The Simpsons: Top ten episodes
Homer Simpson: America's most enduring sitcom dad
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As The Simpsons celebrates its 20th anniversary, inthenews.co.uk unveils its highly subjective view of the ten best episodes of the last two decades from America's longest-running sitcom.
10
Missionary: Impossible
Episode 241, season 11, airdate February 20th 2000
Homer inadvertently ends up as a missionary in Microasia despite repeatedly appealing for divine intention from "Jeebus". His lava-induced death on the volcanic island is saved however when Bart pledges $10,000 to a third-wall breaking pledge drive on Fox to keep the show on the air. Rupert Murdoch says Bart Simpson has saved the network. "Wouldn't be the first time," he replies.
9
Das Bus
Episode 192, season nine, airdate February 15th 1998
Homer's entrepreneurial spirit comes to the fore due to jealousy at every family in America getting rich off the internet apart from him. Alarm bells ring when he notes "Oh, they have the internet on computers now!", but somehow his dotcom startup Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net is a success, only to be violently taken over by Bill Gates and his hired nerds/goons, who mess up his desk and snap his pencils.
8
Who Shot Mr Burns?
Episodes 128 and 129, seasons six and seven, airdates May 21st 2005 and September 17th 2005
The only two-part episode yet and probably the most famous to boot as Mr Burns' rampant megalomania leads him to fall victim to a failed assassination attempt. Memorable moments include Grampa retiring to the 'outhouse' the Simpsons don't have (next scene Homer hosing down the garden shed), Mr Burns finally remembering Homer's name, and Chief Wiggum reading Miss Marple and imploring Ed and Lou to look for the "mo-tive".
7
Lisa the Vegetarian
Episode 133, season seven, airdate October 15th 1995
The episode featuring Paul and the late Linda McCartney offering solace to Lisa's newfound vegetarianism features some of the best offerings from two of the most quotable Springfield residents. In a signature educational video appearance on the benefits of eating meat, Troy McClure warns his young on-screen foil: "Don't kid yourself, Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he'd eat you and everyone you care about!" The message is not lost on Ralph Wiggum, who post-video, exclaims: "When I grow up I'm going to go to bovine university."
6
Homer the Vigilante
Episode 92, season five, airdate January 6th 1994
Sam Neill guest voices as the debonair senior citizen Molloy ultimately exposed as the cat burglar plaguing Springfield. Homer's vigilante gang eventually uncovers him thanks to Grampa observing his scaling of the walls of the museum to thieve the world's largest cubic zirconia ("There was something different about the way he was walking that day. Much more vertical than usual.") Homer later crows: "It seems that the cat has been caught by the very person who was trying to catch him."
5
A Star is Burns
Episode 121, season six, airdate March 5th 1995
In an episode overshadowed by Simpsons creator Matt Groening's anger over what he saw as shameless promotion of short-lived animated comedy The Critic, Marge oversees a film festival in Springfield and reluctantly puts Homer on the jury. Barney Gumble's self-deprecating Pukahontas is clearly the most artistic effort, but Homer prefers Hans Moleman getting hit in the groin with a football in Man Getting Hit by Football. No one likes the big-budget A Burns for All Seasons, however, directed by Señor Spielbergo and starring Mr Burns in a variety of roles from ET to Jesus. Faced with a cacophony of catcalls the stunned Mr Burns asks Smithers if he is being booed. "No, sir...they're saying boo-urns," Smithers responds. Mr Burns asks the auditorium for clarficiation but faces only further boos. Cut to Hans Moleman who says: "Well, I was saying boo-urns."
4
The Last Temptation of Homer
Episode 90, season five, airdate December 9th 1993
After Homer and his nuclear power plant colleagues barely escape from a poisonous gas leak (a hapless co-worker complains to Mr Burns that the fire exit was painted on before being sucked into a giant tube and deposited on a table surrounded by Middle Eastern men who chant "Dance, dance"), he meets the seductive but gawky Mindy (voiced by Michelle Pfeiffer), leading to some very awkward moments while riding the stimulator, I mean the elevator, and a temptation-inducing trip to an energy convention in Capital City. Memorable for Homer's many versions of Oh Mandy, Joey Jo-Jo Junior Shabadoo, the man with the giant hand, and Mr Burns' deployment of winged monkeys ("Fly my pretties, fly!") after learning someone is charging room service to the company. "Continue the research," he orders Smithers after they splat to their deaths.
3
Homer Badman
Episode 112, season six, airdate November 27th 1994
After making waves at a candy convention where he eats a lemon ball so sour it can only be safely contained in a magnetic field, later fleeing an angry mob with a makeshift explosive of sherbet and soda with the words "see you in hell, candy boys", Homer gets in trouble with a babysitter when he pulls the gummi Venus de Milo he had earlier stolen off her backside. Misinterpreting his subsequent drooling as the beginning of a sexual offence, Homer faces trial by media over his alleged busy hands. Hard-hitting current expose show Rock Bottom (whose presenter calls a salvation-seeking Homer with the words "Homer, this is God...frey Winston) makes things only worse with heavily edited footage spliced together to resemble not only an admission of inappropriately touching the babysitter but also killing Godfrey Winston. Luckily for Homer, school groundskeeper Willy has been covertly filming every resident in Springfield, thus exonerating him. Willy is subsequently exposed on the next episode of Rock Bottom as "Rowdy Roddy Peeper" with Homer evidently learning nothing from his experience. "Listen to the music Marge, he's evil!"
2
$pringfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)
Episode 91, season five, airdate December 16th 1993
When even naysayer Marge says she supports legalising gambling to end Springfield's economies woes, Mr Burns builds a supercasino on the dilapidated seafront where Homer gets a job at the blackjack table.
Bart meanwhile somehow manages to convince Robert Goulet to perform at his rival treehouse casino, where Mllhouse gets smacked in the head by his microphone and mauled by a cat hidden in his top hat.
At the casino, where Marge has developed a gambling addiction, Mr Burns has taken to growing his hair long and collecting his own urine a la Howard Hughes. Realising the folly of his ways he kicks off his tissue boxes for shoes and suggest he and Smithers take the Spruce Moose back to the nuclear power plant. "But sir, it's only a model," Smithers implores. "I said get in," Mr Burns replies, cocking a gun at his head.
1
Homer Goes to College
Episode 84, season five, airdate October 14th 1993
Homer's lack of college degree is exposed at the nuclear plant so he is bundled off to Springfield University to graduate in the nuclear physics class, but not before setting his high school diploma on fire with the words "I am so smart, I am so smart. S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T." Campus life comes easy to Homer, whose perception of college is based on TV telling him it's the responsibility of jocks to make it tough for the nerds, and to continually rail against the "stuffy old dean". A squirrel and a stick is one of many distractions from work, however, and his plans to educate his three nerdy tutors of what the real meaning of college is end up with Ronald Reagan vowing to make him "pay" for the kidnap of a rival college's pig mascot Sir Oinks-a-Lot and the university dean in hospital with a broken hip having been run over by Homer. Come exam day and he's done absolutely no revision, but he's got a plan to end all plans: "I'm going to hide under a big pile of coats and hope that everything works out."