The Simpsons 356-360

The Father, The Son And The Holy Guest Star

This episode premiered on may 15th 2005. The lead in show was the previous Simpsons episode (Home Away From Homer) and it was followed by Family Guy. It ran opposite Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Survivor and The Contender. 

The title comes from the Catholic prayer "The Father The Son and the Holy Ghost"

The couch gag is the family are balloons and float onto the couch, except Homer is upside down and Snowball II takes a swipe at him, causing him to pop and fly away. 

The school is holding a Medieval Festival, everyone is disappointed that it won't be like The Lord Of the Rings. Martin is going to be the king, Nelson is assigned as a guard. Bart has to play the Cooper. Lisa is named the queen. Milhouse makes his coat of arms, Spiderman on a field of green. Willie is assigned to be the village idiot complete with the plague. Skinner has the kids throw tomatoes at Willie (a bit of a historical inaccuracy there). Lisa mocks Bart and then has the guards lock him in the tower, the back of Skinner's Merkur. Willie has made a pie full of rats, when Lisa cuts it open they run wild throughout the festival, Skinner blames Bart and expels him from school. After going through a series of private schools they settle on St. Jerome's Catholic School. Bart goes to school and tries his old tricks so the nun wacks him with a yard stick and then makes him stand in the hall holding dictionaries in both hands. He meets Father Sean, after a fight St. Peter appeared to Sean, called him a wanker and told him to get his life in order, that's how he joined the priesthood. Bart reads about St. Sebastian who was pierced by Roman arrows but didn't die until they beheaded him (Trust me, Catholics have great gory stories). Bart is enjoying going to Catholic school but Marge gets worried that Bart is starting to convert. Bart says grace in Latin. Homer decides to pull Bart out of Catholic school but shows up during the pancake dinner, followed by Bingo. He wins a sack full of stuff and discovers about confession, however he finds that you have to be a Catholic to be absolved. Marge is embarrassed at church because Homer and Bart have gone Catholic and Lisa is a Buddhist. Ned says they're denomination broke off from the Catholic church in 1573 over the right to come to church with wet hair. Marge imagines going to Protestant heaven which is like a country club while Bart and Homer go to Catholic heaven that has piñatas, Italian dinners, the Irish fighting, they then break out into a giant Riverdance. Jesus is also hanging out with the Catholics, they are tossing him on a blanket even though he wants to stop. Homer has communion answers written on his arm. When Marge tries to take Bart he tells her "chicks have no authority here". Lisa agrees that people should be able to choose their own faith and points out that she's a Buddhist, Father Sean laughs at her and says lots of kids have imaginary friends. Lisa tells Homer and Father Sean that Marge is taking Bart to the Protestant Youth Festival. Bart is almost converted back by paintball but Homer and Father Sean show up, a fight breaks out but Bart tells them that it's all the same religion with just small differences. Skip to a 1000 years later when the armies of Bart worshipers are fighting over is the lesson of Tolerance and Love better than Understanding and Peace. St. Bart was killed when he was betrayed by Milhouse and pulled apart by snowmobiles. The Riverdance music plays over the closing credits.

Liam Neeson does the voice of Father Sean

The Lord Of The Rings movies had been released in 2001 Fellowship of the Ring, 2002 The Two Towers and 2003 Return Of The King

Bart has to read Who Made The Barrel? You Did!

Springfield Elementary banner, Today: Medieval Fairieyer. 

Otto plays the lute and does a Medieval version of the 1985 John Mellencamp song Rain On The Scarecrow and then does a spoof of Jimmi Hendrix at the Monterey Pop Festival where he played his guitar with his teeth and then set it on fire.

Merkurs were produced between 1985 and 1989 by Lincoln Mercury.

Homer threatens to send Bart to the army and says they could end up in a new quagmire, anything was possible with commander cuckoo bananas in charge. George Bush jr. was the President in 2005.

St. Jerome. He Suffered For Our Sins. Now It's Your Turn.

Lives of the Saints comics. On the cover is a saint fighting a lion"I forgive thee- Now Die!" (I remember Catholic comic books, kind of preachy actually)

The free comic from the dentist is "Dr. Shaprio vs. Plaque-ula"

Bart says grace in Latin. However Catholics haven't used Latin since 1965.

Bumblebee Man has a line in this episode. 

Homer has a Catholic pamphlet about having children "Plop til you Drop"

Springfield Shopper headline: Local Father, Son May Switch Religions

Scott Joplin's Ragtime plays during a montage of Homer and Bart turning Catholic. 

Bart, Homer and Father Sean go to the Frying Dutchman for the Friday Fish Special 

First Church Of Springfield sign "Are you a James The Lesser or a James the Greater?

Ned calls for an emergency meeting of the church's spiritual council, at Stuckey's 

Reverend Lovejoy drives The Ministry Machine, a spoof on The Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo.

Reverend Lovejoy says his church is the one true faith, The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism.

Marge's ringtone is the theme from Hawaii 5-0

Protestant Youth Festival. We Put The "Fun" in Religious Fun.

Protestant Youth Fest.  Tomorrow: Springfield Witches' Coven. 

Quiet Riot plays the festival but they've converted and are now Pious Riot. 

At the church carnival Bart plays Onward Paintball Soldiers. 

In the episode Three Gays Of The Condo Bart makes the sign of the cross when he finds a dead hamsters and in the episode Lisa Gets An A Bart says he wants to become Catholic so he can get booze and wafers.

Of the mid-era episodes this one is my favorite. It had the classic feel to it while also pointing out how silly it is that religions fight over minor differences. This episode was originally suppose to air on April 10th however Pope John Paul II had died on April 2nd and they felt like it would be bad timing to do such a Catholic heavy episode just two days after his funeral so it ran on May 15th instead. 

This was also the last episode of the 16th season. Onward to season 17, and only 19 more to go, hopefully.

The Bonfire Of The Manatees

This episode premiered on September 11th 2005. The lead in show was the NFL Postgame show and it was followed by The War At Home. It ran opposite Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, 60 Minutes and The West Wing.

The title of the episode comes from the 1990 film The Bonfire Of The Vanities.

The chalkboard gag is "Does Any Kid Do This Anymore?" and the couch gag is the family has to pass through a metal detector to get on the couch. They all go right through except Homer who keeps setting it off. Eventually he's stripped down to his underwear and still setting off the alarm so he gets wanded. (Thank goodness, I thought there were going to go "somewhere" else with this joke)

Homer misses the end of the football game because the network cut away to promote a new reality show. Homer has a pamphlet predicting the winner of the games, Lisa points out that the company sends out two sets of pamphlets and eventually someone will get the one that is always right, then they ask you for money. Homer isn't listening because he's giving his credit card number over the phone. Sure enough, the next week he loses and he borrowed money from Fat Tony who then insists on payment, they make a deal to shoot porn at Homer's house. In order to get the family out of the house Moe gives them tickets to Santa's village. Lenny and Carl show up during the porn movie, Homer offers them a chance to work in the movie if they promise to not tell Marge, Lenny wants to run the sound board and Carl wants to "act". Santa's Village was a disaster, Santa dropped dead, so the family leaves early and catches Homer. Marge gets mad and leaves, she goes to the beach and calls Homer from a payphone, however a Manatee scares her and meets Dr. Thorn, a manatee expert. Homer tracks Marge to a diner and finds out she left with Dr. Thorn. While searching for Marge Homer stops at his cousin's house. While the kids are playing in the treehouse they spot Marge riding a manatee. Homer shows up and apologizes with real flowers and a box of chocolates however Marge refuses to come back. Homer decides the way to get Marge back is to protect the manatee from jet skiers. They agree to leave the manatee alone until he calls them rubes and they attack him. Homer's cousin shows up with a court order telling the skiers to vacate the area. Marge sees what Homer did and takes him back, since he's just like the manatees. Homer gets one of the manatee to cover at the power plant, when it almost dies of dehydration Burns and Smithers give it a sponge bath. 

Alec Baldwin does the voice of Caleb Thorn. He previously had done his own voice in the episode When You Dish Upon A Star

Notes on the opening jokes, Bart's chalkboard gag is both a self aware joke (the last season had three plus the fat Bart at the candy machine) and a dated reference thanks to the rise of white boards. The TSA checkpoint joke was kind of strange considering this aired on 9/11, four years after the terrorist attacks.

Homer's sports pennant "My Team"

ABC's new reality show, Billionaire vs. Bear. They thought they were in a race to plant the Taco Bell flag at the North Pole but they were being chased by The Betrayer. But the bear turns out to be a tiger. 

In this episode Homer is watching football, the final score is Denver 19 - Seahawks 14. People claim that the Simpsons predicted Super Bowl XLVIII however that game took place 9 years later and the final score was Seahawks 43 - Denver 8 plus Homer isn't watching the Super Bowl 

Homer has a flier, Prof. Pigskin's Pro Ball Prognosticator. 

Homer watches the Oakland Raiders. The team moved to Las Vegas in 2020.

The mob porn is called Lemony Lick-It: A Series of Horny Events. Remember when they made porn movies with plots? The stars of the movie are Angela Dare and Sultry Stevens. Their previous film was Fahrenheit 9 On 1, Carl recognizes the actors. 

Santa at Santa's Village is reading Tom Clancy's Op-Center. This is a series of real books.

The porn company is Gentleman's Relief Productions. 

Restaurant chains: Scobo's / Dim Willie's / Burger Plate

Homer's cousin and his wife are never mentioned by name.

Marge claims to have gotten her "groove back". This is a spoof on the 1998 film How Stella Got Her Groove Back.

When Burns and Smithers give the manatee a sponge bath and during the closing credits Car Wash by Rose Royce plays. 

This was the first episode of the 17th season and they started off with a Homer and Marge's marriage is in trouble. It was also all over the place, Homer and football, the mob and a porn movie, Santa's village, the marriage problems, Marge and the manatee expert, Homer chasing her down, Homer's cousins and finally a jet ski gang. It felt like a series of jokes tied together but lacking a real plot. This was the first time I saw this episode and I hope it's my last time too.

The Girl Who Slept Too Little

This episode premiered on September 18th, 2005. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and it was followed by The War At Home. It ran opposite the ABC Sunday Night Movie (Pearl Harbor), The Primetime Emmy Awards and The West Wing.

The title comes from the 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much. 

The couch gag is claymation, clay balls roll into the living room and eventually turn into the family, including a blue Gumby. The family gives him the side eye.

The family is woken to the sound of construction, the city is building a stamp museum behind their house. They organize a protest and the family sabotages the construction. The museum gets moved to the cemetery and they move the cemetery outside the family's back door. Lisa's room looks out over the cemetery, Bart tells her that she's the first one to be eaten by the zombies. Lisa can't sleep so they promise to do something nice for her, they go to the Stamp Museum. At the museum they think they are going to see a movie about The Land Of The Wild Beasts but instead it's a commercial for The Land Of The Wild Feasts. Lisa overhears Homer and Marge talking about other people. They decide to spend the night in Lisa's room but get creeped out. Marge decides then need therapy, the psychiatrist suggests that Lisa is trying to overcome neglect by acting more adult and suggests a 10 week $4000 program "Overcome Childhood Fears, Homer steals the book and trashes the office as he tries to flee. Lisa decides to conquer her fear by spending the night in the cemetery. Lisa comes across Dr. Nick robbing graves to steal body parts. The police show up looking for the grave robber but Wiggum ends up alone, he gets scared and strips off his uniform, then turns on his Walkman and dances around naked. (seriously). Lisa panics and hits her head on a headstone and knocks herself out. Homer and Marge go looking for her. Lisa has a series of nightmares about a dead grandma, spider Bart and she's married to a slug Milhouse. She then comes to in the Land Of Wild Beasts. The creatures tell her it's OK to get scared and she could just close her blinds at night. Homer and Marge find Lisa in the morning. Lou finds Wiggum hiding in a tree and bribes him down with a pizza bagel. 

Gumby is a stop motion character created in 1953

Joke of the episode, Marge complains about the construction sounds, she tells Homer to do something about the noise so he shoves a pillow in her mouth. 

Protest signs at the Stamp Museum construction: Cancel The Stamp Museum / Make War Not Stamps / Springfield Docent Like Museums / Death To America Stamps / Homer drives by on his lawnmower wearing an extra small pair of jean shorts with a sign that says Jiggling For Justice 

Series regulars protesting the museum: The Hibberts / The Flanders / Carl / Lenny / The Lovejoys / Apu / Sideshow Mel / Mrs. Glick

The 1965 song Eve Of Destruction by Barry McGuire plays during the stamp protest.

Maggie watches the Sesame Street Count, Marge yells at him to go back to his own country. She really became a bigot after the episode There's Something About Marriage.

Continuity error, in multiple previous episodes Lisa's room looked out front towards the street and Bart's faced the back of the house.

Lenny turned his yard into parking for the stamp museum, the parking areas are Carl, Ralph and Selma. This is a spoof on the original Disneyland parking lot where the parking areas were labeled with various characters. 

Land Of The Wild Beasts by Milton Burkheart is a spoof on Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. 

The commercial is for the Hillside Wrangler Steakhouse. (now in one inconvenient location) This is a twisted spoof on the Hillside Strangler. 

Lisa sees Gravedigger Billy, Groundskeeper Willie's cousin. He steals a watch from a corpse. 

Psychiatry Row: 99¢ Shrink / Quack In The Box / Sit 'n' Weep 

Dr. Nick pretends to be Dr. Octopus and says he will have an upside down kiss with Mary Jane. This is a reference to the 2002 movie Spider-Man

Headstone: Loving Aunt, So-So Mother.

Itchy And Scratchy: Scratchy goes to the broadway show Cats. He gets bored and kills himself. 

This was another episode with the ever changing "what's out the back door of the Simpsons house. 

Milhouse Of Sand And Fog

This episode premiered on September 25th, 2005. It ran in its usual time slot and opposite Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, 60 Minutes and The West Wing.

The title comes from the 1999 novel and 2003 movie The House Of Sand And Fog

The couch gag is the family runs in, the menu from TIVO pops up and asks Delete This Recording? with a Delete This Recording Now or Don't Delete option. The cursor clicks on Delete and the screen goes to the TV credits

At church Maggie is itching, Marge wants to ask Dr. Hibbert but he's joined a new church. Hibbert diagnoses Maggie with chicken pox. Homer was never infected so Marge wants him to stay away from Maggie. When Ned finds out Maggie is infected he wants to bring Rod and Todd over so they'll catch it as a child, he tells Homer about Pox parties. Homer sets up a party and charges $15 per child. Kirk brings Milhouse and Marge invites him to join the rest of the parents in the kitchen. Luanne doesn't realize that Kirk is there and shows up for the party. They have a conversation while drinking and make out in Homer's bedroom. Homer gets infected with chicken pox after drinking from Maggie's bottle. Kirk and Luanne go through a trial unseperation. Mihouse gets mad because his parents are paying more attention to each other than him, he and Bart plan on getting them to break up. Lisa watches the OC and a couple break up when the girl finds a bra. They decide to plant one at Milhouse's house, but it's Marge's and labeled. When Luanne comes to the Simpsons she tells Homer about the bra and he confronts Marge, they break up and Bart overhears the whole thing. Lisa figures out that Bart was responsible and threatens tell Marge. Bart confesses but Marge still won't let Homer come back. Bart and Mihouse can't figure out what to do, Lisa tells them to butt out and let the parents solve it themselves, instead Bart tricks them into seeing him stand over a cliff. Milhouse is suppose to push a dummy over a cliff but instead shoves Bart, he falls downed into the river. Homer jumps in to save him As they get tot he edge of the fall Marge jumps in, tied to a tree and pulls them both out. Marge realizes that Homer trusts her and they get back together. Milhouse then jumps into the river and they watch him float by. 

First Church of Springfield sign: Quit St3aling our L3tt3rs. Nelson runs up and steals an L, and two 3's. 

First A.M.E. (First African Methodist Episcopal) Church Of Springfield. This is a spoof on the church scene from The Blues Brothers. 

Chicken Pox Party, Come One Come All. Pox Box (with Maggie inside)

When Milhouse thinks about his parent's breakup Our House by Crosby Stills Nash and Young plays.

Milhouse calls Dr. Wexler. She was first mentioned in Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming when Milhouse was imagining shooting his parents and her from the cockpit of a fighter jet.

Homer gets a traffic ticket in the mail, he's fined $300 for ruining a stoplight while eating a donut and ready Cat Fancy magazine. 

Marge reads Hip Punishment to figure out how to punish Bart, she threatens to erase all the saved games on his PlayStation.

To come up with another plan Milhouse imagines the musical Oklahoma. 

California by Phantom Planet plays during the OC scenes and the closing credits. 

Treehouse Of Horror XVI

This episode premiered on November 6th 2005. The lead in show was King Of The Hill and was followed by The War At Home. It ran opposite opposite Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, 60 Minutes and The West Wing.

Kang and Kodos are complaining about how boring a baseball game is so they decided to speed up time, they use an Accel-ray and the game goes into high speed. They create a black hole and suck everything, even God into non existence. They leave a note that says Treehouse Of Horror XVI. 

Baseball banner: Baked In A Pie, Tuesday's On Fox / Pomona (An OC spinoff) Wednesday At 9 Fox /

While speeding up time Kang complains they could shatter the fabric of the universe. Kodos says good, maybe the Cubs would finally win the World Series. 11 years later the Cubs would win defeating the Indians. 

When Kang and Kodos destroy the Universe God's face is seen for the first time on The Simpsons. Kang says "Smooth Move Space-lax" this is a spoof on the taunt "Smooth Move Ex-Lax"

B.I. Bartificial Intelligence

Marge is visiting Selma and Patty, Bart tries to jump into the complex pool from their apartment and winds up in a coma. The family gets a robot son and soon forget about Bart, just as he comes out of the coma. He comes home to find that he's been replaced and everyone love him. Bart tries to push Davy into the lion den but winds up in the mutant bird enclosure. Homer drives Bart out to the woods and dumps him out. He finds the land of abandon robots. The robots power down for the night but when they wake up they find Bart stole their parts and build a robot fighting suit. Bart attacks the robot and cuts it in half, and Homer too, Homer now has to use the robot legs but wakes up to find it was all a dream and he's possessed by the devil, and being exorcised. Marge calls to tell the plant that Homer won't be in because he possessed. 

The title of this segment and plot comes from the 2001 movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence

Robo-Tots. Now Sass Free. The cover image is a copy of the Coppertone ad with the dog pulling off the girl's bathing suit. You can see wires and gears instead of a butt. (In the modern world Coppertone changed the ad to hid the girls butt) The robot comes from Boys R Us.

New Kid In Town by Eagles plays during the montage of Bart and Davy (The robot) competing

Herbie Hancock's Rock It plays while robot legs dance, similar to the original video for the song. 

The devil scene is a spoof on the 1971 movie The Exorcist.

Survival Of The Fattest

Smithers drops off an invitation for Homer to go to a hunting party as Mr. Burns estate. The bottom of the invitation says (Sinister Laugh). Lisa begs Homer to not go because killing animals is bad. At dinner Burns announces that the guests will be hunted and anyone who survives until Noon shall be free. When the lawyer object Burns points out that he's paying him so the lawyer draws up a legal contract allowing Burns to go on with the hunt, Burns then shoots him. Marge and Lisa are watching the hunt on Fox. Terry Bradshaw is the guest commentator. Several guys are hiding in a tree, Homer tries to climb up but accidentally flings everyone else in the air, Burns shoots them like skeet. Moe lands on a weathervane and then discovers he has a winning lottery ticket in his pocket. While the survivors are sitting around a campfire Burns strafes them from a biplane. Burns shoots Homer but it turns out to be dead Barney that Homer is working with marionette strings. Homer falls out of a tree and Burns is just about to shoot him when Marge shows up and hits Burns and Smithers with a frying pan. Her and Homer start to make out while Terry Bradshaw watches. 

The title of the segment comes from the Charles Darwin theory Survival Of the Fittest

Regulars invited to Burn's "Hunting Party", Sideshow Mel / Moe / Barney / Carl / Lenny / Homer / Lou / Wiggum / Apu / Otto / Willie / Skinner / Kent Brockman / Professor Frink / Kirk / Pimple Face Teen / Dr. Hibbert / Dr. Nick / Reverend Lovejoy / CBG / Blue Haired Lawyer / Mr. Largo / Krusty / The YEEESSS guy from Costingtons / Sea Captain. 

A logo pops up The World Series Of Manslaughter. The most violent tv spectacle since the Hip Hot Image Awards. They made a similar reference in the episode Treehouse Of Horror XIV

TV Guide Must Flee TV with an image of Homer being chased by Burns in a Jeep.

I've Grown A Costume On Your Face.

Springfield is holding their annual halloween party in the central square. The finalists in the costume contest are a witch and Dr. Hibbert as Dracula (Quimby calls him Blackula). The witch turns out to be real and loses the award so she curses them to turn into their costumes. Disco Stu came as Steve Martin's Wild and Crazy Guy and the arrow really goes through his head. Nobody knows what to do until Lisa figure out that Maggie is a real witch. Half the town wants to change back while the other half likes their new self. Maggie changes them all into pacifiers. She then flies off to the Bewitched theme song. Moe then says does a PSA about illiteracy. Dennis Rodman shows up as a plea agreement over a speeding ticket.

The title of this segment comes from the song I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face from the 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady.

Springfield Semi-Annual Halloween Party

Simpson's costumes Marge is a skeleton, Homer is a headless man, Bart is a wolf boy (possibly Eddy from The Munsters), Lisa is Albert Einstein and Maggie is a witch.

Badly dated reference, Wiggum went as Jerrod from the Subway ads, he's happy he's lost weight and is sexually ambiguous. In 2015 Jerrod was arrested for possession of child pornography.

Terry Bradshaw and Dennis Rodman do their own voices.

This is the first season that didn't start with a Treehouse of Horror since Season 11.

We've reached episode 360. Other than Treehouse of Horror Season 17 is not off to a good start. Lets hope it gets better as we go along.