Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood
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"Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood"
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Episode Information
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"Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood" is the eighth episode of Season 5.
Synopsis
Bart and Milhouse find $20 which they use to go on a Squishee bender in downtown Springfield. The next morning, Bart has no memory of what happened and is shocked to find out that he joined the Junior Campers, and the patrol leader is none other than Ned Flanders. Now a full-fledged member, Bart must attend the Campers' father-son rafting trip with Homer.
Plot
When Bart and Milhouse find a twenty-dollar bill in the street, they buy a Squishee made entirely of syrup. The massive amount of sugar in it makes them go hyper, and they have a night on the town, including seeing the show Cats, skateboarding, and many other things. The next morning, Bart wakes up with a sugar hangover, not remembering anything of what happened last night, and realizes that he joined the Junior Campers. It's worse for Milhouse, though: He had a dirty word shaved into his hair, which quickly gets him in trouble with Principal Skinner, and he is forced to get his entire head shaved.
Bart, for his part, discovers that membership in the Junior Campers will get him out of a surprise quiz because he has to attend a Campers' patrol meeting. He cheerily goes to his first meeting, but his doubts return when he learns that the patrol leader is Ned Flanders. Bart decides to stay when he sees that the members get to carry pocketknives, but is disgusted when he goes to the trouble of reading the group's knife safety book and for his trouble gets a rubber training knife and a promotion to the rank of "Pussy Willow".
In spite of these setbacks, Bart comes to like the Junior Campers when he starts working on merit badges and realizes that the skills he learns transfer readily into pranking Homer by setting traps for him. He also knowledgeably nitpicks an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon which takes place in the woods. Later, though, it comes time for the father-son rubber-rafting trip, and Bart is embarrassed at the thought of having to bring Homer on the trip. He envisions Homer doing things like facing the wrong way in the raft, wearing a sailor's hat made of paper, and splashing everyone with his oar.
The reality of Homer going on the trip, however, proves to be even worse. Homer makes a sailor's hat out of the map and loses the map, resulting in himself, Bart, Ned, and Todd taking the wrong fork of the river and drifting into the ocean. While they're lost at sea, Homer causes other setbacks such as using up the batteries in Todd's Walkman, using the limited water supply to wash his socks, devouring the entire food supply, and shooting down a plane with a flare. All seems lost when Homer drops an open pocketknife on the floor of the raft. The knife bounces around and the blades miraculously don't puncture the raft, only for the knife to come to rest with its magnifying glass facing the sun, and the sun's rays burn a hole in the raft, causing a leak. Homer ends up saving the day, however, when he smells hamburgers and guides the raft to a Krusty Burger restaurant that was built on an offshore oil rig.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Junior Campers (led by "celebrity dad" Ernest Borgnine) fare even worse. They take the correct fork of the river, but end up drifting through some dark scary woods where they are stalked by hillbillies. Later they encounter a bear and Borgnine's first thought is to fight off the bear with his pocketknife, but he discovers it's missing (Homer having stolen it to give it to Bart). They later shelter at an abandoned summer camp and sing around the campfire, and are stalked by a mysterious person or creature in the woods. The final shot of the episode is of Borgnine screaming as the stalker attacks. What happens to the group of campers after that isn't known, but they are never seen again.
Production
The episode was written by George Meyer and directed by Bob Anderson. Ernest Borgnine guest stars as himself.
