The Simpsons 331-335

Catch 'Em If You Can

This episode premiered on April 25th, 2004. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and it was followed by a Simpsons repeat (Today I Am A Clown). It ran opposite Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Cold Case and Dateline NBC

The title comes from the 2002 movie Catch Me If You Can

The couch gag is a repeat of the frosted cake

Bart is holding a lecture about water balloons on the bus, he shoots one at Lisa. They get into a fight and Otto kicks them out at home. They fight their way in the door and knock Maggie into the cat box. Marge tells them to stop fighting and start packing for Uncle Tyrone's birthday in Dayton Ohio. The kids complain so Homer decides to leave them home with Grandpa. For their last night as a family they rent a movie, Marge goes with Love Story. The kids complain through the whole film making Marge and Homer angry. Bart gets bored and uses picture in picture to watch Krusty. Homer is upset because he sat through a chick flic and didn't get any "snuggling". At the airport Marge sees happy people on their way to Miami, they decide to trade in their tickets and head to Florida. Since the flight is overbooked they move Homer and Marge to the first class. The kids see a news story about a tornado ripping apart the hotel where their parents are suppose to be staying in Ohio, just then Marge calls to say they are OK, she doesn't know about the tornado. Bart finds out they parents are in Miami so they force Grandpa to go with them to track Homer and Marge down. A couple say they can't wait to have kids, Marge and Homer have a laughing fit. When the parents get back to the hotel they spot the kids camped out in front of their room so they take off  using Ned's stolen card, they kids spot them and decide to chase them down using Rod's stolen card. Bart gets on the reservation computer, reroutes the parent's luggage and schedules Homer for the low fat in flight meal. A guy offers to let Grandpa stay at his penthouse in Miami. In Atlantic City, while riding in the elevator to their room the parents spot the kids, they get off in the casino and then take off. Grandpa finds out that the guy he's staying with is Gay. The parents finally get away to Niagara Falls but the kids  catch them. The family gets into a fight so Marge gives up and plans to go home the next day. Lisa and Bart start to feel bad about bothering their parents so they take off to an amusement park, however Marge and Homer had already snuck out to go to the same park. They run into each other on the Ferris wheel, the parents try to hide in a closed bounce house, however they get a little randy and knock it over a cliff and into the river. The Canadians and American rescue boats get into a fight over saving them and the parents go over the falls. They end up in front of the Maiden Of The Mist, while doing the nasty. The show ends with Ned getting his credit card bill. 

Lisa is reading How To Talk To a Drunk Father.

Lackluster Video "If it doesn't star Sandra Bullock, your rental is free!" (A video rental store is quite the dated reference). Moves at the store: Ski Shul / Jerk-cules / Sea Triscuit / President Black Guy (Another Simpsons Prediction) / TV Show: The Movie / When Harry Became Sally / Air Chimp / Cemetery Academy. This is a spoof of Blockbuster Videos

The adult section films: Merchant-Ivory / Truffaut / Unfunny Woody Allen / Henry Jaglom / Bergman / Spike & Ang Lee 

Aloha Mufflers: Say "Aloha" to values. 

Homer reads The Economist: Indonesia's Gambit.

Bart dials *69 to find out where Marge was calling from. Does that still work?

Homer and Marge stay at the Swelldorado Hotel.

Grandpa runs over a guy in an Eeyore costume. He calls himself Eemore to avoid a copyright problem. Now Disney owns The Simpsons. 

When Grandpa goes looking for a woman in Miami the theme from Miami Vice plays and they do a Senior version of the opening credits. 

Homer steals Ned's credit card from The First Bank Of Springfield. The number is 8525 4941 2525 4158 Valid from 1/1 Good thru 12/31 Viza. Bart steals Rod Flanders' card, it has the same numbers.

Miami Airport, Formerly The Everglades 

Welcome To Atlantic City: Where New York Comes To Smoke / Trump Brothel (A spoof on Trump Taj Mahal, I wonder if this joke is about trump's grandfather, look it up)

Dredric Tatum is holding an exhibition boxing match with a white rhino and blowing up balloons on the boardwalk.

A montage of Bart and Lisa chasing Homer and Marge around the country is a spoof on the opening titles from Catch Me If You Can, complete with the theme song.

Niagara Falls Airport: Welcome to Niagara Falls Weddings, Honeymoons, Suicides

Rickety Brothers Amusement Park Niagara Falls New York. 

This episode was bits and pieces, the running away montage was too long and it all just felt disjointed. Plus every member of the family was super annoying, a Lisa level of annoying. I know I've seen it before but it just became background noise and I didn't pay attention, I forgot about Grandpa and the Gay dude, a story that never had a conclusion (not that I want to find out how that played out). Anyhow, on to the next one.

Simple Simpson

This episode premiered on May 2nd 2004. It ran in its usual time slot (the Simpsons rerun was I D'oh-Bot). It ran opposite the regular programs.

The title comes from the poem Simple Simon.

The couch gag is a repeat of the Batman 66 entrance.

Farmer Billy has put golden tickets into packages of bacon for a free tour of his "bacon factory" (Warning: Bacon Factory May Explode). Homer buys up all of Apu's bacon but finds a silver ticket, instead of going to the factory he becomes an honorary hog judge at the county fair. Lisa enters a place setting competition, all her plates and cutlery are musically based so the judge mocks her. Homer gets mad and hits him with a pie, but Homer has to hide his face so he creates a disguise from stuff around the fair. Everybody laughs at the judge and he runs away. When CBG forces Bart to buy crappy comics, claiming he smudged them, Homer decides to create a superhero costume for Pie Man and get revenge. Just after Homer hits CBG with a pie Nichelle Nichols walks in, she takes one look and walks out. When Marge guesses it could be Ned, Homer almost gives his secret away. He hits Krusty with a pie over the slight decline in the program's quality. (Hitting Krusty with a pie is part of his show so...) The police set up an exchange program, guns for pies. The Springfield Children's Hospital is becoming the Springfield Cosmetic Surgery. Clinic. It's a trap and when Homer shows up the police start shooting at him causing a mob panic. Marge almost gets trampled but Homer saves her and then kisses her while hanging upside down. Homer gets shot but has to dig the bullet out himself, and gets caught by Lisa. She asks him to stop before he gets killed. Homer goes to work and sees Burns treating everyone horribly so he decides to pull one last pieing. While trying to escape Burns tracks him on the security camera and discover Homer sleeping on the office couch. They take him to the power plant dungeon and pull off his mask. Burns decides to make Homer his hitman and his first target is himself, Homer smashes a pie into his own face. The next person Homer has to pie is a Girl Scout selling Cookes. Burns' next target is the Dalai Lama. Lisa introduces the Lama so instead of hitting him with a pie Homer exposes himself to the entire crowd, however nobody believes that he's the real Pie Man because he's too stupid and lazy. Marge tells Homer she always knew he was the Pie Man but before they snuggle he goes out on the roof in his costume, Bart shows up as the Cupcake Kid, Marge makes them clean the gutters. 

Nichelle Nichols does her own voice.

The family is watching Promiscuous Idiots Island. A spoof on Love Island and other such shows.

Repeated joke. On the dating show the women find out the horrible truth about the island, it's really a peninsula. In the episode Lisa On Ice she dreams she is President but they find out she flunked gym so she's sent to Monster Island only to find out it's really a peninsula. 

Self aware joke: Bart says when you sign a contract with Fox you know you're going to be betrayed and humiliated. 

During Farmer Billy's commercial Ralph can be seen on the hog conveyor belt about to be fed into the 5 story shredder. 

Farmer Billy's: Slow Kill Bacon / Bacon Fed Bacon / Traveling Bacon 

The Golden Ticket promotion comes from the 1964 book Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.

Apu sells guns, $2 a pound. 

Springfield County Fair: Who Still Goes To These? Find Out Inside. Worlds Biggest Pumpkin / Bok Choy / Ribbon / Brussels Sprout / Pile Of Mashed Potatoes (Bart hides the brussel sprout under the potatoes) 

There is a country singer doing an over the top patriotic song. He looks like Alan Jackson.

The judge who laughed at Lisa is the Yahoo Texan. 

The comic books CBG forces Bart to buy: Richie Rich The Poor Little Rich Boy Incorporates In Delaware  / Easy To Believe Tales (with Jesus on the cover) / Supergirl Vs. The Glass Ceiling / The Green Listener / Fantastic Floor: Annual Hardwood Issue!

When Homer is creating his costume you can see Xtapolapocetl, the Olmec head, in the background of the basement. 

Homer's pie pan has a note "Evildoers Beware! Signed, Simple Simon Your Friendly Neighborhood Pieman."

Springfield Shopper headline: Obese Nerd Eats Humble Pie / "Pie Man" Back For Seconds

Homer kissing Marge is a spoof on the 2002 version of Spider-Man

Springfield Town Hall banner: Tonight: The Dalai Lama "Free Tibet" and Free T-Shirts to the First Hundred Fans.

The Dalai Lama enters to Tibetan Horns playing Elvis's stage entrance music.

The Way We Weren't

This episode premiered on May 9th 2004. It ran in its usual time slot (The Simpsons rerun was Marge Vs. Seniors, etc) It ran opposite The ABC Sunday Night Movie (Harry Potter And the Sorcerer's Stone), Survivor and Dateline NBC

The title comes from the 1973 movie The Way We Were.

The couch gag is a repeat of the knife throwing

Bart tricks Milhouse and Ralph into raking the yard. Milhouse and Bart play Spin The Bottle with Terri and Sherri and their boy crazy cousin in the treehouse, however Milhouse ends up kissing Homer by mistake. Marge makes Homer and Bart go to "Family Court" to settle the argument over wasting his beer to kiss girls,  Lisa is the judge. When Bart says Homer probably kissed a lot of girls when he was 10 Marge claims Homer's first kiss was with her in high school, however he confesses what his real first kiss was. Homer goes to camp where he meets Lenny, Carl and Moe. The boys find out that they are working the kitchen at the girls camp in order to pay the camp's bills. Some girl loses her retainer so Homer saves it for her but they don't meet in person since they are on opposite sides of the tray flap. Homer accidentally stabs himself in the eye. When Homer is trying to figure out how to cross the late the Sea Captain shows up and takes him across. It turns out the girl at the camp was Marge however he didn't show up and broke her heart, she never forgave him. Marge tells her side of the story. The girls camp is a place to teach manners and deportment. The girls make fun of the mystery man in the kitchens name and say it's probably something low rent like Homer so he claims his name is Elvis Jagger Abdul-Jabbar. The night of her date Marge accidentally turns her hair brown. Homer did the fake yawn move to put his arm around Marge but she thinks he's boring her so she starts talking about bands. Mentally Homer calls himself a chicken but makes the clucking sound for real so Marge kisses him to make him stop. Marge and Homer plant to meet at Second Date Rock but he never shows up and she goes away broken hearted. Homer tells his side of the story, he gives her a heart shaped rock. Homer doesn't look where he's going and falls off a cliff into the river and comes to at at fat camp and spends the summer being forced to lose weight. Marge tries to call the boy's camp and asks to speak to Elvis Jagger, Moe answers and thinks she's prank calling and hangs up on her. Marge throws away the heart shaped rock and leaves camp. Homer manages to hop in the back of a truck and escapes from fat camp, when he shows up at the girl's camp he meets Selma and Patty and they tell him she's gone. He finds the heart shaped rock broken in half. Marge still doesn't forgive Homer. Homer pulls out half of the broken heart rock, it turns out Marge kept the other half. The two "snuggle".

Marge comes up with the idea of Family Court from a book, 101 Spank-Ternatives. 

Camp See-A-Tree For Underprivileged Boys. Marge goes to Camp Land-A-Man

Self Aware Joke. Homer talks about when he was ten in the 60's, or 70's or maybe it was the 80's. This is a joke about the family remaining the same age for 15 years. Homer calls for a recess just before the commercial break. When Marge calls the boy's camp and Moe thinks it's a prank he says "And that's the origin of that" even though they don't really do prank calls anymore.

When Homer wants to cross the lake between the camps he says it's either row or wade, but it's his right to choose. Kind of timely there. 

Cookie Kwan is at the girl's camp. She is reading Lose Your Accent In 30 Years.

When Homer stabs himself in the eye Moe gives him an eyepatch to wear. Moe wore a similar one as Dr. Tad Winslow on the soap opera It Never Ends in the episode Pygmoelian.

Marge warns the kids the next part of the story is a little WB. The WB network ran from 1995 to 2006. (less time than The Simpsons have been on the air) It was merged with UPN and became the CW network.

Happy Together by The Turtles plays while Marge is feeling her fireworks over kissing Homer. 

When Marge kisses Homer he imagines Screaming Yellow Zonkers raining down on him. This is a caramel coated popcorn snack. Quisp shows up with a bowl of cereal, this is the alien mascot for the cereal of the same name. Homer plunges into the Kool-Aid man. 

Wiggum / Quimby / CBG are at Fat Camp. 

Sammy's Scale Repair shows up at the fat camp.

To say he's done worst things than standing her up at camp Homer runs through the list of things he did over the years, hiding a gun (The Cartridge Family), sued the church (Pray Anything), ruins Lisa's wedding in the future (Lisa's Wedding)

Homer has a Baretta lunch box, it was a 1975 TV series staring Robert Blake. 

In Homer's memory box is a letter from Osama (bin Laden) and half of the heart shaped rock that was broken in two.

This turned into another "Marge and Homer's marriage is in trouble" episodes. I should have kept track of how many of those there are. 

Bart Mangled Banner

This episode premiered on May 16th 2004. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and it was followed by That 70's Show. It ran opposite Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, CBS Sunday Movie (Helter Skelter the 2004 version) and Dateline NBC

The title comes from the title of the U.S. National Anthem "The Star Spangled Banner"

The couch gag is a repeat of the microwave oven.

The family goes out for ice cream and kittens, only it's a trap, it's really shot day. Bart fights back with a skeleton however Lisa declares she's brave but then cries and wants a lollypop. Bart takes off but Dr. Hippert goes after him. After several tries Hibbert says Bart is too smart but it turns out to be Barney who grabs him and Hibbert gives him the shot. It turns out Bart has a reaction to the shot and his ears swell up, he goes deaf. Hibbert gives Homer a free pen and has him try it out, however Homer signed a malpractice waiver. Homer tests bart with a series of noises but he still can't hear. The bullies are afraid of him for standing his ground. Willie confesses that he's been deaf since the boiler explosion. Marge wants Bart to stay home from school but he doesn't want to miss the donkey basketball game. Homer makes a joke about Bart being deaf, but he can't hear it. When the national anthem plays Bart can't hear it and is teasing a donkey, he puts a carrot in his back pocket and the donkey tears off his pants and everyone thinks he's mooning the flag. The Springfield Shopper overhypes the story and everyone gets mad at the family. The bar crowd refuses to talk to Homer so he talks to himself and gets into a fight with himself over Marge. Everyone refuses to drink with him so Homer helps himself to the liquor. Nash Castor invites the family onto his show to get their side of the story. The show is a setup and Marge accidentally says she hates Americans and then says nice people in Springfield like her, so the host declares Springfield hates America. It spreads all over the country, even Congress declares We Hate Springfield Day. Quimby is upset because so many festivals are pulling out of the city so he changes the name to Liberty-Ville, where everything costs $17.76. Reverend Lovejoy preaches about patriotism and has Jesus in a Evil Keneval jumpsuit, giving a thumbs up. Lisa gives a speech about the First Amendment, the government shows up and arrests them. The organist plays Take Me Out To The Ballgame. In prison the kids start to get mind washed. Gummy Joe tells The Simpsons if they want to escape they have to do it during the talent show. They discover they are on Alcatraz and have to swim for it. A French boat rescues the family and takes them to Paris. The family comes back as immigrants and customs changes their names to The Simps.

Dr. Hibbert "Welcome to Hell....man Avenue Medical Plaza

Outside the Doctor's office, Springfield Children's Cemetery. 

One Way Or Another by Blonde plays during the scene when Dr Hibbert is chasing Bart.

When Dr. Hibbert tries to inoculate Bart from a biplane it's a spoof on the scene from the 1959 movie North By Northwest.

Hibbert gives Homer a pamphlet: Death Prick, A Parent's Guide To Shots Gone Wrong.

Bart reads Temporarily Deaf Weekly.

Springfield Elementary 55th Annual Donkey Basketball Tournament.

Faculty in the basketball game, Chalmers, Skinner, Ms. Hoover Mrs. Krabappal, Mr. Largo

This episode ran 12 years before the athletes kneeling during the National Anthem protests.

Daily Fourth Guardian headline: In-De No-Pans Day! with a photo of Bart with his butt out.

Lenny has a tattoo of the flag with Dole Kemp 96 on it. Bob Dole and VP nominee Kemp lost the 1996 election to Clinton and Gore.

Bart's past excuses, Blind, Wheelchair, Pregnant and Railroad Spike Through Head.

Springfield Shopper headline: U-ASS-A! with a photo of an evil Bart mooning a shocked Statue of Liberty.

When You Wash Upon A Car Car Wash.

Moe is Dutch and in the US on a permanent Visa.

Lisa's spam email: Refinance your home, you commie pig!

The show the family goes on is Head Butt With Nash Castor.

Wow, they do a joke about people in the Middle East that's really bad, talk about a total lack of PC.

The town going overboard on their patriotism is a spoof on the Freedom Fries propaganda of 2003, when the conservatives tried to eliminate the word French from all American products after the country said it wouldn't support Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Gil is teaching driver's ed but since they changed the lights to Red, White and Blue he makes the student pull out in the intersection and they run into Krusty, who makes Mr. Teenie swallow all his illegal pills.

Apu sells Homeland Noodles with Uncle Sam Balls. He changes the names of his kids to Freedom / Lincoln / Condoleezza / Coke / Pepsi / Manifest Destiny / Apple Pie and Superman. He also changes the families last name to the MacGillicuddys.

First Church of Libertyville sign: Is God patriotic enough?

Other celebrities in the special jail Michael Moore / The Dixie Chicks / Elmo / Bill Clinton / Al Franken

The Simpsons go to the Ronald Reagan Reeducation Center. 

Gummy Joe shows up as a prisoner. He was first seen in the episode Last Exit To Springfield 

The families escape plan comes from the movie The Sound Of Music and The Blues Brothers,  their musical number is a spoof on the 1976 show The Brady Bunch Hour. 

The family heads to Paris, Bart went to France in the episode The Crepes Of Wrath. Marge is wearing a Chenille suit the same as the one she wore in the episode Scenes From The Class Struggle In Springfield

When the family return to America it's a spoof on Vito coming to America in the 1974 film The Godfather II

Coming To America by Neil Diamond plays over the closing credits.

This was another disjointed episode, first it was Bart not wanting to get a shot, then going deaf, then being accused of mooning the flag, then the entire city gets accused of being unpatriotic, then the family goes to prison, to France and finally back to America. It was mostly a spoof on the over the top rhetoric of the Bush White House in his lead up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. I'd say it's really dated now but with Trump running for President we've seen a lot of the same themes coming out of the Republican Party. However it's still not a great episode. 

btw, my first time watching it.

Fraudcast News

This episode premiered on May 23rd, 2004. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and it was followed by Malcolm In The Middle. It ran opposite Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Cold Case and Dateline NBC

The title comes from the 1987 movie Broadcast News

The couch gag is a repeat of the Anime characters.

While dedicating Geezer Rock Lisa spots a tree growing out of the rock. Homer climbs up the rock to pull it out since it will disrupt tourist business at his roadside corn stand. Just as Lisa is reading her poem Homer causes the rock face to collapse. Mr Burns is buried during the avalanche. Lisa is upset that nobody heard her poem so Marge suggests she publish it, she plans to do it herself. Burns survives in an air pocket and then crawls out. When he checks out the news he finds out nobody cares that he is dead. Smithers suggests that Burns change his image, instead of doing good deeds he buys up the newspapers and starts running positive stories about himself. Homer, Lenny and Carl dress in white tuxes to dance on Burns' grave. When Lisa finds out that Burns controls all the media she puts out a special edition of her self printed paper on how bad Burns is, he attempts to buy her with dancing ponies. While trying to deliver the paper the Simpsons's car is attacked by another car, helicopter and a thug on a Segway.  Lisa's  staff quits except for Ralph, he is hired by the Chicago Tribune. Bart sticks around to help Lisa by drawing an image of Burns destroying the free press. Smithers convinces Burns to stop Lisa in a nonviolent way so he cuts the power to their house. Skinner offers Lisa the school mimeograph. When he's losing the print war to Lisa Burns calls up his league of evil but they are all dead. Burns drugs Homer to get information from him. Burns runs stores about Lisa loving Milhouse and then projects the message on the moon with lasers. Homer gets mad at how Lisa was treated so he writes up The Homer Times, headline My Daughter, The Hero. Inspired by Lisa everyone in town starts their own paper. To feel better about losing the paper war Burns goes shopping. 

The band Blood, Sweat And Tears performs their song Spinning Wheels. Quimby calls them Blood and Tears and says "sorry to hear about Sweat"

Springfield's most beloved tourist attraction is Geezer Rock, it is based on The Old Man Of The Mountain in New Hampshire, which is featured on the state quarter. The real rock formation collapsed in 2003.

During Kent Brockman's broadcast a teen jumps off Geezer Rock because they cancelled Futurama. The show was cancelled in 2003 but came back in 2008. It was cancelled again in 2013 but returned in 2023.

Smithers has a tattoo, it's a heart with the words Boss Of My Heart and the image of him and Mr. Burns. 

Lisa's paper is called The Red Dress Press. 

Bumblebee Man makes an appearance, he hand't been on the show for a while.

Bart tells Lisa he's already sold subscriptions to her paper and got prizes for it. This is a spoof on Grit Newspaper that would offer prizes to kids who sold the paper.

Sign at the Springfield Elementary: Newspaper Staff Wanted / Apply to Editor-In-Chief at the Jungle Gym.

Channel 6, Still In English. A Division of Burns Media

Bart does a comic for the paper Seymour Skinrash.

Daly News headline Beloved Hero Cheats Death with a photo of Burns.

Booberella makes an appearance. She was first seen in the episode I'm Spelling As Fast As I Can.

The Itchy And Scratchy Show, What's Nuked, Pussycat. Written and Directed by C. Montgomery Burns. Scratchy is protesting the nuclear plant, Itchy impales him with a forklift and drives him by the orphanage and hospital powered by the plant. When Scratchy mentions wind power Itchy drives him into a turbine decapitating him. 

Burns Weekly headline It's Too Late. 

The Red Dress Press headline Lisa To Burns, Drop Dead / Ralph Wiggum's Oscar Pick with a photo of him picking his nose / Nyah, Nyah We're Back Lisa Rules, Burns Drools / Final 'I Give Up' Edition.

Homer listens to The Spice Girls singing Wannabe.

When Skinner flashes back to Vietnam Incense and Peppermints by Strawberry Alarm Clock plays.

Springfield Shopper Headline Lisa's A Total Wacko, Implies Father. / Lisa Loves Milhouse

Other papers: The Barney Bugle / The LennySaver "The truth about Carl, He's Great! / The Willie World News / Twin Spin "Are you a Patty or a Selma?"

Self aware joke, Burns says you can't control all the media, unless you're Rupert Murdock and then call him one beautiful man.

This episode is sort of a Simpsons prediction. With the rise of the internet pretty much everyone has become their own reporter, expressing their opinions on social sites, video channels and yes, even blogs. 

This was the last episode of the 15th season and another breaking point for me. What luck.