- "Wait a minute! I remember falling in the mud, but I don't think that's why I've been screaming."
- ―Homer Simpson
| "The Blunder Years"
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| Episode Information
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"The Blunder Years" is the fifth episode of broadcast season 13 of The Simpsons and the two hundred seventy-fourth episode overall. It originally aired on December 9, 2001. The episode was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham and directed by Steven Dean Moore. It guest stars Joe Mantegna as Fat Tony, Paul Newman as himself, and Judith Owen as herself.
Synopsis[edit]
- A restaurant hypnotist causes Homer to relive a traumatic childhood experience where, upon swimming in a quarry, he found a dead body. That dead body turned out to be Smithers' father, Waylon Smithers, Sr., who had disappeared twenty-five years earlier under suspicious circumstances. Meanwhile, Marge finds herself attracted to Burly, the mascot for Burly Paper Towels.
Marge discovers a paper towel brand named Burly which instantly absorbs liquid. She believes it is named after the attractive man on the logo, and gets overly impressed by this. Homer and Bart know Burly isn't a real person, so using Flanders' landline they excite Marge by tricking her into thinking Burly's real name is "Chad Sexington", and that he's coming over to the house for dinner; but then only Barney arrives who Homer and Bart got to dress up as "Chad Sexington". This humiliates Marge, so Homer takes Lisa's advice on making it up to her by taking the family out to dinner and a show. They go to the Pimento Grove which is hosted by a hypnotist named Mesmerino, who does a successful trick on Professor Frink. Then Homer asks for a trick on himself, but it results in Homer endlessly wailing in fear. Mesmerino leaves the premises, embarrassed at his failure. Homer also leaves but still won't stop wailing.
The next day, Lenny and Carl take Homer home from work, saying his wailing is too disruptive. Carl deduces Homer is having a painful memory. Homer talks about his time as a 12-year-old when he, Lenny and Carl went on a hike and were saved from Fat Tony and his gang by Moe. Then back in the present day, Moe arrives in the Simpsons' house and drinks some Indian Memory Tea and continues on Homer's memory that Homer's younger self jumped off Springfield Gorge and started screaming when he fell into the mud. But present day Homer confirms his memory of his younger self falling in the mud was not what was causing his incessant screaming, but that he immediately afterwards found an adult human corpse in the water he released from the sewer pipe. Lisa points out that because Homer never told anyone about that until now, that the body must still be there, so Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa head towards the quarry. They encounter Chief Wiggum on the way and tell him what they're doing, so he joins them.
They find the quarry is now filled with water, so Marge grabs some of the Burly paper towels to absorb all the water. They find the corpse, now just bones left. Bart takes just the skull, and they all walk through the sewer pipe. They find a hatch, and Homer unlocks it. Chief Wiggum shoots the light switch to see Mr. Burns in his office. Chief Wiggum claims Mr. Burns is under arrest for murder, and Bart shows Mr. Burns the skull. Mr. Burns identifies the person as Smithers' father, Smithers Sr.; but Mr. Burns claims he didn't murder him and proves his innocence by showing them video footage of 30 years ago when the Power Plant was having a serious malfunction; middle-aged Mr. Burns was holding baby Smithers while he got Smithers Sr. to turn off the reactor, but he died a hero in doing so. Baby Smithers, too young to understand what happened, takes an affection in Mr. Burns, and the footage ends.
Mr. Burns says he moved Smithers Sr.'s body to the sewer pipe because "cover ups were all the rage back then", but that he never told Smithers the real way the latter's father died; but to Mr. Burns' embarrassment, Smithers had also been watching the footage, so Mr. Burns apologizes to Smithers for lying that Smithers Sr. was killed by a "tribe of savage women". The family then take Smithers Sr.'s skull back to their house, where Homer claims not to give it to Smithers as he would just bury it. Moe then arrives to give his theory on the dead body, but Marge tells him they've already solved it. Moe tells them he went through a lot to get the theory ready, so Marge kindly lets Moe say his theory anyway. But Moe just shows them entirely unrelated small items, which Homer doesn't fall for.
Reception[edit]
The episode has received mixed-to-positive reviews from TV critics and fans. It has been called "a comedy gem" and a "highlight of Season 13". On the other hand, the episode has been called a "bad parody of Stand By Me" and "annoying". Since the release of Season 13 on DVD, the episode has received mainly positive reviews.
