The Computer Wore Menace Shoes
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“The Computer Wore Menace Shoes” is the sixth episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. The plot deals with Homer buying a computer, which he uses to spread gossip on the internet. The episode contains several science fiction references especially to the TV programme The Prisoner. Its title is a play on the 1969 Disney film The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes.
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[edit] Plot
Homer shows up to work, but no one lets him in. Lenny and Carl stop by and tell him the plant is closed for fumigation; everyone else was informed via e-mail. Homer decides to buy a computer. A salesperson, upon hearing Homer only needs something to check his e-mail with, misleads Homer telling him that he needs the best computer, which costs $5,000. Homer is coerced into buying it and taking out a fifth mortgage to pay for it. After he gives up on learning how to use it, Lisa sets up the computer. Homer eventually catches on and starts his own webpage, which contains copyrighted material from other pages. To avoid getting sued, Homer calls himself “Mister X.” When no one visits his page, Homer hears a rumor from Bart started by either Nelson Muntz or Jimbo Jones that Mayor Quimby spent the street repair fund on a secret swimming pool. He posts this rumor on his page, which is seen by Comic Book Guy who was searching for pornography, Principal Skinner whose mother scolds him as a sissy for not watching pornography, and apparently many others. When a barrage of reporters enters Mayor Quimby's office and indeed finds a luxurious pool along with many scantily dressed women, Mayor Quimby is taken into custody.
Homer then decides to post more rumors, vowing to keep digging and probing until everyone is in jail. He later uncovers through eavesdropping that Apu is selling week-old donuts as bagels (which sends Apu to jail and has the police collect all of the donuts, bagels and some of the coffee in the city) and Krusty having run over a man and hidden the body, a police scandal (which has the police racing prisoners and using the electric chair to cook chicken), Miss Springfield using appearance altering cosmetics, and that Mr. Burns is selling uranium to Middle Eastern terrorists (which gets Mr. Burns arrested). Homer remains anonymous as Mr. X wins the Pulitzer Prize, but when Homer hears the cash reward is going to starving children because no one knows who Mr. X is, he reveals that he is Mr. X. With the whole town aware of Homer’s double identity, no one wants to talk near him. As his webpage’s popularity drops precipitously, Homer posts made-up stories that many people believe, but just as Homer’s page gets popular again he is kidnapped after walking into a fake Kwik-E-Mart.
Homer wakes up on “The Island,” a strange Victorian era-style community straight out of The Prisoner (with the exception of the name, which in The Prisoner is “The Village.”) Everyone there has a secret that some powerful organization doesn’t want to share with the world. Homer learns from the organization's leader that one of his made-up stories was true (the story he was captured for indicated that flu shots were being loaded with mind-controlling additives propelling people to spend money on gifts before Christmas). While he is trapped, Homer is replaced at home by an impersonator with a German accent, which none of the family members realizes. Number Six (voiced by Patrick McGoohan, reprising the role he played in The Prisoner) tells Homer about a makeshift boat he spent thirty-three years making, after which Homer ungratefully pushes him down and escapes the island on the boat, popping a balloon that emerges from the water to trap him. He returns home and defeats his German double in a fight. However, the entire family is drugged by the dog (who has been somehow modified to spout smoke) and taken back to The Island, where they are quite happy. The ending is rather strange for the series. The plot is left unresolved and the family is left on the island. Although this may mean that the episode was non-canon.
[edit] Cultural references
- The scene where Homer speaks into the mouse is a reference to a similar scene in Star Trek: The Voyage Home where Montgomery Scott, unfamiliar with 20th century technology, speaks into a mouse in an attempt to use a computer.
- The banner at the top of Homer's website reads "All The Muck That's Fit To Rake." This is based on the masthead of the New York Times, which reads "All the News That's Fit to Print," as well as the term muckraker, and there is an actual website that looks exactly like the website in the episode[citation needed].
- Elements Homer steals for his “Mr. X website” include the “Dancing Jesus” (a parody of the dancing baby) and the After Dark screensaver “Flying Toasters.”
- The title is a pun on The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, a 1969 film that has a loosely related plot.
- The mechanical monkey which repeatedly claps its cymbals is a reference to The Phantom of the Opera, which includes the same mechanical monkey.
[edit] The Prisoner references
This episode makes many references to the popular TV show The Prisoner, including:
- Patrick McGoohan guest stars, reprising his role as “Number Six”; he claims to have spent 33 years trying to escape from “The Island,” the same amount of time between the end of The Prisoner and the premiere of this episode.
- “The Island” resembles “The Village,” including the 1960s-styled inner sanctum containing lava lamps and egg chairs.
- Homer’s exclamation that he is a man and not a number, only to look at the pin on his shirt, is a parody of Patrick McGoohan’s famous phrase: “I am not a number, I am a free man!”
- Homer’s escape from “The Island” is nearly thwarted by the “Rover” balloon (which had previously been parodied in the season nine episode “The Joy of Sect” when Marge breaks out of the cult compound and dodges the Rover during her escape).
- The escape also borrows the theme music from The Prisoner.
- The ending of this Simpson episode, is similar to the final episode 17 of The Prisoner; "Fallout", which was criticized at the time in Britain for abandoning reality and leaving many things unresolved.
[edit] External links
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