The Blunder Years

While unpacking after her daily grocery shopping, Marge realizes that she has bought a different brand of paper towels called "Burly Paper Towels". However, she does not mind so much after seeing that the spokesmodel on the cover is a rugged, handsome lumberjack. The fact that the towels absorb liquids much better than a sponge or other towels impresses her even more. Homer notices Marge fantasizing about the manly mascot and becomes jealous. Later, Marge types out a letter to "Burly" and Homer, after reading the typewriter ribbon, decides to play a prank on her. Homer makes Marge believe that "Chad Sexington" (the "Burly model") is coming for dinner that night. Marge prepares the house for his arrival, but finds out about the prank when Barney Gumble enters as Chad. While Homer and Bart have a hearty laugh, Marge feels humiliated and storms off, as does Barney. Lisa tells Homer that Marge is really unhappy, so he decides to make up for it by taking the family out to dinner.

They go to the Pimento Grove to watch live performers. One of the acts is a hypnotist called Mesmerino. Homer volunteers to be hypnotised. Mesmerino hypnotises him into thinking he is twelve years old again. As Homer starts to reminisce, he starts screaming incessantly all through the night. The next day, Lenny and Carl bring him home early from work, still screaming. They finally manage to calm him down with some Yaqui tea. He starts to recall the events leading up to the scream-inducing incident. He starts to remember, and in a flashback, he, accompanied by twelve year old Lenny and Carl, are hiking in the woods and are confronted by a young Fat Tony, but are saved by a young Moe. The present-day Moe arrives at the Simpsons' home, upon noticing that his bar was empty. He begins to recall the events of that day.

He remembers that while they sat by a fire that night, they saw a near-meltdown at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. The next day, they went to the old quarry for a swim and Homer jumped in, only to find that there was no water, only mud. After falling in the mud, he started screaming a bit. Moe believes that's why Homer was screaming the night before. However, Homer recalls that there was no water in the quarry because something was blocking the inlet pipe. When Homer unblocked it, he found a rotting corpse in it, causing him to scream even more.

The mystery of the corpse intrigues the family. They figure that the body can not have been discovered after that day, so it still must be there. The Simpsons decide to investigate. They go to the old quarry and meet Chief Wiggum there, who wants to tag along. Marge uses Burly paper towels to drain the water from the quarry. They find the skeleton and go into the inlet pipe to see where the body came from. They find that the pipe leads to a ladder, which in turn leads to Mr. Burns's office. They confront him about the body, but he insists he did not murder anyone. He tells them that the dead man is Smithers' father, Waylon Smithers Sr. He shows an old surveillance tape, during the imminent meltdown (which young Homer and his friends witnessed) in which the father of Waylon Smithers goes into an unstable reactor core to prevent the meltdown. He succeeds in saving the city but he dies in the process due to exposure to large amounts of radiation.

Burns tells them that he kept the truth from Waylon Jr, but Waylon enters, having heard the story, and accepts the way his father died. The Simpsons go home, happy that the mystery was solved. Homer swiped Waylon Sr.'s skull to keep in his "Memories" collection. Moe then enters, saying that he has found clues, important to the mystery. Although the mystery's been solved, they decide to humor him and listen to his rambling about all the different clues he has managed to find.

[edit] Cultural references

The title is a play on the television show The Wonder Years.
The blackboard gag ("I Am Not Charlie Brown on Acid") is actually the description Trey Parker and Matt Stone used to describe their animated sitcom South Park.
The premise of a youth finding a corpse in a quarry was also used in Daniel Hayes' book The Trouble With Lemons, which was published in 1992.
"Burly Paper Towels" is a parody of Brawny Paper Towels.
Homer's flashback about his friends hiking, the confrontation with another gang, a kid (in this case Moe) firing a gun to end the battle and the finding of a corpse is a parody of famous Rob Reiner film Stand By Me. In a previous scene, Homer, Lenny and Carl are walking down the railroad tracks singing Mr. Sandman, a song popularized by the Chordettes. In Stand By Me, the boys walk down the railroad tracks singing Lollipop, another hit for the Chordettes.
Homer's behaviour on being hypnotized is reminiscent of Andy Kaufman's act. Before doing his fabulous Elvis impersonation, Kaufman would behave in a similar manner.
Mesmerino calls Mr. Burns Skeletor.

[edit] Goofs

When 12 year old Homer Simpson starts to pick up Smithers senior's corpse, his glasses are on, but when it is full view of the corpse, the glasses are gone.

It is impossible that the plant had opened back in the 60s, in a previous episode, it is revealed it was opened in the 80s, the same time that Bart Simpson was born, despite that when Homer and Marge were explaining how they met, Homer gets a pamphlet talking about the exciting wonders of going to a Power plant, this was set back in the 70s, so it is confusing when the Nuclear power plant was actually made in Simpsons.