Original air date: 2/20/2005

Production code: GABF-04

Homer becomes a minister after Springfield legalizes gay marriage (to boost their damaged reputation for tourists) and Patty comes out of the closet, much to the shock of her sister, Marge, who was naive to her sister's sexuality.

Tropes:

• Blunt "No": Patty turning down Veronica's second marriage proposal after the reveal that "she" is really a straight man in disguise.
  Leslie Robin Swisher: Patty, will you marry the real me?
  Patty: Hell no! I like girls!
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: After showing Homer's "map to stars' homes"◊ for a bit longer than you'd expect, Homer says "Have you read them all? OK, good," before they cut to the next shot.
• Brother–Sister Incest: When Homer opens up his wedding business to wed anyone with anything, one of the couples coming to be wed is Cletus and Brandine, who Homer points out are brother and sister.
  Homer: Hey, aren't you brother and sister?
  Brandine: We's all kinds a things!
• Butch Lesbian: Patty is this; while sporting feminine wear like a dress, heels and earrings, she has had some masculine mannerisms. Flashbacks show her dressing up as a construction worker as a young child and dressing up in more boyish clothes as a teenager. She's even wearing a tuxedo at her wedding.
• Call-Back:
  • The song "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)," previously featured in "Bart's Comet", is used again during the montage of the signs that Patty is a lesbian.
  • When Selma voices her concerns about Patty getting married, she responds by bringing up Selma's previous marriages, including the Noodle Incident marriage to Lionel Hutz mentioned in "Much Apu About Nothing".
• Closet Key: "Veronica" for Patty.
• Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: In the flashback, there are three signs that Patty was a lesbian.
  • When Marge plays dress-up wearing her mother's pearls, dress and heels, Patty plays dress-up as a male construction worker.
  • When teenage Marge puts a poster of her crush David Cassidy from The Partridge Family on her wall, Patty puts a poster of her crush Miss Hathaway from The Beverly Hillbillies on her wall.
  • When adult Marge goes to see Sleepless in Seattle in the theaters, she finds Patty making out with another girl in the same theater.
• Comically Missing the Point: When Reverend Lovejoy forbids homosexual marriage because the Bible forbids it, Marge asks which book. Lovejoy repeats "The Bible" as if it were a stupid question, forgetting (or ignoring) that the sections of the Bible are split into different books.
• Coming-Out Story: Patty comes out of the closet.
  Patty: I'm getting married and I need you to perform the ceremony.
  Marge: You're getting married! Patty, that's wonderful! So tell, tell! Who's the lucky man? What does he do? Let me guess, does he work in customer support?
  Patty: You can guess all night and not get it. (deep breath) Her name's Veronica.
  Marge: But Veronica's a girl's name. Did you know that?
  Patty: I'm marrying a woman. I'm...I'm gay.
• Content Warning: In America, this became the first episode to open with a "Viewer Discretion Advised" card before the opening, due to homosexual marriage being a hot-button issue with most U.S. viewers.
• Disguised in Drag: Veronica, the woman Patty is engaged to, turns out to actually be a straight man dressed like a woman, who lied his way onto the LPGA tour, and then fell in love with Patty. Marge finds this out before the wedding, seeing "Veronica" use the bathroom with the toilet seat up and shaving himself while singing Aerosmith's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)".
• Everyone Can See It: When Homer is looking for more gay couples to marry.
  Homer: Where's Lenny and Carl?
  Marge: Don't you push them! They have to work that out for themselves!
• Eye Scream: As promised, Patty nails Homer with a cigarette in the eye as punishment for making wise-cracks about her.
• Fingore:
  • Patty stabs Homer in the hand with her cigarette butt the first time he makes a joke about her, promising him next time, she'll hit him in the eye. He doesn't take the hint.
  • Also inferred later with a Gory Discretion Shot.
    Patty: Marge, if you can find it in your heart to accept me for who I am, I would love to see you at the wedding. If not, I'll see you at Homer's funeral. [cut to Homer trying to get a fly with a knife. The fly lands on his hand and Homer raises the knife] Should be pretty soon.
    Homer: [stabbing noise] Got him! Uh-oh.
• Foreshadowing: There are hints that Veronica is actually a man before the reveal. For example:
  • She has no visible eyelashes, which is quite common for most of the female characters.
  • Her neck is covered in both a flashback and the present day to hide her Adam's apple.
  • She speaks with a slightly masculine voice while trying to keep the charade up.
  • When the couple kiss in front of the kids, Marge tells Patty to "save something for your wedding night," to which Patty makes it clear that they actually are waiting to get married before they do anything physical, explaining how it was possible for "Veronica" to keep the ruse up.
• Gender-Blender Name: The man who was disguised as "Veronica" reveals his real name is Leslie Robin Swisher. "Leslie" and "Robin" are names that can be used for both males and females, and "Swisher" is sometimes used as a derogatory term for gay men.
• Heteronormative Crusader:
  • Rev. Lovejoy absolutely refuses to marry gay couples, stating that the Bible forbids it, and refusing to say which book of the Bible actually forbids it.
  • Homer starts as one, until he learns that gay couples will pay to get married. He soon becomes entirely willing to marry the gay couples, regardless of his opinions of them.
• High-Five Left Hanging: When Homer and Reverend Lovejoy are being interviewed by Kent Brockman, Homer makes a joke about gay marriage and requests a high five from Lovejoy but Lovejoy refuses to accept it.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Marge actually acknowledges that she would be a "super hypocrite" if she didn't support Patty's gay marriage before succumbing to this weakness.
• Hypocrite: Marge was proud of Homer for marrying homosexuals but was disappointed and uncomfortable when Patty revealed herself to be a lesbian. Patty calls her out on it.
• I Have No Son!: Patty said she had no Non-Identical Sister if Marge doesn't accept her.
  Patty: Selma, we'll always be there for each other. I don't know about Marge, though. If she doesn't show up today, I HAVE NO non-identical sister!
• Incompatible Orientation: After being outed as a straight man disguised as a woman, Leslie/"Veronica" still proposes marriage to the lesbian Patty but she angrily rejects him.
• Jerkass Ball: Marge becomes incredibly intolerant and homophobic when she learns Patty is a lesbian. When she learns that Veronica leaves the toilet seat up and was shaving, Marge is willing to keep quiet to teach Patty a lesson.
• Karma Houdini: Bart, Milhouse, Kearney, Jimbo, and Dolph get away with attacking Howell Huser and causing Springfield's 6/10 rating.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Veronica is thought to be this, while having a shorter hairdo and more boyish apparel than Patty, still dresses a little femininely. She even wears a dress to their wedding.
• Love at First Sight: Patty and Veronica fell for each other after they first met as Veronica accidentally hit her with her golf club.
• Match Cut: An audible variant; among finding out Veronica is really a man, Marge is really happy thinking that Patty will be in for a shock and sashays down the hall humming "Here Comes The Bride." It then cuts to Patty and "Veronica"'s wedding beginning as the background music continues where Marge left off on the song, now with the full band.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Howell Huser, the host from the beginning of the episode, is a parody of Huell Howser, who hosted a long-running travel show (California's Gold) on local California PBS stations.
• Noodle Incident: Selma apparently had another offscreen marriage while no one was looking, this time to Disco Stu.
• Oh, Crap!: Bart once he realized who he and Milhouse were pranking at the beginning of the episode.
• Only in It for the Money: The reason Homer became a minister. In fact, he was holding a sign reading "Death Before Gay Marriage" before learning a minister can get $200 for each marriage he celebrates.
• Pet the Dog: As much as Homer and Patty hate each other, Homer agrees to marry her and her fiancée when Patty comes out as a lesbian.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title is a reference to the film There's Something About Mary.
• Screw Yourself: Homer has a fantasy about being married to himself and having multiple Homer-look-alike babies. This moment currently provides the page image.
• Shout-Out:
  • Marge discovering that Veronica is a man is a reference to Chris Hillard discovering that Mrs. Doubtfire is his father in disguise from Mrs. Doubtfire. She later exposes him the same way Ace exposed Lois Einhorn as the male Ray Finkle in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
  • Patty calls Selma a "Twisted Sister". Twisted Sister is the name of a heavy metal band.
  • While making jokes about Patty's marriage, Homer references Bride of the Monster.
  • The song playing in the background as the gay couples celebrate their togetherness in Springfield is a parody of several Harry Belafonte songs, particularly "Jamaica Farewell" and his signature "Banana Boat Song". Although Belafonte is straight, his name is dropped in the line "I'm gonna marry my Harry in Springfield town."
  • Howell Huser is a parody of long-time public access host of "California's Gold", Huell Howser.
  • After Barney takes the beer, he says, "As the Roadrunner says to the coyote, meep, meep!".
  • Blinky turns into the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
  • Veronica sings a couple of lines of the Aerosmith song "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)".
  • The couch gag is a reference to the NHL hockey lockout of 2004, which shut down the entire 2004-05 NHL season.
  • In Marge's flashback, the movie she's seeing in the theaters is Sleepless in Seattle.
  • At one point Lisa wonders why the family is dressed as 'Sunday Best Simpsons' (in other words, the clothes they wear to church). The currently running (at the time) Playmates Toys' line of Simpsons action figures used that name to describe the toys of the family in their church clothes.
• Skewed Priorities: Patty understood that Veronica lied to fans, golfers, and caddies but was offended that Veronica lied to both her and the sponsors.
• Snap Back: Lampshaded at the end of the episode:
  Lisa: Well, that's the end of Dad's wedding business.
  Bart: Why?
• So Proud of You: Marge said this word for word to Homer because of allowing people to express love.
• Sound Effects Bleep: When Reverend Lovejoy refuses to marry the gay couples that came to the church as the Bible forbids it, Marge tries to tell him the bible contradicts itself depending on what book you read from, only for Lovejoy to drown her out with the church's bell.
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: When Homer reached this line during Patty's wedding, Marge spoke up. Patty thought it was because she disapproved of her sexuality, but it was really because Marge didn't want Patty to be hurt because her "fiancée" was really a man.
• Spit Take: Homer and Patty do one when Marge, upon learning Patty was gay, comments that she no longer has to worry about Patty stealing Homer away.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Homer and Patty both react in disgust when Marge remarks Patty coming out means she no longer has to fear them eloping.
  Homer: Marge, I'd sooner run off with a sausage patty than your sister Patty!
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • Howell Huser was an innocent victim, but he's also partially responsible for the pain he endured from Bart and Milhouse. As a sightseer, he just blindly agrees to let two 10-year-olds guide him rather than talk to some kind of city official.
  • Lampshaded by Patty, who angrily declares to Marge that if she can't accept her sister's sexuality, then the next time they'll see each other is at Homer's funeral... which she says will probably happen soon, as we see Homer is currently swinging around a kitchen knife trying to kill a fly.
• Tourism-Derailing Event: Bart antagonizes a traveler who turns out to be a critic for a major network morning show, and he gives Springfield his worst grade: a six out of ten. As a result of the subsequent downturn in tourism, Mayor Quimby decides to legalize gay marriage to attract prospective couples.
• Transparent Closet: In the words of Patty regarding her sexuality, "You could see it from space!" Homer (of all people) got it when Marge didn't:
  Homer: Hey Marge, here's another bomb: I like beer.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: How Marge and Patty find out that Veronica is really a man.
  Marge: (gasps, seeing the toilet seat up) But that wouldn't happen unless... (looks inside)
  Veronica: (singing Aerosmith while shaving) Dude looks like a lady! Dude looks like a lady!
  Marge: (closes door quietly) She's a man! Looks like Patty's gonna get something she didn't register for! (gleefully hums "Here Comes The Bride")
  Later...
  Marge: (interrupting the wedding) Patty, it's not what you think! Veronica is a man! (rips off collar covering the Adam's apple on her neck; everyone gasps in horror)
  Sideshow Mel: Look at the size of that Adam's apple!
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Bart and Milhouse inadvertently get the town's tourism industry destroyed when they torment an influential travel TV host they assumed was just a hapless nobody.
• Visual Pun: Howell Huser rides into Springfield by falling off the back of a turnip truck. The saying "I didn't fall off the back of a turnip truck" is roughly the equivalent of "I wasn't born yesterday".
• Wedding Episode: This episode focuses on Patty's upcoming gay wedding. Springfield legalizes gay marriage, Patty comes out as a lesbian, Homer becomes a minister, and the episode builds up to Patty's wedding to Veronica. At the last minute, the wedding falls through, as "Veronica" turns out to be a man in disguise.
• Why Don't You Marry It?: Homer to Rev. Lovejoy on Smartline when Lovejoy cites The Bible as his reason to oppose gay marriage.
  Homer: If you love The Bible so much, why don't you marry it? In fact, I now pronounce you and The Bible man and wife...and you're the wife!