Weekend at Burnsie's
"Weekend at Burnsie's"
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Episode Information
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“Weekend at Burnsie’s” is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons’ thirteenth season.
Plot
After a bad experience with genetically modified food Marge decides to plant her own garden. Crows arrive on the new garden, so Marge makes a scarecrow, which scares Homer. Homer destroys the scarecrow, and the crows eventually see Homer as their leader, following him everywhere. But when the crows attack Maggie, Homer turns on them and they attack his eyes. He then goes to the hospital, where Dr. Hibbert prescribes him medicinal marijuana.
Homer becomes a stoner stereotype, even asking Flanders to read him the whole Holy Bible. When Flanders offers a petition to have a vote on the ban of medical marijuana in Springfield, Homer unwittingly adds his signature. Homer's stoned state also sees him promoted to Executive Vice-President at the power plant, and so he goes to a rally for the legalization of medical marijuana (but the rally is actually held a day after the ban was approved by voters). Homer is cured of his medical condition and promises he won’t smoke pot again.
Mr. Burns asks Homer to help him with a speech for a crisis shareholders meeting. Homer gives Smithers his last joint, and while Smithers is smoking and dressing like Judy Garland, Burns apparently drowns in his bathtub. So, for the meeting, Smithers and Homer make Burns into a marionette, a la Weekend at Bernie’s, and the movement of the marionette inadvertenly gets Mr. Burns’ heart working again. The meeting is a success, and another financial crisis at the power plant is avoided.
References
Cultural
- Some elements of the episode, as well as its title, parody "Weekend at Bernie’s".
- When the family first finds out Homer is using marijuana, he is singing “Smoke on the Water” by Deep Purple.
- The music used while Homer is getting stoned on his first joint is "Incense and Peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock.
- “Wear Your Love Like Heaven” by Donovan plays in the montage of a stoned Homer getting ready for work.
- Homer’s car during his hallucination as he’s getting ready for work looks like Benny the Cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- When Marge is making the scarecrow for her vegetable patch, pop-ups appear on the screen in the style of VH1’s Pop-Up Video.
- The song Phish is singing is “Run Like an Antelope.” Later, Phish plays the opening limb of the Simpsons theme song, something Phish actually did in their real-life concerts.
- When Homer smokes pot, he says that it (marijuana) can "make anything funny. Even that show that follows Friends." This is possibly a reference to Frasier, which did follow Friends at the time of this episodes original air-date but is more likely a reference to the numerous -- and usually short-lived -- series scheduled after Friends for many years.
- When Homer is stoned and talks to Ned Flanders he cites his own example of the Omnipotence paradox: Could Jesus microwave a burrito so hot that he himself could not eat it?"
Previous episodes
- Seth and Munchie, the hippies from "D'oh-in in the Wind", are in the crowd in the rally for the legalization of medical marijuana.
- Otto remembers his wedding to Becky in It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Marge after seeing his ring.
- When Marge takes out some clothes from a box, captions show up when Marge lay them up in a shape of a body. These include Lisa's jersey from 'Lisa on Ice', Bart's jockey pants from 'Saddlesore Galactica', the Jack-o-Lantern from Treehouse of Horror III, IX and XII, and Grampa's fez hat from 'Who Shot Grampa's Hat' (This isn't an actual title, but the name is similar to 'Who Shot Mr. Burns').
Trivia
- This is one of the many episodes where a Simpson uses drugs. Bart used Focusyn in Brother's Little Helper, Homer later uses Nappen in Crook and Ladder and Marge uses steroids in Strong Arms of the Ma.
- This is the first episode revealing fully on screen that Otto Mann is a stoner, although we do not actually see him smoking pot until later episodes.
Censorship
Due to the prevalent drug themes/use throughout the episode, the following rating assignments were made:
This is the second episode of The Simpsons to be issued an “M” rating on Australian network television for “drug use” (the first episode to be rated M by Network Ten was Natural Born Kissers, although that episode has been rated PG by the OFLC).
This episode does not air before the 9pm watershed on Sky One or Channel 4 in the UK.
This episode was originally rated TV-PGV (when it first aired in the U.S., but was rerated TV-14V).
