The Scorpion's Tale

"The Scorpion's Tale" is the fifteenth episode of the twenty-second season of The Simpsons. It originally aired on March 6, 2011.

Plot
During a "Satan's Anvil" trip, Martin finds an eccentric but grumpy hermit artist, whom the government tried to hire for years; Bart, Nelson and Milhouse find old postcards from France, and Lisa is nearly attacked by scorpions, but then the scorpions become passive due to silvertongue flowers, meaning she can take them home for further experiments. Grampa is then kicked out of the retirement castle because he is too grumpy; he needs to live with The Simpsons now. Lisa then confirms that silvertoungues has a powerful chemical agent. It nulls the negative feelings of a person. Homer puts some of this in Grampa's coffee, and he is soon happy.

But Lisa refuses to give more of it. At Moe's Tavern, an employee of Hottenhoffer Pharmaceuticals named Walter Hottenhoffer (who was Augustus Gloop as a child), managed to duplicate the liquid's effects. So Hottenhoffer sells MusBeNys, but it is not properly tested, so only Grampa can use them. Unfortunately, Bart then sells some of the pills to people who are crabby, making them happy.

Lisa then realizes about Grampa still using the drug, but also of how happy he is too. However, the side effects change; soon, the person's eyes become lubricated they burst out of the sockets. Despite the gruesome effect, the elderly still take it; until Grampa sees Homer taking the pills, and telling them to stop using it. Only the Baby Boomer service goes well with constant nagging. Soon, everything is normal (except for Hottenhoffer, who still has nightmares over what happened at Wonka's factory)

Reception
The episode received 6.20 million viewers, and was edged out by the new episode of "Family Guy". Rowan Kaiser of the A.V. Club found Lisa's varied options annoying, but praised Herzog's performance. He gave the episode a "B-", the second highest rating of the night (next to Bob's Burgers).

Production
In the original Fox press release for the episode, Jackie Mason was listed as voicing Rabbi Krustofsky as a guest star, but his lines were cut. Rabbi was instead seen jumping rope in the park scene.