The Mansion Family

"The Mansion Family"
The Simpsons episode
Episode no.	Season 11
Directed by	Michael Polcino
Written by	John Swartzwelder
Original air dates	January 23, 2000
Episode features
Chalkboard gag	"Class clown is not a paid position."
Couch gag	Marge and Homer are children while Bart and Lisa are adults (and Maggie is a baby doll in Homer’s arms). Homer reaches for the remote control, but Lisa slaps it away from him.

"The Mansion Family" is the twelfth episode of The Simpsons' eleventh season. The episode aired on January 23, 2000. This episode features the voice of Britney Spears as herself.

Plot

At the annual Springfield Pride Awards, which are hosted by Kent Brockman and Britney Spears, awards are given to prominent Springfield citizens for their achievements. They present the award for the oldest man in Springfield to Cornelius Chapman, a venerable 108-year-old man who built the first log cabin in Springfield and introduced the toothbrush to its citizens (he also took a bullet for Huey Long but was a little late as he only prevented the fifth bullet from hitting Long. The first four had already killed him). Chapman comes up to accept his award, but when Spears kisses him, he dies of a heart attack. Brockman tells Spears that they should have expected this, and through the process of elimination, they find the next oldest Springfieldian in the crowd; it's Mr. Burns. After winning, he realizes he is not a young man anymore, and he and Smithers go to the Mayo Clinic for a check-up. Burns decides give the Simpsons an opportunity to house sit Burns's private mansion while he is being tested for various diseases.

After enjoying life as a millionare for a few days, Homer decides to throw a lavish party before Burns returns. He heads to Moe's to buy some beer and invite his friends to the party. However Moe informs Homer that he can not sell him alcohol on account of it being Sunday before 2 PM. But Moe also informs Homer that he could sail out to international waters (which Homer at first thinks is a theme park), where there are no laws and it would therefore be legal to sell alcohol. Homer agrees and they set sail in Burns's private yacht, with Homer bringing Moe, Lenny, Carl and a posse of others (including Bart) to get to international waters where they can do whatever they want.

Back at the Mayo Clinic, Burns discovers that he not only has all existing diseases (including pneumonia, juvenile diabetes and a little bit of hysterical pregnancy), but six new diseases the doctors apparently have just discovered in him. However, the sheer amount of diseases prevents any one disease from actually doing harm to him (a condition the doctors call "Three Stooges Syndrome"). This leads Burns to conclude that he is indestructible.

Meanwhile, Homer's party boat is boarded by Chinese pirates who take the ship hostage as they head for Hong Kong, which they call "hidden pirate island". The pirates rob the crew and tie them up in a net which they then toss overboard. But to the luck of Homer and the other guests who happen to be on the top of the net, it floats and they avoid drowning. Eventually Homer and Bart make it back to the mansion where the family returns the house to Burns after Marge and Lisa managing to scrub "that old man smell" out of 137 rooms. Back at the Simpsons home, everyone is glad to live a normal life again - with the exception of Homer, who is upset that he does not actually live the lifestyle of rich people. He proceeds to rant and lament about how rich the people in the episode's end credits are.

Cultural references

• Just before stealing the speech from Cornelius Chapman, Mr. Burns says "Abra Cadaver", which is a reference to a 1982 murder mystery play written by John Mattera.
• Mike Tyson is mentioned in this episode although he looks exactly like Drederick Tatum, who is the parody of Tyson.
• This episode's name is a play on the Manson Family, the cult lead by Charles Manson who were responsible for the murder of Sharon Tate and others.
• Britney Spears is dressed as she appeared in her music video for her song "Baby One More Time".
• Marge mentions Bill Cosby and David Letterman (she incorrectly calls them "Crosby" and "Letterson") as examples of famous comedians who smoke cigars.
• Homer refers to international waters as "The Land That Law Forgot". This alludes to Edgar Rice Burroughs's famous 1918 science fiction novel, The Land That Time Forgot.
• The monkey named Furious George is a parody of Curious George.
• After watching a knife-fight between two monkeys, Moe comments "He ain't pretty no more!" This is Nicholas Colasanto's line in Raging Bull.
• Mr. Burns is revealed to own every book in the Nancy Drew series, including a "controversial" entry entitled Clue in the Clock. (This title was invented by the Simpsons writers). Upon looking through the book, Lisa comments, "So many swears".
• The Coast Guard officer gets Homer's party going by sounding out the opening guitar riffs to the Doobie Brothers' song "China Grove".
• The medical painting which Mr. Burns and Smithers pass on the way out of the doctor's office at the Mayo Clinic is "The Gross Clinic", painted by Nineteenth Century American painter, Thomas Eakens. It depicts Dr. Samuel Gross and his students.

External links

• "The Mansion Family episode capsule". The Simpsons Archive.
• "The Mansion Family" at IMDb