Duffless

From Simpsons Wiki

Duffless
Season 4 Episode 16
Production Code	9F14
Original Airdate	February 18, 1993
Written By	David M. Stern
Directed By	Jim Reardon
Show Runners	Al Jean & Mike Reiss
Special Guests	Phil Hartman as Lionel Hutz and Troy McClure, Marcia Wallace as Ms. Krabappel
Blackboard Text	"Goldfish don't bounce"

"Duffless" is the 16th episode of the fourth season.

Plot

The episode opens at the school science fair, with Bart presenting a Go-Go Ray. He zaps all the teachers, resulting in them dancing uncontrollably. Principal Skinner declares "First Prize" to Bart over and over, while Bart's dream fades out to Lisa saying into Bart's ear "First prize" again and again. When Bart asks why she is saying this, she explains that she was just screwing with his mind.

At breakfast, Lisa shows the family her science fair project: a genetically engineered tomato that is so huge she hopes it will cure world hunger. Bart's project is to study the effects of cigarette smoking on dogs, his "volunteer" is Santa's Little Helper. Meanwhile, Homer ducks out of work and accompanies Barney on a tour of the Duff brewery. After the tour, Homer refuses to let the exceptionally drunk Barney drive home and tries to knock him out by slamming his head in the car door. In an act of revenge, Barney tells police chief Wiggum to give Homer the breathalizer test and Homer is arrested. His license is revoked and he must attend traffic school and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

At school 3 days before the science fair, Lisa makes the mistake of leaving her super tomato under Bart's care for a moment, who takes the opportunity to hurl it at Skinner. When Lisa sees what Bart has done with her project, she is furious. Lisa appeals to Marge Simpson for help, who suggests she run a hamster through a maze. She takes the idea to heart, but instead of just testing the intelligence of a rodent, she pits a hamster against an unknowing Bart to find out who is smarter. After two simple tests, the hamster leads 2-0.

In bed, Marge gives Homer a magazine quiz about his drinking. Hearing his answers, she asks him to give up beer for a month, to which he finally agrees. Homer reminisces about the time he first drank beer: using a fake ID to acquire a six pack and eventually passing out listening to Queen.

Meanwhile, Bart finds Lisa's project notes and hides them. He plans to lead her on a treasure hunt to get them back but she finds them after just a second (they are presumably in his bedroom). Homer tries not to think about beer while he rides Lisa's bike to work. After a series of severe temptations (seeing Duff billboards, passing a train carrying Duff and riding under a Duff blimp, on the side of which reads "Surrender... TO DUFF!"), Homer crashes the bike and has hundreds of bottles of Duff parachuted down to him from the blimp, though this may be a hallucination. At the science fair, Lisa's project and chance for revenge are both ruined by Bart's project: "Can hamsters fly planes?". Lisa tries to reason with the ignorant viewers that his project has no scientific merit, but everyone ignores her. A cute hamster flying a miniature plane wins over Skinner, who hands Bart the winning ribbon for real, much to Lisa's dismay.

At Homer's first AA meeting, he is kicked out by Reverend Lovejoy after confessing that his desperation led him to "sneak into the football stadium and eat the dirt underneath the bleachers". He also exhibits more positive changes such as losing weight, saving over $100 and he has ceased to sweat while he eats. After 30 days, an alcohol adoring Homer snatches the money and rushes back to Moe's, while Marge asks him to stay home instead. He goes anyway and after seeing the long faces already at the bar, seeing how alcohol has ruined the lives of Barney and the other barflies, goes home. The episode closes with Homer and Marge riding a bike into the sunset.

Trivia

• First use of the word, "Yoink!"
• This episode reveals Hans Moleman is 31 years old and looks elderly because he's an alcoholic.
• Ned Flanders claims he has not drunk alcohol for 4,000 days (almost 11 years) in this episode.
• Bart's Go-Go Ray's dances are The Jerk, Monkey, Mashed Potato, Swim, and The Freddy.
• Homer's driver's license is showed briefly as it is being revoked, and it shows that his birth date is May 12, 1956, which happens to be a Saturday. This makes him 36 years old as of this episode, though Homer's age is inconsistent between episodes.
• Homer's driver's license also reveals that Springfield's ZIP Code is purportedly 49007, which is actually the ZIP Code for Kalamazoo, MI.
• As voted by the No Homers Club, this is the seventh best episode of the show.
• This is the first Simpsons episode to have a single word title, and one of only six.

Censorship

• In the British airing of this episode after the death of Princess Diana, the part where Barney says, "Hey, that looks like Princess Di!", then drives up to get a better look and says, "Oh, wait, that's just a pile of rags!" was cut.

Cultural references

• Bart imitates Curly and Moe of The Three Stooges.
• Homer sings a parody of the Frank Sinatra]song "It Was a Very Good Year"
• Bart imitates the infamous James Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, turning in a chair and petting a hamster.
• The announcer at the baseball game sounds much like legendary announcer Vin Scully.
• Homer and Marge sing the B.J. Thomas song "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" at the end of the episode, in a similar fashion to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
• Lisa's line, "Oh, uh... I was just thinking of a joke I saw on Herman's Head", was a reference to the show Herman's Head, which co-starred Yeardley Smith (Lisa's voice actress).
• Patty and Selma hold a Supperware (an obvious spoof of Tupperware) meeting in the Simpson home. In Airplane!, Elaine (played by Julie Hagerty) shows a native tribe the same thing, also called Supperware.
• There is a reference to A Clockwork Orange and the Ludivico technique when Homer and other people are watching Troy McLure's filmed sequence.
• When Bart reaches for both the cupcakes and goes into relapse, it is a parody of A Clockwork Orange after Alex is finished with the Ludivico technique and reaches for a naked women's breasts. In the DVD commentary of the episode,
• In the Duff TV ad, a group of women were leading an anti-sexism protest in front of the McMahon and Tate building, a parody of the McMann and Tate advertising agency from Bewitched. The McMahon and Tate agency also made an appearance in Mr. Plow.
• The scene toward the end where Moe points toward individual customers declaring they'll "be back" before pointing toward and addressing the viewer--later revealed to be Barney via a cutaway--is a parody of the end of the pilot episode of "Freddy's Nightmares."

External links