The Simpsons 261-265

Day of the Jackanapes

This episode premiered on February 18th, 2001. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and it was followed by Malcom In The Middle. It ran opposite The ABC Sunday Night Movie (Ever After), Touched By An Angel and Dateline NBC. (this was also during the era of XFL Football)

The title comes from the 1971 novel Day of the Jackal, and the 1973 film of the same name. Jackanapes is a 15th century term describing a trained monkey or a person who acts mischievously.

The chalkboard gag is "The Hamster did not have "a full life" and the couch gag is a repeat of the Sigmund Freud bit.

Moe is on Me Wantee! He's up for $500,000 dollar and they ask him what isn't a sub atomic particle, so he calls Homer. Lisa answers the phone and gives him the right answer. He decides to take the money and not try for the million, so they torch the other $500,000. Meanwhile Krusty has a meeting with the network executives who say his show is being killed by game shows and they want him to change. They even interrupt his show mid broadcast with "notes" so he announces Friday will be his last show. Lisa complains, what a shock. The kids hold a protest outside the studio so Wiggum uses teargas on them. When interviewed Krusty says he taped over the old episodes to record Judge Judy, Sideshow Bob sees this and gets upset since his best work is gone. The parole board sets Bob free, he moves into a storage unit for $2 a day and his neighbor is Gil. Bob gets a job as an assistant janitor at Springfield Elementary. He does the morning announcement and says Bart needs to go to the abandon sports shed behind the gym. When he shows up Bob threatens him but Bart points out that his record is 6-0, Bob steps on a rake (the gag was first used in the episode Cape Feare) Bob's plan is to hypnotize Bart and get him to kill Krusty during his final show. Bart uses a flamethrower ob Krusty and Bob comes out on stage, but it's just his dream. Ron Howard, wearing a bath robe, and Gary Coleman, doing karate, show up at the final Krusty episode red carpet. Rainer Wolfcastle shows up in a really worn out tuxedo and begs for a job. Dr. Hibbert shows up on stage to collect Krusty's pledges of one million dollars to start the Krusty's Kare Center. Krusty hints to his banker to stop payment on the check. Bob rigs a bomb to Bart and when he hugs Krusty he'll trigger the plastic explosives killing them both. Bob works his way out on the catwalk over the stage to see the explosion. Krusty says he's only ashamed of one thing, treating Sideshow Bob badly. Bob tries to stop Bart but he can't get on stage, however Mr. Teenie sees the bomb, swings in and throws the bomb into a room full of network executives, who re-morph and offer notes including bring Dave Chappell onto the show. Everyone goes to the Pimento Grove for dinner where Krusty says he's sorry that Bob got the death penally, Wiggum wheels out a guillotine. The credits roll. 

Gary Coleman does his own voice in this episode. He first appeared in the episode Grift Of The Magi.

The plot of this episode is based on the 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate and the 1962 movie.

Me Wantee! is a spoof on Who Want's To Be A Millionaire, the show was running in prime time in 2001 and had been opposite The Simpsons on several occasions. Moe's $500,000 question: Which Of The Following Is Not a Subatomic Particle? A: Proton / B: Neutron / C: Bonbon / D: Electron.

Moe says he was born in Indiana.

Self aware joke, Marge says it's good for a show to go off the air before it gets stale and repetitive (during another Krusty leaves TV episode) just then Smithers comes in to say Maggie shot Mr. Burns, again. The announcer says it's Krusty's fifth and final retirement. (I don't know what's coming in the future so we'll see)

Kent Brockman says Krusty quitting TV hadn't caused such a reaction since the Banana Splits died in a plane crash. The Banana Splits were a costumed Saturday Morning show created by Hanna-Barbera in association with Sid And Marty Krofft. The show ran from 1968 to 1970 on Saturday morning. 

Sideshow Bob reads Prison Bride magazine.

Broken Dreams Storage Lockers "The Most Depressing Place On Earth"

Mr. Teenie performs as a Chimpendale Dancer doing The Full Monkey. This is based on the Chippendale Dancers (male strippers) and the 1997 movie The Full Monty. 

Krusty made his tv debut on the Milk Of Magnesia Summer Cavalcade in 1957. He was banned after saying Bolshoi when referring to his groin. This is a reference to Jackie Mason and the infamous "Finger" comment on Ed Sullivan (Mason's major comeback to TV was as the voice of Hyman Krustofsky in the episode Like Father Like Clown). Krusty's astronaut bit is based on Bill Dana who would do Jose Jimenez "the first U.S. astronaut" also on Ed Sullivan. Krusty's attempt at a come back was on Laugh-In but he got stuck behind one of the doors.

Krusty says he's about to sweep up his last spotlight. This was the trademark bit of Emmett Kelly, perhaps the best known clown of his day.

Krusty sings a song about being framed by Sideshow Bob to the tune of Mandy by Barry Manilow. 

The executive hanging on to the back of Krusty's golf cart and later returning as a blob to offer notes is a spoof on the T-1000 from the 1991 film Terminator 2.

New Kids On The Blecch

This episode premiered on February 25, 2001. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite The W.W.O. Disney (Lady and the Tramp), Touched By An Angel and Dateline NBC

The title comes from the boy band New Kids on the Block and an expression of disgust routinely used in Mad Magazine. 

The chalkboard gag is "I will not buy a Presidential Pardon" and the couch gag is the couch is outside of a prison, the family, in striped prison uniforms, crawl out of a tunnel and sit on it while a spotlight is shined on them. 

Homer is watching a video about the Olympics and sees a marathon runner who is 38, he says "that's roughly my age" (a joke about the inconsistencies in the series timeline regarding his age), he decides to run the Springfield Marathon. Marge says he gets tired watching the Twilight Zone marathon and calls herself a regular Billy Crystal, Bart says "you got that right." This is a reference to Crystal hosting a number of award shows back in the day. The Springfield Marathon is in honor of the time Jedediah ran across 6 states to avoid his creditors, the grand prize is a walking tour of Springfield. Bart shows up disguised as an Italian and wins the race, however a crow steals his mustache and he's exposed. Just as the mob is about to overrun him he jumps in a convertible with L.T. Smash, a promoter. Smash is creating the Party Posse, a boy band. His other members are Milhouse, Nelson and Ralph. When they sing they are horrible but the autotune makes them sound great. They do a show at Springfield Elementary and NSYNC show up to congratulate them. The Party Posse puts out a video Drop Da' Bomb where they literally bomb Middle Easterners who then turn into bikini girls singing "Yvan Eht Nioj". Lisa gets skeptical (surprise) and watching the video in reverse where she sees the I Want You poster flash on the screen and the strange lyrics turn out to be Join The Navy in reverse. She sees Otto hopping on a military bus and tells him he's being brainwashed, he agrees and still gets on the bus. Lisa goes to L.T. Smash where she suddenly realizes he is Lieutenant Smash, a Navy Recruiter. After explaining his plan Smash tells Lisa she can't leave however she already ran away. The Party Posse are having their premier on the USS Sea Spanker naval museum, an aircraft carrier. They sing about reenlisting for four years. They then get the audience to march in place, Smash envisions them as attacking hippies. An admiral shows up to tell him the bad news, the new administration is shutting down Operation Boy Band because Mad Magazine runs an issue "We Flush The Party Posse". The admiral turns off autotune and the kids sound terrible. Smash launches the aircraft carrier and sails it to New York harbor where he plans to bomb the headquarters of Mad Magazine. NSYNC shows up to sing a song to defuse the situation. As they are arguing about the choreography of their dance Smash bombs Mad Magazine. Bart is upset that he won't be on the cover. NSYNC does a promotion for the Navy. The credit show behind the scenes shots of NSYNC recording their lines. 

NSYNC dotheir own voices. The boy band Natural sing The Party Posse songs. 

Homer's beer cans leave table rings in the shape of the Olympic logo, he is watching Great Moments In Olympic History: Jesse Owens outruns Hitler's Zeppelin in Berlin. 1968 Bob Beamon over jumps the sand pit in the long jump and crashes into the street in Mexico. (Hitler is seen in the crowd in both shots). Carlos Lopez, breathing heavily, is the worlds oldest marathon runner at the age of 38, he falls over at the weight of the gold ribbon. 

Springfield Marathon "Ruin Your Knees For Charity"

The label for the Party Posse is Classified Records. 

The other groups L.T. Smash created are New Kids In The Ditch and Boy-nudo. 

The first video is Party Posse "Drop Da Bomb" directed by Ang Lee

Dated reference, the Simpsons are watching MTV and they still show videos. Lisa uses a VHS tape to investigate the Party Posse song.

In the video the Party Posse raises a pole that turns out to be for tether ball, this is a spoof on the raising of the flag at Iowa Jima. 

Lieutenant Smash tells Lisa the military has always used pop stars for recruitment purposes from Elvis, Sgt. Pepper, Captain and Tennille and the Kiss Army.

One of the shops at the Squidport Mall is Hell Ha k. It was originally the Shell Shack but is missing the S S and C. I'm not sure what the joke is or if this has to do with the eventual deterioration of the mall. 

Hungry Hungry Homer

This episode premiered on March 4th, 2001. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (see Day of the Jackanapes, right up there), Touched By An Angel and Dateline NBC.

The name of the episode comes from the game Hungry Hungry Hippos. 

The chalkboard gag is "Temptation Island was not a sleazy piece of crap" and the couch gag is a repeat of the karate family.

Homer sees a commercial for Blocko Land and wants to go, but neither Bart or Lisa wants to. However Maggie tries to steal the car and go alone so the family visits the park. Everything is block shaped, even the food. Lisa buys a Blocko Eiffel Tower but it's missing a piece so Homer goes back and demands the guy replace it, he decides to stand up for the little guy. He tries to get a girl to go out with Bart, threatens the beautician who didn't honor Marge's coupon for streaking her hair, she ends up looking like the Bride of Frankenstein. Lenny is mad that the Isotopes (baseball team), he says they have been lousy since Duff Beer bought them and wants his money back for his season tickets. Homer decides this is the perfect opportunity to help out. Homer fails to get Lenny's money back but on the way out he sees a room full of Albuquerque Isotopes merchandise. Duffman injects Homer to make him forget what he saw. However when Homer tells Bart that occasionally he's quirky it makes him think of Albuquerque and it all comes back to him. Homer calls a press conference to expose Duff but they hid all the merchandise. Duffman disguises himself as a reporter to smear Homer. He vows to go on a hunger strike to expose the truth and chains himself to a post in front of the stadium. The family discovers that Marge makes too much food and have to eat a lot to make up for Homer's absence. The crowd is hanging out in front of the stadium instead of going to the game, the owners sneak Homer inside and claim he's on a hunger strike until the team wins the pennant. After 9 days Homer tries to reach a pretzel but the ghost os Caesar Chavez shows up to keep him going, however the team replaces Homer with Paint Drinking Pete. To end his hunger strike the team offers him a Duff Dog Supreme, with mesquite smoked onions, jalapeños relish and mango lime salsa. The southwest flavors makes the crowd realizes Homer is telling the truth, and confirms it when they look at the hot dog wrappers with the Albuquerque Isotopes logo on it. Cut to the mayor of Albuquerque deciding to look for a new team and wants to get the Dallas Cowboys. When his secretary points out that they are football he says they'll play what he tells them to play because "I am the Mayor Of Albuquerque". (He's watching a pueblo shaped tv btw)

Stacey Keach does the voice of Howard K. Duff VIII.

Temptation Island (the chalkboard gag) ran on Fox from 2001 to 2003. It was widely criticized for turning marriage and infidelity into a game show, especially since Fox News was trying to promote "Family Values" at the same time. The show was revived on the USA network in 2019.

The family watches a commercial for Blocko Land, a spoof on Legoland, which had opened in California in 1999.

Bart and Nelson play on the Rock'em Sock'em Blockbots, a spoof on Rock'em Sock'em Robots.

There is a pretty bad Loafer Lightner joke, an offensive term for Gay people btw.

When Duff dumps Homer at home they leave him on top of the dog house, Bart comes out and sees him and says "Good Grief". This is a spoof on Peanuts with the Charlie Brown catchphrase and Snoopy's dog house.

Lisa gives Homer a copy of Mike Farrells "My Core Beliefs" to help him with his hunger strike. Homer says "Man he really hates Wayne Rogers". This is in reference to the show MASH for the century kids out there that don't recognize those names. 

Food vendors at the stadium, hot dogs, pork chops with apple sauce, Peking duck. 

When this episode aired Jim Baca was the Mayor of Albuquerque. 

The irony of this show is that at the time it aired the Los Angeles Dodgers had a farm team in Albuquerque called The Dukes. However the team moved to Oregon and became the Portland Beavers. In 2001 the Calgary Cougars moved to Albuquerque and became the farm team for the Colorado Rockies. They needed a new name to reflect the city and The Isotopes was one in consideration since the area had been instrumental in developing the atomic bomb. The Albuquerque Journal ran a poll and the Isotopes won by a landslide. Thus the fictional team became a reality and another Simpsons prediction came true, although this one became a self fulfilling prophecy.   

Despite me referring to these as the "dark years" this was a really good episode of The Simpsons. It stuck to one storyline, there wasn't anything extremely cartoonish or wacky about the show. And Homer came across as rather smart instead of a buffoon. Overall I'd give it a solid A-

Bye Bye Nerdie

This episode premiered on March 11th, 2001. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite the regular programs. The W.W.O. Disney movie was The Prince Of Thieves.

The title is a spoof on the 1960 Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie, and the 1963 film of the same name. 

The chalkboard gag is "I will not scare the Vice President" and the couch gag is a repeat of the bumper cars.

The kids aren't getting ready for school so Marge rushes them through their morning routine, however they miss the bus so she runs it down, however Otto thinks she's trying to race him. They end up in the canal, a spoof on the L.A. river from so many movies. She finally stops the bus right in front of the school, she makes the kids get on the bus just long enough to get off. Otto remembers that there is a new stop on his route so he turns around to get them, it turns out to be the new girl Francine. A baby proofer shows up to tell Homer and Marge the house is a death trap, when Homer sees the estimate he throws her out. Lisa tries to make friends with the new kid but gets punched. Homer decides to baby proof the house but Maggie nails him to the wall with the nail gun. Lisa asks Nelson for bully protection however when they find out the bully is a girl they refuse. She decides to research why bullies act the way they do. Homer goes into the baby proofing business. Lisa realizes that the bully is operating off pheromones. When Drederick Tatum visits the school Lisa wipes him with nerd sweat, Nelson attacks him even though he doesn't want to. Homer's business of baby proofing Springfield puts other businesses like the Baby Crutch store and the Baby sympathy cards out of business, to reverse things he tries to get kids to do reckless things. Lisa brings a caged Francine to a scientific gathering to demonstrate the pheromones. Professor Frink sets her free but Lisa sprays herself it Italian Dressing and Francine stops her attack. Lisa wins a gift certificate to JC Penny. Meanwhile Francine goes on the attack and beats up the science crowd then jumps towards the TV. Cut to the closing credits.

Kathy Griffin does the voice of Francine

The chalkboard gag is a reference to the then Vice President Dick Cheney who had a heart condition.

Stabby-O's have Pink Daggers, Green Hatchets and Yellow Ice Picks. This is a spoof on Lucky Charms.

The bottom of Otto's bus is designed like a giant skateboard with the logo for World Industries Flameboy on it. This is a real company.

To prove a phone can be dangerous Homer calls a poison delivery service.

Homer's obsession with safety is a repeat of the storyline from the episode Homer's Odyssey in the first season. 

Lisa makes the nerds sweat in the Marvin Monroe Memorial Gymnasium. It was first seen in the episode Brother's Little Helper.

When Homer is called the Safety Crusader he does the Safety Dance, a 1982 song by Men Without Hats.

Lisa goes to the 12 Annual Big Science Thing.

Always Safety First by NRBQ plays over the closing credits. 

Simpson Safari

This episode premiered on April 1st, 2001. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite The W.W.O Disney (Flubber) Touched By An Angel and NBA Basketball (Knicks 79 - Lakers 78)

The title comes from the 1962 song Surfin' Safari by The Beach Boys

The chalkboard gag is "I will not flush evidence" and the couch gag is a repeat of the kick line. 

Home takes the kids to the store and loads up on junk food while Marge takes Maggie to the hospital after she swallows a magazine. Homer harasses the bag boy and they go on strike. The family is starving, when SLH smells something he tries to outrun the family to an old lunch box in the attic. Homer finds an old box of Animal Crackers, inside is a golden giraffe which means he won the grand prize, a trip to Africa. The company refuses to honor a 30 year old contest until the string on the box breaks and hits Homer in the eye, they give him the trip in order to avoid a lawsuit. On the safari the guide, Kitenge, sees poachers. Homer slaps a hippo on the butt and it attacks the safari guide, they have to escape on the river and head down dangerous looking rapids. They end up at Victoria Falls and plunge over, but wind up in a man-eating flower, however they just push their way out. Homer tells Bart to climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro to see if they can spot the hotel, instead they follow a monkey to Joan Bushwell's Chip Refuge. Poachers show up to steal the chimps so the Simpsons volunteer to help defend the refuge. They use Swiss Family Robinson style weapons against the poachers. Lisa discovers the poachers are actually Greenpeace and Dr. Bushwell is using the chimps to mine diamonds. The Dr. offers to bribe the Simpsons into helping her out, cut to them on the plane leaving the country, with a pile of diamonds. Meanwhile the safari guild Kitenge has become President of the country. The previous President Muntu is now the steward on the flight. The episode closes with "Dedicated to the hardworking bag boys of America....whose ineptness and greed were the inspiration for this episode"

The kick line couch gag first appeared in the episode Lisa's First Word in 1992

The family goes to CostMo Foods. A spoof on Costco.

Springfield Shopper headline: Food Supply Cut Off. Even Pies.

Homer had a Burke's Law lunch box. Burke's Law was a detective show that ran from 1963 to 1966.

Homer wants to do everything on the box of animal crackers, shoot a lion in the face, fight Muhammad Ali and ride in a convertible driven by zebras.

Marge reads Unecessaries, the in flight catalog. This is a spoof on the Air Mall catalog. 

The Simpsons are on their way to Tanzania, which changes their name to New Zanzibar and then Pepsi Presents New Zanzibar. 

When the Simpsons see the animals at sunset it's s spoof on The Lion King. 

The family visits the Olduvai Gorge and see the oldest known human fossils.

Dr. Bushwell has diamonds on the souls of her shoes, this is a spoof on the 1986 song Diamonds On The Souls Of Her Shoes by Paul Simon. 

A note for the Century Kids, bag boys were teenagers who worked at grocery stores putting your groceries in bags and then carrying them out to your car, before self checkout lines eliminated the job.

This episode also exposed a big of a problem, American's lack of information about Africa. The families adventure takes them all over the map, they see animals native to one country but features in another and so forth. I wonder how it played on the continent?

I'm still slogging along through the Simpsons. Some episodes are pretty good reflecting the golden years, some are all over the road, like the last one, and make me wonder why I'm still doing this. Oh well, on to the next five.