10 Best "B" Plots In The Simpsons
5. The Swear Jar – Bart The Lover
Bart The Lover from Season 3 has two of the best stories The Simpsons has ever told. The main story is Bart's elaborate love letter prank on Mrs. Krabappel, but the episode's secondary plot revolves around Homer struggling to mind his language.
Upon hearing Todd say that he doesn't want any "damn vegetables", Ned Flanders deduces that his son has learned these bad words from Homer. He asks Homer to limit his cussing, which he agrees to on the condition that Ned shaves off his moustache. Thus, the swear jar was born.
This leads to a series of scenes in which Homer encounters stressful situations; accidentally putting a $20 bill in the Church collection, being attacked by a swarm of bees, hearing that Flanders got cast in a lucrative commercial after shaving his moustache. Naturally, the swear jar starts to fill up fast.
Homer eventually conditions himself not to swear, muttering the words "fiddle-de-dee" when he steps on a nail. He does then savagely kick down a doghouse, but that's by the by.
We all know someone who swears too much and we all know how much they'd genuinely struggle to cut back on the naughty words. Seeing this played out on screen, combined with the show's classic charm, is an absolute joy.