How I Wet Your Mother
| "How I Wet Your Mother" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 23 |
| Directed by | Lance Kramer |
| Written by | Billy Kimball Ian Maxtone-Graham |
| Original air date | March 11, 2012 |
| Episode features | |
| Couch gag | As the family sits on the couch, a giant hand stuffs them into a sushi roll and chops it up. Maggie emerges intact. |
How I Wet Your Mother is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' twenty-third season, airing March 11, 2012.Since airing, the episode received mostly positive reviews.
Plot
Waylon Smithers enters a storage cupboard in the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and it accidentally gets left open. Homer, seeing this as an opportunity to steal supplies, tells everyone to come and help themselves, and every employee steals something. Leaving the Power Plant, Homer sees Mr. Burns approach and drives off, leaving his fellow employees to get all the blame. Homer is thought to be the only one who didn't steal anything and gets a day off.
On his day off, Homer goes fishing with Bart. The next night, Homer wets the bed. After doing this another time, he thinks that karma may be the reason so apologizes to all his fellow employees for dropping them into trouble with a free barbecue for everyone. That night, Homer wets himself again and gets angry over a wasted act of kindness.
Homer then goes to Shameful Eddie's where he buys an Uralarm Whizz-No-More 9000. This, however, wakes up the entire family and he must explain his predicament to them. Homer then starts to wear Confidence Man Adult Diapers which are a turn-off to Marge.
Marge goes for a walk that night and bumps into Professor Frink who reveals that he has invented a machine that can be used to enter other people's dreams, which he did to Disco Stu, who has now became "Normal Stu". They decide to use it on Homer and in his first dream, they meet Death who is dragging a coffin. After falling off a cliff, they use the dream machine to enter Bart's dream. In this dream, B.F. Sherwood tells them to open the coffin. When it is opened, the room starts to fill with fish. So, the family use the machine to go to the next dream, Lisa's. They are on a Victorian stage show so they immediately change dreams again, back into Homer's dreams once again.
Homer's dream this time is of his greatest desires. After walking around, encountering a Kwik-E-Mart which gives bacon as change and several Moe's Taverns, Homer decides he wants to stay in his dream forever and starts to ride Mr. Simpson's Wild Ride. At this point, Clancy Wiggum, Eddie and Lou have entered the Simpsons home and tried to get the dream machine off of Professor Frink. After this, a large bottle of Duff Beer falls over and floods the city. The Simpsons are about to enter two large gears, throwing the many Moe Szyslaks into them to stop them, when they are rescued by Death, who reveals her to actually be Mona Simpson. Mona then tells the family to follow her.
The family go to a movie theater where they view a childhood memory of Homer's. He and his father went on a fishing trip and the boat capsized. They returned to their holiday home several hours late and without any fish. A couple of weeks later, Mona left Abraham and Homer. Homer felt guilty as he thought it was because of the boat capsizing that his mother left. After she reassured him it wasn't because of this, showing another memory of Mona being relieved that Homer, her greatest treasure, was safe, Homer finally felt comfort. They then left the dream.
Back at the Simpson home, Chief Wiggum finally manages to get the device from Frink and detaches it, just as everyone wakes up. Homer is relieved to find he hasn't wet himself. That night, Homer spins a dreidel. Marge tells him that if it keeps spinning, they're still in a dream. It does so they decide to go for a naked bike ride. However, as soon as they leave, the dreidel stops spinning and it starts to hail. A truck then hits Homer.
Production
"How I Wet Your Mother" is written by Billy Kimball and Ian Maxtone-Graham and was directed by Lance Kramer. The plot spoofs the movie Inception, with various scenes parodying certain moments from the aforementioned film. The episode is also the 4th to feature the character of Mona Simpson, who had previously died in "Mona Leaves-a".
Reception
The episode is the 3rd least watched episode in the history of The Simpsons, having only 4.97 million viewers. It is was the 2nd most watched program on FOX that night, being beaten by Family Guy, however rating higher than American Dad! and Bob's Burgers.[1]
Since airing the episode received mostly positive reviews.Hayden Childs, of The A.V. Club, was positive on the episode noting that "Although it never reaches outright hilarity, “How I Wet Your Mother” is one of the more interesting episodes of this season..." She further noted that only having one major plot was a good idea and several good jokes in the episode. She overall rated the episode a B+. [2]