Marge Be Not Proud
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"Marge Be Not Proud" is the 11th episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. This is the second-ever The Simpsons Christmas themed episode. There was a six-year gap between this one, and the first one, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", which was also the first-ever Simpsons episode, this episode aired on the same date as "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire" had, six years earlier. The writers had been thinking about doing a second Christmas show for many years, but no one wanted to take it on because they thought that they would just be repeating the first episode. After this episode, new Christmas episodes were made almost every following year.
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[edit] Synopsis
While the family watches a Christmas special hosted by Krusty the Clown, Bart sees a commercial advertising the fighting game Bonestorm, and decides he must have it. However, Marge tells him no, since the Mortal Kombat-type game costs too much.
Other attempts to obtain the game fail. At Android's Dungeon, the Comic Book Guy tells Bart all available copies of the game have been rented, however multiple copies of the golf game Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge, which is portrayed as being incredibly boring, remain. Passing it up, Bart later learns that Milhouse, has the game and comes over to play, but Milhouse quickly has Bart thrown out.
Discouraged, Bart visits the local Try-N-Save discount store. Inside in the electronics section, a spoiled kid (Gavin) demands that his mother buy him Bonestorm (she gives in), and sees Jimbo and Nelson shoplifting from the store. Bart - seeing the video game case has been left open, and hearing the voices of various video game characters whispering to him (Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Lee Carvallo [the only one who tried to talk Bart out of shoplifting], and Sonic the Hedgehog)- can no longer resist temptation; he takes a copy of Bonestorm, hides it in his jacket and walks out of the store.
Outside, Bart thinks he's home free, until he feels a heavy hand on his shoulder. He's been caught by the store's security officer, Det. Don Brodka. Bart is taken to a back room, where Brodka calls his parents (he leaves a message because they weren't home) and tells him to leave and never return, or else he'll face criminal charges. Bart races home, barely beating his parents home and managing to replace Brodka's phone message with another tape, and puts the real tape where nobody would ever listen to it. Bart has avoided trouble, temporarily.
The next day, Marge announces plans to have their family's picture taken at a photographer's studio at Try-N-Save - the very Try-N-Save that Bart has been banned from entering. Bart tries to convince Marge to go elsewhere, but the family goes to the Try-N-Save. Bart tries to avoid detection, but Brodka grabs him just as the photographer snaps the picture. He explains to Marge and Homer that their son broke the "11th Commandment": Thou shalt not steal. When Marge tells him that her son is not a shoplifter, the store detective shows them the surveillance tape on one of the TVs in the store. Bart blocks the TV, crying out: "I did it!", but the incriminating tape is also playing on all the other TVs for sale, over and over again.
Bart's parents are very disappointed in him. Homer begins to lecture him, but goes off into a mindless rant about the Police Academy movies, and ending with "stay outa my booze". Marge, however, becomes distant with her son and sends him to bed. Later, Bart is left out of family activities, such as decorating the tree and making snow statues of themselves.
Bart fears he has lost his mother's love, and decides he must repent. He visits the Try-N-Save, and returns with a bulge in his coat. Marge confronts him, believing he was shoplifting again, and finds Bart has hidden a handsome picture of himself (as opposed to his usual wacky look in photos) bought as a Christmas present for Marge, with a receipt saying "Paid in full."
Marge is overjoyed, and in gratitude for receiving her Christmas gift so early she gives Bart his, telling him it is the video game "every boy wants" according to the store clerk. Bart eagerly opens the present only to find out it's Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge. Although he's disappointed, Bart smiles and embraces his mother.
Presumably, Bart plays the putting game over the ending credits for the first (and last) time.
[edit] Trivia
- This is the third shoplifting-themed episode: previously one of the Tracey Ullman shorts featured Bart stealing candy bars, and "Marge in Chains" centered around Marge going to prison for accidentally stealing bourbon from The Kwik-E-Mart.
- As Milhouse says that all he had done was having entered his name (Thrillhouse), the term gets abbreviated to THRILLHO due to the limitation of eight characters for the player's name just like in many videogames. His real name would have fit in.
- Fox network broadcasts of this episode edited out Don Brodka's line, "If I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I'd stay at home with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose." All others leave this line intact.
- The audio commentary for the episode reveals that guest star Lawrence Tierney's recording session was a very intimidating and stressful experience for the crew. Josh Weinstein recalls it as "the craziest guest star experience they've ever had", and involved "talking him out of bad ideas and trying to explain to him all these crazy jokes".
- There are three references to Adolf Hitler, first, there is a game at the Try-N-Save called, Save Hitler's Brain, second, the Simpson family photos include one with Bart imitating Hitler with a comb and a Nazi salute, and third, there is a game called SimReich at the store, referring to Hitler's third reich and the SimCity computer games.
- Store Detective Don Brodka is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.
- The game Lee Caravallo's Putting Challenge is likely a reference to a game Lee Trevino endorsed for the Nintendo Entertainment System called "Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf!"
[edit] Cultural references
- Tupac Shakur is mentioned on a Christmas program
- The episode title is a play on John Donne's seventh sonnet which begins with the line "Death be not proud".
- Golfer Lee Carvallo is patterned after PGA golfer Lee Trevino.
- The game "Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge" is a reference to the game Lee Trevino's Fighting Golf.
- The detective's "one more thing" line is a nod to Columbo.
- The commercial for Bonestorm is a parody of the Slim Jim commercials. A wild Santa Claus, who is the game's spokesman, is a take on Slim Jim spokesman "Macho Man" Randy Savage. The commercial also parodies Mortal Kombat, featuring a cameo by a Liu Kang doppelganger who fights against a tank, and one of the characters in Bonestorm looks similar to Goro. The name for Bonestorm comes from BloodStorm, an ultra-violent competitor of Mortal Kombat.
- The Try-N-Save discount store takes its name from the Pic-N-Save store chain. The store is modeled after discount stores such as K-mart and Wal-Mart.
- In The Simpsons: Hit & Run, the opening missions of Stage 2 focuses on Bart trying to get a copy of "Bonestorm 2", despite the threat of expulsion from school for skipping. Sadly, the next shipment of the game never came due to Homer and Marge attacking the delivery truck during a Stage 1 mission.
- Among the other games available from Try 'N' Save besides Bonestorm and Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge are Swim Meet, Save Hitler's Brain, Canasta Master, Operation Rescue, Electronic Biathlon, Angus Podgorny's Caber Toss (incorrectly spelled as "Caper Toss", and probably a reference to the lead character in the sketch called "Man turns into Scotsman" from Monty Python's Flying Circus episode 7, "You're no fun anymore"), Celebrity Tutopsy, SimReich, A Streetcar Named Death, and Robot Stampede.
- When Bart is debating whether or not to steal the game, he imagines likenesses of Sonic The Hedgehog, Donkey Kong, Mario and Luigi (who are depicted with the opposites of their actual heights) urging him to take it.
- On the Krusty Christmas Special, Krusty references guest stars including "respected private citizen Tom Landry" and "South American sensation Xoxchitla." Krusty experiences severe difficulty pronouncing the name of the latter guest, who resembles the Brazilian children's television host Xuxa.
- When Bart is looking at Milhouse's house for the first time and Milhouse is playing the Bonestorm game, notice the shot when Milhouse is being "blown away" from the speakers in his chair. This is a reference to Maxell whose media commonly have the "blown away guy" in a chair.
- Bart replaces the answering machine tape wit "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah".
- Ned Flanders appeared in the Time Magazine Person of the century, a reference to the Person of the year annual issue by the same magazine.
[edit] External links
- "Marge Be Not Proud" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
