The Great Louse Detective
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Simpsons episode | |
| "The Great Louse Detective" | |
 |
|
|---|---|
| Episode no. | 297 |
| Prod. code | EABF01 |
| Orig. Airdate | December 15, 2002 |
| Written by | John Frink and Don Payne |
| Directed by | Steven Dean Moore |
| Chalkboard | none. |
| Couch gag | The family travels back in time to the prehistoric era and the Roman times when Homer uses the remote. |
| Guest star | Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob |
| Season 14 November 3, 2002 – May 18, 2003 |
|
|
|
| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"The Great Louse Detective" is the sixth episode of The Simpsons' fourteenth season. The episode aired on December 15, 2002.
[edit] Synopsis
The episode starts with Marge cleaning the house in 3:40 minutes (her personal best), but she realizes that she vacuumed up Maggie in the process. Homer sorts the mail with his George Foreman mail sorter to find out what mail is good and what mail is bad (like bills, jury duty and Patty and Selma's party invitation). Homer eats a hamburger made from the bad mail (the mail sorter took care of that), and one piece of good mail is an invitation to a weekend at the Stagnant Springs Spa for the family for free. The family has a great time at the spa, with Marge being massaged in a mud bath by turtles, and the kids even have their own fun with Dr. Mas-seuss. Homer goes in the steam room (where he sees a naked Rainer Wolfcastle). After Wolfcastle leaves, Homer notices a sign saying that says that the steam room is not meant for people with heart conditions. At the same time, a mysterious man, outside the steam room, turns the thermostat up to "Murder", and shuts the steam room's doors with a wrench, leaving Homer suffering profuse sweating and a pass-out. Krusty opens the door and Homer falls out. This prompts Homer and Marge to see Chief Wiggum, who suggests that they get someone who can understand a murderer's twisted mind — Sideshow Bob, who is released from the Campbell's Chunky Soup Maximum Security Prison, much to Bart's discomfort.
In order to put Bart in a safe place, Wiggum placed a shock bracelet on Bob's ankle to keep his murderous urges at bay (a running gag in the episode is that everyone in the family has a go at pressing the button) — comes to live at the Simpson family house. He asks Homer to list all the people who may want him dead. Homer and Marge list a whole bunch of people, while Bob wonders just how many enemies he has. He decides to follow Homer around to investigate who the killer could be. The next day, Homer goes hang-gliding just to impress Sideshow Bob who skeptically questions about his day. Later they go to the Kwik-E-Mart, where Apu says he prefers Bob's polite approach to robbery much better than the other crooks'. Homer buys a magazine, and in the next scene, his car is busted because he was reading while driving. He tells the mechanic (Junior) to use original GM parts, but Junior retorts that the car was made in Croatia out of old Soviet tanks. Homer criticizes the man, until Sideshow Bob tells him to stop making more enemies.
That night, Bob makes a dummy of Homer (hanging on a clothesline) on the front lawn of the Simpson house to give people the impression that Homer is taking a walk, and wait to see who the killer is, but the dummy is beat up by people who don't appear to plot to murder him, including Moe, Groundskeeper Willie, Patty and Selma, Reverend Lovejoy, and even the real Homer (who just wants to take a few swings at a dummy). audio clip
Later, Homer and Bob go to Moe's, where Lenny and Carl wonder why Bob has so much difficulty killing Bart. Suddenly, a hand, holding a gun, appears at the door and fires at Homer, but it hits and shatters Moe's pickled egg jar, much to Moe's grief. The person gets away in a tow truck.
Sideshow Bob suggests that Homer should stay home and out of sight to be safe, but he is told that he was named the King of the Springfield Mardi Gras, in which he must ride on a float for the whole day. Bob discovers that Homer won because someone filled the ballot box with ballots saying Homer's name, but Homer takes part in the parade anyway. At the parade, Bob learns that Homer's engine is having a problem due to a fixing from a mechanic (the brake line is cut), and draws a correlation between the wrench used in the spa, the wrenches in the tow truck, a smudge on the spa invitation, and the tow truck driver (Junior). He saves Homer by getting fired out of a cannon, and grabs Homer by his feet, just before the float hits the Museum of Swordfish (with a giant swordfish protruding outside), arriving on the Duff blimp. A shot is fired and hits Duffman, and Homer and Bob find out that the killer walks on stilts. They get stilts from Jimbo Jones and Kearney and pursue the killer, who is found out to be, indeed, Junior, Homer's mechanic. He admits his name is Frank Grimes Jr., and blames Homer for his father's death, although it takes Homer quite a while to remember "old Grimey". Lisa and the cops arrive. Lisa says that she has figured out the killer's identity, but Homer cuts her off saying that it's Frank Grimes Jr. (she had deduced Bumblebee Man). Chief Wiggum places Grimey Jr. under arrest and has Bob tranquilised with a dart.
That night, after Homer puts Bart in bed, Bob shows up, who was hanging to the back of the door and tape gags Bart. He tosses the remote to his bracelet away out the window and tries to kill Bart again. However, he stays his hand. Bob sings a song about how he's grown accustomed to Bart's face, but when Bart start singing with him, Bob tells him that it isn't a duet and Bart re-tapes his mouth. Then Bob takes his leave, and Bart hurriedly closes the window. However, two birds have taken the remote control to the bracelet back to their nest, and repeatedly peck at the button, causing Bob to have a series of electrified convulsions on the back lawn.
[edit] Trivia
- At one point when Bob is shocked, his hair assumes the poofy afro style it had back in his earliest appearances in season one.
- Frank Grimes' gravestone has been modified since he was buried at the end of "Homer's Enemy". In that episode, it simply said GRIMES; in this episode it says GRIMES (HOMER'S ENEMY).
- Homer's enemies list include: Mr. Burns, Fat Tony, the Emperor of Japan, ex-president Bush, the late Frank Grimes, PBS, Stephen Hawking, "the fat little Dixie chick" and the state of Florida.
- We learn that Kent Brockman is really old; he gets his face made up at the Stagnant Springs Spa to look younger.
- From this episode onwards, all episodes of The Simpsons are digitally colored.
[edit] Cultural references
- That '30s Show is a television series within this episode. It is a parody of That 70s Show.
- The episode's title is a take on the Disney film The Great Mouse Detective
- The steam room murder attempt is a tip of the hat to the James Bond novel and film Thunderball.
- The song Bob sings is a parody of "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" from the movie My Fair Lady.
- The use of a criminal to catch another criminal is a parody of Hannibal Lecter in Manhunter (1986), and subsequently, The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The film 48 Hrs. also had a similar storyline.
