Difference between revisions of "22 Short Films About Springfield"

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"22 Short Films About Springfield" is the twenty-first episode of The Simpsons' seventh season.

Plot

Prolouge

The episode opens with Bart and Milhouse spitting off of a bridge, and wondering about the lives of other people in Springfield. The remainder of the episode consists of a variety of skits focusing on different supporting characters, as well as the Simpsons family. A few of these segments feature their own title cards or theme songs. At other times, the segments simply segue from one to the next.

Apu's skit

Sanjay asks Apu to go to a party. so Apu leaves the store for the next five minutes. During this period, he eats an uncooked hot dog, dances to the song "Trapezoid," and has sex with a woman in a tool shed.

Lisa's skit

Lisa accidentally gets gum in her hair and has to go though a series of the towns peoples painful homemade remedys to only in the end just get a haircut

Mr Burns' skit

Mr. Burns and Smithers on are on a bike ride and Smithers gets stung by a bee but also has an allergic reaction. Mr. Burns orders Smithers to pedal even faster to the hospital, but in the end the paramedics pick up the unconscious Mr.Burns instead of the ailing Smithers.

Dr Nick's skit

Dr. Nick walks into the medical boardroom to have a meeting about his gross incompetence. Suddenly, a doctor walks in and tells them that a lunatic with a scalpel (Abraham Simpson) is demanding to see a quack. The board members turn to look at Dr. Nick. Dr. Nick walks though the door giving Grandpa Simpson a nonsensical diagnosis, which appeases him. The grateful board allows Dr. Nick to keep his medical license, and he celebrates by offering free nosejobs to everyone (starting with Jasper).

Moe's skit

Moe is looking at Barney's tab having sent away to NASA for help in calculating the results. Snake then comes and robs Moe and steals his money while Moe is partly defenseless behind bulletproof glass.

Skinner's skit

Principal Skinnner has to cook lunch for Superintendent Chalmers but his clams burn and he must get food from Krusty Burger and disguise it as his own cooking. However, Skinner frogot to turn off the oven and sets his house on fire and after Chalmers leaves Skinner has to get his mother out of the fire.

Homer's skit

Homer is walking Santa's Little Helper, and holding Maggie at the same time and comes across a newspaper bender but loses the key and traps Maggie in there. Homer then tries to put a note on Santa's Little Helper about Maggie being trapped however it was writen in mustard and Santa's Little Helper eats it. Maggie is then clothless in the bender but Homer decides to put the bender in Maggie's crib and play with her.

Chief Wiggum's skit

Chief Wiggum is at Krusty Burger with Eddie and Lou and Ed and Lou discuss the similarties of McDonalds and Krusty Burger to Chief.

Bumblebeeman's skit

Bumblebeeman returns from his show and decides to relax however encounters a bunch of disasters that cause him to destroy his house and have his wife call a divorce.

Snake and Wiggum's skit

Snake is driving his car listening to a rock version of the theme song while Chief Wiggum is idioctly walking down the street eating doughnuts and Snake and Cheif Wiggum end up fighting only to wind up in Herman's Militay Antiques.

Reverend Lovejoy's skit

Reverend Lovejoy decides to use his dog to distract Ned but it causes trouble and Lovejoy scolds it.

Lisa's 2n'd skit

Marge is trying to remove the gum out of Lisa's hair however ends up getting distracted by townspeople who also want to help, as Ned Flanders, Dr. Hibbert, Lionel Hutz, Sideshow Mel, Otto, Captain McAllister and Uter.

Cletus's skit

Cletus finds a pair of boots and tries to give them to Brandine (who is filling in for a job as a stripper) but refuses to wear them and Cletus has to put them back where they came from and decides to use the phoneline he found them on to call mom.

Milhouse's skit

Milhouse heads to Comic Book Guy's store to go to the bathroom but Comic Book Guy tells Milhouse to purchase something to go to the bathroom and Kirk comes and takes Milhouse to Herman's.

Herman's skit

Herman has captured Snake and Wiggum but Milhouse comes in to go to the bathroom and takes out a mace and hits Herman making him unconsious.

Lisa's 3r'd skit

Lisa goes to Jake the Barber to get her hair cut and ends up having to get real people hair but only gets laughed at by Nelson.

Nelsons's skit

Nelson laughs at Lisa's new hair and Mrs. Glick's fall and a tall guy driving a small car but the tall guy then finds Nelson and pulls down his pants when he is front of everyone and teaches Nelson a lesson.

Ending

Bart and Milhouse learn the truth and walk away but out of nowhere Professor Frink appears and tries to sing his tomfoolery but fails.

Trivia

General

• The episode does not actually feature twenty-two stories, but the according to the DVD commentary, the title was decided from the start, regardless of how many stories would actually end up in the episode.

Production notes

• The very tall man is a caricature of writer Ian Maxtone-Graham.
• The episode was inspired by "The Adventures of Ned Flanders" segment at the end of "The Front".

Animation/continuity errors

• Smithers suffers severe allergic reactions to the bee sting in this episode, yet in "Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk" was stung by several bees but suffered no problems at all.
• Despite having returned to the house on a date with Agnes Skinner in "Bart the Fink", in this episode Chalmers apparently required directions to Skinner's house as if he'd never been before.
• In "Bart Gets Famous", Bumblebee Man was revealed to be putting on a fake Spanish accent and actually spoke with an upper class voice, yet now he speaks Spanish all the time. This was a deliberate change as the writer's felt the revelation that he was English was a terrible joke.
• The Spanish used by Bumblebee Man is completely inaccurate. This was also done deliberatly, to make sure that everyone could understand what he was saying without subtitles.
• Chief Wiggum loses his hat in the fight with Snake, but in the next chapter of his story he is wearing it again.
• Jasper supposedly got a nose job but he's seen with his regular nose later on.

Legacy

• The episode spawned the concept of a possible spin-off series Tales from Springfield, although nothing has materialised as of 2008.

Cultural references

• Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould: The episode's title is a play on that of the 1993 film.
• Pulp Fiction: Like Quentin Tarantino's film, the episode's plot is episodic and interconnected. Additionally there are several more lengthy parodies. The whole of the Chief Wiggum, Snake and Herman plot is based on the "Gold Watch" segment of the film. Wiggum, Lou and Eddie's conversation about McDonald's parallels the famous "Royale With Cheese" discussion between Vince Vega and Jules Winnfield. Later, Snake runs down Wiggum like Butch Coolidge does to Marsellus Wallace. He then crashes into a wall, running down a fire hydrant and mailbox just like in the film. The two then fight and roll into Herman's shop, he ties them up and waits for Zed to arrive before being knocked out by a medieval weapon yielded by Milhouse. This again mirrors the film, with Herman in the role of Maynard.
• "1999": Apu's line "I'm going to party like it was on sale for $19.99!" references Prince's song.
• "Freak-A-Zoid": Apu sings the song by Midnight Star.
• E.R.: Dr. Nick's scenes parody the popular medical series.