'Tis the Fifteenth Season

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Simpsons episode
"'Tis The Fifteenth Season"
Promotional Artwork featuring Homer in a parody of How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
Episode no.	320
Prod. code	FABF02
Orig. airdate	December 14, 2003
Written by	Michael Price
Directed by	Steven Dean Moore
Couch gag	The family members fly in dressed as popular Japanese TV show characters (Bart as Astro Boy, Homer as Ultraman, Lisa as Sailor Moon, Marge as Princess from Battle of the Planets and Maggie as Pikachu from Pokémon) and land on a bench with "シンプソンズ" on it, Japanese for "Simpsons".
Season 15 November 2, 2003 – May 23, 2004
"Treehouse of Horror XIV" "My Mother the Carjacker" "The President Wore Pearls" "The Regina Monologues" "The Fat and the Furriest" "Today I Am a Clown" "'Tis the Fifteenth Season" "Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays" "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot" "Diatribe of a Mad Housewife" "Margical History Tour" "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore" "Smart and Smarter" "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" "Co-Dependent's Day" "The Wandering Juvie" "My Big Fat Geek Wedding" "Catch 'Em if You Can" "Simple Simpson" "The Way We Weren't" "Bart-Mangled Banner" "Fraudcast News"
List of all The Simpsons episodes
Seasons 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20

"'Tis the Fifteenth Season" is the seventh episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season.

[edit] Plot

For Christmas, Carl gives Homer a DVD player and the first season of Magnum, P.I. However, Homer forgets he is Lenny's secret Santa and gives him a pack of Certs out of desperation. Instead of giving bonuses, Mr. Burns gives everyone a cafeteria voucher and Homer a Joe DiMaggio rookie baseball card for Bart. To get money for Christmas shopping, Homer gives the card to Comic Book Guy, who gives Homer everything in his cash register. With their small fortune, the Simpsons go shopping at the Springfield Heights Promenade. Homer promises to buy a massive Christmas tree that will cause mudslides and flooding when it is removed. He instead spends the tree money on a Personalized Talking Astrolabe.

Homer gets shunned by his family when they find out. While staying up late at night, Homer watches Mr. McGrew's Christmas Carol. There, he realizes just how selfish he is. Homer decides to reform his ways and become the nicest guy in town. Homer's acts include giving hobos his old clothes, giving Lenny a photo cube, giving Marge the last pork chop (causing her to break down in tears of joy) and building a skating rink in the Simpsons' backyard (to the delight of Comic Book Guy). After Gil Gunderson's comment of "Homer, you're the nicest man in town!", and Nelson Muntz's comment of "Haha! Your position has been usurped!", the actions cause jealousy to stir in Ned Flanders.

Flanders finds himself barely able to control his anger. He decides to buy everyone in town a Christmas present (and gets the money by renting out his house to a fraternity). Homer begins to think of beating Flanders by buying everyone a car. However, Lisa tells him not to and that, as a Buddhist, she believes people would be happier without presents. Homer gets the idea to do the ultimate good deed: steal Christmas. In the morning, an angry mob led by Cookie Kwan and Drederick Tatum confronts Homer. The mob calms down when they see a star which they think is a sign from God; it is actually a flare from Hans Moleman. Homer gives everyone back their presents and the entire town sings a Christmas carol.

[edit] Debut appearances

Characters making a first appearance in this episode are:

• Mrs. Muntz

[edit] Cultural references

• Mr. Magrew's Christmas Carol is a parody of Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol.
• Christmas with the California Prunes is a clear takeoff of the California Raisins
• The versions of A Christmas Carol that are seen in TV are parodies of Family Matters and Star Trek: The Original Series.
• When Homer takes all of the presents from Springfield, this is a parody of the How the Grinch Stole Christmas! special from 1966.
• The talking Astrolabe says that the date was the birthday of comedian Margaret Cho. This would place the date when the Simpsons went to the Springfield Heights Promenade on December 5th, which makes sense since the next morning Bart & Lisa said that it was December 6th.
• Moe's face is featured on Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp"
• In "Things Unnecessary", the Astrolabe's Latitude and Longitude position is: Lat. 49 degrees; Long. 079 degrees. That position lands in New England, which may be the position of Springfield.