Difference between revisions of "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson"

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"The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson" is the first episode of the ninth season of the animated series The Simpsons.

Plot

Barney is chosen as the designated driver of Moe's one night, which happens to be the same night as Duffman appears to award Barney a prize of free beer he won by sending in a vast number of Duff lids. After dropping off Lenny, Carl, and Homer at home, Barney disappears with Homer's car for two months.

As Homer is building a car out of a mattress, Lisa reads them a letter about Homer's car. It says that the car is illegally parked in Manhattan, and they have 72 hours to claim it. If they fail to do so it will be dumped into the East River at their expense. The Simpsons then go on a trip to New York by bus to get it back, much to the dismay of Homer (many years ago, he had a bad experience in New York with pickpockets, police, pimps, C.H.U.D.s, and Woody Allen, who dumped trash on his head from an upper floor).

At the bus terminal Homer tells his family to stay put. When they refuse, he agrees to let them tour the city until dark. He then gets into a taxi and starts looking for his car. He discovers that it has somehow ended up illegally parked at the World Trade Center (WTC).

Upon arriving at the WTC, Homer finds hundreds of parking tickets on the window of his car and a boot attached to the wheel. He is forced to wait from 9 to 5 for a police officer so that he can pay the parking tickets and have the boot removed. Many passers-by toss him coins, thinking him to be homeless, which he uses to buy food ("Khlav Kalash") from a vendor's cart. Then, to wash the "awful" taste of Khlav Kalash out of his mouth, he buys and drinks 17 cans of "Crab Juice" (being appalled with the other choice of Mountain Dew).

After drinking all this, he asks the vendor if he has a men's room in the cart. The man tells him that the only restroom is in the top of the tower. When he can not hold it any longer, he rushes to the restroom at the top of the South Tower of the World Trade Center, only to find it is locked with a message informing him to use the restroom in the North Tower. He rushes back down the South Tower and up the North Tower, where he finally gets to use the restroom. Looking out the window, however, he notices the police officer looking around and then attaching another parking ticket to his car. He screams "D'OH!" so loud that it echoes throughout the entire city.

After rushing back down the North Tower, he finds that he has been fined $250 for failure to wait by his vehicle. He looks back behind him and realizes the sun is setting. Frustrated, he vows to get out of the city, even if it kills him. He climbs into his car, starts it, and accelerates like crazy to move it. The boot rips a hole in his car's fender but he continues to drive forward, merging into traffic and driving until he is stopped by road construction.

He gets out of his car and tells one of the workers that the boss has fired him; the worker rushes off to let his boss have it. While the worker is gone, Homer steals his jackhammer and uses it to get the boot off of his wheel. Although it greatly damages the front of his car, smashing the windows, destroying the hood, and deploying the airbag, the boot comes off. He declares,"Homer 1, New York nothing." Homer then steps on the boot and gets it caught on his leg. He then kicks the grill of his car and gets it off. He then thanks people for their waiting, someone fires a gun at him, he then screams and drives away to the cheers and angry shouts of bystanders.

Meanwhile, the rest of the family have a much more relaxing day at New York, visiting various attractions, including the Statue of Liberty, Little Italy, Chinatown, Broadway (Marge "always dreamed of being in a Broadway audience"), and the offices of MAD Magazine, where Bart is beside himself with awe (Bart explains to the receptionist "my father has a subscription.")

At the end of the day, Lisa, Marge, Maggie and Bart take a horse-carriage ride through Central Park, where they have agreed to meet Homer. Homer drives beside them in his car in an action scene that references the chariot race in Ben Hur, and asks them to jump into the car. They refuse, however, so Homer slams the brakes, stopping in front of the horse-carriage, and they get in.

As they drive away on George Washington Bridge, Lisa asks if they can come back next year. Homer sarcastically replies "we'll see honey, we'll see..." as a bag of garbage, including medical waste, hits his face through his car's smashed windows... due to the fact they are behind an open garbage truck.

Cultural references

The way the bowl of peanuts starts to vibrate as the Duffmobile approaches references the 1993 film Jurassic Park when the cups of water vibrate when the Tyrannosaurus rex approaches. The music that plays as Duffman enters the bar is "Oh Yeah" by Yello. Homer and his drunken buddies sing the 1996 hit Macarena on their way home. Drunken Carl suggests Barney take them to the Playboy Mansion.

Homer's recollection of his first trip to New York begins with the song "The Entertainer", made famous by the 1973 film The Sting. The X-rated films Homer walks past in this scene have reference to the films Jeremiah Johnson, The Godfather Part II, and Five Easy Pieces, all films coming out between 1970 and 1974 which helps to place the time when Homer went there. Homer recollection ends with "...and that's when the C.H.U.D.s came after me." Marge responds: "Of course you'll have a bad impression of New York if you only focus on the Pimps and C.H.U.D.s." This is a reference to the movie C.H.U.D.. Woody Allen, a notable New Yorker, makes a brief appearance in Homer's flashback scene. He throws trash on Homer from several stories above.

Homer wants to buy a piece of pizza from Original Famous Ray's Pizza which is a parody of the many Ray's Pizza shops around New York. When Alfred E. Neumann pokes his head into the Mad Magazine offices, the White Spy from MAD Magazine's series Spy vs. Spy is visible in the room behind him. In New York, Bart sees a trio of Hasidic Jews and mistakes them for ZZ Top. The lead actor in the Betty Ford Clinic musical looks like actor and former SNL castmember Robert Downey, Jr., who became notorious for his drug abuse in the 1990s.

At the end, Homer drives his car through Central Park like a madman. This is a reference to Die Hard with a Vengeance, where John McClane does the same thing. The song that plays during the credits is "New York, New York", sung by Michael Dees.

When Bart, Marge, and Lisa are on the subway an ad can be seen that says "Can you throw a football? Become a New York Jet. Call 1-800-4NYJETS." This is a reference to the New York Jets who had the worst season in franchise history the year before this episode came out with a 1–15 record. The year this episode came out the Jets went 9–7.

Post-9/11

This episode was aired four years before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Due to the central plot being a dilemma that Homer has at the World Trade Center, the episode was retired from syndication in several areas in the United States (many fans thought that the episode would not air again). After an appropriate amount of time passed, some stations began to air the episode again. The episode remained in somewhat constant syndication in Australia, with regular re-reruns playing on the Cable Channel FOX8. It is shown uncut on the Season 9 DVD. The episode was also kept in regular syndication in Canada, airing on Global and CBC.

On the DVD commentary for the episode, Executive Producer Josh Weinstein remarks that the line "They stick all the jerks in tower one," spoken by an occupant of Tower Two after the Tower One occupant shouts obscenely at Homer, is "regrettable."

In the United Kingdom, the British satellite TV channel Sky One did not show the episode again until August 7, 2005 with several cuts to remove some (but not all) shots of the towers. The episode was pulled from the first showing of season 9 on terrestrial TV (then running on BBC2) as it was due to be shown shortly after the attacks.The show finally aired on British Terrestrial television on Channel 4 on October 7 2007, although the "jerks in tower one" line was removed.