Maximum Homerdrive
Maximum Homerdrive is an episode of the Simpsons Tenth Season. This episode is the 13th of the season, airing on March 28, 1999
"Maximum Homerdrive"
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Episode Information
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Plot
Lisa announces that she is going to protest a new steakhouse which allows its customers to kill their own steak, which is called "The Slaughter House" (it is also decorated with hanging steer carcasses and a fountain of blood, and everything on the menu is meat - even the menu itself). The rest of her family eats there, and Homer enters a challenge with a friendly truck driver named Red Barclay. The challenge Homer and Red enter revolves around who will finish off a "Sirloin A Lot" first, a 16lbs (256 ounce or 7.26kg) steak that only two people in the history of The Slaughter House have finished (Red being one and Tony Randall being the other).
The gargantuan steak is more than a match for Homer, as he is unable to finish. Red does, but dies seconds later of what Dr. Hibbert called "beef poisoning", shocking the diners, before reassuring them that it was "probably from some other steakhouse". Homer then decides to finish Red's last delivery and brings Bart along with him, leaving the rest of the family behind. Lamenting that Homer and Bart always get to go on exciting adventures, Marge says "Maybe it's time we took a walk on the wild side." However, she, Lisa and Maggie end up going to a doorbell store to buy a doorbell that they install themselves, which plays The Carpenters' song "(They Long to Be) Close to You". Lisa wants to press the doorbell, but Marge insists that they should let visitors do the ringing first. Unfortunately, they barely get any visitors and they never get to ring for various reasons (Milhouse is trying to sell birdseeds, but is attacked by birds, some Jehovah's Witnesses were about to ring the doorbell when they reconsider their careers). Marge desperately tries to order garlic bread from Luigi's to get someone to ring the doorbell, but unfortunately the delivery man, who is Wiseguy, prefers to knock on the door and leaves when he hears that Marge is not interested in the garlic bread. Finally, Lisa gets fed up and rings the doorbell herself. However, the new doorbell starts to malfunction, playing over and over again.
Meanwhile, Homer goes to get some pills that will keep him awake overnight. He takes an entire bottle of pep pills, followed by a bottle of sleeping pills to balance it out. In the truck, he alternates between being hyper to being drowsy until he finally falls asleep at the wheel, almost heading off a cliff. The next morning, he awakes to discover a secret: the truck drove by itself with its Navitron Autodrive system. He talks it over with other drivers, who inform him that he should not mention anything about the truck driving by itself. The truck's Autodrive system also helps keep itself safe. To demonstrate the system, Homer and Bart sit on the hood. A passing bus notices this, and Homer outright tells them about the autodrive system and its nature as a secret scam. Another truck driver notices this and informs the other truckers about the situation. Back in Springfield, Marge tries to cut the wires to the doorbell, but discovers that Homer has once again traded his tools for M&M's. She decides to just pull the wires out, but this causes the doorbell to speed up and amplify itself, disturbing the whole neighborhood. Meanwhile, Homer and Bart are enjoying themselves until an angry mob of truckers get in a showdown with Homer, and he survives without the help of the Autodrive system, which had ejected itself from the truck. Homer and Bart finish the shipment by taking it to Atlanta, but there is no way for them to get home unless they take a freight train full of napalm back to Springfield. Back at the Simpson house, the doorbell's tune grows so annoying that Chief Wiggum is about to resort to shooting it until the doorbell store's mascot, Señor Ding-Dong, uses his whip to silence the noise from the doorbell. Everyone in Springfield is thankful for him, and Señor Ding-Dong attempts to drive away, but his truck is malfunctioning and he is instead forced to ask for jumper cables.
Cultural References
- Homer refers to the wikipedia:Spice Girls smash-hit song wikipedia:Wannabe (song) as the "ultimate truck driver song". This episode is one of two episodes to feature this song, the other being Fraudcast News. Closed captioning reveals that "Dancing Queen" by wikipedia: ABBA was supposed to be played instead.
# When all the truckers tried to ram Homer and Bart off the road, Homer says to Bart that "they're hazing us to join the trucker fraternity, thank you sir may I have another." The "thank you sir may I have another" part is from wikipedia: Animal House. # The movie Homer and Bart watch at the drive-in is a play on the 1989 movie wikipedia:The Thing that Ate Everybody starring wikipedia: Dan Castellaneta. # When Homer faces off against Red the trucker at the steakhouse, Red sinks his hand down his pants like Al Bundy normally did on Married...With Children.
- The decal on the side of Red's truck reads, Red Rascal and has a wolf and a sexy redheaded pin-up girl on the side, a possible reference to the 1942 Tex Avery cartoon Red Hot Riding Hood.
# The Carpenters' song, "Close to You", was played back in the episode, "The Way We Was", when Homer first met Marge, and was also played in The Simpsons Movie when Marge leaves Homer via video message and Homer falls into a river and floats on an ice sheet shaped like a broken heart. # The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, Texas is famously known for its promotion offering a free meal to anyone that can eat its 72 oz (4.5 lb, 2.04 kg) steak dinner in one hour.
- The truck's built-in device said, "I'm afraid I can't let you do this, Red.", spoofing the line spoken by HAL in the 1968 film wikipedia:2001: A Space Odyssey.
# Homer goes to a gas station called The Gassy Knoll, a reference to the grassy knoll, which is believed by conspiracy buffs to have played an important part in the wikipedia:Kennedy assassination.
- The woman on the "Wish You Were Her" postcard is Bettie Page.
- In the Latin-American dubbing version, after Bart asks Homer if he can go with him, Bart says "go ahead, Lola!". This reference is to the 80's movie smash-hit (in all of Latin America and the Latino community in the US) of Lola la trailera.
