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We're on the Road to D'ohwhere is the eleventh episode of the seventeenth season of The Simpsons. It first aired in the USA on January 29, 2006 on FOX.
Plot
While messing around in the school’s steam tunnels, Bart and Milhouse trigger a massive escape of steam that destroys the school. Although Milhouse is free to go, Principal Skinner proposes that Bart be sent off to "Upward Bound", a behavioral modification camp for troublemaking children. Meanwhile, Moe announces that he is treating Homer, Lenny, Carl and Barney with renting a minivan and taking them on a trip to Las Vegas, after a failed suicide attempt led to him suing the rope company that made a faulty noose and earning a hefty settlement. While Homer is near the Moe's Tavern, the luggage is packed and loaded into minivan, that has a label "Vegas or bust" (which Lenny changes to the partially risque "Vegas For Busts"). Homer tells that he is taking Bart to the airport and them coming to go to Vegas. Bart begs Homer to take him to Vegas and then Bart will teach Homer how to cheat. Homer refuses, because he has his own system: he will not tell Marge how much he lost in a game. Homer then takes Bart to the airport to send him to the camp in northwest Oregon (flying by way of Portland). But then it is discovered that Bart is on the No Fly List after an incident in Atlanta where Bart unbuckled his seat belt before the plane could come to a complete stop. Homer decides to drive him to the camp instead, but is annoyed at having to miss the Vegas trip with Moe and his bar buddies.
During the ride, Homer angrily blames Bart for missing his Vegas trip. While they are stopped at a roadside diner, Bart pretends to respect Homer in order to escape; his plan works and he heads off home. However, he then reluctantly rescues Homer from almost driving off of a cliff and they are soon back on the road, this time with Bart chained and duct-taped in his seat, Homer now not able to trust his son. Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa have a yard sale. It is initially a total failure until Otto discovers that Marge is selling the family's expired prescription drugs. Although reluctant, Marge soon makes lots of money selling prescription drugs, but Chief Wiggum eventually discovers the scheme and arrests her. Homer gets Bart to the camp, and leaves him there as Bart sadly watches Homer drive away. As he drives to Las Vegas, Homer begins to feel guilty, and decides to bring Bart back. Meanwhile, Bart is thoroughly enjoying his stay at the camp, and begins to realize he doesn't have to feel good by doing pranks, until he sees Homer run down a horse with his car, who leaves with Homer to go to Las Vegas, in return to wash off the horse's blood off the car.
In Vegas, Homer reportedly gets in a fight with a pit boss, loses track of Bart, and is thrown in Nevada State Prison. The episode ends with Lisa receiving phone messages from both her parents, asking for bail money. Instead of taking immediate action, Lisa tells Maggie that she anticipated the day that she and Maggie would be the only members left in the family to fend for themselves. Lisa walks off, adding that she'll look for a job in the morning.
Cultural references
- Chief Wiggum calls Marge "Ma Peddle" in reference to Ma Kettle - he then has to explain the reference to Lou, even though in the season five episode "Cape Feare," Wiggum referenced Ma Kettle without Lou questioning it.
- The song the band class plays is "Louie, Louie".
- The song Flanders sings is the final chorus of "Joseph's Coat" from the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
- Birch Barlow (the right-wing radio talk show host modeled after Rush Limbaugh) appears as a customer at Marge's prescription drug-laden "yard sale".
- "Intellectual Homer", who has been killed by "Serious Homer", has written on the floor in his own blood "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny". This is the famous statement of Ernst Haeckel's recapitulation theory about the similarity of the embryonic development of organisms to its evolutionary history. Ironically, it has been debunked as a scientific principle. Presumably, Intellectual Homer wrote this before it was debunked, a testament to how long he had been dead.
- When Homer drives into the house on the side of the street, it says "Birthplace of Matt Groening," the show's creator. Binky, from Life in Hell, is seen on the sign.
- The episode title is either a reference to the Talking Heads song, "Road to Nowhere" or a reference to the Road to... movies starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.
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