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"Who'd've thought that such a little woman could make me feel so big."

―Moe Szyslak

"Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe"

Episode Information Episode number: 436 Season number: S20 E16 Production code: LABF06 Original airdate: April 5, 2009 Title screen: A three-eyed crow flies by. Couch gag: The family are a series of animation cels. Homer is naked until Marge pulls down one last cel which clothes him. Showrunner: [[Al Jean]] Written by: John Frink Directed by: Nancy Kruse DVD features

"Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe" is the sixteenth episode of season 20 of The Simpsons and the four-hundred and thirty-sixth episode overall. It originally aired on April 5, 2009. The episode was written by John Frink and directed by Nancy Kruse.

Synopsis

"Moe develops an Internet relationship with a beautiful woman named Maya. When the two agree to meet face to face, Moe is shocked to discover that Maya is three feet tall. Meanwhile, Marge wants Homer to spend more time with Maggie. Homer obliges and finds himself in luck when he discovers a children's play area right next to Moe's Tavern."

Plot

When Homer gets annoyed at Maggie for distracting him during a hockey match he was watching on television, Marge tells Homer that he has to spend more time with Maggie as she barely recognizes him as her father. Homer takes Maggie out to Moe's Tavern, where he finds Moe is cleaning up the bar. When Moe cleans one of his walls, he finds that there's a window there, which was blacked out by dirt. Looking through the window, Homer sees that there's a child's play area outside. Homer realizes that he can let Maggie play there whilst he drinks in Moe's, watching her out of the window.

Moe then tells the barflies the reason that he was cleaning his bar. Whilst at the Springfield Public Library, Moe went to an online dating site and started speaking to a woman called Maya. Maya liked Moe and his jokes and eventually sent him a picture of herself. Moe was surprised at how beautiful Maya was, so he went to send her a doctored image of himself, before deciding to just be honest. Maya found Moe cute, to his surprise, and they decided to meet up, with Maya coming to the bar. After Moe tells the story, Marge calls Moe's, asking if Homer is there. Homer tells Moe to tell her that he isn't there though. The barflies then leave for the night and the time of Maya's arrival comes around. Moe initially thinks he's been stood up, until he realizes that Maya is a little woman.

Moe and Maya go out on dates and enjoy spending time with each other. However, Moe is worried about what his friends would think of Maya, being a little person, so he doesn't let her meet them. Meanwhile, in the play area, Maggie is confronted by the kids, and Kearney's Other Son, a large baby who scares her. However, when Homer picks Maggie up, he doesn't think there's anything wrong happening in the park. Back at home, Maggie is scared and unable to eat due to being traumatized at the play area. Marge is worried about Maggie and sees an advert for Prying-Eye Surveillance on the television. Marge gets the service and puts a camera in Maggie's bow to see what Homer is doing with Maggie each day.

Maya takes Moe back to her house to spend time together there. Maya tells Moe that she's concerned that she hasn't met anybody Moe knows, and is worried that Moe even hides her from people he knows, such as the mailman. Moe then decides to take Maya on a double date with Homer and Marge, thinking that they'll treat Maya well. The date goes well for them and they have a good time together before ending up at Maya's house again. Moe decides to propose to Maya, and she is initially happy, until Moe keeps making height related jokes. Maya gets annoyed and tells Moe to leave.

Moe is upset about screwing things up with Maya and speaks with the barflies about it. Lenny and Carl give him the idea to make a grand romantic gesture and get height-reduction surgery. Moe goes to Dr. Hibbert, who refuses to do the surgery, but Dr. Nick agrees to do it. Before Moe gets the surgery, Maya arrives to talk him out of it. Maya tells Moe that she can't be with someone who isn't comfortable with her height, and would do something so reckless to make himself the same height as her, and breaks up with Moe.

Back at the Simpson house, Marge finally watches the video from Maggie, and is initially annoyed that Homer leaves her at the play area so he can get drunk. She then sees that Homer goes in to save Maggie when she was attacked by the other kids, only for Maggie to save Homer. Homer tells Maggie how much she means to him, which makes Marge happy. Back at Moe's, Homer tells Moe that it was a good thing that happened to him, as someone loved him. And that one day, someone will love him again. Moe accepts this and realizes that Homer was right.

Reception

The episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics since its airing. A reviewer of IGN.com gave the episode a 7.6/10 and said when Homer consoled Moe about Maya breaking up with him, it was "a sweet way to end this enjoyable episode".^[1]

Hank Azaria was nominated for a 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for the episode, but lost to Dan Castellaneta for his performance in "Father Knows Worst".^[2]

"Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe" was nominated for a 2010 Writers Guild of America award in Animation, but it lost to "Wedding for Disaster".^[3]

As of October 2021, the episode has a 7.2 rating on IMDb.^[4]

References

Wikisimpsons has a collection of images related to "Eeny Teeny Maya, Moe".