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Recap / The Simpsons S 17 E 17 Kiss Kiss Bang Bangalore

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Original air date: 4/9/2006

Production code: HABF-10

Homer goes to India to man the country's new nuclear plant, which has been outsourced from the one in America. Meanwhile, Patty and Selma kidnap MacGyver star Richard Dean Anderson.

Tropes:

  • Bad Boss: Dissatisfied with the fact Homer's given so many perks to the Indian workers, Burns promptly fires them all (though they're delighted with this, given the number of severance perks Homer wrote into their contracts) and declares he's moving the plant back to "an area where the workers are more desperate and ignorant...Springfield!"
  • Barbaric Bully: One of the new developments back in Springfield while Homer is in India is Bart getting a new bully that's aggressive enough to follow him home and break into their house.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Having Richard Dean Anderson trapped with them should be Patty and Selma's dream come true...but then they have a Broken Pedestal moment when they learn he was Only in It for the Money when he did MacGyver and he drives them crazy by constantly escaping and then coming back. It gets to the point where they have to show him their boring vacation slides to make him want to leave.
  • Benevolent Boss: After Mr. Burns and the Simpsons fear that Homer had taken over the plant via the formation of a cult, the employees say that they are not worshiping Homer, just appreciating the fact that he gave them coffee breaks, early retirement, personal days, and "muffin baskets and mylar balloons on your birthday!". When Mr. Burns deem this a waste of money, he shuts the plant down and moves it back to Springfield, the workers cheer because Homer wrote into their contracts a golden parachute clause.
  • Black Comedy Rape: The Stargate fans ogling a kilt-wearing Willie because they have no hopes of getting anything closer to a real girl than him.
  • Boring Vacation Slideshow: To get MacGyver away for good, Patty and Selma tie him up and show him pictures of their vacation; he's begging to be let go by the end of it.
  • Call-Back:
    • As we saw in "A Star is Burns", do not badmouth MacGyver to Patty and Selma, even if you're MacGyver himself.
    • Additionally, Patty and Selma's boring vacation slideshows from "Krusty Gets Busted" and "Flaming Moe's" are what finally get MacGyver away for good.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: What his family fears the loyalty and obedience of his Indian workers has turned Homer into, with a little A God Am I thrown in for spice.
  • Couldn't Find a Pen: While Patty and Selma held him captive, Richard Dean Anderson wrote a message for help in "grape juice and tears".
  • Crowd Chant: When the Simpsons arrive in India, the workers are ominously chanting "A-bom-shabai", before it's explained that it means "Vote union" in Hindi.
  • Dance Party Ending: The episode ends with everybody dancing to "Pal bhar ke liye".
  • Exact Words: When Lenny and Carl go to India, they are confronted with two doors: one contains a tiger, and the other contains Homer Simpson. They open both doors, and both have tigers behind them. It's then explained that one of the tigers is named Homer Simpson.
  • Global Ignorance: When Homer arrives in India he asks: "This isn't India! Where's the university of Notre Dame, the Indy 500, Wrigley Field, Dodger Dogs?" A woman corrects him: "You ignorant American! you have confused India with Indiana, Indiana with Illinois, and the Cubs with the Dodgers."
  • A God Am I: It takes almost no time for Homer to become Drunk with Power to the point of declaring himself a god after Burns gives him complete authority over the plant. Aside from a few bizarre stunts like forcing a monkey to fight an elephant, however, he's such a Reasonable Authority Figure that the respect of his apparent "worshippers" turns out to have been fully earned (they don't actually buy his claim to godhood, notwithstanding their appreciation) and even Lisa declares herself proud of him.
  • Gone Horribly Right: When Richard Dean Anderson refuses to talk about MacGyver with Patty and Selma, they kidnap him. But he manages to MacGyver his way out, and with new love for the show, asks them to make it harder to escape, refusing to leave.
  • I Warned You: When it looked like Homer had become a power-mad king, Smithers tried to tell Mr. Burns that putting him in charge was a bad idea. Burns replies with "Shut the hell up!".
  • Loony Fan: Patty and Selma are this towards Richard Dean Anderson; idolizing him for MacGyver, but indifferent at best towards Stargate SG-1. Then he says MacGyver was just a paycheck...
    Patty: Richard Dean Anderson just pissed off the wrong Richard Dean Anderson fans!
  • MacGyvering: By Richard Dean Anderson himself, repeatedly and needlessly, not only conducting improbable escapes but making Patty and Selma "hamburgers" out of grated Slim Jims held together by rubber bands.
  • Money, Dear Boy: In-Universe example; Richard Dean Anderson's reason (as he claims in the episode) to have been MacGyver. This seems to be Subverted by how deep in-character he gets after escaping Patty and Selma with a MacGyver-esque gambit, then returning again and again to conduct similar escapes and watch old episodes with them to the point of getting on even their nerves.
  • My Country Tis of Thee That I Sting: When Lenny berates Moe for using imported electricity, he points out the beer and the seats are imported as well. When Carl asks him if he has anything made in America, he produces a weapon that backfires when he tries to shoot.
  • National Stereotypes: Several references to India are made:
    • Mr. Burns has given Smithers an arranged marriage.
    • Mr. Burns crawls out of a basket like a cobra entranced by a snake charmer.
    • Mr. Burns says: "I don't want my scooped out monkey head to get cold", a reference to monkey heads being a national dish in India, a stereotype popularized by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
    • The Indian workers show Homer the Hindu gods Ganesha, Vishnu and Shiva, whom he confuses with The Elephant Man, Johnny Sixarms and Papa Smurf.
    • Mr. Burns spends time floating in the Ganges river with "his friends," which are actually corpses.
    • Lenny and Carl are told to choose one of two doors, one having a Bengal tiger.
    • The sing and dance number near the end shows the Taj Mahal, Bart playing tablas and is a reference to Bollywood musicals.
  • Noodle Incident: Before Mr. Burns started showing a movie about outsourcing, he asked for a minute of silence for the workers who died in some heroic, well, whatever it was, we never got to know because "heroic" was the last word Mr. Burns said before Homer chanted for the movie and the subject of the heroic deaths was never brought up again.
    • Homer asks Marge what's happened in Springfield since he'd been gone. Marge tells him that Chief Wiggum "was gravely wounded in a bank shootout".
  • Pun-Based Title: The title is a pun on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: What Homer turns out to really be to his workers, in contrast to what his family expects. In one of his random displays of job-related compassion, sensitivity and honesty, Homer takes it upon himself to ensure that the workers receive all the rights of American workers, including regular breaks and decent wages. The near-reverence his workers have for him is because of his benevolence, not because of his demands for it.
  • Series Continuity Error: Bart has to ask Patty and Selma what "a MacGyver" is. In earlier episodes he was not only well aware of the series due to their extreme fandom, but used his knowledge of Selma's habits surrounding her viewing of the show to determine and foil Sideshow Bob's plot to kill her in the 1992 episode "Black Widower." This seems to be an intentional case of Time Marches On being reflected in the world of the show, as the former episode premiered when MacGyver was itself still on the air, while a 2006 setting would make Patty and Selma fans of a series that ended before a kid Bart's age would even have been born.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Homer has a cardboard standee of McDonald's mascot Mac Tonight.
    • Comic Book Guy says: "What in the name of Steve Ditko?"
    • The bully who threatens Bart at home is shown in silhouette, but recognizable as Sluggo from Nancy.
    • Homer says: "I'm not a god. God has a white beard and invented the Da Vinci Code."
    • The Indian workers show Homer the Hindu gods Ganesha, Vishnu and Shiva, whom he confuses with The Elephant Man, Johnny Sixarms and Papa Smurf.
    • Lenny and Carl having to choose a door which may contain a tiger is a reference to the short story The Tiger, in which a young man must choose a door, knowing it will either house a beautiful lady who is NOT the woman he fell in love with, or a man-eating tiger
    • Burns mentions being served dinner in a "scooped-out monkey's head", a reference to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Homer is dressed as Mola Ram when people think he went mad with power.
    • When the Simpsons travel to look for Homer under the presumption that he went mad in the jungle and thinks he is a God they travel by boat, while "The End" by The Doors plays on the soundtrack. These are all references to Apocalypse Now, which takes place in Vietnam, by the way.
    • The song sung at the end is "Pal bhar ke liye" from the Bollywood film Johny Mera Naam.
  • Stock Lateral Thinking Puzzle: Lenny and Carl travel to India to see Homer. While in a dungeon, they're told by a guard that one of the rooms contains a tiger, the other, Homer Simpson. They open both doors to find a tiger in each room; the guard elaborates: "One of those tigers is named 'Homer Simpson'."
  • Suspect Is Hatless: Homer tries to find Apu's cousin Kavi, who is "medium height, dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair". The trouble is, he's in India. Luckily he only has to ask two passers-by if they're Kavi. Even more fortunately, Kavi looks and sounds almost exactly like Apu.
  • The Thing That Would Not Leave: Richard Dean Anderson finds escaping from Patty and Selma's clutches like MacGyver to be exhilirating and refuses to leave their apartment, insisting that they find new ways to trap him, instead.
  • Trivially Obvious: Comic Book Guy says that, out of the four "Star" franchises (Wars, Trek, -gate, and Search), Stargate is his third favorite.
  • Vacation Episode: The Simpsons travel to India.
  • We Named the Monkey "Jack": When Lenny and Carl arrive at the Indian plant, one of the employees tells them to choose between two doors, behind one of which is Homer Simpson and behind one of which is a tiger. When they open both doors, revealing a tiger behind each, they're told that one of the tigers is named "Homer Simpson."
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: While Homer is gone, Bart has to deal with a very violent bully who then breaks into his house. This plot thread is never brought up again, and it cuts away right before the bully is about to attack Bart.

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