The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson is the first episode of the ninth season of the animated series The Simpsons.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Barney is chosen as the designated driver of Moe's one night, which happens to be the same night as Duffman appears to award Barney a prize of free beer he won in a competition. After dropping off Lenny, Carl, and Homer at home, Barney disappears with Homer's car for two months.
Homer's car has somehow ended up illegally parked at the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City. The Simpsons then go on a trip to New York by bus to get it back, much to the dismay of Homer (many years ago, he had a bad experience in New York with pickpockets, pimps, C.H.U.D.s, and Woody Allen, who dumped trash on his head from an upper floor).
At the WTC, Homer finds hundreds of parking tickets on the window of his car and a boot attached to the wheel. He is forced to wait from 9 to 5 for a police officer so that he can pay the parking tickets and have the boot removed. Many passers-by toss him coins, thinking him to be homeless, which he then uses to buy Khlav Kalash from a vendor's cart. He then buys and drinks 17 cans of crab juice to wash the "awful" taste of Khlav Kalash out of his mouth. After drinking all this, he rushes to the restroom at the top of the South Tower of the World Trade Center, only to find it is locked with a message informing him to use the restroom in the North Tower. He rushes back down the South Tower and up the North Tower, where he finally gets to use the restroom. Looking out the window, however, he notices the police officer looking around and then attaching another parking ticket to his car. He then screams "D'OH!" so loud that it echos through the entire city.
After rushing back down the North Tower, he finds that he has been fined $250 for failure to wait by his vehicle. Frustrated, he vows to get out of the city, and climbs into his car and drives forward with tremendous force. The boot rips a hole in his car but he continues to drive forward, until he is stopped by roadworks.
He gets out of his car and tells one of the workers that the boss has fired him, and he rushes off to consult him. While the worker is gone, Homer steals his jackhammer and uses it to get the boot off of his wheel. Although it greatly damages the front of his car, smashing the windows and destroying the hood, the boot comes off and Homer drives away to the cheers of bystanders.
Meanwhile, the rest of the family have a much more relaxing day at New York, visiting various attractions (including the Statue of Liberty, Little Italy, Chinatown, Broadway, and the offices of MAD Magazine).
At the end of the day, Lisa, Marge, Maggie and Bart take a horse-carriage ride through Central Park, where they have agreed to meet Homer. Homer drives beside them in his car and asks them to jump into the car, they refuse, however, so Homer stops the car and they get in.
As they drive away on Brooklyn Bridge, Lisa asks if they can come back next year, and Homer replies that he'll think about it, as a piece of garbage hits his face through his car's smashed windows.
[edit] Trivia
- The "Khlav Kalash" man reappeared once in "Lost Our Lisa".
- This episode features the first appearance of Duffman.
- The very tall man from "22 Short Films About Springfield" is on the bus. He is a caricature after the writer of the episode, Ian Maxtone-Graham.
- When leaving the WTC plaza, in typical Homer fashion, his left turn signal is on when he is turning right.
- This episode is the first season premiere not to have a chalkboard gag.
[edit] Cultural references
- The way the bowl of peanuts starts to vibrate as the Duffmobile approaches references the 1993 film Jurassic Park when the cups of water vibrate when the dinosaurs approach.
- The music that plays as Duffman enters the bar is "Oh Yeah" by Yello.
- Homer and his drunken buddies sing the 1996 hit Macarena.
- Drunken Carl suggests Barney take them to the Playboy Mansion.
- Bart sees a trio of Hasidic Jews, mistaking them for ZZ Top.
Homer Simpson's recollection of his first trip to New York City ends with "...and that's when the C.H.U.D.s came after me." Marge responds: "Of course you'll have a bad impression of New York if you only focus on the Pimps and C.H.U.D.s." This is a reference to the movie "C.H.U.D."
- The song that plays during the credits is "New York, New York", sung by Michael Dees.
- Woody Allen, a notable New Yorker, makes a brief appearance in Homer's flashback scene. He throws trash on Homer from several stories above.
[edit] Post-9/11
This episode was made several years before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Due to the central plot being a dilemma that Homer has at the World Trade Center, the episode was retired from syndication in several areas in the United States (many fans thought that the episode wouldn't air again). After an appropriate amount of time passed, some stations began to air the episode again. Examples include Nashville, Tennessee, who reran the show approximately one year later, in mid-2002. Boston, Massachusetts began to show the episode again--with only standard syndication cuts--no later than the night of Thanksgiving 2004; in the San Francisco Bay area the episode did not air again until the summer of 2005, and a Fox affiliate in Reno, NV aired the episode after the 9/11 news coverage died down. The Reno affiliate re-aired the episode as recently as 3/13/07. Some stations have taken to airing a version with all references to the Twin Towers cut (both verbal and visual).[citation needed]
Before 9/11 the episode was repeated often, annoying some fans who got sick of seeing it, but now it is aired very infrequently. The episode remained in somewhat constant syndication in Australia, with regular re-reruns playing on the Cable Channel (FOXTEL and Austar), FOX8. It is shown uncut on the Season 9 DVD.
In the United Kingdom, the British satellite TV channel Sky One did not show the episode again until August 7, 2005 with several cuts (most of which were for content). The episode still hasn't been shown on either of the terrestrial channels (BBC 2 and Channel 4) that have shown the series in the UK, who are several years behind showing the episodes, and the attack had already taken place by the time it was due to air (2002). A couple of years later, it was at one stage scheduled to air in a repeat run of the season, but was replaced with another episode (Das Bus) at the last minute. Channel 4 is yet to air the ninth season, so it remains to be seen if they will show the episode or not.
[edit] External links
