The Ziff Who Came to Dinner

"The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" is the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season, and the third of four episodes written by Simpsons voice actor Dan Castellaneta and his wife, Deb Lacusta. The episode aired on March 14, 2004.

Plot

Homer takes Bart and Lisa to a movie and he has to bring Ned Flanders' children with him, because Ned has taken the senior citizens for ice cream to celebrate Jasper's birthday. However, at the Googolplex Theatre, every kid-friendly movie is sold out, and Rod and Todd will not let Homer see a raunchy comedy called Teenage Sex Wager since it is one of many movies condemned by a Christian publication called "What Would Jesus View?". After listening to Lenny mention he had a small part in the horror movie The Redeadening as a gardener, Homer takes the kids to see the movie. The movie is very scary, causing it to scare Bart and Lisa at home, who think they hear noises from the attic. But when they look in the attic, their fears scare them away. When Bart and Lisa arrange to have Homer and Marge look in the attic, they discover Artie Ziff living there.

Artie Ziff explains that he was living in the attic because he ran an unsuccessful internet business, Ziffcorp, and lost all his money after spending it on many extravagant items which then got repossessed. He said he came to the family house because he thought Marge was the closest thing to him. Artie says he wants to stay in the Simpson house until he gets back on his feet, as long as he promises to be on his best behavior. Artie arranges to stay in the Simpson house. He connects with Lisa by reading her The Corrections. He then tries to buy ice cream for Bart, but, when Artie's credit card gets cut up, he attempts to hang himself (which does not work as the noose is not on his neck tight enough to kill him). Homer gets Artie down and takes him to Moe's.

Marge sees on the news that the SEC is looking for Artie Ziff. Meanwhile, Artie is playing poker with Homer and his friends. Homer wins 98% of Artie's company's outstanding stock. The SEC sweeps in to arrest Ziff, but Homer says he owns 230 million shares of Ziffcorp, making him the majority stockholder. To protect himself, Artie has Homer take the blame. Homer is taken into SEC custody, and placed on trial.

When Homer is on trial (and naturally makes a fool of himself after failing to understand the Fifth Amendment), Marge blames Artie for Homer being put on trial and further adds that no one likes Artie because he only thinks of himself. Homer is eventually found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison. Marge kicks Artie out of the house and tells him she never wants to see him ever again. Visiting Moe's Tavern, Artie encounters Patty and Selma, and Selma comes to take Artie to her apartment after he mentions putting Homer in prison. As they spend the night together, Artie makes a plan to turn over his corporate books in order to admit he is the real crook. Ziff turns himself in, and Homer is released from prison. The family takes one last look at their "Uncle Artie", who is using a squirt bottle to put out the prisoners' cigarettes, much to their anger.

Cultural references

• The Man Who Came to Dinner: The episode title is a parody of this comedy.
• Powers of Ten: The couch gag where the scene pans out until it reaches outer space, with the stars turning into atoms, molecules, and DNA helices, until it goes back to the initial couch scene.
• The Wild Thornberrys: One of the movies at the Googleplex is called The Wild Dingleberries.
• The Passion of the Christ: One of the movies at the Googleplex is called The Fashion of the Christ.
• American Pie: The movie Homer wants to see (before Rod and Todd object) is called Teenage Sex Wager, which is the premise to this raunchy late 1990s teen movie.
• My Big Fat Greek Wedding: Homer thinks there is a movie called My Big Fat Greek Salad.
• Finding Nemo: One of the movies at the Googleplex is called Eating Nemo.
• 2 Fast 2 Furious: One of the movies at the Googleplex is called 3 Fast 3 Furious.
• Return to the Planet of the Apes: One of the movies at the Googleplex is called Return to Ape Valley.
• Hulk: One of the movies at the Googleplex is called The Unwatchable Hulk.
• From Justin to Kelly: One of the movies at the Googleplex is a fictitious fourth sequel to this early 2000s flop film.
• Ghost Rat (or Ghost Dog): One of the movies at the Googleplex is called Ghost Frat.
• A Kiss Before Dying: One of the movies at the Googleplex is called "A Kiss Before Boring".
• Freddy vs. Jason and the Supreme Court case of Brown vs The Board of Education: One of the movies at the Googleplex combines these two titles to make Freddy vs. Jason vs. The Board of Education.
• The Matrix: Two of the movies at the Googleplex are called A Matrix Christmas and You're In The Matrix, Charlie Brown.
• "Rapper's Delight": The song sung by the rap group at the ice cream parlor sounds like this groundbreaking 1980s rap song.
• Rosemary's Baby: the music playing during "The Redeadening" sounds like the one from this American horror film. Other reference is to Mortem's Macabre song "Lullaby".
• The Blair Witch Project: Lisa filming her expedition into the attic with Bart, crying into the camera as she hears off-screen noises, and how the camera was dropped on its side as she runs away.
• Village of the Damned, Child's Play, and The Others: The Redeadening is an almagam of these three movies involving evil children and a possessed doll attacking people.
• Coraline: the murdering doll which tells the daughter to kill her mother which later kills Lenny by sewing his eyes shut with buttons (though the film version didn't come out until 2009, the novel was published in 2002).
• Enron: Artie Ziff's company going bust and cheating its shareholders is reminiscent of this company and its downfall.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Lisa tells Artie Ziff that Homer thinks this Roald Dahl children's book is real and is searching for the chocolate factory described in the book.
• The Blue Man Group: While Homer is carted off by the SEC, he tells Moe to tell his family that he joined this performance art troupe.
• A Spy in the House of Love: Moe Szyslak refers to Artie Ziff as "He's like a spy in the house of Moe."

Previous episode references

• At Moe's, the four men seated are characters who have previously appeared on The Simpsons who have been voiced by Jon Lovitz:
  • Jay Sherman, the New York film critic from the season six crossover episode "A Star is Burns" and the ABC/FOX animated sitcom The Critic.
  • Llewelyn Sinclair, the director/acting coach to "Oh, Streetcar!" on the season four episode, "A Streetcar Named Marge".
  • Aristotle Amadopoulos, the Shelbyville Nuclear Plant owner from two season three episodes: "Homer Defined" and "Homer at the Bat".
  • Professor Lombardo, the Learning Annex art teacher from the season two episode, "Brush with Greatness".
• Homer rests his soda on Lisa's head the same way he rested his can of beer on Bart's head during the flashback on the season four episode, "Lisa's First Word".
• The premise of Bart and Lisa exploring the attic after hearing strange noises coming from it was previously touched in the story "The Thing and I" from Treehouse of Horror VII.
• Homer previously babysat Rod and Todd Flanders on season 12's "Children of a Lesser Clod".