When Flanders Failed

Ned Flanders invites the Simpson family to a barbecue party and announces his plans to open a store for left-handed people; The Leftorium. During the pulling of a wishbone, Homer, who has been constantly jealous of the material success of Ned and his family, wishes for The Leftorium to be a failure and go out of business. Homer ends up choking on a burger after his wish on the wishbone Homer frequently checks in on Ned to ensure that business is going poorly and is happy to see precisely that happening. When Homer sees left-handed citizens struggling with items made for right-handed people, he thinks about informing them about The Leftorium, but decides not to. Eventually the store does indeed close due to lack of business, plunging the Flanders' into debt and misery. Ned is forced to sell his possessions, and Homer gleefully buys many of Ned's things. Homer starts to regret what he did, but when he goes to return Ned's possessions, he finds Ned's house repossessed and the family living in their car. Homer wrestles with the guilt his wish has brought, and tells Ned to open the store for one final day. He then tells all the left-handed residents of Springfield about The Leftorium, and they all travel to the store and buy things. The increase in customers helps Ned keep the store open and get his house back.

In a subplot, Bart begins taking karate lessons at Akira's karate school. On his first lesson, he finds that karate is quite boring, so he decides to skip each lesson in order to play video games at the mall arcade. Whenever he is questioned by his family and friends about the techniques he has learned, he refers to the "Touch of Death", an ability he saw in one of the arcade games he played. He proceeds to terrorize his sister Lisa into doing his will by threatening her with the technique. His actions catch up to him when Lisa prods him to defend her from the school bullies and reclaim her saxophone. He ends up being pantsed and hung by his underwear from the basketball hoop rim by the bullies, as Lisa (having reclaimed her saxophone) wistfully notes that sometimes two wrongs do make a right.

Lisa the Vegetarian

The Simpson family visit Story Town Village, an amusement park for babies, as a special treat for Maggie. In the village, there is a petting zoo, where Lisa is enamored by a cute lamb. That night, Marge serves lamb chops for dinner, but Lisa is troubled by the connection between the dish and its living counterpart, and announces that she will no longer eat meat. In response, Bart and Homer mock her relentlessly. Reaction at school is no better; when Lisa requests a vegetarian alternative to the cafeteria food, Principal Skinner labels her an "agitator". The students are then forced to watch a Meat Council propaganda film, "The Meat Council Presents Meat and You: Partners in Patriotism",[5] starring Troy McClure, which portrays eating meat as a patriotic duty,[5] and criticizes vegetarianism. Lisa is unimpressed by the film, but her classmates tease her.

Homer and Bart continue to give Lisa a hard time at home, particularly since Homer is preparing to host a barbecue, complete with roast pig. Bart and Homer even form a conga line and sing, "You don't win friends with salad!" On the day of the barbecue, Lisa makes gazpacho for all the guests as an alternative to meat, but the partygoers laugh in her face. Enraged and deeply hurt, she climbs aboard a riding mower and drives away with the roast pig in tow. Homer and Bart chase her, but she pushes the pig off a slope and they are too late. The pig rolls through bushes, into a river, and is shot into the air by a dam spillway's suction.

At home, Homer reprimands Lisa for ruining his party and demands an apology, but Lisa refuses to apologize and chews him out for serving a meat-based dish. They fight and she leaves the house, not wanting to live in a house with a "prehistoric carnivore." As Lisa walks along, she decides that she can no longer fight the pressure to eat meat, prompting her to grab a hot dog from the grill at the Kwik-E-Mart and take a bite. However, Apu, himself a vegan, reveals that she has eaten a tofu dog, which he subtly switched out and none of his loyal customers had noticed the change.

Apu takes Lisa through a secret passageway hidden behind the cooler section assigned to non-alcoholic beer leading to the Kwik-E-Mart roof where they meet Paul and Linda McCartney. The McCartneys explain that they are old friends of Apu from Paul's days in India, and discuss their interest in animal rights. After a brief discussion, Apu asks Lisa what happened at home that made her upset. She reveals everything and while he understands, Apu warns Lisa that forcing others to accept her views can do a lot more harm than good. She is committed once more to vegetarianism, but realizes that she should tolerate those who disagree with her views.

Inspired, Lisa begins to return home and finds Homer frantically searching for her. Homer apologizes for his behavior, but Lisa admits she was wrong as well. She apologizes to Homer, admitting she had no right to ruin his barbecue; he forgives her and offers her a "veggie back" ride home. The final credits play over the still airborne roast pig.

"You Don't Win Friends with Salad" is wonderfully stupid, but I think When Flanders Failed is a better episode. It was nice to see Homer turn back from being such a jackass.

The second half of Lisa the vegetarian is a little weak but the first half has some of the best moments in the series, including what is possibly the best Troy McClure film strip

Hey Jerry, remember last month when I paid back that loan? Well now I need you to do a favor for me.

I love both of these episodes, but as juvenile as it is, I just can't vote against "you don't win friends with salad" this early.