Original air date: 1/4/1998 (produced in 1997)
Production code: 5F24 note
It's yet another Simpsons clip show episode. In this one, Homer and Bart rent the Clint Eastwood/Lee Marvin musical Paint Your Wagon; however, they're under the impression that it's a gritty spaghetti Western. Upset over the turn of events, Homer voices his dislike for musicals and singing, and the rest of the family show them (with the help of some conveniently-obtained videos) that a lot of The Simpsons' memories include singing and big musical numbers — which gets interrupted when resident criminal Snake Jailbird holds the family hostage.
This is the first of two episodes to be produced by David Mirkin (seasons 5–6 showrunner) instead of current showrunner Mike Scully.
Sequences/songs highlighted:
- "Baby on Board
" from "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" - "We Put the Spring in Springfield" from "Bart After Dark"
- "Springfield, Springfield" from "Boy-Scouts 'N the Hood"
- "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?" from "Homer and Apu"
- "Send in the Clowns" from "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
- "See My Vest" from "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds"
- "The Monorail Song" from "Marge Vs. the Monorail"
- "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" from "Bart Sells His Soul"
- "We Do (The Stonecutters' Song)" from "Homer the Great"
Tropes featured:
- Bait-and-Switch: What Homer and Bart get from Paint Your Wagon, but especially this moment, when Lee Marvin appears:Lee Marvin: Hey, what the hell's going on in my town?
Clint Eastwood: We're just painting this wagon. You got a problem with that?
Lee Marvin: As a matter of fact, I do........ you missed a spot.
Clint Eastwood: Well, grab a brush, and join in! - Bring My Brown Pants: When Snake first shows up:Marge: (singing) It's a desperate criminal on the run from the law. Please, spare my family...
Homer: (singing) And their damp-trousered pa. - Clip Show: Mixed with Musical Episode and Bottle Episode.
- Couch Gag: The floor is a treadmill with Marge, Lisa, Bart, and Maggie running in place before sitting on the couch, while Homer falls and gets stuck on it yelling, "Marge, stop this crazy thing!"
- Cultural Translation:
- In Spain, the line "the point after touch-down!" in the song "We put the spring in Springfield" is changed to "the great goal on extra-time!" (funnily, almost all songs were untranslated and just subbed for their original episodes, but the studio figured they couldn't leave this one almost completely in English and redid all in Spanish this time).
- "The cheese on your cake" is changed to "the cherry on your cake", perhaps because cheesecake is not as popular.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Snake Jailbird decides to try to shoot the Simpsons (twice) because he is annoyed with their singing. He also shoots at Marge when she starts humming before cutting to credits and silences the credits music thrice - twice the Danny Elfman music and then the production company jingle - by shooting and hollering it to be quiet.
- Ear Worm: The family's singing proves to be so catchy that it gets a tune stuck in Snake's head, which annoys him to the point of wanting to kill them.
- Excuse Plot:
- In the video, the wagon is just an excuse for the characters to start singing.
- The episode itself. Homer and Bart rent a musical by mistake and the family remember songs they sang in the past. That's it.
- The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: By the end of the episode, Snake is so fed up with music that he shoots the orchestra who plays the ending theme, even targeting the performers of the Gracie Films theme.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: One of the performers in Paint Your Wagon greatly resembles Troy McClure.
- Hope Spot: Homer hopes Lee Marvin's appearance will get things back on track. Instead, he sings about oil-based paint and pine.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Marge remarks that, when singing, Bart sounds like a girl.
- Logo Joke: Snake, who was already getting annoyed by the end credits music, shoots the Gracie Films logo.Snake: You too, Gracie music dude! Gaw!
- Mood Whiplash: What is supposed to be a happy musical-based clip show becomes this when Snake breaks in the family's house and threatens them with his gun.
- Musical Episode: The episode highlights musical numbers throughout the first eight seasons. Almost all the framing sequences are entirely in song.
- Negative Continuity: The Simpsons got all of their possessions back, despite the Springfielders taking them away at the end of the previous episode, "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace". But that's assuming the show has a continuity at all.
- Potty Failure:Snake: (singing) I'm back, so resume wetting your pants!
Homer: (speaking) Okay. - Rage Breaking Point: The moment that causes Homer to eject the tape out of the VCR straight into a trash can is when Marge and Lisa start gushing over Lee Marvin's singing and dancing.
- Same Content, Different Rating: This episode originally aired with a TV-G rating. Despite this, mild profanities like "hell" are present (particularly in the song "Springfield, Springfield" from "Boy Scoutz n’ the Hood") and the wraparound plot involves Snake holding the entire family at gunpoint.
- Self-Deprecation: In the grand finale of the songsLisa: There is something worse...
Bart: ...And it really does blow....
Family: ...When a long running series does a cheesy clip shoooow! - Series Continuity Error: In "Two Dozen and One Greyhounds", Bart claimed that "See My Vest" was "pretty catchy" and even hummed along with the tune. Here, the bit alongside Mr. Burns showing affection for "Little Monty" was removed (it goes from Burns and Smithers's "I really like the vest" conversation after the song to Bart saying, "We got to get the dogs out of here,") and in the Framing Device, Bart claims that "it wasn't worth Burns' song and dance."
- Shout-Out: Beyond the clips and their inspirations, other films and musicals are name-dropped, including Waiting to Exhale, Emma and Les Misérables.
- Song Parody: The song Snake sings while speaking with the Simpson family is a parody of "Zanzibar" by Billy Joel.
- Stunned Silence: Bart and Homer's initial reaction to seeing the singing and dancing that makes up Paint Your Wagon is to stare in opened mouth shock.
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands: The clip segments showcasing Homer and Bart singing and dancing are framed as the Simpsons' home videos, no matter how improbable the context. The remaining segments, on the other hand, are straightforward flashbacks.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: In-universe, Homer complains that so much singing ruined the story about the wagon.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Snake lampshades this, and it scares him out of the Simpson home.Snake: (singing) A singing family?!? It's worse than I feared! For hostage purposes, you're just too weird! Bye! (Exit: living room window)
- Wham Line: Snake arrives out of nowhere in the middle of a sung discussion of Bart's performance in "Springfield, Springfield," which he's embarrassed about.Marge: I think you move like a young Baryshnikov!Snake: Nobody move or I'll blow your heads off!
- Would Hurt a Child: Snake threatens the lives of the entire Simpson family multiple times. He goes so far as to point his shotgun at the heads of Bart, Lisa and even Maggie, pulling the trigger while the shotgun is aimed at each individual child's head. Thankfully, the gun wasn't loaded.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Lisa asks Homer if he got Emma. Homer chuckles and tells her, "Whoa whoa, calm down little lady, take it easy", suggesting that he was able to get a copy. But then he answers: "No."
