The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Simpsons episode | |
| "The Mook, The Chef, The Wife and Her Homer" | |
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|---|---|
| Episode no. | 379 |
| Prod. code | HABF15 |
| Orig. Airdate | September 10, 2006 |
| Writer(s) | Bill Odenkirk |
| Director | Michael Marcantel |
| Couch gag | Family plays a game of Musical Chairs, Homer is the only one standing. |
| Guest star(s) | Joe Mantegna as Fat Tony Joe Pantoliano as Dante Calabresi Michael Imperioli as Dante Calabresi Jr. Metallica as themselves |
| SNPP capsule | |
| Season 18 September 10, 2006 – May 20, 2007 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer" is the first episode of The Simpsons' eighteenth season.
[edit] Synopsis
| Bart and Lisa board the school bus to Springfield Elementary. Bart prevents Lisa from sitting next to him and there are no seats left. Lisa complains to Otto, who blows her off to listen to Grand Funk Railroad on his Walkman. However, Lisa tugs on the earphones a little too hard to get Otto's attention, and the Walkman falls and breaks. Without any rock music to keep him going, Otto goes crazy when the kids start singing their nursery rhymes and joke songs. The radio is of no help either. Suddenly, on the way, Otto sees Metallica, whose tour bus appears to have broken down. He decides to pick them up. However, when he disembarks to speak to them, Bart hijacks the bus and drives to school. Otto even misses his chance to rock with Metallica, when the band hitches a ride with Hans Moleman. At school, Bart opens the door and lets all the other kids out. A fuming Otto grabs Bart and spanks him. Principal Skinner notices this act of corporal punishment and suspends Otto (with pay).
Without the school bus, the parents have resort to carpools to take the kids to school. Marge has to drive the first time, and angrily tells Bart not to act too smart. She picks up Milhouse (with his own car seat), Sherri and Terri, Nelson, and an introverted kid named Michael. Nelson bullies Michael a bit as he gets into the car. Michael tells Marge that he forgot his Math book, so Marge decides to drive up to his house to get it. They find that Michael lives in a mansion. The math book is delivered to the car personally to Michael by his loving father Fat Tony D'Amico. A fearful Nelson pleads with Michael not to have him whacked.
In school, news of Michael's "family" spreads like wildfire and everyone fears him. They all make way for him, trying not to offend him in any way. Groundskeeper Willie even lies on a vomit stain so that Michael won't soil his feet. However, Lisa sees that Michael is rather unhappy that nobody wants to be his friend. At lunch, he sits all by himself. Lisa joins him, and they become friends. When Lisa finds a battery in her lunch, Michael offers to make something for her. So they go to the school grounds, where Michael makes her a salad, using easily available plants and fruits. Lisa says it's good, and he confesses that he wants to be a chef, not go into his father's business--"waste management."
Fat Tony swings by to take them for a ride for the carpool. He then asks which one of them would like to sleep with the fishes because he bought a "Finding Nemo" blanket. As they drive, goons working for the Calabresi family (Fat Tony's rivals in "waste management") attack them. Tony uses Milhouse's Three-ring binder(which has a picture of Garfield) to puncture the goons' tires. The goons crash into a baking soda truck, which is then crashed into by a vinegar truck. Just as they feel things could be worse, in comes a TNT truck, which then blows them sky-high. At the Simpsons' place, Michael asks the Simpsons to come over to their place for dinner, which Marge accepts.
At Fat Tony's mansion, the Calabresis show up unexpectedly for a sit-down, during dinner. Fat Tony blames his PDA for this problem, and Louie "hot-syncs" it with a bullet. During the sit-down, Fat Tony advises the Calabresis against killing him as his son, Michael, would then take his place and exact a brutal vengeance. Michael, meanwhile, serves souffles to the Simpsons. Lisa tells him that it's so delicious that when his father tastes it, he will allow Michael to become a chef. In the sit-down room, Fat Tony and the Calabresis have declared peace and are making the customary exaggerated shows of affection. Michael and Lisa enter with the souffles, which become a hit with the mobsters. However, when they find that Michael made it himself, they laugh at Tony and leave. Fat Tony admonishes Michael for making him look weak in front of his enemies. Lisa tells Fat Tony that what's important is how he feels inside. Suddenly, an attack helicopter (piloted by the Calabresis) appears at the window, and a burst of gunfire later, Fat Tony doesn't feel good inside at all.
At Springfield General Hospital, Dr. Hibbert tells mobsters and the Simpsons that Fat Tony will be unconscious for a while. Johnny Tightlips tells them that, with the boss down, the Calabresis would be trying to finish the job. He tells Michael that he should step up. However, Michael has no intention of becoming a mob boss. Homer, feeling for Michael, decides to act as mob boss.
The next day, Homer, dressed in tracksuit and flashy jewellery, accompanied by Legs and Louie goes to shakedown Moe's. Homer goes in alone and, as "Mafia Homer", threatens Moe with dire consequences if he doesn't hand over the $50 he owes. Moe thinks about this and then threatens "Barfly Homer", telling him to pay his $50 tab, which Homer fearfully does. Then, "Mafia Homer" threatens Moe again, who says all he has is $25, which "Mafia Homer" says will do for now and leaves.
Bart and the mobsters go to Krusty, who pays Fat Tony to keep McDonald's and Burger King out of town, and has not been prompt with his payment this time around. Bart has the goons beat up the deadbeat clown. That night, Homer returns home in a truck, which he claims fell off a "truck-truck". Bart rolls up in a truck-truck, which apparently fell off a "truck-truck-truck". A "truck-truck-truck" rolls up.
The next day, Homer, Bart, Michael, Legs and Louie play cards in the Simpsons' car-hole, when Ned Flanders drops by to hand over Homer's bills. However, the sight of Legs and Louie packing guns, Homer with a bat and Bart threatening to sling-shot Snowball at him, all make him withdraw in fright, with the promise that he'll pay the bills. Bart asks Homer whether he should shoot Ned in the ankles. But Homer stops him, telling him to slice him with a knife in the Achilles Tendon. Michael is appalled to see Homer and Bart (brandishing different weapons laughing diabolically) acting like his father. He tells them that he is going to put an end to this.
That night, he invites the Calabresis to the Simpsons' for dinner, where he informs them that they have won and that he is out of the family business. They applaud his decision and dig into the food that he has prepared for them. Lisa feels of Michael. Suddenly, the Calabresis start choking and fall to the floor, dead. The family is shocked and Marge, inspecting one of the meatballs, finds it's been poisoned. She looks suspiciously at Homer, who allays her suspicions by eating a whole lot of meatballs. Michael seems unhappy and tears up the meatball recipe he used, which when Lisa pieces together, has "Meat, spices and poison" as its ingredients and can serve 6-10 enemies.
At Fat Tony's mansion, Fat Tony congratulates Michael for defeating their enemies. Outside, Lisa asks Michael why didn't he tell Fat Tony it was all an accident, though she suspects it was not quite so. Michael tells her, à la Michael Corleone, never to question his business. He walks into the next room and is joined by Jimbo Jones, Dolph and Kearney, wearing Italian suits. Kearney closes the door on Lisa, as Michael Corleone did on Kay in the movie, with The Godfather theme song playing in the background. Lisa opens the door, wondering what evil business they must be plotting. She finds the four of them playing cars. Kearney again closes the door on her and she stands there for a while, feeling a little betrayed.
[edit] Trivia
- This is the second time Bart has been spanked, the first being by George H. W. Bush in Two Bad Neighbors.
- Michael was first mentioned in The Seven-Beer Snitch when Fat Tony brought up Marge occasionally gives him rides home from school.
- Lunchlady Doris has a speaking role in this episode, despite the fact that her voice actress, Doris Grau, died about eleven years earlier
- This episode's code is HABF15, meaning that to date, it is the earliest production code hold over shown.
- The title of this episode is a take on the 1989 film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
- Fat Tony's son, Michael, is named in honor of Michael Corleone, son of Don Vito Corleone, in Mario Puzo's The Godfather Trilogy. His hairstyle is also extremely similar to Al Pacino's around the time of the film. Also, the final scene in which Kearney closes the door on Lisa is a direct parody of the final scene of The Godfather Part I. The theme song of The Godfather is also played over the end credits.
- The scene in which Fat Tony gets shot by a helicopter through a window is mimicking a similar scene in The Godfather Part III. Interestingly, Joe Mantegna (the voice actor for Fat Tony) played a character in The Godfather Part III named Joey Zasa, who was in the helicopter in the the assassination scene that the Simpsons mimicked.
- This is the second time ghosts have come out of an object a la Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first being when Homer's underwear is burned in Homer the Great.
[edit] Broadcasting information
- 1st Airdate: Sunday, September 10, 2006, with 11.5 million viewers tuning in.
- 2nd Airdate: Sunday, December 3, 2006
- 1st Airdate: Sunday, October 22, 2006
