Homer the Vigilante

A number of burglaries by the 'Springfield Cat Burglar' take place in Springfield, hitting even the Simpsons' and Flanderses' houses (stealing Flanders' Shroud of Turin beach towels). Among the stolen items are Lisa's beloved saxophone, Marge's pearl necklace (one of many in a large ball), Bart's stamp collection, and the portable TV. In response, a vigilante group organizes around Homer. Grandpa Simpson wants to join, but is deemed too old by Homer and turned away.

The group turns out to be more criminal than protective. They destroy a bystander's leaf-fire (assuming that he did not have a permit) in turn setting his house alight (although he had a permit). They allow Jimbo to vandalize a wall using spraypaint as it made him feel "like a big man". He is invited to join the group after they confirm that he can swing a sack full of doorknobs well. Homer is interviewed on Smartline, where Kent Brockman tells Homer that statistics suggest the group may be causing more crimes than it has been preventing. The Cat Burglar calls the show, and informs them that he will rob the Springfield museum of its 'World's Largest Cubic Zirconia' centerpiece.

While guarding the museum, Grandpa and some friends from the retirement home volunteer to help guard the Zirconia, but Homer tells them to leave. Later, Homer sights teenagers drinking. He leaves his post to stop them, but quickly ends up getting drunk with them instead. While Homer's guard is down, the Cat Burglar sneaks past and steals the gem. Homer is blamed and pelted with vegetables by the unforgiving townspeople (with Jimbo tossing back his stolen door knobs and, in sheer disillusionment, announcing that he's going to law school). Later that day Grandpa stops by the house and tells everybody that he knows who the Cat Burglar is. At first he gloats about how nobody wanted his help before, but quickly agrees to tell after the family begins to become impatient. The burglar is exposed as being a resident in the local retirement home named Malloy.

Homer captures Malloy at the retirement home, and he returns the saxophone and various other objects of curiosity, and Malloy does such a good job of winning over the people of Springfield with his charm that they all want to let him go. Nevertheless, Chief Wiggum arrests him and he is imprisoned. While in his cell at the police station, Malloy casually mentions that he assumes Homer and the cops probably want to know where he hid all of his loot. This piques their interest, and after Malloy tells them where to look, they all rush out of the station hoping to get the treasure for themselves. In a matter of minutes the entire town hears of the existence of Malloy's stash and almost everybody in Springfield is racing to get there first. After the residents of Springfield get to the site and dig, they finally discover a box with a note inside. The note tells them that there is no treasure and that while they have been searching, Malloy has escaped from his cell. Homer refuses to believe it and he a small group continue to dig until Chief Wiggum realizes they've dug so deep they can't get out.

[edit] Cultural references

The score of this episode borrows several music cues from The Pink Panther and other thief films. One such score appears in the end credits sequence, an homage to the film It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Homer's dream of riding a nuclear bomb into oblivion is a spoof of the famous scene from Dr. Strangelove.
The end of this episode is a direct homage to It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in score, shots and characters, such as:
- The plane flying through the billboard. (Similar to Mickey Rooney's flight in a plane)
- Selma hitting Barney with her purse. (An action performed several times by Ethel Merman in that film.)
- Bart tricks a man into driving into a river, who yells at him as his car sinks. (The man looks similar to Phil Silvers and the scene in the film, especially Bart's hand waving motion is exactly from the scene.)
- The cars drive up an incline similar to the California incline. (Exactly from the film, including one car spinning around on the turn up.)
- The Springfieldians walk up to the T tree to heavenly music. (Exactly from the film. We even see the W tree from the original movie).
- Several characters, such as Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers and Buddy Hackett, from the film are seen as the treasure is dug up.
Jimbo painting "Carpe Diem", is a reflection to Dead Poets' Society.
When Homer and Skinner are seen talking in front of the museum, their dialog and the music playing is a reference to the TV series Dragnet.
When the Cat Burglar breaks into the museum, a likeness of the Mona Lisa and Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory can be seen on the walls.