The Burns Cage
| "The Burns Cage" | |
|---|---|
| The Simpsons episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 27 |
| Directed by | Rob Oliver |
| Written by | Rob LaZebnik |
| Original air date | April 3, 2016 |
| Episode features | |
| Chalkboard gag | If Villanova doesn't win, we lose everything. |
| Couch gag | Homer sends text messages to the family with emojis. |
"The Burns Cage" is the seventeenth episode of the twenty-seventh season of the animated television series The Simpsons, and the 591st episode of the series overall. It aired in the United States on Fox on April 3, 2016.[1]
In the episode, Waylon Smithers finally comes out to his boss Mr. Burns, who rejects his advances. Other characters attempt to find a boyfriend for Smithers, and he falls for Julio. Meanwhile, Milhouse competes against a new boy for the lead role in a school production of Casablanca, so he can act alongside his own unrequited love, Lisa.
The episode was written by Rob LaZebnik, inspired by when his teenage son came out.
Plot
Smithers declares his love for Mr. Burns after they nearly die in a skydiving accident, but Burns reaffirms his contempt for him. Angry, Smithers treats Homer, Lenny and Carl harshly, so they decide to find Smithers a boyfriend. They invite potential partners to meet Smithers at a party, where Julio's neck massage snaps Smithers out of his bad mood. The two fall in love, and Smithers leaves his job at the Power Plant.[2]
Smithers is troubled on a trip to Julio's homeland of Cuba when his partner wears a carnival outfit resembling Burns; Julio notices and asks Smithers if he is committed to their relationship, and Smithers admits that he is not. Back in Springfield, Burns' attempts to find a new assistant prove disastrous, and his only option is to hire Smithers again. He meets Smithers with money to lure him back, but Smithers states that money will not sway him. Burns then says he has kept a secret bottled up: that Smithers' performance review is "excellent". The two hug and reconcile.[2]
Meanwhile Springfield Elementary put on a production of Casablanca, in which Lisa gets the role of Ilsa. Milhouse wants the role of Rick because of his love for Lisa, but he is challenged by a new boy, Jack Deforest, who dresses and speaks like Humphrey Bogart. Milhouse enlists the bullies to beat up Jack, but he instead beats all three of them up. Principal Skinner sees this violence and declares that Milhouse will play Rick; Lisa is angered as she does not believe that he is a good actor. Marge tells Lisa that it is important to tell people who are not skilled that they are, using the example of Homer. The production is a success, but at the end it is revealed that "Milhouse" was merely Jack in a costume; he leaves hand-in-hand with Lisa.[2]
Milhouse goes to Moe's Tavern, where Smithers lectures him that romantic setbacks make love feel better when it arrives. Moe tells the pair that he only searches for gold, not girls, and embarks on a treasure-hunt with Jack and Groundskeeper Willie.
Production
Smithers' unrequited love for Mr. Burns is a long-running gag on The Simpsons; the producers once joked that he was not gay, but "Burns-sexual".[3] Rolling Stone described the character's sexual orientation as the show's "worst-kept secret", noting how in one episode he had a vacation at an all-male resort, and in another he wore "rainbow-striped short shorts" in Springfield's gay district.[3]
Writer Rob LaZebnik told The New York Post that the episode was inspired by his son Johnny, who came out as gay while at high school: "I am a Midwestern guy, so I don’t tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I thought, 'What better way to tell my son I love him than to write a cartoon about it?'".[4] He added that he pitched the storyline three years earlier, and got approval for his script from his son.[4] Smithers' coming out is low-key, as was Johnny's; he told the Post that as he was "the gayest little kid", his parents were not surprised by his sexual orientation.[4] The episode aired five days before Johnny's 22nd birthday, and he said he would have a viewing party because the episode would be "particularly meaningful" to him.[4] The elder LaZebnik stated his opinion that LGBT-related television can have a "real impact on people's thinking".[4]
Cultural references
The episode's title comes from the 1996 LGBT-related comedy film The Birdcage, in which Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria plays a Guatemalan housekeeper; his portrayal of Cuban bartender Julio in this episode is similar.[5]
Smithers likens Homer, Lenny and Carl to The Three Stooges.[2] Smithers' potential partners are chosen via the gay dating app Grindr.[5] At the party, George Takei asks another man if he wants to hear "horror stories" about his Star Trek co-star William Shatner, and is pleased that the man does not know who Shatner is.[5] Comic Book Guy cosplays as Hello Kitty.[5] Mr. Burns is rapped by PETA for the welfare of his hounds.[2] A billboard outside the school's production of Casablanca advertises that the kindergarten are putting on a production of zoophilia-themed play Equus the following night.[6] Among Smithers' paintings of Burns is a parody of a photograph of Russian president Vladimir Putin riding a horse while bare-chested.[6] The end sequence with the treasure hunt pay homage to Bogart's Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The African Queen.[6]
Reception
Dennis Perkins of The A.V. Club gave the episode a B+, commenting that audiences would think that Smithers had already came out, but the episode "gives Springfield’s most slavishly dedicated lickspittle a little glimpse of what a life outside of Burns' contemptuous orbit could be". He found that it made sense for the character not to move on from Burns, and praised Harry Shearer's performance as Smithers and LaZebnik's script for being touching, concluding that "being a character on The Simpsons means giving up hope of ever really changing much."[5]
Tony Sokol of Den of Geek felt that Smithers coming out was good for social acceptance, but would end the comedy around his sexuality, which is based on double entendre. He wrote that the love story had "a few subversive laugh lines" but more "missed opportunities". He added that the school's production of Casablanca was a letdown compared to the series' previous adaptations of A Streetcar Named Desire and The Planet of the Apes, and gave his opinion that the Bogart homages ruined the opportunity to do better parodies of his films. However, he noted that the season had a better quality of animation.[6]
See also
References
- ^ "SIMPSONS 04/03/16 8:00pm | FOX Broadcasting Company". Fox.com. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ^ a b c d e Valentine, Evan (April 3, 2016). "'The Simpsons' Recap: Smithers Comes Out — and Starts Dating a Longtime Character!". Us Weekly. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
- ^ a b Kreps, Daniel (April 2, 2016). "'Simpsons' Character Smithers to Come Out as Gay in New Episode". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e Hegedus, Eric (April 1, 2016). "'Simpsons' Smithers gay reveal was inspired by the writer's son". The New York Post. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e "The Simpsons handles Smithers' coming out with surprising subtlety". www.avclub.com. Retrieved 2016-04-04.
- ^ a b c d Sokol, Tony (April 3, 2016). "The Simpsons: The Burns Cage Review". Den of Geek. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
