Homer the Vigilante
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"Homer the Vigilante" is the eleventh episode of The Simpsons' fifth season.
Contents |
Plot
A numbers of burglaries by the 'Springfield Cat Burglar' take place in Springfield, hitting even the Simpsons' and Flanders' houses. Among the stolen items are Lisa's beloved saxophone, Marge's pearl necklace and the portable TV. Bart also mentions that they also stole his stamp collection. The family laughs at this and Bart also gets a phone call from Nelson Muntz, further humiliating him.
In response, a vigilante group organizes around Homer. The group goes to buy guns although they prove to be very inept with them, accidentally firing them in the front hall of the Simpsons' house.
The group turns out to be more criminal than protective, when they attack a busker because he plays a saxophone bought from Sears. They also destroy a bystander's leaf-fire (assuming that he did not have a permit) in turn setting his house alight (although he had a permit). They allow Jimbo to vandalise a wall using spraypaint as it made him feel like a man.
Homer is interviewed on Smartline and Kent Brockman states that the group is causing more crimes than it has been preventing. The Cat Burglar calls the show, and Homer at first mistakes him for Marge. When realizing that it is the Cat Burglar, he strangles the stage manager. The Cat Burglar then informs him that he will rob the Springfield museum of it's 'World's Largest Cubic Zirconia' centerpiece.
While guarding the museum, Homer sights teenagers drinking and in an effort to stop then, he quickly ends up drunk, thus dropping his guard and allowing the Cat Burglar to steal the gem.
Thanks to a tip from Grandpa Simpson, the burglar is exposed as being a resident in the local retirement home named Malloy (voiced by Sam Neill).
Despite returning the saxophone and various other objects of curiosity, he is imprisoned but later outsmarts the townspeople by inspiring them to search for a non-existent treasure while he escapes. The treasure search is a parody of the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Trivia
- The score of this episode borrows several music cues from The Pink Panther and other thief films.
- One such score appears in the end credits sequence, an homage to the film It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
- All five members of Homer's vigilante squad wear uniforms of some kind -- Apu's from the Indian Army, Homer's is of a "jungle explorer", Principal Skinner wears his U.S. army uniform but also wears a Green Beret, Moe's is that of the Prussian/German Army from the period including and preceding World War I, and Barney's comes from an (unnamed) fast food restaurant. Apu's Indian Army uniform would later be one of his alternate costumes in the video game The Simpsons Hit & Run.
- Jimbo is spraying the phrase Carpe diem on the wall, in Latin this translates as "seize the day"
Cultural references
- Homer's dream of riding a nuclear bomb into oblivion is a spoof of the famous scene from Dr. Strangelove.
- Lisa's quote, "I mean, if you're the police, who will police the police?" could be a reference to Alan Moore's: Watchmen graphic novel which in turn was derived from Juvenal's Satire VI. Throughout Watchmen, there's graffiti of "Who watches the watchmen?".
- The end of this episode is a direct homage to It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in score, shots and characters, such as:
- The plane flying through the billboard. (Similar to Mickey Rooney's flight in a plane)
- Selma hitting Barney with her purse. (An action performed several times by Ethel Merman in that film.)
- Bart tricks a man into driving into a river, who yells at him as his car sinks. (The man looks similar to Phil Silvers and the scene in the film, especially Bart's hand waving motion is exactly from the scene.)
- The cars drive up an incline similar to the California incline. (Exactly from the film, including one car spinning around on the turn up.)
- The Springfieldians walk up to the T tree to heavenly music. (Exactly from the film. We even see the W tree from the original movie).
- Several characters, such as Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers and Buddy Hackett, from the film are seen as the treasure is dug up.
- The character of Malloy could be partially based off of General Zaroff in The Most Dangerous Game, especially when he says that he was grateful that out of anyone who could have caught him, it was Homer.
- Jimbo painting "Carpe Diem", is a reflection to Dead Poets' Society.