Julian Klewes

Simpsons – Bart has Two Mommies (s17e14)

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s17 the simpsons

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simpsons

Dated

May 30, 2007

simpsons s17e14

Bart has Two Mommies is the fourteenth episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. It aired on March 19, 2006, as the 370th episode overall.

Chalkboard: None
Couch gag: A laser grid protects the couch. After sneaking past, Homer’s head falls off.
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Synopsis

Ned Flanders wins a duck racing contest and wins a computer. Then Ned gave the computer to Marge because Ned doesn’t have any use for it. In return, Marge babysits Rod and Tod. With Marge spending so much time at The Flanders’, Homer must look after Bart and Lisa, though he is actually sleeping while Bart and Lisa joust with brooms and break the TV and lamp. Homer takes the kids to an animal retirement home, but the trip goes awry when Toot-Toot the monkey pulls Bart into her cage and holds him hostage when Bart offers her a bit of his ice cream. Marge listens to Rod and Todd’s prayers which include them having a wonderful day along with Miss Simpson not eavesdropping on them but forgiving her. Ned comes back home and sees one of the Flander kids wearing a band-aid and tells them to crawl to their bed. Marge tells him that he should support adventurism and shows him a flier about an activity center with everything covered in foam, Ned agrees after some thought.

She comes back home for dinner and when she asks where Bart is Homer makes a clever ruse involving Marge always worried about Bart and even though he is gone for 2 hours she gets worried which fools Marge. Marge takes Rod and Todd to a children’s activity center to encourage adventurism in them, as she secretly feels Ned is overly worried about his sons when he shows up. Rod attempts to climb a wall and discovers a new activity he enjoys, but he falls and suffers a minor injury after Ned screams up to him that he can get hurt. Although not seriously hurt, Ned is shocked at what happened and tells Marge to stay away. Marge learns of the kidnapping when it is a breaking news report and she must figure out a way to get her son back. The monkey grabs Bart and takes him atop the church, à la King Kong. Since there was nothing to do about it, Reverend Lovejoy hands her a sign which signals he believes that Bart will die while Marge cries after seeing it. Rod, putting his newly acquired climbing skills to use, climbs the scaffolding in an attempt to rescue Bart using Toot Toot’s son as an exchange.

Marge convinces Ned to learn that he must believe in his son and not worry about harm in order for Rod to make it to the top and successfully rescue Bart from the monkey. At that rate, Ned praises Rod to be brave and go up the scaffolding to get the job done. Eventually Rod gets it done, rescuing Bart. While the boys climb down, Bart tells Rod to not hold hands because that would look gay. When Rod asks him what gay means, Bart unwittingly makes up a lie about how it means someone was afraid but that person isn’t afraid any longer. Rod then screams down “I’m gay, Daddy! I’m gay! Mrs. Simpson made me gay!” which makes Ned glare at a embarrassed Marge. The episode ends with Maude Flanders in heaven looking down with pride , and Bob Hope walking off with God.

Cultural references

Marge calls herself a “Star Wars” after making a Darth Vader mask out of a paper plate.
The title is a reference to the children’s book Heather Has Two Mommies.
Homer thinks the title creatures from Gremlins will be at the animal retirement home.
Antonio Fargas makes an appearance as Huggy Bear (from Starsky and Hutch), who has mistakenly been caged in the animal retirement home. This is not Huggy Bear’s first appearance on The Simpsons, but it’s his first speaking role. In “Homie the Clown“, Homer presented a Cable Ace Award to “the son of the guy who played Huggy Bear” for the “Most Promising New Series on Cable”.
Homer yells “Springfield High football rules!”, paraphrasing a famous line from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
The scenes where Rod is struck by fear of heights parody Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
Toot-Toot carrying Bart up the church steeple parodies King Kong.
Ode to Joy was the music played when Rod and Todd got accustomed to the unconstrained see-saw.
When Ned is covering his backyard with foam for safety of Rod and Todd, he sings a parody of the song “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses about making the yard safer.
As Homer is crunched and mutilated as he goes through a series of gears “Powerhouse” by Raymond Scott plays on the soundtrack. This was a signature tune used by Carl Stalling in many of his Warner Brothers cartoons, and later by Richard Stone. The sequence, visually, is also a tribute to Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times.
When Toot-Toot retrieves her son Louis, the song played is “Reunited” from Peaches & Herb.
In the animal retirement home Seymour (Fry’s Dog) from Futurama can be seen in one of the cages.