Crook and Ladder

"Crook and Ladder" is the nineteenth episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season, which originally aired May 6 2007. It was written by Bill Odenkirk and directed by Lance Kramer.

Plot

Marge, following the advice of a parenting magazine, takes away Maggie's pacifier, leading Maggie to destroy the inside of the Simpson home. Marge decides to get Maggie a new pacifier, but can not find the right brand. Luckily, Santa's Little Helper gives Maggie his squeaky toy that not only calms Maggie down, but also leads to Homer being unable to sleep. He takes sleeping pills and becomes a fat, suggestible zombie dad. One night, Bart and Milhouse take advantage of him by having him take them places. Homer then wakes up while driving, causing him to crash into the Fire Department, injuring all the firemen and landing them in the hospital. While they recuperate, Homer, Apu, Moe, and Principal Skinner become volunteer firefighters. After the first few fires, they are rewarded for saving the buildings. They then save Mr. Burns' house, but he gives them no reward. Feeling cheated, they decide to steal some of his treasures, covering their tracks by claiming they were destroyed by the fire. From then on, they start taking items from the places they save for their payment. After Marge and the kids see Homer stealing, Marge gets them to make a very sad face. Everywhere he goes, the kids come out of nowhere to show him how sad they are. After the sad faces begin to get annoying, he decides to stop, and convinces the others to stop, after saving Moe's and Apu's life. They then give all of their loot to the homeless.

Cultural references

• The song that plays when Bart and Milhouse abuse "Zombie Homer" is Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein."
• When Mr. Burns jumps out of the window, he floats like the feather at the beginning of Forrest Gump, with similar music.
• The song that plays during the montage of Bart, Lisa, and Maggie looking sadly at Homer is "Sad Eyes" by Robert John
• The scene where Homer wakes up in bed next to John Lennon is in reference to Lennon & Ono's "Bed-In for Peace", a non-violent anti-war message in the 1960s.
• Larry Flynt (former publisher of Hustler) is mentioned by Lisa as the publisher of Smothering Mother magazine.
• Nappien, taken by Homer to cure his insomnia, relates to the current problems of people's over-reliance on pills & medication, such as sleeping pills. The problem of prescription drug abuse is highlighted by Homer's reply to the Flanders "Kids, you are confusing Drugs with ddrrruuuuugs". Also, Lisa says "I've read that people do strange things in their sleep when they've taken Ambien... I mean Nappien." Ambien is a brand name for Zolpidem, one of the most common insomnia pills. Homer's own zone-out could refer to the well-publicized case of Patrick J. Kennedy, who drove his car and even participated in a United States House vote while under the influence of sleep medicine.
• The commercial for Nappien shows a dove, much like the butterfly from the Lunesta commercials, flying into people's bedrooms, and landing on them, causing them to fall asleep. However, the dove excretes a sleeping pill into the person's mouth to achieve this effect.
• The movies jackets given free to the firefighters by Rainier Wolfcastle is a play on some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies as well as other contemporary films. Eg. "Total Explosion" "Total Recall", "Frankenberry wears Prada" "The Devil wears Prada".
• The man Homer fights during the "Zombie montage" previously made an appearance in season 16's Pranksta Rap and is still wearing the same chain stating it to be "Thursday the 20th." The rapper from "Pranksta Rap" who was used to verify the time can be seen in the background of the fight.
• The Simpson family has a videotape of C.H.U.D.
• Apu tricks Homer and Moe into thinking he was killed and reincarnated as a cat. Afterwards, he says "You've just been Apu'd!", which is similar in context to Punk'd.