(originally aired April 5, 1998)
A big problem continues to present itself this season. At this point, the writers still know funny. Although not as hilarious as ones in the past, season 9 still has a very high quotient of laughs. What seems to be sorely lacking is a cohesive story that makes sense through the entire runtime. This episode is the shining example of this: great individual set pieces amidst an absolute mess of a story. We start out strong: Flanders wakes up midnight of the new year to hurry and get his taxes done, which is perfectly in character. Then, of course, flash to April 15th where the post office is mobbed with people desperately trying to get their returns sent in. Here we hear from some of our supporting players, from Captain McAllister sweetening his file with buried treasure to Otto believing the giant line was for Metallica tickets. All excellent. Then Homer realizes he never did his taxes and frantically scribbles on a bunch of pages to get it in on time. Not only do I not buy Marge would stand idly by while the large mound of taxes on the ‘To Do’ pile right on the TV room table never got done, but really, wouldn’t she just do the taxes herself? Instead, Homer’s poorly packaged tax return ends up smack dab in the ‘Severe Audit’ bin.
The IRS tracks down Homer, and to make up for his faux-pas, he agrees to be a government snitch, wearing a wire to catch suspects incriminate themselves on tape. His biggest assignment is to uncover a stolen trillion-dollar bill from Mr. Burns, who pocketed it himself rather than hand it over to good-for-nothing foreigners after World War II. At this point halfway through the episode, everything pretty much goes to hell. First, for some reason, Homer has qualms about betraying his boss, and I’m not sure why. Inside the mansion, Burns mistakes Homer as a columnist for a magazine and gives him a tour of his estate, showing him his most prized possessions. The last stop is the Hall of Patriots, a wing featuring animatronic displays of Burns’s ancestors, because it makes total sense for an ancient shut-in like Burns to have something like this. He openly shows the bill to Homer, and is promptly arrested. Then Burns goes on a tirade against government oppression, which I guess inspires Homer enough to knock the two agents out, grab Burns and take off. Then, so we have a joke to end the act on, he places one agent’s hand on the other’s ass, giggles and leaves. Well done, writers.
I just really don’t understand what’s with Burns in this episode. If anything, he should be all for the government, standing by a capitalist system that’s responsible to keeping him rich and on a higher platform than the little people. He was against the gross foreign aid after the war, but all the other points don’t really stick. Also, he seems weirdly dumb here, not recognizing Cuba, or realizing he’s flying the plane. He’s like wacky cartoon Burns, not the ruthless no-nonsense miser we know and love. Homer sticks around with Burns for some reason, and ultimately is responsible for losing the trillion dollar bill to Fidel Castro, leaving them and Smithers stranded on a raft out at sea. Between that we have a dead space showing a pretty laugh-free Cuba, and a look back state side as federal agents interrogate the rest of the Simpsons, where Marge for some reason believes the trillion dollars is theirs and Lisa says fuck college, let’s buy dune buggies. This episode had a strong start, then stumbled, crashed and burned in a calamity of bizarre characterization, stuff that made no sense, and an ending that wishes it was triumphant and hilarious, but is actually just irritating. A pretty disastrous outing.
Tidbits and Quotes
– We start out with a great New Year’s celebration… until the ball gets stuck (“Awww, will this horrible year never end?!”) Chief Wiggum shoots to dislodge it, ending up sending the ball crashing down, setting the roof of the town hall aflame, but no one seems to care. Everyone joyously sings “Auld Lang Syne,” including an incredibly inebriated Krusty.
– I love everything with Ned doing his taxes. He considers putting cash register ink as a business expense, but figures he can’t because he loves the smell of it. Todd asks his father what taxes pay for, and Ned is all too happy to answer (“Policemen, trees, sunshine! And lets not forget the folks who just don’t feel like working, God bless ’em!”) He stuffs his folder full of mints and jets it off to the post office. He passes Hibbert on the way out, who is too pleased to announce he’s mailing death certificates from holiday-related fatalities.
– On April 15th, the post office is mobbed. Chief Wiggum tries to calm down the crowd (“The harder you push, the faster we will all get outta here!”) The crowd shoves harder and Wiggum appears content with his work.
– Kent Brockman appears smug in announcing that some people had their accountants do their taxes months ago. We then see a frenzied man with papers in hand asking if anyone has a calculator. Brockman looks worried (“Myron?”)
– Pretty bizarre moment where Marge hangs the ship painting back on the wall (it’s revealed in this episode that she painted it) and muses about how she used to have a lot of talent. Bart and Lisa look at each other dumb-founded. It’s a pretty devastating moment. This was a syndication cut, and I saw this episode quite a bit in reruns, so it always largely sticks out to me whenever I rewatch this one.
– Homer makes a mad dash to the post office, running through a red light, causing two cars to crash. But the animation is so that it looks like one car literally flattens the other, presumably killing every person inside.
– Great bar talk where Moe posits a scenario: you pull a thorn out of the Pope’s butt and he grants you one wish, what is it? Lenny wonders what it would be like to wear something that’s ironed. Moe is impressed (“I was gonna say a night with Joey Heatherton, but an ironed shirt… damn, that’s tempting.”)
– I always liked Charlie. The poor guy just never reached the level of superstardom as Lenny or Carl. Here, he reveals a bit more of his secret life to Homer (“My militia has a secret plan to beat up all sorts of government officials! That’ll teach them to drag their feet on high definition TV!”) Then government agents come to take him away. We’ve never seen Charlie again. Actually, we probably had, but it’s more mysterious if I say we haven’t.
– I love Milhouse in the photo booth (“My… my shirt fell off.”) The secret film is also pretty good, speaking of Truman’s drunken boast, the bill itself featuring Truman doing the “OK” sign and a thumbs up, trusting America’s “wealthiest and therefore must trustworthy man” for the job, and “This film will self-destruct if not properly stored.”
– I kind of like how awkwardly Homer is allowed into the mansion. With the hounds button broken, Burns invites him in (“Perhaps there’s something I can scald you with.”) He puts water on the stove, saying it’ll be a few minutes. He then ends up splashing Homer prematurely, and goes off to get him a towel. This whole thing’s a little out of character for Burns, but I like how silly it is.
– I like that Burns is ultimately arrested for “grand, grand, grand, grand larceny.”
– Smithers seems so displeased for most of the third act. I especially love when Homer is concerned about leaving his family behind fleeing the country, Smithers coldly comments, “That can be shipped.”
– The scene with the agents at the Simpson home really irritates me: why would Marge assume the money is theirs? And the horrible Lisa line. It may seem like splitting hairs, but it’s like these characters aren’t themselves, they just needed a scene to show what they were doing and spout a few jokes. They’re accessories to the stupid story, not actual people.
– More dumb Homer jokes: putting the bill inside the vending machine, immediately gambling over international waters… yawn…
– I do like some of the Castro stuff (“But presidente, America tried to kill you!” “Ah, they’re not so bad. They even named a street after me in San Francisco. …it’s full of what?!”) His “Aye carumba!” is great, and I do like the timing of the ending, even though I’m not a fan of it overall (“Now, give it back.” “Give what back?”) Burns groans, then we cut to him, Homer, and Smithers stranded out on a raft.
Me Blog Write Good 
While the govt making homer do their dirty work is retarded, the first half of the episode is great overall. I thought the idea that homer had made off with the money made for genuine reaction from the family, not shoe horned ones (I supopose it’s a bit out there for them to assume that even if homer had stolen the money that they’d get to keep it but…) Poor Simpson star progeny Lisa not giving any fucks if they had a trillion dollars actually REinforces a trait we’ve seen in her before: She wants more than anything to be approved of. Traditionally she goes out of her way to do this educationally. She’s put on a persona to get friends when toadying fails her during the Summer of 4’12. And most specifically, the closest thing to a status symbol the Simpsons ever possessed, the Pool, made Lisa a queen for a while. It’s certainly a less ludicrous response than turning down 100 mil during the recycling episode.
We’ve seen her childish side before, this is just another example of it. And it’s nice to see her deliver a joke for once instead of being a moralizing machine.
I just found Lisa, an young girl who episodes earlier was pleading with Springfield to appreciate their brains, saying, “Who cares about college?” to be kind of disconcerting. I’m for keeping Lisa acting like a kid, but still within her character.
To me it just showed that there is a dollar amount that would get even Lisa to give up education and just have fun, at least on impulse. If the family had kept the money and Lisa was still lazing about years later, then you’d have a good argument about her being out of character.
I will admit that scene in the home seemed pretty pointless. It wouldn’t surprise me if the episode was short and that was the best they could come up with.
On another note, I liked Homer’s logic while lying on the tax forms (“If I don’t hear you, it’s not illegal!”), and again when he runs the red light (“If I don’t see it, it’s not illegal!”).
Capitalism is supported by the government (in theory, anyway), but it isn’t a government system. Burns has been shown to be a Republican, most likely a “country club” or “institutional” Republican, meaning he wants government to leave him alone while not really caring about anyone else. Burns opposing foreign aid or the government taking his taxes to help the lower class (which is what he rants about while being taken away) makes perfect sense.
Wow, I had forgotten that this episode came out right after Simpson Tide. I never liked this one.
I think my favorite ever Chief Wiggum moment came from this episode.
Police Dispatcher: “Be on the lookout for a maroon 1932 Stutz Bearcat.”
Chief Wiggum (with feet up on dashboard): That really was more of a burgundy…
My favourite line in this episode is Homer’s “I paid my taxes over a year ago”. I might or might not repeat that every year around tax season. But yeah, past the beginning (love their NYE celebrations) the episode is pretty crap.
I do like the first half of this episode, but yeah, the second half is pretty much shit. The entire tax stuff is hilarious even though Homer would obviously know he has to do the taxes every year since he would have been doing them for at least a decade. I do like the photo booth being a secret video location, especially when they have Apu and Majula (who they remembered existed in this episode) step into the booth and end up being shown the video.
Then we get to Mr Burns and everything just falls apart. It is just so damn dumb and Burns is completely out of character. As for the scene with Marge and the kids, I don’t get the point of it. I agree that Marge would not spout that they are trillionaires and Lisa would not be like, “screw college!” She might have her child moments, but the delivery done on that line made her sound like college was going to be a burden to her.
I hate this episode, too. Burns is incredibly weird here: his old timey ways have been exaggerated into full on stupidity, and I have no clue why he would oppress the government this much. Homer also switches his motivations on a dime with very little explanation. Add to that some other terrible bits (like Lisa saying screw college), and you have an absolute dumpster fire of an episode.
The scene at the tax office is the first time I can recall noticing that there were so damn many cels in one shot that you could actually start to see the depth and shadows beneath them.
I feel like you’ve got some confusion about which side the government is on. They hate capitalism. They begrudgingly tolerate what’s left of it. Capitalism gives people an escape from, and alternative to, government oppression, and has going all the way back to merchants creating the middle class between absolute monarchs and serfs. They hate that, they want everyone to be poor and dependent.
That’s why they wanted to take everyone’s money and give it away to Europe, and that’s why the story takes Homer and Burns to Cuba, so they can see an even worse example (Man all those bits with Castro were amazing).
Considering Flanders’ line about taxes in this episode, it’s clear which way the writers were leaning, and boy would they sure as hell lean the opposite way pretty soon. This is around the time even not-very-political people were getting just a bit sick of Clintonocracy, see. That’s how I remember it, anyway.
I did not pick up on Brockman’s accountant being panicked, I thought that was another guy who worked at Channel 6, and the joke is that Brockman thinks all of them did their taxes but one of their own didn’t. That’s… actually a lot funnier. This is why I read review blogs like this.
As for Lisa’s line, obviously it’s just a throwaway surprise out of character gag like in the Tomacco episode when Marge wants to be greedy for once, but also… The reason she supports college and learning is because it gets you a higher-paying job, right? That’s the only reason to support academia. Back before that system was disproven when EVERYBODY went to college and oops now there’s not enough jobs plus everyone’s in debt and can’t even get rid of it by filing bankruptcy thank you very much senator Biden. So anyway, if you got rich, why would you bother going to college? Why not just sit back and be rich, and study on your own time for pleasure? It’s like that irritating episode of Smart Guy where he gets a high-paying job and wants to quit school, and it’s rightly pointed out that there’s no reason to continue education if its ultimate goal is getting a good job, and you got one.