South-African born Canadian-American business magnate Elon Musk guest stars as himself in this episode that sees himself and Homer become fast friends and revolutionize the town's nuclear plant. But when Musk goes overboard and Mr. Burns wants him removed, Homer must figure out a way to stop him.
Tropes:
- Adam Westing: Elon Musk.
- Automated Automobiles: Elon gives them to the people of Springfield.
- Continuity Nod:
- In "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", when Mr. Burns and Rich Texan plucked Homer's two lines of hair, he bought a wig that looks like his usually almost bald head. That wig is seen again after an eagle plucks Homer's hair.
- Urged to come up with an "insanely, unbelievably great" name for a bald eagle, the best Bart can do is "Squawky," evoking his elephant Stampy. This leads Homer to comment that Bart also named Maggie.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Any of Homer's crazy ideas end up inspiring Elon to create actually very good ideas. This starts to become too good for Burns when Elon's ideas make Burns lose money.
- Gone Horribly Right: Elon's revolutionary ideas, despite being very beneficial, become too much for Mr. Burns (only because Musk's ideas have a good effect on the environment and it makes Burns lose money).
- Hypocrisy Nod: Musk is a clean energy advocate but, as Lisa points out, the rocket he uses to travel must burn lots of fuel.
- Kidnapping Bird of Prey: The eagle the family will name "Squawky" first gets on the wrong side of Homer when he snatches Maggie.
- Left the Background Music On: During a heartwarming scene between Homer and Musk, some violin music could be heard. It's eventually revealed that one of Musk's machines is playing a violin.
- Mythology Gag: In the final scene, Elon Musk's computer screen shows gameplay footage from The Simpsons: Tapped Out.
- Never Trust a Trailer: Early synopses stated that the plot would be Musk outright stealing Burns’ fortune, with the latter chasing him to get it back.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Because of Musk's plan to improve the world, Mr. Burns had to fire his employees.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Bart decides to steal the Simpsons' new hybrid at the climax to perform a prank that will destroy Musk's local company offices, Lisa tries to prevent it by telling Bart that Musk placed his “master password” on the car. Bart instantly figures out that the password is "Musk Rulez".
- Recurring Riff: Any time Elon gets an "Eureka!" Moment, a music track plays.
- Shown Their Work: Squawky, the bald eagle the family briefly takes in at the beginning, makes noises more like a real bald eagle rather than screeching like a red-tailed hawk.
- Spiritual Antithesis: This episode can be considered this to Season 23's "Lisa Goes Gaga". Both episodes involve celebrities who come to Springfield with the intention of making the town's lives better, but while Gaga is portrayed whimsically and her For Happiness intentions brought no negative consequences, Musk is more down to Earth, and his crusade to improve Springfield's energy efficiency leads to mass unemployment, incurring the wrath of Mr. Burns.
- Story Arc: The events of this episode have a direct influence on the second and third episodes after this one, making a rare episode-to-episode (not counting the very next episode) story arc not often seen on this show.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The aforementioned arc is that, while Status Quo Is God applied for most of the town following the Musk fiasco, Burns still lost a significant amount of money on the endeavor, and it is the only example where Status Quo Wasn't God, with Burns needing to get a cash infusion and being forced to layoff several employees as a result, showing even the most wealthy people can still run into financial issues they have trouble recovering from.
