Missionary: Impossible
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"Missionary: Impossible" is the fifteenth episode of the eleventh season of The Simpsons, which originally aired February 20, 2000.
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[edit] Plot
In an attempt to end a pledge drive which interrupts a favorite show of his on PBS, a British sitcom entitled Do Shut Up, Homer pledges $10,000 to the network. Homer is applauded for saving the network. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Homer does not have the money, prompting pledge drive host Betty White and a mob of characters and personalities from various PBS shows (including the Teletubbies, Elmo and Big Bird) to chase him through the streets. Luckily, Reverend Lovejoy saves Homer after he hides in the church, putting him in a bag disguised as a sack of children's letters to God on a cargo plane to the South Pacific, where he will become a missionary in "Microasia." Homer arrives on the island and he meets Qtoktok & Ak. He also meets a native girl who looks and sounds so much like Lisa that he names her "Lisa Jr.", teaching them about religion. He calls back to Marge in Springfield and he makes Bart "the man of the house". Bart replaces Homer at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and Mr. Burns criticizes Homer's record and pokes Bart with a stick. The natives are noble savages who are ignorant of and unspoiled by civilization - until the arrival of Homer. He builds a new casino titled "The Lucky Savage", which introduces alcohol, gambling and violence to the island. After the failure of the casino, Homer builds a chapel in penance, but he and Lisa Jr. ring the bell extremely loudly, causing an earthquake that releases a river of lava. The chapel sinks into the lava, causing Homer and Lisa Jr. to cling together. When the two are about to meet their end, the scene cuts to another pledge drive, this time for the Fox network. It is revealed that Homer's adventures and mishaps were all recorded while he was on the island, but the show as well as the network are in danger of cancellation. Various Fox show personalities are manning the phones, joined by a cranky Rupert Murdoch and hosted again by Betty White, who entreats the viewers to help keep "crude, low-brow programming" on the air. Bart calls in and pledges a $10,000 donation. Murdoch remarks that Bart Simpson has saved his network, to which Bart replies "Wouldn't be the first time".
[edit] Cultural references
- The title of the episode is in reference to the American television series and movie Mission: Impossible.
- The name of the fictional island Microasia is a portmanteau of Micronesia, a real group of small islands in Oceania more similar to the island to where Homer was sent and the continent Asia, which neighbors Oceania.
- Phone operators at the Fox Network fund-raising drive include Fox show characters Mulder and Scully (from The X-Files), Hank Hill (King of the Hill, though shown with yellow skin), Bender from Matt Groening's Futurama, Thurgood Stubbs from The PJs, and Dylan McKay from Beverly Hills, 90210.
- Heard in the background of Do Shut Up is the Sex Pistols classic song "No Feelings".
- Briefly seen after the PBS ident on the Simpsons' TV is a representation of the famous 1968-1989 Thames Television ident, the ITV London Weekday franchise holder from 1968 to 1992.
- When Homer is asked by Ak about which religion is the correct one, Homer says, "Well, not the Unitarians. If that's the one true faith I'll eat my hat!" (even though he was not using a hat when he said that).
- Many PBS characters chase Homer, such as the Do Shut Up cast, Yo-Yo Ma, Mr. Rogers, and the Teletubbies. Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Elmo from Sesame Street are also seen among the crowd.
- Homer mentions The Flintstones when using a pelican to mix cement; he is also wearing a hat made of a tortoise shell.
- When Betty White refers to "low-brow" programming during the Fox pledge drive sequence, the then-cancelled Family Guy logo is visible on the TV screen before she shuts it off.
- Marge makes a reference to Pink Floyd's song Comfortably Numb. When Homer is licking frogs through the Ham radio Marge says "Hello? Hello? Is there anybody in there?"
- While Homer is out Bart says that Marge doesn't allow him to read Hägar the Horrible comic strips.
- Homer states that the murderous rampage by PBS was made possible by the Chubb Group. They were a major sponsor of PBS around the time of the episode.
[edit] Trivia
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- This is the first time that Yeardley Smith has voiced a significant character other than Lisa Simpson, specifically, Lisa Jr.
- This is the last episode written by Ron Hauge.
[edit] Censorship
- When Homer is watching "Do Shut Up," he says about the main characters "If they're not having a go at a bird, they're having a row with a wanker!" On Sky One, the last word in that line is redubbed with "bird", since the word "wanker" is considered obscene in the United Kingdom, and is often censored in programmes airing before the watershed [1] (the season nine episode Trash of the Titans was also edited to remove the word "wankers" when this show aired on Sky One).
[edit] External links
- "Missionary: Impossible" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Missionary: Impossible" at the Internet Movie Database
[edit] References
- ^ Delete expletives?. Advertising Standards Authority. Retrieved on January 6, 2007. (pdf)
