Simpsons: Homer's Seven

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Although I didn't catch the very beginning of the Ocean's Eleven references, I loved this episode. I want to watch it again, and that's not something I say frequently about The Simpsons episodes. And, as someone who criticizes this show for being outdated rather often, I rather enjoyed the young adult book references. I also liked what they did with the ghost-writing industry... I thought for sure that Sweet Valley was going to be targeted... haha. Anyway, it was also one of the very few get-rich-quick ideas that has somewhat-worked for Homer. And the placement in November was slightly humorous when you remember NaNoWriMo... though I didn't catch any specific references to it, did you? Lastly, I loved the Ocean's Eleven music, especially at the end.


The Simpsons "The Book Job" (S23E06): At the Duff Arena, there's a dinosaur show. Much of the audience gets scared off immediately, but the Simpsons stay through the entire thing. Lisa takes the moral to be conserve the Earth, which the rest of the family sees it as "trash the place, it doesn't matter since an asteroid will kill us anyway." [...and if I hadn't read the title of the episode, I might have thought that this episode was going in the moral direction once more... Also, I saw the kids complaining at the gift shop as a way to get extra, not failing.] Lisa recognizes one of the costumed actors and follows her... Lisa thinks that she's a fantasy writer. However, it turns out that she is just the face on the book jacket... the actual books are churned out by lit majors desperate for work, and the plots are based on market research. [I'm just going to leave this alone...] Lisa is crushed. [well, yeah.] She asks for an early allowance to buy carbon credits - she wants to burn the books that are written by the woman. [hahahaha.]

Homer hears about how the books are done and wants to pull off a "Book Job" with five idiots. Homer gets Bart, then they grab Skinner, Patty, Moe (since Lenny wasn't available... Capuchin monkey and all), and Professor Frink. [monkey what?!?] Meanwhile, Lisa wants to prove that she can write a story on her own... though she procrastinates like crazy. [and it's darn amusing... quite the reflection of some of my own issues, LoL.] The team decides that the best-selling young adult books all have certain things in common: the heroes are orphans, the protagonist discovers that he's supernatural, and the setting needs to be a place that the audience can relate to. It starts to look like Harry Potter meets vampires, but that fails. So, they go with a troll that goes to a school under the Brooklyn Bridge. The cool kids are elves, the cheerleaders are pixies, and the stoners are gargoyles. [so far, so good... I'm interested.] They play a sport called Fuzzlepick, where they ride dragons with a half-racket, half-mitt device. The team's planning is interrupted by Neil Gaiman, who wants to join the crew. The Troll Twins of UnderBridge Academy is their title. Homer hopes they put in enough Steampunk. [...LoL] Lisa is still brainstorming for an idea while the others are printing their manuscript.

CR: FOX

They head to a book fair, and are told that they need a made-up author with a back story. They hit the floor to find a sap... and Lisa becomes the front: a pre-teen prodigy who was raised in a traveling circus. The book is sold for a million dollars, but when an advanced copy arrives at Moe's, they find out that the title has been changed, along with the characters. The trolls are vampires, the bridge is a castle, and the game is now bloodball. And a Twilight joke for good measure. And a British Fonzie joke. [haha.] They end up tearing up the check and planning to get the original one to print. They bust in, move through the building, but are caught in the end... the gang had a traitor, Lisa, who tipped off the publisher. Lisa wanted to have the book in her name, and they give her the chance to upload it and push the publish button... and it's the original book after all! Lisa explains how she pulled it off, though Gaiman got his face on the book jacket. [that slime!] He keeps heisting his way onto the best-sellers list. Turns out, Moe was in on it, too... and might have gotten poisoned at the end. [hahaha!]