"The Italian Bob" is the eighth episode of The Simpsons' seventeenth season. It features Kelsey Grammer in his ninth appearance as Sideshow Bob and is the first time the Simpsons visit Italy.
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After Mr. Burns gets teased about his old car by the kids at Springfield Elementary School, he sends Homer to pick up a brand new Lamborgotti Fasterossa car in Italy. The family flies over on Alitalia, and have a great time touring the country, despite Homer and Bart's mockery of the culture and history of Italy (causing an embarrassed Lisa to pretend to be Canadian so no one will assume that she is part of the family). After two huge wheels, one made of Mortadella and the other of cheese lands on their car and crushes the hood, they slowly push it into a small (fictional) Tuscan village nearby called Salsiccia (sausage), and are told that the mayor speaks English.
The Simpsons are shocked to find out the mayor is none other than Sideshow Bob, who is equally shocked to see them. He explains that after he last attempted to kill Bart, he did not return to jail and wanted a new life away from Springfield. Bob decided to get a fresh start elsewhere by "randomly" settling on a new destination in Italy (but only after passing over Orlando, North Korea, Shelbyville and, ironically, "Bartovia"). After a rough start, the Italians warmed up to him when he helped them crush grapes into wine using his enormous feet. After that, they elected him as mayor of their tiny village. As a result, Bob no longer has any intention of killing Bart, and he reveals that he has a family. He introduces them to his wife, Francesca and his son, Gino. They know nothing about his past life in America. Bob begs the Simpsons not to tell anyone, and they agree in order to have the car fixed.
Bob hosts a farewell party in the village for the Simpson family. However, that goes awry when Lisa gets intoxicated on wine, she starts to spout off about him being an attempted murderer. He leads her away from the table, but as she stumbles backwards, she rips off his suit to reveal his prison uniform. The village finds out that Bob is a robber and attempted killer, and they sack him as Mayor. The Simpsons take off in the fixed car, and Bob swears a vendetta -- not only on Bart, but now, on Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Maggie, as well. The family flees, and Bob follows them on a motorcycle (a Ducati 999). Homer drives into a ditch and onto a Roman aqueduct, eventually landing on top of Trajan's Column in Roman Forum. Bob's wife and son meet him, and though Bob initially promises to give up his vendetta, Francesca tells him that they will kill the Simpsons together as a family.
Meanwhile, the Simpsons are wondering what they should do next, since they are in a foreign country, have no car and no money whatsoever. Lisa spots a bus with a poster advertising Krusty the Clown's performance in Pagliacci. They meet up with him at the Colosseum, and he puts them in as unnoticed extras. However, Bob, Francesca, and Gino find them and corner them on the stage while Krusty, who went through a trap door, flees the stage, allowing Bob to perform the climax of Vesti la giubba. Before Bob and his family can finish off the Simpsons, though, Krusty's limousine picks them up; Krusty needs them to smuggle an ancient artifact back to America. The Terwilligers are disappointed at first, but then walk away, grinning maliciously and plotting revenge together.
Kelsey Grammer won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his voice portrayal of Sideshow Bob in this episode. This marks the third time a credited guest star for the show has won an Emmy, the other two being Marcia Wallace and Jackie Mason although Wallace and Mason both won theirs as a joint win with the rest of the main cast the first time the category was awarded in 1992. This episode won the 2007 Writers Guild Awards in the animation category.
The episode has become study material for sociology courses at University of California, Berkeley, where it is used to "examine issues of the production and reception of cultural objects, in this case, a satirical cartoon show", and to figure out what it is "trying to tell audiences about aspects primarily of American society, and, to a lesser extent, about other societies." Some questions asked in the courses include: "What aspects of American society are being addressed in the episode? What aspects of them are used to make the points? How is the satire conveyed: through language? Drawing? Music? Is the behavior of each character consistent with his/her character as developed over the years? Can we identify elements of the historical/political context that the writers are satirizing? What is the difference between satire and parody?"[1]
The episode's name is a reference to the 1969 film The Italian Job.
When Sideshow Bob is spinning the globe randomly to pick a place where he could begin anew, the scene reflects that which was displayed in The Last King of Scotland where the protagonist, Nicholas Garrigan, spins a globe that stops on Uganda.
The name of the car Mr. Burns purchases, a Lamborgotti Fasterossa is a play on the names of supercar makers Lamborghini and Bugatti and the iconic supercar, the Ferrari Testarossa. The last time that the car was parodied was in season 13's "A Hunka Hunka Burns in Love".
The film they are watching in the car on the way to Rome is Federico Fellini's "Ginger and Fred".
At one point, Bart says to Sideshow Bob "Of all the regione, in all the village, in all of Italia, you had to be Il Mayore of this one!" This is a parody of a similar speech made by Humphrey Bogart in the movie Casablanca. The actual line is: "Of all the gin-joints, in all the towns, in all the world... She walks into mine!"
When Lisa pulls Sideshow Bob's shirt off, the Italian police pull a book out titled Criminali Americani that has Snake (wanted for home invasion), Mayor Quimby (wanted for driving under the influence of alcohol), Peter Griffin from Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy (wanted for plagiarism), and Stan Smith from Seth MacFarlane's American Dad! (wanted for plagiarism of plagiarism).
Krusty singing "No more Rice Krispies" to the tune of Vesti la giubba is a reference to a late 1960s commercial for the cereal.
Bob's prison number is HABF02, which was also the production code for the episode.
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