Three Men and a Comic Book
From Simpsons Wiki
| Three Men and a Comic Book | |
| |
| Season 2 Episode 21 | |
| Production Code | 7F21 |
| Original Airdate | May 9, 1991 |
| Written By | Jeff Martin |
| Directed By | Wes M. Archer |
| Show Runners | James L. Brooks Matt Groening Sam Simon |
| Special Guests | Cloris Leachman as Mrs. Glick, Daniel Stern as the Narrator |
| Blackboard Text | “I will not show off” |
|
“Three Men and a Comic Book” is the 21st episode of the second season'.
Contents |
Plot
Bart attends a comic book convention and finds the first issue of Radioactive Man at the Android’s Dungeon sale table for $100. He doesn’t have enough money in his own allowance and his parents refuse to give Bart extra money. So Bart turns to Mrs. Glick, who has some rather unsavory chores around the house that he can do, but she only gives him 50 cents for his hard work, which Bart angrily refuses to thank Mrs. Glick for, but unwittingly does so anyway. Bart returns to the comic book store, only with a few cents extra, and runs into Milhouse and Martin. He talks them into pooling their money and buying the first Radioactive Man comic from Comic Book Guy. None of them want to let the comic book out of their sights and decide to spend the night together in Bart’s treehouse. As a storm approaches, Martin devises a plan so that the three boys have equal access to the comic. As he attempts to leave with the comic, Bart stops him. Bart gets progressively more paranoid and becomes convinced that the other two are conspiring against him.
Eventually, each boy is at each other’s throat. When Martin gets up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, Bart thinks he plans on stealing the comic book and subsequently ties him up. Meanwhile a storm is raging outside. Milhouse falls out of the treehouse as a gust of wind takes hold of the comic so that it flies towards the entrance. Bart reaches out to grab Milhouse by the hand. He is forced to decide between Milhouse and the comic. After mulling over his options, Bart chooses Milhouse and pulls him up into the treehouse. The comic flies out the door and is shredded by Santa’s Little Helper, and zapped by lightning.
The next morning, the three boys reflect on how their inability to share lead to the destruction of the comic book. Fortunately, the three hadn't noticed that the last panel has been safe and clear in a bird's nest and only torn from the other panels.
Debut Appearances
Characters making a first appearance in this episode are:
- Comic Book Guy
- Bartman
- Radioactive Man (although a comic of RM was seen in the episode Bart the genius)
- Fallout Boy
Trivia
- This episode marks the introduction of Nelson Muntz’s infamous “Haw haw!” laugh.
- Radioactive Man #1’s original price was 10 cents.
- This episode tells us Patty and Selma got their husky hoarse voices because they smoked so much. They are shown speaking with higher voices during Marge’s flashback. Before their voices changed from smoking, they were voiced by Pamela Hayden instead of Julie Kavner.
- Radioactive Man had five fingers on his left hand after the A-bomb exploded.
- Episode commentary reveals that this is the first episode to beat The Cosby Show in the ratings the night it aired.
Cultural references
- The Incredible Hulk—Radioactive Man’s origin is nearly identical to the Marvel character.
- Robin—Fallout Boy (Radioactive Man’s sidekick) is an obvious parody of Batman’s young sidekick.
- Saboteur—The scene where Bart saves Milhouse from falling out of the treehouse is taken from the 1942 Hitchcock film.
- Three Men and a Baby—The episode title is a play on the 1987 film.
- The Treasure of the Sierra Madre—The part of the story where Bart, Milhouse and Martin begin arguing over the comic book is lifted from the 1948 film.
- Winston cigarette television commercials—The Radioactive Man commercial for Laramie cigarettes is a take-off of The Flintstones starring in Winston’s TV cigarette commercials, which aired during the 1960s, or of past looser regulations regarding cigarette advertising in general.
- The Wonder Years—Daniel Stern provides the voice of “Adult Bart” reminiscing about the time he got a job doing errands for Mrs. Glick (since he failed to convince Homer to loan him the requisite $100 for Radioactive Man #1), just like Stern did his “Adult Kevin” voice-over on The Wonder Years.
- Carl Yastrzemski—Milhouse initially goes into the comic store to buy a 1973 Topps card of the former Boston Red Sox great, “when he had the big sideburns.” Carl’s 1973 Topps card in real life does indeed show him with distinctive sideburns.