smithers actually standing up to him, even risking getting fired for it. Then again, Smithers did go back to working for Burns later in the series...
• Yoko Oh No: Barney's girlfriend when he was part of the B-Sharps.
• You Answered Your Own Question: Homer: "Operator! Give me the number to 911!"
  • Played with in "Bart's Girlfriend":

Bart: Why the crap do we have to go to church anyway?! Marge: You just answered your own question with that commode mouth.

• You Are a Tree Charlie Brown: Bart and Milhouse play sheep.
• You Are in Command Now: Homer ends up in command of a nuclear sub in "Simpson Tide".
• You Can't Handle the Parody: They've used it at least three times. The first is in "Secrets of a Successful Marriage":

Homer: You want the truth? You want the truth?! You can't handle the truth! 'Cause when you reach over and put your hand into a pile of goo that was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do.

• • and from "Sideshow Bob Roberts":

Sideshow Bob: You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! No truth-handler, you! I deride your truth-handling abilities! Judge: Will you get to the point?

• • and from "Mommie Beerest":

Jack playing card: You can't handle the twos!

• You! Get Me Coffee!: Lisa wanted to be in a jazz band but was told she could sit in a chair instead.
• You Get What You Pay For: In the second segment of "Simpsons Bible Stories", which spoofs the story of Moses, Lisa and Milhouse escape a badly designed Death Trap. Lisa notes, "Slave labor. You get what you paid for."
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Marge and the van Houtens have blue hair. Marge actually dyes her hair that color, though it's assumed from flashbacks to her childhood that she was a natural blue.
• You Just Ruined the Shot: Becky appears to be torturing the family in "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge".
• You Make Me Sic: In "Bart the Genius", after Bart gives a confession letter to Dr. J. Loren Pryor that he was faking being a genius:

Pryor: You know... you misspelled "confession".

• You Might Remember Me From: Troy McClure says this virtually every time he appears, even when he's on a date.
• You Monster!: Bart to Mr. Burns in "Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part 1)": "You twisted old MONSTER!"
  • Homer will drop this one for any reason. Any.
• Younger Than They Look:
  • Homer Simpson: In season four's "Lisa the Beauty Queen," Homer tries his luck at the school carnival's "Guess Your Age and Weight" booth. The fortuneteller guesses that Homer is 53 years old and 420 pounds. Homer laughs at the man and reveals that he's 36 years old and 239 pounds. Later episodes would have Homer as 38 or 39, depending on writer.
  • Hans Moleman: During the Alc-Anon meeting in season four's "Duffless," Hans reveals that he's 31 years old (which is true, according to his driver's license on "Selma's Choice" that shows he was born in August 1961. It would make him around 31 at the time of the episode's premiere—1991), implying that Hans Moleman's alcohol addiction has rapidly aged him. As usual, Negative Continuity has discredited this, as Hans was seen at the Springfield Retirement Home in "The Old Man and the C Student" and in "Little Girl on the Big Ten," a character pointed out that Hans was 80. Though given Moleman's status, and how incompetent just about every laborer in Springfield seems to be...
  • Mr. Burns: Before "Homer the Smithers," Burns revealed that he was 81 years old and looked older because he went bald around the time he was in college. After "Homer the Smithers", it's since been retconned that he looks his age (or is older than he looks) and has had a head of hair as recently as the sixties.
• You Sound Familiar: Albert Brooks has voiced a number of guest characters over the years, including Cowboy Bob ("Call of the Simpsons"), Jacques ("Life on the Fast Lane"), Brad Goodman ("Bart's Inner Child"), Hank Scorpio ("You Only Move Twice"), Tad Spangler ("The Heartbroke Kid"), and Russ Cargill (The Simpsons Movie).
  • Jon Lovitz has appeared as Artie Ziff (several episodes), Professor Lombardo ("Brush with Greatness"), Aristotle Amadoupolis ("Homer Defined"), Llewellyn Sinclair ("A Streetcar Named Marge"), Jay Sherman ("A Star Is Burns"), and Enrico Irritazio ("Homerazzi"). In "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", all these characters just happen to be in Moe's Tavern at the same time.
• Your Favorite: Matt Groning's favorite candy bar is Butterfinger, the reason he allows the characters to sell them.
• Your Head Asplode: Once in a reference to Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, as well as an Explosive Decompression.
  • In "And Maggie Makes Three", Homer's head suddenly explodes during the Whole-Episode Flashback, which is immediately revealed to be Bart hijacking the story. When the flashback resumes... Homer is still headless, crying about how his perfect life is ruined.

Marge: Homer, you had a head. Homer: Check. (Flashback-Homer's head reappears) Marge: And your bottom was a little bigger. Homer: Aw. (Flashback-Homer's ass grows)

• Your Mom: In "Starship Poopers" (part of "Treehouse of Horror IX"), Kang delivers one of these to Homer while on The Jerry Springer Show.

Kang: Well (bleep) hyperbolic parabaloid (bleep) yo mama!

• Your Worst Nightmare: In a "Treehouse of Horror", Bart and Lisa, in a parody of A Nightmare on Elm Street, are being terrorized by Groundskeeper Willie in their dreams.
• You Would Do the Same For Me: In "Homer the Heretic", Ned says this to Homer after he saves Homer from a burning house. In a daydream, Homer thinks differently, though he responds: "That's right, old friend."
• You Say Tomato: Marge says "foilage" instead of "foliage".
  • Homer correcting Lisa: "It's spelled 'nucular', honey."

Z

• Zany Scheme: Homer performs these, constantly.

Homer: Now, the only antidote to a zany scheme... is an even zanier scheme! Nerd: Why does it have to be "zany"?

• Zettai Ryouki: Lisa in "Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life".
  • Also Greta Wolfcastle in the beginning of "The Bart Wants What It Wants" when Bart saves her from bullies.
• Zeerust: Parodied numerous times.
• Zillion-Dollar Bill: Mr. Burns was said to own a trillion-dollar bill - and did! Now Fidel Castro has it.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Two Treehouse of Horror stories have this: one where Bart uses an occult spell book to try and reanimate Snowball I and another where Krusty Burger's latest sandwich turns the people into "munchers" (cannibalistic zombies).