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"Simpsons Tall Tales" is the season finale and twenty-first episode of the twelfth season of The Simpsons. It aired on May 20, 2001.
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Plot
After the Simpsons win a trip to Delaware, Homer refuses to pay a $5 airport tax for his flight. The family jumps onto a freight train and meets a singing, although clearly weird, hobo who tells them three tall tales. They are as follows:
Paul Bunyan
Homer plays Paul Bunyan, a great burden on local townspeople, as he crushes their houses and consumes all their food. Eventually, the townspeople drug him and drag him out of their town. Out of loneliness, he carves a block of stone from the mountains into a blue ox that he calls Babe, who is rendered alive by an electric shock, similar to lightning, which apparently originated from the northern lights. In his travels with Babe, Homer creates several landmarks, and fought Rodan (which Lisa remarks Paul Bunyan never fought Rodan). Homer later meets Marge, and though she is initially frightened of him, the two fall in love. When a meteor is soon to hit the town, the townspeople call Paul back to help them. Paul obliges and throws the meteor towards Chicago, starting the Great Fire there, but not before it hits him in the backside.
After the hobo has told this story, he asks them for a sponge bath as compensation. Disgusted, Homer is forced to oblige, as nobody else will do so, but the hobo does not mind anyone seeing his nakedness.
Connie Appleseed
The hobo's second tall tale is loosely based on the legend of Johnny Appleseed, except Lisa portrays him, and her name is adapted to "Connie Appleseed." Connie is part of a wagon train, and all of the travelers shoot and eat buffalo. Connie, who is against the practice, states "If you don't stop this slaughter, you'll wipe out the buffalo." After which they all ridicule her she is worried that no one is eating a renewable source of food and finds some apples for the pioneers to eat, but they reject them. Eventually, she changes her last name to "Appleseed", and leaves her family to journey across America and plant apple seeds wherever she goes. Meanwhile, the Simpsons change their surname to "Bufflekill" and they succeed in killing all the buffalo just as Homer shoots and kills the last two remaining buffalo. Just as they are about to cannibalize Homer, Connie returns and offers them apples. They like them, and Homer is spared, even though Moe Szyslak is seen eating him and asking, "What, so now we're not eating Homer?"
Tom and Huck
Though it is not actually a tall tale (Lisa points this out before the story begins), the hobo tells this tale based on Mark Twain's story about Tom Sawyer, whom Bart portrays, and Huckleberry Finn, whom Nelson portrays. Huck is caught holding hands with Becky (Lisa) and is forced to marry her by Homer. During the wedding,Homer points a shotgun at Huck, during when it is revealed that this is exactly how Homer and Marge got married, with Abe Simpson still pointing his shotgun at Marge. Huck dodges this marriage and goes on the run with Tom, leaving Missouri for Missoura. However, they are chased by townspeople led by Becky's father (Homer) and their families. They flee to a river boat, but are thrown by Moe into the Mississippi River and are caught by the townspeople. At their funeral, Tom and Huck secretly watch the proceedings from the rafters, until Reverend Lovejoy orders their bodies lowered into the caskets, revealing that Tom and Huck actually died.
The family arrives in Delaware and disembarks the train, but the hobo reminds them that they owe him two more sponge baths as compensation. Homer promises to catch up with them in an hour and volunteers to stay behind to do the dirty work.
Trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (August 2009) |
In the season finale of Season 11, Behind The Laughter, the Simpson family is seen overlooking the editing process of an episode. The plot of this episode is the family winning a trip to Delaware with Homer saying, "The Simpsons are goin' to Delaware!" Lisa comments, "I want to see Wilimington!" while Bart says, "I want to visit a screen door factory!" These same lines are repeated in this episode though Homer's prediction that this episode would mark the "last season" did not come true.
External links
- "Simpsons Tall Tales" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Simpsons Tall Tales" at the Internet Movie Database
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