The Great Money Caper

The family goes to a magic themed restaurant. Once there, Bart becomes so fascinated with magic that he wants a magic set. Unfortunately, a sturgeon falls from the sky onto the family car's hood, which is severely damaged. Homer and Bart start their magic show as a way to make money, but the act becomes a failure, and he leaves Bart to do the rest of the act on his own. Bart is left out on the street, and people such as a Michael Jackson look-a-like begin giving him money so he can get a lift on public transportation. As Homer drives home, he sees Bart in a taxi, and when he gets home he sees him eating a steak dinner. The two find that they can make a lot of money grifting, and start their grifting business, with help from Grampa. The grifting business is destroyed when Homer and Bart are arrested, and scam their way out of the problem by using Groundskeeper Willie as the scapegoat. It is not long, however, before the citizens of Springfield reveal themselves to have actually staged this trial to teach Homer and Bart a lesson, and before Lisa can say why, Otto says that the citizens should go surfing, and they do.

[edit] Production

Some scenes which have been removed after the original broadcast of the episode:

When the Simpsons are watching a live broadcast of the arrest of Groundskeeper Willie, the scene originally ended with Homer suggesting to his family that "we all go to sleep with some Chloroform", at which point he pours some onto a rag and sniffs it.
Homer, again, tries to put himself to sleep with chloroform in court, but realizes his bottle of chloroform is actually a can of Mountain Dew.

[edit] Cultural references

The title is a spoof on the movie The Great Muppet Caper.
The plot is similar to the 1973 film Paper Moon. This reference is indicated when Homer and Bart attempt to fool Ned Flanders with a presumably false Bible from the recently deceased Maude Flanders, Flanders begins to realize it is a scam and says "Wait a minute, this sounds an awful lot like that movie Paper Moon!"
Grandpa's line about being able to afford a "young, crazy stripper wife" now that he's "won" the Publisher's Clearinghouse check is a reference to Anna Nicole Smith (who started out as a stripper) and her marriage to J. Howard Marshall.
Homer's amazement as to why the entire town had nothing better to do than pull off a scam is obviously^{[citation needed]} the writer's jab at the preposterousness of the "Cheers" episode in which the entire city of Boston joined in with Gary's Old Town Tavern to pull a prank on Sam.
Grandpa explains that the con they attempt at the old folks' home was from The Sting II "so nobody knows about it!"