Simpsons – Black Widower (s3e21)
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Plot
The Simpsons are set to have dinner with Aunt Selma and her new boyfriend, who they are forewarned is an ex-con; the man who arrives on Selma’s arm is Bart’s archenemy Sideshow Bob. During dinner, he relates the story of his time spent languishing at the Springfield prison: the cells are overcrowded, and his ChapStick is co-opted; he wins an Emmy, which is confiscated (“awards for excellence in entertainment are contraband”). He spent much time seething with desire to exact revenge on Bart, but after receiving Selma’s response to his Prison Pen Pal ad, he is inspired to become a model prisoner and earns his release. Bob’s tale of supposedly turning over a new leaf wins over the family, except Bart, who remains suspicious. Bob thanks Bart for putting him on the path which led him to Selma, and surprises the family by asking Selma to marry him. She eagerly accepts.
Sideshow Bob makes an appearance at a Krusty the Clown telethon and makes amends; Lisa encourages Bart to be as forgiving as Krusty, but he refuses to believe Bob has changed. When Selma discovers that Sideshow Bob detests her beloved MacGyver and cannot hide his hatred, it’s nearly a deal-breaker. Homer explains his solution for his and Marge’s dissonant tastes in television: when Marge watches her non-violent programs, Homer goes out for drinks and returns “in the mood for love.” Bob agrees to take a “vigorous constitutional” whenever Selma watches MacGyver.
Most of Springfield appears to be in attendance at Selma and Bob’s wedding, including derelict Police Chief Wiggum. Selma takes to videotaping her honeymoon with Bob, including his tirade over the omission of the hotel room fireplace he had requested. She retires one evening to watch MacGyver in their suite, and as Bob is downstairs having a drink, we see their hotel room explode behind him. Bob feigns a frantic phone call to the front desk about the “accident.”
Sideshow Bob makes his way back to the room to survey the damage, only to find Bart, very much alive, awaiting him. We discover that Selma too is unscathed, Bart having saved her life at the very last moment. Bob is apprehended by police, vowing to return as soon as the Democrats are back in power. Everyone thanks Bart for not losing his mistrust of Sideshow Bob.
How Bart Figured Out The Trap
* In Selma’s video, Bob was eager to have a fireplace in their room. Bart noticed the gas tap. Selma didn’t smell the gas as she had lost her senses of smell and taste due to a bottle rocket accident as a child.
* Selma promised at the wedding that she’ll give up smoking except for after meals and after MacGyver. The spark from a match was enough to make the room explode.
* The explosion that Bob later heard was Chief Wiggum tossing a lit match into the gas filled room behind him.
Cultural references
* The episode begins with a parody of the show Dinosaurs.
* Bob wins a Daytime Emmy Award.
* In Selma’s letters to Sideshow Bob, she refers to him as number 24601, the same number assigned to Jean Valjean in the novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.
* Bob’s line, “Snake, I’m going to miss you most of all,” refers to a line in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy says she’ll miss The Scarecrow before leaving Oz.
* Bart’s line, “Fiddle-dee-dee. Tomorrow’s another day,” refers to a line in Gone with the Wind.
* The languages Bob claims to be speaking to Selma are French, Sanskrit, and Spanish.
* Krusty and Bob’s reunion is a reference to the way Frank Sinatra tried to reunite Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.
* When Homer says “To the Simpson-Mobile” before going to the hotel, it is a reference to the old Batman Series with Adam West.
* The cartoon of Krusty hung over the stage during the telethon is a parody of Al Hirschfeld’s work.
* The sequence at the end with Bart explaining how he foiled Sideshow Bob’s plan is a reference to the classic Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! cartoons, complete with the lame joke at the end (“Now let’s get out of this gas-filled hallway before we all suffocate!”)
* The prison where Sideshow Bob is picking up road side trash is a take off of the movie Cool Hand Luke