We're on the Road to D'ohwhere
From Simpsons Wiki
We're on the Road to D'ohwhere is the eleventh episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. It first aired in the USA on January 29, 2006 on FOX.
Plot
While messing around in the school’s steam tunnels, Bart and Milhouse trigger a massive escape of steam that destroys the school. Although Milhouse is free to go, Principal Skinner proposes that Bart be sent off to Upward Bound, a behavioral modification camp. Meanwhile, Moe announces that he's treating all of his frequent barflies with a trip to Las Vegas. Homer takes Bart to the airport to send him to the camp in northwest Oregon (flying by way of Portland). But then it is discovered that Bart is on the No Fly List. Homer decides to drive him to the camp instead, but is annoyed at having to miss the Vegas trip. During the ride, Homer blames Bart for missing his Vegas trip with his barflies. While they're stopped at a roadside diner, Bart escapes, but after he rescues Homer from almost driving off of a cliff, they're soon back on the road, this time with Bart chained and duct-taped in his seat.
Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa have a yard sale. It is initially a total failure until Otto discovers that Marge is selling the family's expired prescription drugs. Although reluctant, Marge soon makes lots of money selling prescription drugs, but Chief Wiggum eventually discovers the scheme and arrests her.
Homer gets Bart to the camp (in which Bart actually comes to enjoy on some level) but, after a moral dilemma, he decides to retrieve Bart and take him along to Vegas. In Vegas, Homer reportedly gets in a fight with a pit boss, loses track of Bart, and is thrown in Nevada State Prison. Then Bart steals his car, escapes from Las Vegas, and takes off on a beautiful joyride. The episode ends with Lisa receiving phone messages from both her parents, asking for bail money. She tells Maggie that she will get a job to provide for both of them and to get their parents out of jail.
Cultural references
- We're on the Road to D'ohwhere is a take on the Talking Heads song Road to Nowhere. It may also refer to the famous series of Bob Hope/Bing Crosby Road to... movies, which have been spoofed thrice by Family Guy. This is at least the third time that the Talking Heads have been referenced by the Simpsons, not including "Dude, Where's My Ranch?" (which guest-starred David Byrne)
- The song the band class plays is "Louie, Louie".
- The song Flanders sings is the final chorus of "Joseph's Coat" from the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
- Bart is on the US government's No Fly List.
- "Intellectual Homer", who has been killed by "Serious Homer", has written on the floor in his own blood "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". This is the famous statement of Ernst Haeckel's recapitulation theory about the similarity of the embryonic development of organisms to its evolutionary history. Ironically, it has been debunked as a scientific principle. Presumably, Intellectual Homer wrote this before it was debunked, a testament to how long he had been dead.
- When Homer drives into the house on the side of the house it says "Birthplace of Matt Groening," the show's creator.fi:Lannistumaton Bart