Moe'N'a Lisa

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The Simpsons episode
"Moe'n'a Lisa"
Episode no.	384
Prod. code	HABF19
Orig. Airdate	November 19, 2006
Writer(s)	Matt Warburton
Director	Mark Kirkland
Chalkboard	None
Couch gag	On a computer, pictures of the family are dragged onto the couch, and then deleted.
Guest star(s)	J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson Tom Wolfe as himself Gore Vidal as himself Michael Chabon as himself Jonathan Franzen as himself
SNPP capsule
Season 18 September 10, 2006 – May 20, 2007
The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer Jazzy and the Pussycats Please Homer, Don't Hammer 'Em... Treehouse of Horror XVII G.I. (Annoyed Grunt) Moe'N'a Lisa Ice Cream of Margie (With the Light Blue Hair) The Haw-Hawed Couple Kill Gil: Vols. 1 & 2 The Wife Aquatic Revenge is a Dish Best Served Three Times Little Big Girl Springfield Up Homerazzi Rome-old and Juli-eh Husbands and Knives Stop, Or My Dog Will Shoot! The Boys of Bummer 24 Minutes
List of all Simpsons episodes...

Moe'N'a Lisa is an episode from the eighteenth season of The Simpsons. It was written by Matt Warburton and directed by Mark Kirkland.

1 Synopsis
2 Alternate ending
3 Cultural references
4 Goofs
5 Broadcasting information

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The episode starts off with Homer waking up with a remember string. He also has "DON'T FORGET" written in mirror writing on his chest, and there are various other "DON'T FORGET" messages, including Maggie's cereal, which spelled out "DON'T FORGE" until she coughed up the "T." Trying to remember what it is he's supposed to remember, he ends up going to the Senior Olympics with his family. Grandpa reminisces about his encounter with Hitler at the 1936 Olympics (where he accidentally saved Hitler's life), and he actually manages to win a medal at the Senior Olympics. Shortly after Homer leaves his house the scene changes to Moe's tavern where the proprietor is calling the Simpson household to remind Homer about the former's birthday fishing trip. At the Olympics, it is revealed that Lisa cannot find anyone interesting enough on whom to do a report.

The Simpson family returns home at night to find Moe waiting for them outside their door. Sneaking into their own house, they receive a message from Moe saying that Homer had betrayed him. Impressed by the emotional depth of the letter, Lisa decides to do a report on Moe. At Moe's hotel room (where he lives) Lisa discovers random thoughts on post-it notes written by Moe. Combining them, she creates a poem and sends it to a poetry journal where it becomes a smash hit, and he is acclaimed as a Charles Bukowski-like poet.

Moe is invited to the Vermont festival by Tom Wolfe. While driving there, Homer avoids drinking and driving by driving only between sips of beer. Moe and the Simpsons finally arrive at the Wordloaf convention while being pursued by the police of every state in New England. At the convention, Moe mingles among noted authors Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, Michael Chabon and Jonathan Franzen. After Gore Vidal is ejected from the gathering for having gotten inspiration for the titles of his novels (as opposed to creating the title himself "as any true author does"), Moe takes credit for the poem's name saying it was a solo effort. Lisa is deeply hurt by this. Meanwhile, Moe realizes he cannot arrange his fragments into poems without Lisa. Ultimately, he delivers a poem at the convention revealing Lisa's contribution.

[edit] Alternate ending

According to an article written while the episode was being recorded, Tom Wolfe, Michael Chabon and Jonathan Franzen were all supposed to be killed by a giant boulder. This ending was cut from the episode because none of the three are killed. As well, several lines were cut from the Chabon/Franzen fight, such as Franzen shouting "Ah, my trademark glasses!" [1]

[edit] Cultural references

The title of the episode is a pun on the "Mona Lisa".
The fast-talking publisher who approves of Moe's poetry is a caricature of the Daily Bugle publisher, J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man. J.K. Simmons, who plays Jameson in the Spider-Man films, voices this character. At the end of the episode, he demands photos (then poems) about Spider-Man. The rhyme scheme he mentions is Petrarchan, an Italian sonnet style dating back to the thirteenth century.
When Groundskeeper Willie chases Grandpa in the Senior Olympics, he looks exactly like Death from The Seventh Seal.
Thomas Pynchon can be seen at the Wordloaf, still wearing the paper bag he wore in his last two appearances. John Updike is also present, siting next to Pynchon. This episode originally aired two days before the release of Against the Day, Pynchon's first work published in nine years.
Wordloaf is a parody of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.
When Moe is shooting at the geese, a building closely resembling Middlebury College's McCardell Bicentennial Hall is visible in the background. (Middlebury is the host of the Bread Loaf conference.)
Homer and Bart visit the Vermont Teddy Bear Company where they have made bears that looked like Lisa and Moe.
Grandpa Abe's visit to the 1936 Summer Olympics makes mention of an assassination attempt on Hitler.
The scene were The Crazy Old Man jumps off the high-dive board spoofs the intro to The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

[edit] Goofs

16 minutes into the episode, there is a shot of Lisa sitting next to a pond with geese swimming in the foreground. As two geese on the right side swim to the left, the one that is in the "background" overlaps the closer one and crosses in front.[2]