Make Room for Lisa
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"Make Room for Lisa" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' tenth season. The episode aired on February 28, 1999.
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[edit] Plot
Homer participates in a KBBL-sponsored drinking contest at P.J. O'Harrigan's, an Irish pub, and wins the trophy and title of "Sir Drinks-A-Lot". When he comes home, he learns that he must spend more time with the children, as evidenced by what he has done. Lisa suggests that the family go to the travelling Smithsonian exhibit.
They arrive at the exibit, which is sponsored by a cell phone company called OmniTouch, which has Abraham Lincoln's hat, the Fonz's jacket, Archie Bunker's chair, and the Bill of Rights, which is ruined when Homer reads it with chocolate-covered hands. In an attempt to remove the chocolate, he licks it off but also licks off the section that forbids cruel and unusual punishment. Homer is fined $10,000 for licking it off, which he cannot afford, until a prototype Lindsay Naegle (an OmniTouch representative) has a solution to the problem that can benefit both of them: install a cellular transmitter on the roof. This annoys Lisa because her room houses the communications equipment that runs the tower. Homer moves Lisa into Bart's room, but she is overwhelmed when Bart's made up rules and noises distract Lisa from her homework.
Lisa is continuing to feel disturbed, and she also develops stomach aches. When she sees Dr. Hibbert, he suggests that Lisa go to a New Age store called Karma-Ceuticals to find an alternate cure there. When Homer scoffs at this, believing that Lisa likes whatever he likes, Lisa furiously reprimands him for being arrogant. Homer regrets what he'd been doing and takes her to the New Age store. The store's owner (a young hippie lady, as Homer calls her) introduces Homer and Lisa to water-filled sensory deprivation tanks, in which they will each have a spiritual journey of their own. On her journey, Lisa sees visions of how her father loves her, but when Homer is waiting for something to happen, his tank is taken from the store by Repo men. He goes on his own "journey" which, unbeknownst to him, is real. First, his tank falls out of the back of the moving repo van, rolls down a steep hill and lands in front of the Flanders' moving car. They believe his tank is a stray coffin and proceed to bury it. Homer's tank then falls through the soil and drops down into a huge underground pipe and is washed up onto the beach. Chief Wiggum then finds it and takes it back to Karma-Ceuticals. Lisa gets out of her tank and opens Homer's, only to find him singing. Homer and Lisa then admit that they love each other very much, and they later decide to go and do something they both enjoy... watch a demolition derby together.
In the subplot, the cellular tower causes the signal from the calls of various townspeople on their cell phones to be heard through Maggie's baby monitor. Rather than report this anomaly to Omnitouch, Marge becomes obsessive with listening in on private calls. Eventually Bart and Milhouse play a terrible prank on Marge by making her think that an escaped convict was attempting to break into the house causing Marge to knock Milhouse unconscious when he came in through the front door. Although Marge was upset at Bart, he reminded her that she was also at fault for eavesdropping, which Marge agreed, but wanted Bart to take responsibility for Milhouse's injury if anyone asked.
[edit] Trivia
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- In the new age store "Karma-Ceuticals", when Lisa and Homer are in the store a Stonecutters' flag, from the episode Homer the Great, can be seen in the far right corner of the store.
- The blackboard gag "I do not have diplomatic immunity" is actually recycled from the season four episode Marge in Chains.
[edit] Cultural references
- The title puns on the classic TV show Make Room for Daddy.
- Homer sings Witch Doctor while in the tank, an American number one single by David Seville in 1958. However, by the time the episode premiered in the UK (25 April 1999) a cover version by the Cartoons was in the top ten of the UK Singles Chart, giving the song an unintended sense of topicality. (On the DVD commentary, one of the writers faceciously claims that the show had to pay $50,000 for the music rights to have Homer sing the song.)
- When Homer introduces Lisa to her new room and roommate - Bart, he hums the theme from The Odd Couple, a TV series from the 1970s, based on a play by Neil Simon.
- Lisa saying the line "Get your stinking paw off me!" parodies the classic line from the 1968 film Planet of the Apes.
- The episode pays homage to the X-Files episode "Triangle", with Homer falling asleep at work and waking up to music suspiciously like the swing music from "Triangle" and a voice on the radio saying that it is 1939.
- At the beginning of the episode when Homer "travels back in time" to 1939, the song on the radio is one of the show's many uses of Benny Goodman's "Sing, Sing, Sing." Lenny uses The Safety Dance to convince Homer that he hadn't traveled back in time.
- The display that holds Abraham Lincoln's hat looks remarkably like the one in the National Museum of American History (a Smithsonian museum).
- Maggie is seen playing with a doll of Bongo, a character from Matt Groening's Life in Hell comic.
- Homer lies down on the couch in the style of British comic-strip character Andy Capp, stating "That Andy Capp was on to something."
[edit] External links
- "Make Room for Lisa" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Make Room for Lisa" at the Internet Movie Database
