I, D'oh-Bot
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| The Simpsons episode | |
| "I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot" | |
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| Episode no. | 322 |
| Prod. code | FABF04 |
| Orig. Airdate | January 11, 2004 |
| Writer(s) | Dan Greaney Allen Glazier |
| Director | Lauren MacMullan |
| Chalkboard | None |
| Couch gag | The family is decorated on top of a giant cake. |
| Guest star(s) | None |
| SNPP capsule | |
| Season 15 November 2, 2003 – May 23, 2004 |
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| List of all Simpsons episodes... | |
"I, (Annoyed Grunt)-Bot", best known as "I, D'oh-Bot", is the ninth episode of The Simpsons' fifteenth season, first airing on January 11, 2004.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Milhouse excitedly runs over to the Simpson family house, with a package under his arm, deftly avoiding many obstacles like sprinklers, vicious dogs and hedges and reaches the door. However, his victory is short-lived, when Homer opens the door right in Milhouse's face and knocks him out. Homer leaves for work and Milhouse stays unconscious for about four hours. Finally, when Bart comes outside, he sees Milhouse... after he sees the package, which contains a Psycho Cycle bike conversion kit. He gets excited as well and uses it on his bike making it look cooler. Milhouse claims the slap-on tattoo and puts it on quickly, but realizes too late that it says "Biker Chick".
The two of them start riding the bike and passers-by seem impressed (Ned Flanders even goes so far as to shock his own kids by calling the bike "bitchin'"). As they ride, the bullies (Nelson, Jimbo, Kearney and Dolph) come up behind them, riding "big-boy bikes" and tease them. Kearney even steals the tassels from Bart's bike's handlebars and remarks that his mom "can wear these on her boobies at work". Bart tries to keep up with them as they go uphill, but the bullies hit first-gear and power ahead, leaving Bart and Milhouse struggling to keep up and finally they give up, wishing they had a ten-speed bike like the bullies have.
Bart goes and asks Homer for one, but Homer tells him that he will only get him one when his current bike is busted, "no questions asked". Bart laughs evilly and later, sacrifices his bike in front of Dr. Hibbert's Mercedes. Hibbert promises to pay for the damages and leaves, promising himself that he will keep his eyes on the road from now on. But, just then Snowball II jumps out of Lisa's arms and goes right in front of the Mercedes. Lisa is devastated and recites a poem tearfully at her funeral, where she is buried next to Snowball I.
Bart and Homer get a new bike, but it needs to be assembled. The store-clerk offers to assemble it for a fee, but Homer declares that he will do it himself, though Bart has his doubts. Homer starts building the bike in his basement, getting confused by the instructions and wondering what the big, round rubber circle with treads is. The next morning, Bart is ecstatic to see the bike all prepared. He thanks Homer and pedals outside, still in his pajamas. He comes across the bullies on their bikes and races them. Once he overtakes them, he moons them, saying "This butt's for you," but suddenly his bike starts falling apart and he falls on the road, to the amusement of the bullies, who ride off laughing. Homer runs up with his home-made first-aid kit, but when he opens it, the instruments fly out and embed themselves in his head, making him run around and scream in pain.
Later, Bart watches "Robot Rumble", where a father-son team uses their robot to destroy the other father-son team's robot. Homer, on seeing this, asks if Bart is interested. Bart tries to tell Homer nicely that he doesn't think for him as a mechanical-type of person. Homer believes that Bart thinks he's an oaf, but he resolves to create a robot. The robot he creates is a disaster and Homer then remembers something he thought he heard Grampa say and decides to become a robot instead of building one.
Meanwhile, Marge and Lisa look for a new cat and go to the animal shelter. Lisa, at first a bit unsure about getting a new cat so soon after Snowball II's death, sees a cat which she likes and takes her home, naming it Snowball III. When Bart wakes up, he finds a rather large (Homer-sized) robot in his room. The robot has a large metal shell made from a mailbox and is powered by a tricycle, while holding a mallet in its right hand. Bart sees a note from Homer saying that he has finished the robot, with which Bart can enter the Robot Rumble. Bart, skeptical at first, stomps his foot on the floor and is pleasantly surprised to see that the robot is still standing. He then brings some beers and, using the rather crude-looking remote control, makes the robot smash the beers with the mallet. Excitedly, he runs out and Homer, inside the robot, comes out feeling rather proud. Seeing the smashed beer cans, he starts sucking up the beer from the carpet.
Unfortunately, while Lisa gets her her catfood, Snowball III drowns while trying to grab the fish in the fish tank. They hold a funeral for her, burying her next to Snowball II.
Bart competes on "Robot Rumble", with the robot he has named "Chief Knock-A-Homer". He wonders where Homer is and sees another note, saying that Homer has to meet someone and cannot attend the match. Bart's first match is against the reigning champs, whose robot is called "Buzzkill," rather small, but has a mechanical arm with a buzzsaw on its end. Homer manages to defeat the robot (by using its own buzzsaw on itself), but receives many cuts and bruises and his right arm half-severed. Bart is thrilled to bits to see his robot win.
Marge and Lisa go to the animal shelter again and Lisa sees another cat, Coltrane (who shares its name with John Coltrane, the jazz saxophonist) and decides to adopt it. However, when she tries to play some jazz for the cat, it jumps out of the window. Yet another funeral follows, where Coltrane is buried next to Snowball III.
Chief Knock-A-Homer is going great guns at the "Robot Rumble", where he destroys many an unfortunate robot. One robot (with many arms that have boxing-gloves on them), that pounds the crap out of Homer, is taken down by going over to the operator and destroying his remote control. Another one (operated by Ralph and Chief Wiggum) brandishes a handgun and fires at Homer many times, nearly hitting him. Homer manages to wrest the gun away and shoot the robot in the "face", till it goes down. But all these battles are taking a toll on Homer's well-being. He has many cuts and bruises, but he grins and bears it for Bart's sake.
Marge and Lisa go back to the animal shelter, but this time, the caretaker shows them out, because cats are safer there than at their place. They leave morosely, while caged cats hiss and scratch at them.
Chief Knock-A-Homer quickly works his way into the finals, although Bart is sorry that his father hasn't been able to see any of the Chief's victories. The Chief's final match is scheduled to be against Professor Frink and his son's deadly looking robot (which resembles the ED-209 from RoboCop). Homer is fearful for his life because he had watched one of the robot's previous victories. In that battle, the robot won by stepping on a T-800-like robot and turned it into a trophy. However, Bart is confident of a victory.
That night, Homer and Marge talk in bed. Marge says that Lisa is depressed because her cats end up waking up in the afterlife. Homer says that Bart's robot won so many matches, and lies that he didn't see it. He then starts pulling out metal bits out of his body, which got embedded during the course of Chief Knock-A-Homer's battles.
The next day, Bart even brings the bullies over, who tell Homer that his robot is cool. Not wanting to embarrass his son, he tells them that he installed a chip that makes the robot more bloodthirsty. He then tells them to look after Bart if anything happens to him.
One day, as Lisa sits outside brooding over the recently deceased Snowballs and Coltrane, the Crazy Cat Lady shows up, screaming nonsense, and hurls a cat at Lisa. The cat is almost a carbon-copy of Snowball II. Lisa tells the cat that she'll only end up killing it. The cat walks on the road and comes in the way of Gil's car, but the car crashes into a tree and explodes (hence also letting Gil claim money for his living expenses from insurance). Lisa feels that the new cat is indestructible and thinks about calling her Snowball V, but decides on calling her Snowball II and forget the whole dead cat thing ever happened, to save money on new monogrammed catfood dishes.
During the first round of the finals, the Frink robot is making mince-metal of Chief Knock-A-Homer. Bart, wondering what could be wrong with it, opens the lower back panel, only to see Homer's butt staring at him. Caught, Homer apologises to Bart, but Bart thinks his dad is even cooler for doing that. In the second round, the Frink robot goes back to work on Chief Knock-A-Homer, finally squeezing it so hard that Homer is popped out, his presence in the robot revealed to everyone. When the Frink robot sees Homer, it stops immediately. Frink explains that the robot follows the laws of robotics (coined by Isaac Asimov) and will not harm a human. The robot even starts to make Homer feel comfortable, by placing him on an easy-chair and serving him a Martini. The commentator/judges run outside and declare that the winner is "Nature's greatest killing machine" - MAN!!! (despite this being against the first rule in the book) Homer wins and Bart is proud of his dad. Homer asks Bart if he had any idea about Homer controlling the robot internally. Bart replies that he wasn't around quite often, but he was already used to that. They tell each other they like each other.
[edit] Trivia
- Lisa calling Skinner "Principal Tamzarian" is a reference to The Principal and the Pauper, another episode that isn't talked about. This is an in-joke to The Simpsons series maintaining its status quo (i.e. Snowball V becoming the new Snowball II). Technically, by referring to the incident, Lisa is now guilty of a crime punishable by torture. It is interesting to note that if anyone tried to notify the authorities about this, they too would be referring to the incident, and thus also guilty of a crime punishable by torture.
- Judging by the grille, Gil's car is a Volvo, which is reputed to be a very safe car, but Gil's explodes upon hitting a tree.
- A joke about Domino's Pizza is cut out when the episode airs on Sky One in the UK, as Domino's Pizza have sponsored the show on that channel since January 1998.
- Jessica Lovejoy and her father are one of the opposing teams Bart faces in "Robot Rumble".
- The title for this episode seen through certain digital cable readouts is seen as I (Annoyed Grunt) Bot, since when Homer says D'oh, the subtitles read Annoyed Grunt.
- Marge is flipping the When Bad Things Happen To Small Children book from back to front.
- The Frink robot is named "Smashius Clay aka Killhammed Aieee"
[edit] Cultural references
- The title is a spoof of Isaac Asimov's story collection I, Robot.
- "Robot Rumble" is based on the shows Robot Wars and BattleBots.
- The idea of a fighting robot turning out to actually be controlled by a mysteriously absent parent may be a reference to Neon Genesis Evangelion. An episode of the Jetsons also featured a robot controlled by a parent inside, but in a race rather than a battle.
- One of the tapes that Homer and Bart are watching has the description "Killhammad Aieee Vs. Bender"; Bender is a character in Futurama. Other tapes are Vs. Jersey Joe Wall Switch (alluding to boxer Jersey Joe Walcott), Circuit Ray Leonard (boxer Sugar Ray Leonard), and the Grim Beeper (referring to the Grim Reaper).
- The robot "Killhammad Aieee" is similar in appearance to a robot which appears in the Robocop movies, "ED-209". Its name is a reference to Muhammad Ali, once known as Cassius Clay.
- One of the robots to lose to Aieee looks just like the Terminator's endoskeleton.
- The name of the Simpsons' "robot" is very similar to former Atlanta Braves mascot Chief Noc-A-Homa.
- Steel (The Twilight Zone) episode with Lee Marvin is also rumored to be the inspiration for the Simpsons episode "Chief Naka-Homer".
[edit] Quotes
- Moe: Go, go! Ah, jeez, I'm the only adult here.
Pimple-faced Kid: Are you here with your children, sir?
Moe: Uh, yes. I am here with my kids. (holds his fists) Screw and You!(kisses both fists) - Homer: Oh, so much metal in my eye!
- Bart: (pointing to a button on the "robot remote") Then what did this button do?
Homer: All that button ever did was send a mild electric shock up my spine.
Bart: Why would you make it do that?
Homer: (Gets shocked) Keep me focused. - Announcer 2: Can robots actually feel pain? If so, then we are horrible, horrible people.
- Homer: Did you ever suspect it was me in that robot?
Bart: Well, you did disappear a lot, but I've gone for summers without you around.
Homer: Yup, I'm pretty unreliable. I like you, son.
Bart: I like you, Dad. - Gil (after a car wreck): Oh, boy! Gil's gonna collect big from insurance! I'll be eatin' food tonight! (car explodes; Gil is now on fire)
- Homer: Hey, I'm always needed over at the nuclear plank.
- Marge: (crying) Oh, Cinnamon! It should have been me who chewed through that extension cord!
Homer: There, there. You're both right. - Bart: My bike! My crappy, crappy bike!
- Lisa: I'll call you Snowball V! But to save money on a new cat dish, we'll just say you're Snowball II.
Principal Skinner: Isn't that a bit of a cop-out?
Lisa: I guess it is, Principal Tamzarian.
Principal Skinner: I'll just be moving along. Lisa. Snowball II.
