Lemon of Troy

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The Simpsons episode

"Lemon of Troy"

The lemon tree.

Episode no.

127

Prod. code

2F22

Orig. airdate

"The First Amendment does not cover burping."^[1]

Couch gag

The living room is shown in black and white; the Simpsons come in, resembling pie-eyed, smiling cartoon characters from the 1930s, and do a stiff dance.

DVD
commentary

Matt Groening
David Mirkin
Jim Reardon
Greg Daniels
David S. Cohen
David Silverman

Season 6
September 4, 1994 – May 21, 1995

List of all The Simpsons episodes

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"Lemon of Troy" is the 24th episode of The Simpsons' sixth season, which premiered on the Fox network on May 14, 1995.^[1] It was written by Brent Forrester and directed by Jim Reardon.^[1] It explores the town rivalry between the fictional communities of Springfield and Shelbyville. The title of the episode is a play on the name Helen of Troy from Greek mythology.

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Cultural references
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Plot

When Marge catches Bart vandalizing a town sidewalk, she lectures him on the importance of town pride and patriotism. Afterwards, Bart realizes how wonderful it is living in Springfield. Consequently, however, Bart also becomes more upset with anti-Springfield sentiments coming from the neighboring town of Shelbyville. Grampa explains that this rivalry can be traced back to the establishment of the two towns. This occurred when the founders Jebediah Springfield and Shelbyville Manhattan discovered they had irreconcilable differences regarding their visions for a perfect town, Springfield favouring promotion of chastity and Shelbyville advocating incestuous marriages between cousins.

The next day, Springfield's lemon tree is stolen by children from Shelbyville. Taking his town pride to heart, Bart leads Milhouse, Nelson, Martin, Todd, and Database into Shelbyville. The group splits up and has a few misadventures. Bart goes undercover and infiltrates the kids of Shelbyville by disguising himself. However, he is unable to obtain any information. Eventually they track down the tree to an impound lot.

Back in Springfield Homer, using Flanders' RV, leads the adults to find the children. When the two groups meet, the children convince the adults to help recover the tree. Homer demands the return of the tree, while the owner of the impound lot refuses. Using a plan similar to the Trojan Horse, Bart steers the RV to the outside of the hospital. The RV is taken to the impound lot after it is found parked outside the hospital. When night falls, the Springfieldians get out of the RV and tie it to the top. They are caught in the middle of this act but manage to escape. The tree, though slightly damaged during the raid, is returned to Springfield. The children of Springfield celebrate with lemon juice, while those in Shelbyville drink turnip juice, much to their disgust.

[edit] Production

According to the DVD episode commentary, Shelby's father, an analog of Homer, was voiced by Hank Azaria, who based his performance on Walter Matthau. The voice of Homer, Dan Castellaneta, originally based his performance of Homer on Matthau as well.

[edit] Cultural references

As well as the overall plot structure of the Troy legend, the episode makes several references to specific aspects of it. The method of recovery of the tree is an obvious echo of the Trojan Horse (a fact lost on Homer, who gleefully exclaims that "no one in history has ever done anything this clever"). In addition, Springfield residents attacking their neighbouring rivals after they steal their prize possession is an obvious reference to the legend, in which the incentive for the Greeks declaring war on their Trojan neighbors is the abduction of their most famous and beautiful woman citizen, Helen. Bart identifies the number seven in Roman numerals by referring to a nonexistent sequel of the Rocky series, Rocky VII: Adrian's Revenge. The scene with Bart and his team sitting on a hill above the enemy camp and looking down at the captured tree being circled by kids on bicycles bears a striking resemblance to an early scene in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Milhouse's line "Thar she grows" is probably a reference to the line "Thar she blows" from Moby-Dick. When Milhouse bonds with the Milhouse from Shelbyville, he sobs, "This is what it feels like when doves cry", a slightly paraphrased line from the 1984 Prince song "When Doves Cry".^[2] When the female version of Willie yells at the boys for skateboarding past the school, she calls them "cube-gleamers", in reference to the 1989 skateboarding movie, "Gleaming the Cube".