Rednecks and Broomsticks
| "Rednecks and Broomsticks" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 21 |
| Directed by | Bob Anderson & Rob Oliver |
| Written by | Kevin Curran |
| Original air date | November 29, 2009 |
| Episode features | |
| Chalkboard gag | Teachers' unions are not ruining this country. |
| Couch gag | The Simpson family gathers around the dinner table for a Thanksgiving meal, but soon gather their plates and head for the couch where they watch a football game on TV. |
Rednecks and Broomsticks is the seventh episode in The Simpsons' twenty-first season. It aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 29, 2009. In the episode, Lisa befriends three teenaged Wiccans after getting lost in the woods during a game of hide-and-seek, and must clear her new friends' names when they are accused of cursing the townspeople with their supposed witchcraft. Meanwhile, Homer befriends Cletus after learning that he and his friends make their own moonshine.
In its original airing, the episode had an estimated 8.99 million viewers and received a Nielsen rating of 4.2/10.[1] The episode was written by Kevin Curran, and directed by Bob Anderson and Rob Oliver.
Plot
The Simpson family becomes helplessly stuck in traffic while returning from a ski vacation. To pass the time, Bart, Lisa and Maggie wish to play the repetitive and noisy game "Bonk-It". Marge attempts to hide the batteries before handing it to the children, but Bart quickly recovers and replaces them. To the great annoyance of Marge and Homer, the children play the game for hours. Homer loses his patience and throws the toy out the window, where it is crushed by passing vehicles. By a twist of fate, another father throws his childrens' Bonk-It out a window and it lands in the hands of the Simpson children. His patience long-gone, Homer smashes the Bonk-It with his foot, causing it to lodge under the brake pedal. He loses control of the vehicle, hits a deer reminiscent of Bambi and ends up on a frozen lake.
A mysterious person drags them out. When the family wakes up, they discover that the mysterious person was Cletus. Cletus tells Homer about moonshine, and invites him to taste the latest batch. Homer impresses Cletus and his hill-billy friends with his moonshine-tasting skills and is invited to judge of a moonshine competition.
Meanwhile, Lisa plays hide and seek with Cletus's daughters, but she hides too well and can't find her way back. She encounters three girls who are practicing Wiccans. Lisa is initially skeptical of their ability to cast spells, but becomes interested in joining after Miss Hoover becomes ill on the same day Lisa must hand in an assignment she didn't complete. The girls ask Lisa to join their coven, which she accepts. But the three girls are arrested and put on trial after Ned Flanders sees Lisa looking at "Wiccapedia" on her computer and calls the police. Lisa becomes the principal witness.
Many of the citizens become suddenly blind. They blame the three girls, who are put on trial. When the judge dismisses the case, the townspeople wish to drown the girls in an impromptu witch trial. Lisa, however, explains that the real culprits are Homer and his friends who threw moonshine in the water because they were scared to be arrested by the police. The girls are released and Homer entertains himself by playing with the witch-dunking chair.
Cultural References
- Neve Campbell (who is a guest star in this episode) is also famous for starring in The Craft, a film with a similar theme to this episode.
Reception
8.99 million viewers tuned in to this episode and acquired a 4.2 Nielsen rating/10% share in the 18-49 rating. It was the most-watched show out of the four shows on Fox's "Animation Domination" line-up.[1] The show was also the fourth most watched show on Fox that week after House, The OT, and Bones while being fourth in the Adults 18–49 viewing for the week after House, The OT, and Family Guy.[2]