Mine’s gotta be Marge on the Lam. It’s got Ballet as bears driving little cars, it’s got Homer about to have his arms sawed off cause he didn’t let go of soda, it’s got good waffles sticking together, it’s got moonshine straight from your own still, it’s got ghost cars, it’s got Miguel Sanchez, it’s got Sunshine and Lollypops and Raibows, it’s got precious antique cans, it’s got suspects in a…red car who are passing directly beneath the earth’s sun…now. it’s hilarious and really encapsulates season 5s ‘fuck it, we ball’ attitude.
Nostalgia plays a factor but it hit the right beats for me: Lisa’s science project sabotage by Bart who then becomes the subject (“is my brother dumber than a hamster?”), Homer’s escape from the power plant to go to the Duff Brewery (“if the plant ye wish to flee, go to sector 7-B.”) then him getting caught after leaving the brewery (Chief Wiggum is in a beer stein costume, gets hit by Barney’s car and Wiggum rolls away saying “weeeee!” then hits a tree and bursts into flames for no reason), and the way it ends is wholesome with Homer and Marge riding a bicycle into the sunset singing Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head.
Things exploding when they shouldn’t is low-key one of my fave running gags. Molemans car bumps into a tree at a snails pace? Explodes. Wiggum as a beer Stein? Explodes. A man’s appendix that’s about to burst? Explodes. Corn flakes + milk? Burns. A model rocket hitting a model comet? Explodes and ignites a model of Moe’s Tavern. Pop rocks and soda at a candy convention? Explodes into a fireball.
I love those types of gags