The Crepes of Wrath

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The Simpsons episode
"The Crepes of Wrath"
Episode no.	11
Prod. code	7G13
Orig. Airdate	April 15, 1990
Writer(s)	George Meyer Sam Simon John Swartzwelder Jon Vitti
Director	Wes Archer Milton Gray
Chalkboard	“Garlic gum is not funny”
Couch gag	The family hurries onto the couch and Homer pops off.
SNPP capsule
Season 1 December 17, 1989 – May 13, 1990
Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire Bart the Genius Homer's Odyssey There's No Disgrace Like Home Bart the General Moaning Lisa The Call of the Simpsons The Telltale Head Life on the Fast Lane Homer's Night Out The Crepes of Wrath Krusty Gets Busted Some Enchanted Evening
List of all Simpsons episodes...

“The Crêpes of Wrath” is an episode of The Simpsons from the first season. Bart is sent to France on a student exchange trip, where his hosts treat him as a slave; meanwhile, an Albanian student taking his place shows great interest in Homer's work at the nuclear power plant.

1 Synopsis
2 Trivia
3 Cultural References
4 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Adil with his family

Bart discovers an old cherry bomb, and decides to flush it down the boy's restroom at the same time as Principal Skinner's mother is in the girl's restroom. In order to be rid of him, Skinner proposes to the Simpsons that Bart should participate in a foreign exchange program. Bart is sent to France, whereas the Simpsons host a student from Albania named Adil Hoxha (possibly a reference to the country's former dictator Enver Hoxha but most likely a fusion of the name of Enver Hoxha and Adil Çarçani, another Communist ruler of the time).

In France, Bart is greeted by two unscrupulous winemakers, César and Ugolin who work him worse than their donkey. Bart is made to collect and crush grapes, sleep on the floor, and test wine contaminated with antifreeze.

Adil is actually a spy who is after nuclear secrets, which he intends to obtain from Homer. Homer is happy that Adil is taking an interest in his work, and promptly shows him around the plant.

Eventually, Bart learns enough French to escape his captors and inform the authorities about his captors' plot to sell contaminated wine. The wine-makers are swiftly arrested and Bart is feted as a hero to conclude his stay in France on a satisfying note. Adil is caught by the FBI and is exchanged for another boy who was an American spy caught in Albania.

[edit] Trivia

Seymor's nickname is “Spanky”, according to Mrs. Skinner.
Adil is from Tirana, Albania.
While Bart is in France, he stays at the “Château Maison”, which means “castle house” in English.
The donkey's name is Maurice.
Bart has to go get antifreeze from 14 Voltaire Street.
Early in the episode, there is some actual dialogue in Albanian between Adil and his family, but later on the dialogue is just gibberish. The dialogue in French is very loosely translated, but correct, however.
- The only noteable mistake is that "Qu'est-ce que je t'avais dit?" (What have I been telling you?) is translated as "He sees well enough."
When Bart talks to the policeman, the man says "Excusez moi? Je ne parle pas anglas...Voilà un bonbon...Je suis désole, j'aime vraiment pouvoir vous-aidez" (Excuse me? I don't speak English...Here's a piece of candy...I'm sorry, I really would like to be able to help you).
Ugolin whistles the melody of “Alouette” while walking to the fields; however, that song, which originates in French Canada, is not very well known in France and would likely not be known by someone of his standing.
In later seasons, Agnes Skinner's personality seems vastly different to her kindly demeanor in this episode. In the DVD audio commentary, Matt Groening offers the theory that her current mean streak can be attributed to being a victim of Bart's prank.
By the end of this episode Bart can speak perfect French. Later, in the episode “The Monkey Suit”, Bart's chalkboard gag is “Je ne parle pas Français” (“I don’t speak French”).
The number of Bart's flight back to the USA (dix-neuf-cent-quatre-vingt-dix), corresponds with the year of the air of the episode; 1990.
On the way to the chateau, Bart and the motorcycle driver pass through several famous paintings.
This is the first episode of the series to satirize a particular nation (other than America), in this case the French. Episodes targeting another nation would become a recurring theme (typically once per season) in later seasons.

[edit] Cultural References

The episode's title is a play on John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (the movie that is based off the novel, is, like The Simpsons, a Fox property).
The two winemakers, César and Ugolin, are named after the peasants from the 1986 French films Jean de Florette, and Manon des sources (Manon of the Springs), according to producer George Meyer.