24 Minutes
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"24 Minutes" is the twenty-first episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season and was broadcast on May 20, 2007 as part of the one hour season finale, alongside the episode "You Kent Always Say What You Want". It was originally promoted as being the 400th episode,[1] but was broadcast as the 399th. It was written by Ian Maxtone-Graham. Guest stars include Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajskub as their characters from 24, Jack Bauer and Chloe O'Brian. It won the 2008 Annie Award.[2]
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[edit] Plot
Principal Skinner opens a CTU – Counter Truancy Unit – at Springfield Elementary School with Lisa heading up the operation over Milhouse, Martin and Database. When the bullies Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney play truant, Milhouse is assigned on a mission to spy on them.
An expired and highly pungent container of yogurt at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant is found to belong to Homer, who is ordered to dispose of it by Mr. Burns. After failing to persuade Apu to take it, the yogurt falls into the hands of the bullies. Homer then unwittingly uncovers Milhouse spying on the bullies, ("Hey Milhouse, who are you spying on, those bullies?"), causing the bullies to throw them both in a trash container and send it rolling down an avenue.
Meanwhile, Marge forgets about the bake sale, and only has a half hour to make a raisin sponge cake. In order to save time, Marge drastically increases the oven temperature to 1,200 degrees, burning the cake and making it rock-solid. Marge attempts to cover it up with pink and white frosting before leaving for the bake sale.
At Jimbo's house, the three bullies make a powerful stink bomb from the expired yogurt along with other ingredients including six weeks' bottled farts, and plan on detonating it at the bake sale. After Milhouse's failed attempt to track the bullies, Lisa suggests that Bart help them, which he does after negotiating immunity from punishment for all his past and future pranks (and making Skinner teach him a new swear word). During his investigation, Bart's phone call is accidentally crossed with a call from Jack Bauer of 24 and turns it into a prank call against him ("Ahmed Adoudi"). After finding out about the stink bomb, Bart returns to the school to tell Lisa, but is knocked out and tied up in the ventilation room by Martin, a double-agent who had been blackmailed into working for the bullies.
At the bake sale, the bullies start the three-minute timer for the bomb. Bart, tied up in the ventilation room, uses his tongue to contact Lisa by his mobile phone and shows her a picture of the stink bomb, telling her to have Principal Skinner dump the hot dog water and short circuit the ventilation fan. Skinner fills up the room with the water. Running out of air, Bart attempts to swim out, even though he has a chair tied to his back but cannot break through the room's only window. Marge helps him, breaking the glass by throwing her burnt cake through the window. Lisa then defuses the bomb, saving the bake sale from the stench. However after that, Jack Bauer & several CTU field agents break inside the bake sale, destroying it, and start to arrest Bart for his "annoying prank call". A nuclear bomb then goes off in the distance, but everyone sighs with relief after Bauer reassures them that the nuclear bomb went off in Shelbyville.
[edit] Production
An original idea saw Edgar Stiles from 24 appearing in the episode and being killed, but the concept was dropped.[3]
[edit] Errors
- When Martin looks at himself on the mirror, with the Hall Monitor banner on, the banner does not appear mirrored (it reads "Hall Monitor" normally, not reversed as in a mirror image).
- One of the ingredient in the stink bomb is possum placentas. Possums are marsupials and therefore lack placentas.
[edit] Reception
Robert Canning on IGN named "24 Minutes" the best episode of the season, citing "this smart, funny, spot-on parody of 24 was so good that it came very close to redeeming the entire season."[4]
9.8 million people watched this episode in the United States.
[edit] References
- ^ Elber, Lynn. "'Simpsons'Honcho: 'Let's Keep Doing It'", Fox News, 2006-09-09. Retrieved on 2006-09-08.
- ^ "The Simpsons" (1989) - Awards
- ^ Anthony C. Ferrante. Exclusive: 'THE SIMPSONS' AL JEAN CELEBRATES 400 EPISODES (AND A '24' PARODY) AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T RUN OUT OF IDEAS. iF Magazine. Retrieved on 2007-06-14.
- ^ Robert Canning (2007-06-14). The Simpsons: Season 18 Review. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-15.
