Skinner's Sense of Snow is the eighth episode from season twelve of the animated TV series The Simpsons.
Plot
While the Simpsons attend a French Canadian circus called "Cirque de Purée", a freak blizzard (specifically, a "classic nor'easter meeting a classic sou'wester") hits Springfield, turning it into a winter wonderland overnight. However, Springfield Elementary School stays open regardless of the storm. Only some students, including Bart and Lisa's classes show up while Skinner and Willie are the only faculty members to show up for work while the rest of the faculty is at an emergency caucus (which turns out to be a party at a ski lodge). To pass the time, Skinner plays a low-budget, extremely boring holiday movie "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't, But Then Was". Fortunately, the movie gets wrecked, thanks to the school's projector-shaped DVD player, and Principal Skinner lets the children out early. Unfortunately, now that the snow has piled up, no one can get in or out of Springfield Elementary, leaving the students stranded with Principal Skinner and Groundskeeper Willie on (what is allegedly) the last day of school before Christmas vacation. To make matters worse, Principal Skinner somehow fixes the DVD to "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't, But Then Was."
Skinner tries to keep the children under control, forcing them to stay together in the cafeteria and eat relish and mayonnaise. After a botched attempt at escape involving Nelson Muntz riding his bicycle (and the bicycle bouncing through the lunchroom), Skinner retreats to his office, where he unearths his Army memorabilia and is reminded of the days when he commanded respect from his troops (contradicting the "true" story of his Army days as seen in "The Principal and the Pauper," though this interpretation has been renounced by show creator Matt Groening and many fans due to its contradiction to other episodes that mention [implicitly or otherwise] Principal Skinner's days in the Army during the Vietnam War, such as "Bart's Friend Falls in Love," "I Love Lisa," "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Baadasssss Song," and "Team Homer"). With that, Skinner dons his Army uniform and returns with a stricter attitude towards the students.
Meanwhile, Homer, with the help of Ned Flanders, Flanders' car, and a sawed-off piece of Flanders' roof tied to the front of said car as a makeshift plow, sets out to rescue Bart and Lisa, but crashes the car into a fire hydrant, which sprays water that freezes Flanders' car in place. Homer's repeated gunning of the accelerator causes carbon monoxide to flood the front of the car. Flanders and Homer get high from the fumes and lose consciousness.
Back at the school, Bart tries to tunnel his way out, but gets caught by Principal Skinner. Skinner orders Groundskeeper Willie to destroy the tunnel, but Willie refuses. Skinner decides to destroy it himself, but gets buried in the snow after the tunnel collapses. With Skinner helpless, the children go nuts in the school (having mop bucket races, gorging themselves on relish poured from the last place debate team trophy, forcing Principal Skinner to write on the blackboard as punishment the same way Bart is punished in the opening credits of the show, tying Principal Skinner in a dodgeball bag and pelting him with the missing dodgeballs, and burning books in the library (one of which, ironically, is Bart's favorite book, according to the season four episode "Whacking Day," Johnny Tremain).
Back in the car, Homer and Flanders are still high from the carbon monoxide, and Homer hallucinates that he is being pleasured by harem girls who dance for him and feed him ranch dressing through a hose.
Back at school, Skinner uses the school hamster, Nibbles, to roll in his ball to get a message to the outside world. Nibbles makes it to Ned and Homer crashing through the car window, and they break the ice and get themselves free. Homer releases the wheel after turning on the car's cruise control, causing the car to lose control and crash into a salt silo. However, Homer's blunder fortunately releases a massive amount of salt that melts the snow around the school, freeing the kids, but rusting the car's body completely. Superintendent Chalmers shows up, terrifying Skinner, but accepts Skinner's feeble, unclear explanation. Skinner and Bart then agree to forget the entire incident ever happened. During the drive home, the carbon monoxide makes Homer hallucinate again; this time, Lisa is seen as a braying camel and Bart is a belly dancer that Homer tries to kiss. Before the credits roll, Lisa (still as a camel) wishes everyone a Merry Christmas.
Trivia
- This episode aired on December 17, eleven years after the series opener (which coincidentally, was also a Christmas-themed episode).
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: "Skinner's Sense of Snow" |
- "Skinner's Sense of Snow" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Skinner's Sense of Snow" at the Internet Movie Database
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