I thought they were more of a "please somebody notice how smart I am!" thing

Joke's on him - Bart is three meters tall.

These campaign buttons are all partisan!

does that make you an Emophiliac?

Delivery on every line of that little soliloquoy is amazing. Castellaneta knocked it out of the park. "You've got to sass it!"

I love that part. "Don't worry - he'll get the help he needs."

This is the definitive answer.

I see it a little differently. I think it is more balanced because although you root for Apu, in the end, they sort of weasel out by saying there's an amnesty and he's able to get his citizenship legally. I see it less as a pro-immigration episode than a "public hysteria over a non-issue" episode (cf. completely…

Ah, Oliver North… he was just poured into that uniform!

The lie has set me free!
Oh wait, that's a different Apu episode…

A more offensive spectacle I cannot recall!

"If you fell in the shower that thing'd be your tomb!"
I have actually thought this, non-ironically, when I was working as a delivery driver. I'd see people who live in these big houses way out in the middle of nowhere that are impossible to find, no road signs, no numbers on the house, usually up some big unpaved…

Toreador, don't spit on the floor - use the cuspidor, that's what it's for.
If not for the Simpsons, I wouldn't even know a synonym for "spittoon"!

(indignantly): It's called a T-Square.

Well put, Oxford.

If you own the DVDs and you've seen this episode a million times and know it all by heart - try watching it with the Japanese audio. Highlights for me are Lisa's shriek when the bees attack her, and Wiggum's donut song.

Season 9 should have been the final season, and "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace" should have been the final episode.

EXTRA EXTRA! TODD SMELLS

"Mono" means one. And "rail" means rail. And that concludes our intensive three-week course.

I'm from a suburb of Knoxville. Lived in the city for a couple years, still work there. There is no greater honor than being the butt of a joke on the Simpsons. No, not even being host to a World's Fair.
It's also a surprisingly accurate depiction of the area around the Sunsphere, i.e., a mostly vacant lot. No wigs…