Simpsons Bible Stories
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"Simpsons Bible Stories" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons' tenth season. It aired on April 4, 1999. It is the 2nd non-"Treehouse of Horror" trilogy episode
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[edit] Plot
It is a scorching hot Easter at church, and no one is interested in Reverend Lovejoy's sermons. When the collection plate is passed round, Homer puts in a chocolate Easter bunny ("Relax, I found it in the dumpster"), enraging Reverend Lovejoy and provoking him to read the Bible from the beginning. The Simpsons all fall asleep.
[edit] Marge's Dream
Marge dreams that she and Homer are Adam and Eve. They peacefully live in the Garden of Eden until a snake (the jailbird Snake plays the snake in the dream) tempts Adam into eating dozens of apples from the forbidden tree. He persuades Eve to try one when God (Ned Flanders) witnesses her sin. Even though Homer ate the most, Eve is banished from the Garden of Eden. Adam is unwilling to come clean, but misses Eve and thinks of a way of getting her back in by digging a tunnel with the help of some of the animals. God's unicorn, named Gary, becomes exhausted from the digging and dies just before Flanders/God catches Adam trying to smuggle Eve back into the Garden. The death of the unicorn enrages him further, and he expels them both from the Garden of Eden.
[edit] Lisa's Dream
Lisa imagines she and all the other Springfield Elementary students are hebrews in ancient Egypt, with the Pharaoh (Principal Skinner) making them build a pyramid. Only Moses (Milhouse) can liberate the Hebrews. When Bart defaces the Pharaoh's Tomb, supposedly incited by the burning bush, he gets the other students punished. Lisa helps Milhouse produce plagues to scare the Pharaoh into freeing the Israelites, but they fail. This in turn gets Lisa and Milhouse thrown in a Pyramid prison. When they escape, Milhouse gathers all the students and they attempt to leave. When they reach the sea, Lisa has an idea to get across: They simultaneously flush all the Egyptians' toilets to drain the lake. As they cross, the Pharaoh and his guards follow, but the water fills the lake back up and swallows them. They enjoy splashing each other, and then return to the shore. Pleased that they have escaped, Milhouse asks Lisa if it is clear sailing for the Israelites in the future, but Lisa disappoints Milhouse with the truth. Lisa focuses on the moment and satisfies the kids' hunger by seeing manna and says that can feed them, to which everyone cheers her leadership.
[edit] Homer's Dream
Homer pictures himself as King Solomon, who can solve disputes over objects by cutting each object in half. Lenny and Carl fight over ownership of a pie. King Solomon cuts it in half, sentences Lenny and Carl to death and then eats the pie. Next, the theme to The People's Court plays during the entrance of Jesus Christ and Checker Chariot. However, Homer's Dream is cut short when Bart wakes him up, complaining that he is sitting on his arm.
[edit] Bart's Dream
The last story is an action-packed one where Bart sees himself as King David, who kills Goliath, but hasn't won the war yet: Nelson is Goliath II, Goliath's son. Goliath II has killed Methuselah (Grampa), Bart's oldest friend. In retaliation, Bart challenges Goliath II, but having no stones to sling at him, Bart loses and is catapulted from the city. Bart then meets Ralph, a shepherd, who claims he can kill Goliath II. Ralph dies, which enrages Bart even more. He then trains up to try and slay Nelson. Having to climb up the enormous Tower of Babel beforehand, Bart manages to kill Nelson by throwing a lit lantern down his throat. Nelson is surprisingly still alive, but is quickly killed by Ralph's gravestone, hurled by Ralph himself, who also had not died. Much to his amazement, Bart is sent to jail as the townspeople claim that Goliath was the best King they ever had, building roads, libraries and hospitals.
[edit] Ending Sequence
As the family wakes up, they find themselves alone in the church. Upon exiting they realize that the Apocalypse has come, and they see good citizens, such as the Flanders family being raised up to Heaven. Lisa is the only family member to be raised up to Heaven as well, but Homer pulls her back down so she can go to Hell with the rest of the family. A stairway opens up in the ground and the Simpsons decend into Hell where Homer is first excited by the smells of barbecue, but soon afterward starts screaming in agony. This part is not specified as being a dream; however, due to the very loose continuity of The Simpsons, it was most likely was a dream sequence of some sort.
[edit] Cultural references
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- In the Moses segment, Chief Wiggum resembles Edward G. Robinson's character from The Ten Commandments. In the David and Goliath segment, he again appears, and says "Where's your Messiah now?" like in Homer Loves Flanders from season 5.
- The scene where Marge/Eve is making tools is similar to a scene in the Dawn of Man sequence from the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Nelson/Goliath falling off the tower parodies the way King Kong falls off the Empire State Building in the 1933 film.
- As the Simpsons go into Hell, the AC/DC song "Highway to Hell" is playing.
- Before Bart's fight against Nelson, an overconfident Bart says that he will simply throw a stone to the head as he did with Goliath and give a quick speech telling kids not to drop out of school.
- Santa's Little Helper talks and calls Bart "Davey", a reference to the show Davey and Goliath.
- When Bart is attempting to infiltrate the tower, Nelson is heard belching and discards the remains of his meal, which consists of the skeleton of a whale. Bart is mournful as he sees the skeleton of Jonah, who was a friend of his and died inside the whale. In the Bible, Jonah did not die inside the whale, but it was instead sent by God as an unconventional transport to the city of Nineveh; though Bart does say "Oh Jonah, you died the same way you lived, inside of a whale."
- When Bart believes that he has won the battle after the explosion, Nelson rises from the tower with devilish hair and ominous music plays in the background. This is a reference to the Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria scene from the Disney film "Fantasia".[citation needed]
[edit] Trivia
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- Mike Scully said that this was the first non-Treehouse of Horror trilogy episode in the series,[citation needed] however he was incorrect, The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase, was actually the first.
- Inside the prison pyramid is the "Orb of Isis" from the episode "Lost Our Lisa".
[edit] External links
- "Simpsons Bible Stories" episode capsule at The Simpsons Archive
- "Simpsons Bible Stories" at the Internet Movie Database
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