"Pygmoelian" is the sixteenth episode of the eleventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 27, 2000. In the episode, after getting his face censored out on the Duff Beer calendar for not being photogenic, Moe Szyslak gets plastic surgery and becomes the star of a popular soap opera.
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After being tricked into evacuating the house by Homer, who had set off the fire alarm early in the morning, the family goes to a festival sponsored by Duff Beer. While there, they see Moe Szyslak enter a "Beer-tender" competition. Moe wins the contest during the "Toss Your Drunk" challenge and gets his photo taken for a calendar, only to have it censored out with stickers. Realizing how ugly he is, Lenny and Carl suggest that Moe gets plastic surgery. He agrees, but is reluctant when he is there. After his surgery, Moe has a very handsome face. In response, he confronts old adversaries, including the producers of a soap opera, It Never Ends, complaining that he never got the part of the character Dr. Tad Winslow because of his ugliness. Incidentally, the actor who plays Dr. Tad Winslow demands he get a raise in his salary, but it is rejected by the producers. In response, the producer makes Moe the new Dr. Tad Winslow.
Meanwhile, while Moe is acting, Bart and Lisa discover that Maggie's Duff Days elephant balloon has blown away in the wind. They go after it until it ends up in a gay Republican coalition's office, and they see the pink elephant from the balloon as their mascot. They then give Lisa a bumper sticker telling her to vote for "A Gay President in 2084" (which, according to them, is a realistic goal).
The soap opera goes well, until Moe learns from top-secret future plot lines that his character will be killed off in a skydiving accident as a result from a coma (a color mixture) shortly after being forced to by Countessa. On the air, Homer and Moe reveal the future plots such as Gabriella's baby shower being invaded by terrorists, Sister Bernadette starting a softball team, and Prof. Galloway's stepsister planning to dominate International Perfume and Wine (all "with sexy results"). The producer angrily tells Moe that his character was only supposed to die in a dream, and then she fires him. As he walks off the set, a set piece falls on his new face, which returns to his old one. In a deus ex machina, things go back to normal when Moe returns to his tavern, but the episode gets cut short when Moe wonders why the accident on the set of It Never Ends turned his handsome face back to his normal face instead of an entirely new one.
"Pygmoelian" was written by Larry Doyle and directed by Mark Kirkland as part of the eleventh season of The Simpsons (1999–2000).[1][2] In a 2007 article, Slant critic Ed Gonzales noted that the episode "largely concerns Moe getting plastic surgery but also features Bart and Lisa chasing a pink elephant around town and straight into a meeting for gay Republicans—a seemingly arbitrary bit of nonsense that connects succinctly with the theme of identity in which a person changes their face only to realize the efficiency of their old one."[3]
The episode originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 27, 2000.[4][5] On October 7, 2008, it was released on DVD as part of the box set The Simpsons – The Complete Eleventh Season. Staff members Mike Scully, George Meyer, Larry Doyle, Matt Selman, Carolyn Omine, and Mark Kirkland participated in the DVD audio commentary for the episode. Deleted scenes from the episode were also included on the box set.[6]
Reception of the episode from critics has been generally positive. Ed Gonzales of Slant called it a "great episode."[3] While reviewing the eleventh season of The Simpsons, DVD Movie Guide's Colin Jacobson commented the episode "peaks early, as the scenes at 'Duff Days' provide the most amusement. Otherwise, it’s a pretty mediocre show. It’s nice to see a focus on Moe for once, but the tale itself fails to really ignite. Though not a poor episode, it’s pretty flat after the opening."[5] In 2009, writers for IGN listed a line by Moe from this episode among their top eight favorite Moe quotes.[7] The line was "Yeah, hey, I've got a gift. As a child, I was bitten by the acting bug. Then it burrowed under my skin and laid eggs in my heart. Now those eggs are hatching and I... the feeling is indescribable." Homer responds to this by saying "I know what you mean. Our dog had that." The IGN writers commented that "We've never heard anyone describe their life's passion as a parasitic infestation, and we hope we never have to. The cherry on top of this little nugget of Moe goodness is Homer's nonchalant reaction. He's probably used to Moe's strange, gross remarks by now."[7]