Recap / The Simpsons S9 E20 "The Trouble with Trillions"

Original air date: 4/5/1998 (produced in 1997)

Production code: 5F14

Homer (like practically every Springfielder who isn't a Flanders) waits until the last minute to file his tax return, and the IRS has jailtime in store for Homer — unless Homer plays spy to retrieve a trillion-dollar bill that Mr. Burns was supposed to deliver to post-World War II Europe to pay for reconstruction and stimulate the economy.

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This episode provides examples of...

• Abusive Advertising: The Duff ad in Cuba with Che Guevara has the slogan "El Duff-o o muerte (or death)", which is actualy a perversion of Che's warcry "patria o muerte" (homeland or death).
• The Alleged Computer: Used for a great jab at the IRS when Homer is audited. How triumphantly the agent brags about how "powerful" their computers really sells it:
  IRS Guy: Mr. Simpson, this government computer can process over nine tax returns per day. Did you really think you could fool it?
• All of Them: The reasons for visiting Cuba are: business/pleasure; smuggle cigars; assassinate Castro. Homer checks all of them.
• Appeal to Flattery: Accidental version. Mr. Burns lets his guard down around the bill because he mistakes Homer for a reporter.
• Artistic License – Cars: Agent Johnson tells police to look out for a 1936 maroon Stutz Bearcat; the Stutz Bearcat ceased production in 1935. Then again, that's probably the joke.
• Artistic License – Economics: While a trillion dollar bill sounds like a cool idea, it would actually be impossible to spend because nobody, no matter how strong their economy, would ever be able to make change from it. Not to mention if you lost it, your country would go bankrupt. With that said, currencies with ridiculously large denominations have existed but they only went up to a hundred thousand, are outdated by 1945 and had limited use.
• Artistic License – Law:
  • The United States Post Office is closed on New Year's day, Ned wouldn't be able to mail in his tax forms.
  • There is no way Ned would be able to file his taxes that early. If Ned was doing his personal taxes, which is what it is implied he is doing, then he would have to wait until finishing up with his business taxes to figure out how much he personally owned to the IRS. However, that doesn't include any other deductions when doing an itemized deduction (as he puts cashier ribbon under personal expense) and most of the paper work from the IRS, mortgage companies, insurance, credit card companies, etc. wouldn't be in the mail until the first few weeks of the year, this was more true in the pre-internet days. The earliest Ned could do his taxes would be in the middle of January, if the only thing he had was his W-2 from his job and doing a standard deduction. If he had to do his business taxes, he would still have to wait for paperwork from the IRS, vendors, other business, the mall, and others before he could even think about filing.
• Bad Liar: Want an idea of how poorly Homer did his taxes?
  Homer: Okay, Marge, if anyone asks, you require 24-hour nursing care, Lisa's a clergyman, Maggie is seven people^note Homer accidentally wrote he had nine kids in his forms, and Bart was wounded in Vietnam!
  Bart: Cool!
• Been There, Shaped History:
  • Mr. Burns has the suit Charlie Chaplin was buried in, which suggests that Burns was the one who stole Chaplin's coffin in 1978, a few months after Chaplin's death and funeral.
  • Mr. Burns's Identical Ancestor was at the original Boston Tea Party (which, in universe, was responsible for the extinction of a fish species by contaminating its habitat with tea).
  • Mr. Burns's stealing the trillion dollar bill is responsible for anti-Americanism sentiment in Europe after World War II (particularly France) and keeping communism alive in Cuba.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Homer frantically instructing his family after stuffing his last-minute tax return with bogus deductions.
  • When Homer and the IRS agent go into the photo booth, Milhouse is in there with his shirt off flexing his muscles at the camera. When he notices someone watching, he bashfully says his shirt "fell off" and runs off.
  • Castro pretends to not know what Burns is talking about when he asks to have the bill back.
• Boxed Crook: Homer agrees to work as an IRS snitch to avoid going to jail.
• Call-Back:
  • When Kent Brockman asks Krusty the Clown why he waited till the last minute to file his taxes, he says "Because I'm an idiot. Happy?" Evidently, he hasn't gotten over his brush with the IRS in "Bart the Fink".
  • As Lenny writes his tax forms on Professor Frink's back, Frink takes note that he didn't carry the one, a mistake he himself made in "Itchy and Scratchy Land" when he failed to predict when the park robots would run amok.
  • Barney reminds Homer of the telemarketing scam he ran in "Lisa's Date with Destiny", as does Carl of his moonshine distillery from "Homer vs. the 18th Amendment". Moe brings up the time Homer beat up George H. W. Bush in "Two Bad Neighbors", though he mistakenly thought Barney did that before Homer corrects him.
• Captain Crash: Really bad cataracts, lack of practice and a lot of senility makes Burns crash, rather than land, the plane in Cuba. Smithers and Homer actually share a This Is Gonna Suck moment when they figure this out one scene beforehand.
• Carry the One: Lenny does his taxes while in line at the bank, using Professor Frink's back as a writing surface. Frink suddenly turns around exclaiming he "felt" Lenny forgetting to carry the one.
• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Referenced when President Harry S. Truman describes the trillion dollar bill as a way to help America's allies "who fought so poorly and surrendered so readily".
• Chekhov's Gun: The plane Burns is seen using to "take" the dollar bill to France turns out to still be in his possession on the third act, and it's used to go to Cuba.
• Couch Gag: The living room is a sauna, with three men in towels relaxing. The Simpsons (also in towels) arrive, but leave sheepishly as the three men glare at them.
• Crazy-Prepared: Ned always files his tax returns every New Years.
• The Dead Rise to Advertise: A billboard of Che Guevera is seen advertising Duff Beer.
• Disco Dan: Mr. Burns' out-of-touch-with-the-times tendencies are in full display here. He thinks Homer is a reporter for Collier's, which had ceased publication in 1957 (although it was briefly revived in 2012), and while in Cuba, was shocked to learn that Batista was no longer in charge. He also identifies a taxi as "the new Packard they've been talking about."; the last Packards were made in 1958.
• Does This Make Me Look Fat?: Homer asks this about the wire he has to wear under his shirt.
  Lisa: No, it makes you look like a tool of government oppression.
  Homer: But not fat.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Smithers is upset when Mr. Burns doesn't appreciate the dinner he prepared, saying "Sometimes, I don't know why I bother..."
• Eagleland: Burns believes that performing such a blatantly treasonous crime as stealing the trillion-dollar bill (and going against orders given to him by the government) is a showcase of his patriotism (as he puts it, he's just keeping the money away from a country that doesn't deserves a hand-me-down that would make America poorer). He later says that bribing a jury in order to prevent being put in jail for said crime is also "the American way" and Homer even salutes him and says "God bless America!"
• El Spanish "-o": The Duff Beer ad that we see in Cuba calls the brand "El Duff-O".
• Epic Fail: Homer's tax returns are done abysmally. He incorrectly guesses that he has nine children, refuses to listen to Marge when she corrects him, and things go south from there.
• Exact Words: Doubles with Police Are Useless. When Homer, Smithers and Burns escape from Burns' mansion, Chief Wiggum receives a radio message to look out for Burns' maroon-coloured ancient car. When it drives by, Wiggum notes the car is more of a burgundy and does nothing.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Homer tries to explain to Lisa how paying his taxes a year ago counts as paying for them this year before realizing he hasn't actually paid for them at all this year and the deadline is minutes away.
  Lisa: That was last year's taxes. You have to pay again this year.
  Homer: No, because you see, I went ahead and...yearwise, I was counting forward from the last previous...D'OH!
• French Jerk: Apparently, this trait started because Burns stole the trillion dollar bill meant for Europe.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: The expositional video about the Trillion dollar bill is stored in a photo booth and can easily be accessed by saying the word "Cheese". Apu and Manjula stumble upon it after Homer and the government agents leave.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • Everyone who expected Mr. Burns to be the most reliable person to deliver the trillion-dollar-bill just because he's America's richest person.
  • Mr. Burns simply gives the dollar bill to Fidel Castro. When Mr. Burns asks him to give it back, Castro just asks what, taking the money away and putting Mr. Burns, Smithers, and Homer on a meager raft in the middle of the ocean.
• Identical Ancestor: An ancestor of Mr. Burns that looked exactly like him was at the 1773 Boston Tea Party.
• Incredibly Obvious Bug: The FBI places a listening device under Homer's shirt that makes a noticeable rectangular bulge. Homer goes into Moe's and, of course, immediately asks if anyone has any illegal activities they would like to discuss. When one barfly is arrested, and the others smell a rat (though nobody suspects Homer), Homer audibly mumbles "End Transmission" into his stomach and slinks off.
• Insane Troll Logic:
  • After Marge points out how Homer is lying on his taxes (as he rushes to complete them last minute), he immediately covers his ears.
    Homer: Shut up, shut up! If I don't hear you, it's not illegal!
  • One scene later as he's driving like a madman to get to the post office in time, he sees that an upcoming crossroads has a red light and he covers his eyes, saying that if he doesn't sees it, it's not illegal. He causes a pile-up as a result.
• Intimidating Revenue Service: Homer whips out a quick tax return by guestimating things as obvious as the number of his kids and ends up getting a severe audit. When called in, he's scared out of his mind and tries to give every excuse under the sun ("an older boy made me do it", etc.), but is ultimately enlisted as a government spy. Everyone else in Springfield got generous refunds. Homer would have too if the football-shaped mess that was his taxes hadn't fallen into the "Severe Audit" bin.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: When he's about to call Washington to tell them Cuba is bankrupt, Fidel Castro notes that there is a street named after him in San Francisco. First of all, it's the Castro District, not just Castro Street, and secondly, it's not named after Fidel Castro, but rather José Castro, a prominent figure in helping California gain its independence from Mexico in the 1830s and 1840s. The fact that was whispered in Fidel Castro's ear that left him so shocked? The Castro District was one of the US's first gay neighborhoods.
• Irony: Burns was chosen to deliver the dollar bill because he was one of the most trusted men in America to do the job. Not only does he not do that, believing it's his patriotic duty to perform said theft, but other episodes (Negative Continuity aside) have mentioned that he was a Nazi collaborator.
• Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded. Principal Skinner tries to flirt with Edna Krabappel at the post office, asking "Is that a new green sweater?", to which she says "Until you're willing to file jointly, back of the line, Seymour!", which also serves as a Call-Back to the events of "Grade School Confidential", when they publicly announced they were breaking up to avoid scrutiny (but continued dating privately).
• Magic Countdown: The new year's ball malfunctions when it gets to eight. Chief Wiggum shoots the ball and it falls down immediately, causing everybody counting down to say "sevensixfivefourthreetwoone!"
• Mixed Metaphor: While reporting the midnight rush for mailing taxes, Kent Brockman says "It's literally the eleventh hour: 10 PM!".
• Money Fetish: Burns has not exchanged the bill in the 50-odd years since he stole it or used it to support his lavish lifestyle in any way. He just wanted to have it because it's more money.
• Mystery Meat: Homer calls Marge from Cuba and tells her about how all the locals serve him "shredded pork" on the streets. When one boy tells Homer "Es carne de burro" (It's donkey meat), he cluelessly pats the boy's head and says "Nice to meet you."
• Negative Continuity: A rather extreme example, with Homer claiming that Mr Burns has never fired him. Not only has Homer been fired from the plant multiple times before, but the most recent instance was one episode ago.
• New Year Has Come: The episode starts with all of Springfield (except Flanders and Maude) celebrating the New Year.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The brawl in "Two Bad Neighbors" between Homer and Bush in the final scene of that episode is mentioned at Moe's
• "Not Illegal" Justification: Homer tries this defense by telling Marge to stop talking. If he doesn't hear her say the tax forms are fraudulent, then he has plausible deniability.
  Moe: Oh you mean like time time Barney beat up George Bush?
  Homer: Barney? That was me who did it, and I'd do it again.
• Out-of-Character Moment: When the family is being asked by government agents what would Homer do with the Zillion-Dollar Bill he's been accused of stealing, Marge says that the money should go to the kids' college fund... only for Lisa to reply "Who needs college? Let's buy dune buggies!" This coming from the girl who, after helping put Mr. Burns back on his feet, refused her rightful million dollar advisor fee out of moral disapprobation for how he did it.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The codeword to activate the secret film strip about the trillion dollar bill in the mall's photo booth is "cheese". Apu inadvertently activates it right after Homer and the IRS agent leave.
• Police Are Useless:
  APB: Be on the lookout for a 1936 maroon Stutz Bearcat!
  (said car goes by)
  Wiggum: Eh, that really was more of a burgundy.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: The title references the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
• Ridiculous Procrastinator: Inverted. Ned Flanders begins preparing his taxes after midnight on New Year's Day (he even acts like he's incredibly late when in actuality he's the very first person to get to the post office for the day). Played straight with just about everyone else in Springfield, who only start filing their taxes at the last minute, and the reason Homer's whole dilemma occurs is because he was the one who waited the most out of the whole city (rushingly bundling all of his badly-filled forms into a bundle shaped like a football (which made it roll into the audit bin at the IRS) and actually having to toss it into the outgoing mail pile through the closing office's doors).
• Saw It in a Movie Once: Homer is being questioned by the tax department about his falsified tax return. When they threaten him with a prison term, he says "No sir, please - I can't go to prison! They pee in a cup and throw it on you! I saw it in a movie!" to which the interrogating agent responds "You won't be seeing any prison movies where you're going - prison!"
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: How Mr. Burns intends to avoid punishment.
  Mr. Burns: And if it's a crime to bribe a jury, then so help me, I'll soon be guilty of that!
  Homer: (stands up to salute) God bless America!
• Second Place Is for Winners: When trying to find an island to start their own country, Mr. Burns is perfectly fine with being the vice president and Homer being the president. It's Smithers who gets a disappointing position.
• Shout-Out: Homer's meeting with Agent Johnson at a park spoofs a similar scene in The Firm.
• Skewed Priorities: Homer has just a few minutes to file his tax return and won't stop for anything... other than a hot dog.
• Suicide Pill: Homer almost takes his when he thinks Mr. Burns is onto him. He considers taking it again when Burns tells him they're going to walk.
• Taxman Takes the Winnings: There's one scene with the Sea Captain taking a necklace from a treasure chest and placing it inside an envelope while waiting for his turn to mail his tax forms. He's wondering why he bothered to pillage that treasure.
• Tempting Fate:
  • While showing the big lines of people who waited until the last day to file their tax returns, Kent Brockman isn't worried because he'd previously sent his tax data to an accountant. Said accountant then shows up and is just as worried as everybody else.
  • The IRS film in the photo booth at the mall can be seen by anyone just by saying "Cheese!", as Apu demonstrates when he goes into the booth after Homer and Agent Johnson leave.
• This Is Gonna Suck: The look on Homer and Smithers' faces◊ after they remind Mr. Burns that he's flying the plane... and he's about to attempt a landing.
• This Page Will Self-Destruct: The film the IRS shows to Homer ends with "This film will self destruct... if improperly stored."
• Truth in Television: Before 1987, when the IRS required Social Security Numbers of children as well as adults to be listed on US Tax returns, tax returns would sometimes indeed include fictitious children (as Homer's did) to qualify for tax deductions.
• Two Decades Behind: When they arrive in Cuba, Burns is shocked to learn that Batista is no longer in power. Batista was ousted during the revolution of 1959.
• Vacation Episode: Homer, Smithers and Burns travel to Cuba in the final act.
• Vengeful Vending Machine: A rare example in which it's a good thing. Burns and Smithers, much to their horror, discover Homer trying to purchase a soda with the trillion-dollar bill as they get the plane ready, but the machine just keeps rejecting the bill.
• When the Clock Strikes Twelve: The post office closes at midnight and everyone who waited until the last day to file their tax return must do so until then.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: By the skin of his teeth, Homer manages to get his tax returns to the post office just as it closes. One cut away later, we see an IRS employee dumping all of Springfield's returns into a "Quick Refund" bin... but, because Homer had overstuffed the envelope, it instead bounces into the "Severe Audit" bin.
• Zillion-Dollar Bill: Burns has a trillion-dollar bill in his possession. It was originally printed by the American Government to give to the governments of Europe to pay for damages from WWII, but Monty stole it. It's not quite a zillion dollars, but it's enough, at least as Lisa said for some dune buggies.

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