Marge Gamer
"Marge Gamer" is the seventeenth episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season, which originally aired April 22, 2007. It was written by J. Stewart Burns and featured a guest appearance from Brazilian football star Ronaldo. This episode first aired three days after the twenty-year anniversary of the first ever appearance of The Simpsons on television, in the Tracy Ullman short Good Night.
Plot
Marge is ridiculed at a Parent-Teacher Association meeting for not having an e-mail address, and she decides to buy her own computer. She is quite taken by the Internet, and starts playing a role-playing fantasy game called "Earthland Realms" after refreshing her e-mail and finding an ad for it. The game has her interacting with practically the whole town of Springfield, including Apu the gem trader, Skinner the turkey, Moe who looks like a troll but is not, Mrs. Krabapple the enchantress, Snake the Snake King, Chief Wiggum the pig man, Smithers the Barbarian, Comic Book Guy the fully armored crusader-like warrior, and Sideshow Mel as a creature who looks surprisingly like a Tauren. Suddenly everyone hides, closes windows of houses and a knight in black atop a black horse. Apu grabs Marge and Skinner is flamed by the knight's flame sword. Apu tells Marge that the knight in black is the Shadowknight, the most powerful and deadly character in the game. While off the game, Marge does the laundry and unintentionally hears Bart say "Another senseless killing by the Shadowknight", learning that he is the Shadowknight.
Meanwhile, Homer referees Lisa's football game and his subpar skills frustrate Lisa. Then, stung by her criticism, he learns the rules of football and becomes a better referee, briefly impressing Lisa. However, Homer gives Lisa a yellow card after Ronaldo points out that Lisa is a "flopper", then a red card for bad sportsmanship when she rips the yellow card, but when Lisa claims she hates Homer, she is taken out of the game. As a result, Lisa gets mad at him.
Marge goes to the Shadowknight's castle and meets Milhouse the male cursed to look like a female servant, who got turned by a spell. In the online game Marge constantly frets about Bart, who goes around causing carnage, and redecorates his "trophy room" with the Hello Kitty expansion pack. Bart smashes all of these decorations with his weapon and accidentally kills Marge's character in his fit of rage.
Homer and Bart go to Moe's Tavern to escape their troubles. Moe gives quality advice to Homer and Bart, prompting them to jokingly ask where the real Moe is. It is revealed that the actual Moe is tied up behind the bar. Acting on the fake Moe's advice, Bart makes up for killing his mother's character by reviving her with 2/3rds of his character's health. While Elf Marge tends to the Shadowknight, the other characters raid the castle to take advantage of his weakness and graphically kill him. Homer gives Lisa a BBC documentary about "floppers" and she realizes that she was at fault. Marge refuses to come outside as the rest of the family plays football outside with Ronaldo. Feeling sorry for Bart, she becomes the new Shadowknight and avenges Bart by eliminating everyone who participated in killing him, first starting with Moe's character, while bouncing his head like a football.
Cultural references
- Homer headbutts a linesman just as Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final. Then he rips off his shirt like Brandi Chastain did in the 1999 Women's World Cup Final.
- Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" plays during the football brawl Lisa watches on DVD. Other music in the episode includes the Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari" (as Marge uses the Web), Paul Revere and the Raiders' "Kicks" (as Homer officiates the game) and "Phoenix Rises" from the X-Men: The Last Stand soundtrack (when Bart revives Marge in the game).
- "Earthland Realms" is a parody of MMORPGs. Most of the references are to the Everquest game franchise but a few are also made to the more popular World of Warcraft. The upcoming The Simpsons Game also references Everquest with it's "Neverquest" subgame, with some character models being used in both this episode and game.
- Mr Burns asked Marge if he was at The Wall Street Journal online.
- Ronaldo wears a Brazil kit (yellow, green and blue) and the all-white Real Madrid kit in this episode. However, by the time the episode aired, Ronaldo had left Real Madrid to join AC Milan, who wear red and black stripes.
- This episode aired six months after the South Park episode "Make Love, Not Warcraft" which had similar themes, including a reference to Hello Kitty online.
