Production code: EABF-07
Lisa gets involved in the seedy world of spelling bees while Homer follows around fans of Krusty's latest sandwich.
Tropes featured:
- Actually Pretty Funny:
- Skinner admonishes the children for laughing at Milhouse misspelling the first letter of "choke", but quickly admits that the laughter is infectious.
- Bart's involvement in the spelling bee stops midway through the word.Bart: Imply. I-M-P...Nelson: Bart said "I am pee!" He's made of pee! (auditorium laughs)Bart: Well, I got my laugh. I'm outta here!
- Artistic License: At several points, entrants in the spelling bees are disqualified the instant they say a wrong letter. In actual spelling bees, a contestant who spells a word incorrectly will be allowed to finish their word before being told they were wrong, in order to avoid giving too much information to their competitors.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Lisa attempts to spell 'intransigence' instead of taking a dive. She ultimately loses, allowing George Plimpton's preferred champion Alex to win.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: When Homer is suffering from Ribwich withdrawal, he mentions "I'm getting the shakes..." This seems to be a symptom, but he follows it up with "and I'm getting the fries!"
- Bittersweet Ending: Even though she loses the spelling bee, Springfield still honors Lisa for being the greatest success to come from Springfield and carves her head into a nearby mountain.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Lisa lets out a Homeresque "Woo-hoo!" after Skinner announces that the school is holding a spelling bee.
- B-Movie: Bart watches Frankenstein and the Harlem Globetrotters... Meet the Mummy and the Washington Generals. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to see the full movie since Ray Romano sues to keep it from being shown.
- Brutal Honesty: When Principal Skinner mentions during school assembly that he was maître d' at the Springfield Country Club, Jimbo Jones tries to insult him:Jimbo: My dad says you were a bus boy!
Skinner: You mean your dad, the raging alcoholic? (cue Jimbo shrinking back while the rest of the kids, bullies included, stare open-mouthed in shock) - Catapult Nightmare: Lisa has a nightmare where she's pressured to take the bribe. She wakes up screaming, which causes Marge (in the next bed) to also wake up screaming.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: One more mark for Krusty: whatever animal was used for Ribwitch meat, Krusty casually mentions that Krusty Burger Co. made it extinct. The Ribwitch itself is an addictive Nutritional Nightmare.
- Endearingly Dorky: Alex, the kid who competes against Lisa and ends up winning the Spellympics. It's actually a plot point and why George Plimpton wants him to win the contest — to boost the popularity of spelling bees by having a charismatic champion. Alex is a smart boy who wears big black round glasses, a red bowtie and a baseball cap backwards. He has a speech impediment, replacing "l" and "r" sounds with "w" sounds. Lisa refers to him as the "boy that everybody loves" and Plimton calls him crowd-pleasing and cute.George Plimpton: Women in the audience toss their thick glasses at him.
- Epic Fail: Milhouse's attempt at the spelling bee.Skinner: Alright, Milhouse, your word is "choke".
Milhouse: I know this one, it's so easy. F... OH MAN! - Exact Words: The Ribwich commercial claims the sandwich is made from "letter-graded meat." It never specifies which letter (or, for that matter, which alphabet the letter is taken from).
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Bart goes to skinner-in-a-shredder.com, a website with an animated cartoon of Skinner being put through a paper shredder.
- G-Rated Drug: Homer becomes addicted to the Ribwich. It's no coincidence that the scene where he eats his first one is a Shout-Out to Requiem for a Dream.
- Heh Heh, You Said "X": Bart starts to spell the word "imply". Nelson shouts, "Bart said 'I am pee'! He's made of pee!" and the students laugh. Bart is satisfied and leaves the stage. Later, when Lisa spells "impugn", Bart starts, "Hey, Lisa said she was—" before Nelson smacks him on the back of the head.
- Honor Before Reason: Lisa vocally turns down the generous bribenote she was offered to throw the spelling bee and attempts to win. She ends up losing naturally and thus gets absolutely nothing.
- Impossibly Delicious Food: The Ribwich (a parody of the McRib) is mouthwatering enough that when they stop selling it at his local Krusty Burger, Homer travels to other towns where it's still being sold (along with several other people). When Homer gets the last Ribwich in existence, people are willing to give Homer almost anything, even a night in a luxury hotel and their car for it. In a Shout-Out to Requiem for a Dream, the Ribwich is even equated to a drug.
- Instant Fan Club: Marge is impressed that Lisa has her own cheering section. Homer notes he also has one, consisting of Lenny, Carl, and Moe.
- Jerkass: George Plimpton tries to bribe Lisa to take a dive so Alex can win. He intentionally rigs the finals, makes it impossible for Sun Moon to win and mocks Lisa for losing the contest. And he gets away with everything.
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Milestone Celebration: Parodied with the episode proudly declaring itself the 301st episode
. - Morton's Fork: Sun Moon is eliminated by one when George Plimpton intentionally makes it impossible to tell if he's using "weather" or "whether", stressing both when she asks for usage in a sentence. His finger hovering around the buzzer makes it clear he would've failed her regardless of which one she picked.
- Mystery Meat: Krusty has to announce that they had to stop making the Ribwich since they drove the animal it came from to extinction. The meat didn't come from cows or pigs.Krusty: You're way off! Think smaller. Think more legs.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Booberella is clearly a parody of Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
- Noodle Incident: Lisa is asked to spell "ameliorate". She asks to hear it in a sentence, and Superintendent Chalmers says, "Nothing can ameliorate the ineptitude of Principal Skinner." Skinner is in the audience, and comments, "I wish he wouldn't use me in every example."
- Nutritional Nightmare: The Ribwich is so unhealthy that there is a scene where we see barbecue sauce flowing in Homer's bloodstream. The Ribwich has a label with Krusty saying "Will Cause Early Death".
- Old Shame: The KBBL Booberella show Matine of Blood and Commercials shows Frankenstein and the Harlem Globetrotters Meet the Mummy and the Washington Generals starring a young Ray Romano. The broadcast stops as Booberella warns that Romano sued for a temporary injunction for stopping them from showing the movie, and that they will fight the injunction as they show something else.
- A Rare Sentence: Discussed between Marge and Lisa.Marge: Okay, Champ. I before E, except after C.
Lisa: Except when pronounced like "a," as in "neighbor" and "weigh."
Marge: Really? Hmm. Well what about in the sentence "Jim Nabors is way cool"?
Lisa: Well, how often is that gonna come up?
Marge: It's on my apron. - Retroactive Recognition: In-Universe by George Plimpton, the host of the Spellympics:Plimpton: I also played the evil Dean in Boner Academy.
Homer: You Monster! Why did you expel Boogerman?!
Plimpton: He replaced my tennis racquet with a rubber phallus.
Homer: (laughs) That was awesome. - Rhetorical Question Blunder: When Homer learns about the Ribheads and the Ribwich tour:Homer: Maybe I should hook up with you guys. After all, how long do any of us have to live?
Ribhead: Well, if you like the Ribwich, not very. (holds up a Ribwich box with a warning label for early death)
Homer: D'oh! - Riddle for the Ages: What animal did the Ribwich come from? All we know is that it was smaller than a cow or a pig, and it had more than 4 legs.
- Running Gag: "And a hot plate!"
- Second Place Is for Winners: Lisa gets second place in the Spellympics and is hailed as a winner in Springfield - after all, second place makes her "the biggest winner this town's ever produced". Heck, because she lost honorably instead of taking a bribe to take a dive, they fashion a sign that says: "2 good 2 be #1."
- Shout-Out:
- Lisa trains for her spelling bee by wearing a grey sweatsuit and running up a flight of stairs.
- Otto asks Lisa to spell AC/DC. When she does, he says she forgot the lightning bolt.
- Barney asks Lisa to spell "relapse". After she does, he sings "That's what beer has done to me! Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me!" to the tune of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" (the original line being "find out what it means to me").
- The scene of Homer becoming addicted to the Ribwich is done in a way that mirrors the scenes of people getting high on various narcotics in Requiem for a Dream.
- Soapbox Sadie: One more point for Lisa. When she is offered a bribe to take a fall in the spelling bee, she does not just refuses, she makes a huge show out of telling the audience that she refused and then bombastically says the word she was supposed to fail for the bribe… and screws up.
- Spelling Bee: The main plot of the episode.
- Stock "Yuck!": The Ribwich is advertised as being "now without lettuce", a point which Homer (and presumably, many other people) considers a good thing.
- Tempting Fate: Milhouse is given the word "choke" to spell. After brushing it off as an easy word, he started spelling with an 'F'.Milhouse: Oh man!
- Testosterone Poisoning: The commercial for the Ribwich frames the creation of one like industrial metalwork, with a cow tossed into a furnace to be melted down and cast molded into rib shape.
- Throwing the Fight: Lisa is bribed to take a dive so Alex could win. She is about to do it until Homer arrives to cheer her on, but ends up misspelling 'intransigence' and loses.
- Undesirable Prize: When Lisa gets first place in the school spelling bee, Skinner rewards her with a scale model of Mars. It's a red kickball with the word "Mars" written on it in marker. Surprisingly, everyone is impressed with it besides Lisa.
- Worst News Judgment Ever: Kent Brockman reports on Lisa getting into the Spellympics before discussing the destruction of Paris.
- You Keep Using That Word: At the spelling bee, Bart laughs at a student who spells "acerose" wrong, saying "He's an ass-erose!" Professor Frink asks if he means that he's similar to a pine needle. Bart shrugs off that he's bored and this is all he has to entertain himself.
