The Ziff Who Came to Dinner

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The Simpsons episode
"The Ziff Who Came to Dinner"
Episode no.	327
Prod. code	FABF08
Orig. Airdate	March 14, 2004
Written by	Deb Lacusta & Dan Castellaneta
Directed by	Nancy Kruse
Chalkboard	I will not speculate on how hot teacher use to be
Couch gag	The gag spoofs the 1977 science fiction movie Powers of Ten, which shows the house, Springfield, the continent, the planet, the universe, the Milky Way, and back to Homer's body. Homer says, "Wow."
Guest star	Jon Lovitz as Artie Ziff, Jay Sherman, Llewelyn Sinclair, Aristotle Amadopoulos, and Professor Lombardo
SNPP capsule
Season 15 November 2, 2003 – May 23, 2004
Treehouse of Horror XIV My Mother the Carjacker The President Wore Pearls The Regina Monologues The Fat and the Furriest Today I Am a Clown 'Tis the Fifteenth Season Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays I, D'oh-Bot Diatribe of a Mad Housewife Margical History Tour Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore Smart and Smarter The Ziff Who Came to Dinner Co-Dependent's Day The Wandering Juvie My Big Fat Geek Wedding Catch 'Em If You Can Simple Simpson The Way We Weren't Bart-Mangled Banner Fraudcast News
List of all Simpsons episodes...

"The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season. The episode aired on March 14, 2004.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Cultural references

[edit] Synopsis

Homer takes Bart and Lisa to a movie and he has to bring the Flanders family children with him, because Ned has taken the senior citizens for ice cream to celebrate the birthday of Jasper. However, at the theatre, every kid-friendly movie is sold out, and after listening to Lenny mention he had a small part in the horror movie The Redeadening (a Village of the Damned parody) as a gardener, Homer takes the kids to see the movie. The movie is very scary, causing it to scare Bart and Lisa at home, who think they hear noises from the attic. But when they look in the attic to see it, their fears scare them away. When Bart and Lisa arrange to have Homer and Marge look in the attic, they discover Artie Ziff living there.

Artie Ziff explains that he was living in the attic because he ran an unsuccessful Internet business, Ziffcorp (an Enron parody), and lost all his money after spending it on many extravagant items. He said he came to the family house because he thought Marge was the closest thing to him. Artie says he wants to stay in the Simpson house until he gets back on his feet, as long as he promises to be on his best behavior. Artie arranges to stay in the Simpson house and his first activity there is to read to Lisa from The Corrections. After Marge watches the news and hears that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking for Artie Ziff and Artie tries to commit suicide Homer takes him to Moe's Tavern. Artie is playing poker with Homer and his friends, Homer wins 98% of his company's outstanding stock. The SEC sweeps in to arrest Ziff, but Homer says he owns 230 million shares of Ziffcorp, making him the majority stockholder. To protect himself, he also blames Homer. Homer is taken into SEC custody, and placed on trial.

When Homer is on trial, Marge blames Artie for Homer being likely to go to prison. She also suggests that no one likes Artie for one reason: he only thinks of himself. Homer is eventually found guilty and sentenced to twenty years in prison. Visiting Moe's Tavern, Artie encounters Patty and Selma, and Selma comes to take Artie to her apartment after he mentions putting Homer in prison. As they spend the night together, Artie makes a plan to turn over his corporate books in order to admit he is the real crook. Ziff turns himself in, and Homer is released from prison. The family takes one last look at their "Uncle Artie", who uses a squirt bottle to put out the prisoners' cigarettes, much to their anger.

[edit] Cultural references

• The name of this episode is a reference to the classic comedy The Man Who Came to Dinner.
• The opening scene is a spoof of the famous short film Powers of Ten, going from 10²⁶ to 10^-18 to Homer's head.
• The movie The Redeadening is a Village of the Damned parody. Furthermore, the idea of a doll possessed by a murderer is the premise of the movie Child's Play. Village of the Damned is also parodied in Wild Barts Can't Be Broken as The Bloodening.
• The sounds Lisa hears from the attic are very similar to the "gollum" sound that Gollum makes.
• Homer gets upset that someone is playing his theremin in the attic.
• The scene where Lisa cries while talking into the video camera is taken from The Blair Witch Project.
• Lisa states that Homer believes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to be real.
• When the family visits him in prison, the song Homer sings is based on "Turn Around" by Malvina Reynolds.
• Homer takes Artie to Moe's, where he meets Aristotle Amadopoulos, Llewelyn Sinclair, Jay Sherman, and Professor Lombardo. Like Ziff, all these characters are voiced by Jon Lovitz.
• Homer wants his friends to hide the fact he's going to jail from his family by pretending he joined the Blue Man Group.
• Some of the movies at the googleplex are:
  • The Wild Dingleberries Movie
  • Diet Coke: The Movie
  • The Fashion of the Christ
  • You're in the Matrix, Charlie Brown
  • A Matrix Christmas
  • The Re-Deadening
  • Teenage Sex Wager
  • My Big Fat Greek Salad (Homer made this movie up)
• Ziffcorp's logo is reminiscent of Enron's, and shares the same fate