Trash of the Titans
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "Trash of the Titans" | |
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| Episode no. | 200 |
| Prod. code | 5F09 |
| Orig. Airdate | April 26, 1998 |
| Writer(s) | Ian Maxtone-Graham |
| Director | Jim Reardon |
| Couch gag | The family appears to see Bart write on the blackboard, "I will not mess with the opening credits" |
| Guest star(s) | Steve Martin as Ray Patterson U2 as themselves |
| SNPP capsule | |
| Season 9 September 21, 1997 – May 17, 1998 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"Trash of the Titans" is the 22nd episode of The Simpsons' ninth season. It is also the 200th episode of the series. The episode first aired on April 26, 1998.
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[edit] Synopsis
A local department store, Costington's (ironically, their slogan is "Over A Century Without A Slogan"), announces the formation of a new summer holiday intended to boost sales, Love Day. The Simpsons celebrate it, but it causes garbage to build up at home. Homer is told by Marge to take the trash out, but he gets mad at a garbage truck driver when he puts it out. He insults the driver, and in response, the family's garbage service is cut off. However, the mess continues to grow, and Marge asks Homer to apologize for the remark, but he does not, insisting that it is his way of doing things.
Homer awakes one morning to find the trash on the front of the Simpson family property has been removed and learns from Marge that she wrote a letter of apology to the Springfield Sanitation Commissioner, forging Homer's name. In response, Homer fights back by going to see the Sanitation Commissioner, Ray Patterson. He tries to be nice to Homer, until they get in a fight. Eventually, Homer announces that he will register to run for Sanitation Commissioner.
Homer drives a car across Springfield to promote his campaign. It goes sour at first, such as when Homer bothers U2 performing a PopMart concert by coming out on stage and interrupting the group's performance. U2 kicks Homer out of their concert. It does not go well, until when Homer is at Moe's, having a discussion with Moe, when he thinks of a slogan for his campaign: "Can't Someone Else Do It?" Homer spreads his "Can't Someone Else Do It?" message during his campaign, which pays off, and leads to Homer's victory in the election.
As he is sworn in to the office, he has high hopes, in a parody of "The Candy Man" (titled "The Garbageman Can"), but Ray Patterson warns Homer that he will crash and burn, and Mayor Quimby denounces Homer for spending the Sanitation Department's annual budget in only a month, bankrupting it in the process. Homer is truly "crashing and burning" as the commissioner, and it goes worse when he gets garbage trucks from all across America to dump their contents in a mine shaft. The family warns Homer that he is endangering Springfield. Homer does not listen. Eventually, the garbage builds up under ground until it begins to erupt, pouring trash into the town. At a town hall meeting, Homer is booted out of his post, replaced with Ray Patterson, but he leaves immediately. Quimby takes extreme measures by moving Springfield five miles from its current site.
[edit] Trivia
- This episode won an Emmy.
- The word wanker (Adam Clayton and Mr. Burns say it) had to be deleted from the UK version as it is a particularly offensive word in Britain (though it is available in VHS and DVD releases).
- Larry Mullen doesn't say a word in the episode as he was unavailable at the time of recording.
- U2 are singing "Pride (In the Name of Love)" at the concert when Homer comes.
- This episode also features guest appearances by Paul McGuinness (head of Principal Management which manages U2) and Susie Smith (an employee of Principal Management and Adam Clayton's fiancée).
- This episode is dedicated to the memory of Linda McCartney. She appeared along with Paul as herself in the episode "Lisa the Vegetarian".
- The sex offender registration line is made up of Jimmy the Scumbag from "Lisa's Date with Density", Patty and Selma, Mayor Quimby's nephew Freddy Quimby, and Moe.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title is taken from the movie Clash of the Titans.
- The episode's plot is a parody of Valentines Day and, by extension, Hallmark holidays since the episode begins with the national retailers wanting a new holiday to beef up sales.
- Homer tells the bald roadie to "take a hike, Kojak". Kojak was a bald male detective on the television series of the same name.
- When Patterson is reinstated, the theme from the TV show Sanford and Son is played.
- "The Garbage Man Can" is a parody of "The Candy Man" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
- When Homer is singing "The Garbage Man Can", Oscar, from Sesame Street, pops out of one of the trash cans.
- At the end of the episode, you'll notice a Native American crying when garbage was dumped at his feet. This is an obvious reference to the 1970's Keep America Beautiful's (featuring the Crying Indian) public service annoucement.
[edit] Quotes
- (as Springfield is being moved, the sad American Indian from those anti-pollution campaigns sheds a tear when he sees a plastic bag blow past)
Chief: Do yourself a favor, don't turn around.
(camera pans back; what was once Springfield has become the mother of all landfills)
American Indian: [screams]
Chief: I told you not to turn around.
- Homer: This is a very, very proud day for us! Especially me, your father, me, beat City Hall! It's just like David and Goliath, only this time, David won!
Lisa's Brain: Oh, I know, I heard it too. Here's some music. (Beethoven's "Für Elise" plays.)
- Quimby: Simpson, you idiot! You spent your entire year's budget in a month! Your department's broke!
Homer: [panics] Uh...oh no! Wait! I think I've got the perfect solution.
Quimby: You'd better! 'Cause those garbage men won't work for free!
Homer: D'oh!
- Marge: How could you spend $4.3 million in a month?
Homer: They let me sign checks with a stamp, Marge! A stamp!
- Moe: Hey Homer, you gotta pay for that beer.
Homer: Can't someone else do it?
[Homer walks out of the bar, while Moe is laughing]
Moe: [Holding a shotgun] Seriously though, give me the money.
- Homer: Come on Ray. Lets not let Politics get in the way of our friendship.
Ray Patterson: Friendship? You told people I lured children into my Gingerbread House!
- Ray Patterson: Sorry I'm late everyone. Somebody tampered with my brakes!
Homer: Well then you should have been early!
- (Homer goes to the concert dressed as an Irish man) Security guard: Wo, wo ,wo may I help you?
Homer: Potato man (in an Irish accent)
Paul McGuinness : Where the hell have you been?
- The Edge: Here we go. What do you say we slip out to Moe's for a pint?
Adam Clayton: Can I come?
The Edge: (looks at Larry, then back at Adam) No!
(Edge and Larry start to walk away)
Adam Clayton: (mutters) Wankers!
(Edge and Larry turn around angrily; Adam whistles innocently).
[edit] The Garbageman Can
- Marge: I'm really proud of you, Homey. But can the garbageman really do all the things you said?
- Homer: Oh, the garbageman can, Marge.
- (Homer snaps his fingers and is suddenly dressed in a fancy garbage uniform.)
- Homer: The garbageman can.
- (Homer snap his fingers and is suddenly atop a Springfield garbage truck. He points forward and leads a fleet of truck way.)
- Homer: Who can take your trash out? Stomp it down for you?
- (Atop the truck, Homer passes through a neighborhood as fancy-dressed garbagemen take trashcans to the curb and stomp down their trash.)
- Homer: Shake the plastic bag and do the twisty thingie too? The Garbageman!
- (The garbagemen tie up the garbage bags and leap onto the sides of Homer's garbage truck, holding their hats out in a flourish.)
- Garbagemen: Oh, the Garbageman can!
- (Krusty is taking out a box labeled, "Used Up Porno" when the garbage truck pulls up. Two smiling garbagemen leap off the truck and toss the box on the heap. Krusty weakly smiles and waves.)
- Garbagemen: The garbageman can, and he does it with a smile and never judges you.
- (In the Simpson kitchen, Marge removes one of Maggie's diaper and turns to Bart and Lisa.)
- Marge: Who can take this diaper? (Lisa and Bart hold their noses and wave it away. A garbageman looks in through the kitchen window, taking the diaper.)
- Garbageman: I don't mind at all.
- (Chief Wiggum, in a tuxedo, eats a hot dog in his bedroom. He has a huge mustard stain on his shirt.)
- Wiggum: Who can clean me up before the big policeman's ball? The Garbageman!
- (two garbagemen race in and scrub Wiggum's shirt.)
- Garbagemen: Yes, the garbageman can.
- (At Moe's U2 sits at the bar, holding up their beer mugs and swaying.)
- U2: The sanitation folks are jolly, friendly blokes, courteous and easygoing!
- (Garbageman walks across the bar, moping up, as another garbageman whispers something to Bono)
- The Edge: They mop up when you're overflowing
- (We see another shot of U2 sitting on their barstools, revealing that their rears are exposed. Each member of the bands pull up their pants.)
- Bono: And tell you when your arse is showing!
- (Garbagemen parade through Springfield, holding trash cans. Apu pops up of one, followed by Sideshow Mel, Ned Flanders, and Oscar the Grouch.)
- Apu: Who can...
- Sideshow Mel: Who can...
- Ned: Who can...
- Oscar: Who can...
- (Homer leads a procession of garbagemen playing trash lid like cymbals and cans like drums, followed by trucks.)
- Homer: The garbageman can! (Lisa and Bart rush in to march with him.)
- Lisa and Bart: 'Cause he's Homer Simpson, man!
- Everyone: He cleans the world for you! (As the parade marches into the city dump, the townpeople cheer.)
[edit] Screened at Toronto City Council
During Toronto City Council deliberations over the proposal to turn the abandoned Adams Mine in Northern Ontario into a massive dump site for Toronto's garbage, then-councillors Jack Layton and Olivia Chow surprised their council colleagues by playing "Trash of the Titans." "It was absolutely stunning," Layton later told The Globe and Mail. "It was so accurate to what was going on." Layton, subsequently leader of Canada's New Democratic Party, called The Simpsons "the single most important influence on progressive social commentary in the world." [1]
[edit] External links
