Bart's dream girl, Mary Spuckler, comes to town, but his failure to pay her enough attention is having a negative impact on their relationship. Meanwhile, Homer once again runs afoul of Marge and lands in the doghouse.
WAR
57.4
Wins Above Replacement
“Love Is A Many Splintered Thing” ranks #206 of 552 The Simpsons episodes on the Humor Index, scoring 80.0 — Elite. The episode packs 70 scored jokes at 3.6 per minute, averaging 6.9 on craft and 6.7 on impact, with Bart landing the most laughs. Every joke is ranked below with its individual craft and impact scores.
Get weekly comedy rankings
Join comedy fans getting new analyses, score drops, and the funniest moments each week. Free, no spam.
Top Jokes
Mary · Brazilian producer: Everyone is the main guy in their own story. My friend, welcome to my story.
Marge: I am sick and tired of trying to decode you like you're some kind of human being separate from myself.
Marge Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Bart: Why did I buy her that rhyming dictionary?
Bart Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Bart: But I'm the main guy in this story. Things are supposed to work out for me.
Bart Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Mary: I'm a farm girl. I already milked the cows, overcame a bout of prairie madness, and made you some sausage and biscuits.
Mary Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch All Jokes — 70 analyzed
Show all ↓ Hide ↑ Homer Character Comedy Running Gag Unknown narrator: The Szyslaks. Already cancelled.
Bart: Everything I know about women can be summed up by a jump-rope rhyme: 'Girls go to Mars to buy candy bars, boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider.'
Bart Observational Character Comedy Bart: Except I didn't have to go to Jupiter to get stupider. I had a bigger ball of gas I could study.
Bart Setup/Punchline Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Homer: Ladies, please! You can boss me around, just one at a time!
Homer Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm GPS · Homer: Switching to male voice... so you will obey. Finally! A supervisor!
Bart · Bully: Can't I just stick it in Skinner's sloppy joe? It would actually be the only meat in said Joe.
Bully 1 · Bully 2: Not everything can be solved with Skinner pranks, Bart. Yeah, think outside the Skinner box.
Mary · Bart: I only got work as a hand model. That's your hand? Just the thumb.
Mary Bart Setup/Punchline Escalation ★ Rewatch Bart · Mary: Get out of my face, cootie breath! I did miss you. You stink! Come over Saturday. I'm gonna have to push you in the mud now. Don't you pig-waller me, mister! Do what you must, darlin'.
Bart: That sure makes up for my dad beating me last night. And for my dyslexia.
Bart Dark/Subversive Escalation Mary: Thank God I wore the underwear with the hole on the side.
Mary Character Comedy Cringe/Discomfort Mary: I'm a farm girl. I already milked the cows, overcame a bout of prairie madness, and made you some sausage and biscuits.
Mary Character Comedy Escalation ★ Rewatch Bart: So like a schmuck, I treat her like day-old matzo.
Bart Character Comedy Observational Bart: Doctors Without Borders, you're now doctors without faces!
Bart Wordplay/Pun Dark/Subversive Mary: Ask his girlfriend, the game.
Mary Character Comedy Observational Bart: She knows she's the apple of the corner of my eye.
Bart Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy Mary's family member: We hope it's a nap.
Spuckler family member: That'll teach him to try to preserve our folk singing for posterity.
City folk singer · Spuckler: It'll prove I'm not wasting my life. You realize you just ruined the recording.
Spuckler family member: But no one blows on a blade of grass like you.
Mary: Eight more payments and I own this.
Mary Character Comedy Visual Gag Mary · Mary: But there ain't not never no place none better than home. Count the negatives, it all works out.
Mary Mary Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Bart: Like the Hulk in movies other than The Hulk.
Spuckler sisters: We's gonna practice kissing with this French-Canadian mountain man. He's still wearing leg shackles.
Bart: What? It's the plural of Milhouse. Look it up.
Bart Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Bart: More like balder and wider.
Bart Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Homer: I'll teach you to say something that sounds similar!
Homer Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch TV host: Isn't it funny how all people are of equal worth?
TV host Irony/Sarcasm Meta/Self-Referential Barry: Please do not boycott my line of power tools.
Barry Character Comedy Observational Barry · Host: No, they ain't. We're back together. Then you got no act.
Devon Peacock: I can finally get my suspender buckled!
Spuckler: Looks like we got a feud with the Peacocks now.
Video game character: Slash her face now, Bart. Slash it while she least expects it.
Bart: Um... lifting people's spirits is an interesting topic. For centuries, Neanderthal and astronaut alike have enjoyed lifting spirits.
Bart Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Mary: You're givin' me book report talk.
Mary Character Comedy Observational Brazilian producer: Know him? Before he was famous, he kidnapped my mother!
Brazilian producer's son: I am the first boy to get my own liquor ad.
Bart: Usually, I only have music one hour a week, and the teacher spends it reading real estate listings for Fire Island.
Bart Observational Character Comedy Bart: At that moment, I had a vision of every time in my life an angry woman would say 'Everything's fine.'
Bart Observational Character Comedy Melvis: I brung you regrets from my sister. She has been de-avoidably untained.
Melvis Wordplay/Pun Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Moe: Woman are life's great mystery, along with why do they give you salt and pepper at a Chinese restaurant?
Moe Observational Character Comedy Moe: I know a date that will turn this mighty Aphrodite into your purple rose of Cairo. Those are movies I made. It's my oeuvre. It sounds dirty, but it's not.
Moe Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun ★ Rewatch Moe: It's like my second wedding night, except more walkouts and there were no refunds.
Moe Dark/Subversive Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Mary: Back pats? This is a breakup.
Mary Character Comedy Deadpan/Understatement Mary: There's a pot for every possum.
Mary Character Comedy Wordplay/Pun Old Joe Clabby: Hey, you're a pretty little thing, you are, but ticktock, ticktock.
Spuckler family member: I told you this would happen if you dated outside the family.
Police officer: Sure do like forcing people to leave areas.
Marge: You should know that me saying I don't care means I couldn't care more.
Marge Character Comedy Observational Marge: I am sick and tired of trying to decode you like you're some kind of human being separate from myself.
Marge Character Comedy Observational ★ Rewatch Marge: You're both in the doghouse, which is misleading 'cause I still like the dog.
Marge Setup/Punchline Character Comedy Homer: And by the way, the paint's a little faded on my parking spot.
Homer Character Comedy Observational Hotel clerk · Bart: It just says somebody died in this room in the last 72 hours. Aw, man, we just missed it.
Bart: I thought I was calling the Suicide Not Line, because I'm doing great.
Bart Character Comedy Irony/Sarcasm Mary: Great. Turns out Adele was right. Ain't nothing better for songwriting than when your relationship takes a bolt to the brain.
Mary: And I can't even tell where his hair meets his forehead
Mary Character Comedy Observational Bart: Why did I buy her that rhyming dictionary?
Bart Irony/Sarcasm Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Mary: It just poured out of me like venom from a snake.
Mary Character Comedy Observational Bart: It's hurting my eyes!
Bart Physical/Slapstick Reaction Beat Homer: It's so great here-- no wife to get mad at you for closing your laptop whenever they walk into the room.
Homer Character Comedy Observational Homer: Hard to believe that country used to rule anything.
Homer Observational Character Comedy Homer: And I promise to do the things I checked off within a year.
Homer Character Comedy Observational Bart: But I'm the main guy in this story. Things are supposed to work out for me.
Bart Meta/Self-Referential Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Mary · Brazilian producer: Everyone is the main guy in their own story. My friend, welcome to my story.
Bart: And that's when I learned Cupid was just a fat, naked jerk with an arrow.
Bart Character Comedy Observational Bart: Love-- what is it? What does it mean? How do you spell it? No one knows.
Bart Absurdist Character Comedy ★ Rewatch Video game: Remember, this game is for age 14 or under. If you are older than that, please get help.
Phone system: The widow Mary Spuckler.
Mystery character: You played that like a combination of Willie Mays and Paul Cézanne.
Top Episodes — The Simpsons