OTH: The Simpsons- "Mayored to the Mob"
I'm really rushing this one, ngl.
Season 10, Episode 9
Aired December 20, 1998
Directed by Swinton O. Scott III
Written by Ron Hauge
Synopsis: The family goes to a sci-fi convention in town, where Mayor Quimby introduces Mark Hamill as a special guest. The once and forever Luke Skywalker offers someone in the audience a chance to play Obi-Wan during a recreation of a classic Star Wars scene, which causes a riot as everyone wants a piece of the pie. Homer takes a stand when he notices that Hamill and Quimby are stuck in the crossfire and jumps in to rescue them. It turns out that the Mayor’s bodyguards were sitting outside, literally cloudwatching as this was taking place, so Quimby fires them and hires Homer to take his place. Homer appreciates the perks he receives as the Mayor’s bodyguard, getting free beer and food while Quimby picks up “change” from local establishments. He’s even on good terms with Fat Tony and his mobsters, although it’s here where Homer learns of the dark side of Quimby’s dishonesty- Fat Tony’s milk dynasty is built from using rat’s milk and wow how did this not start a Bubonic Plague outbreak in Springfield? Homer rushes to the kid’s school and demands that Bart and Lisa stop drinking their milk, without explaining why. Next, Homer tries to convince the Mayor to put a stop to the milk crisis, and since he’s actually not that bad as a bodyguard and saves his life again after accidentally speeding up Quimby’s treadmill to an incredibly high level, he agrees and arrests Fat Tony. However, Tony is bailed out immediately and appears at the same dinner theater performance of Guys and Dolls that Homer takes Quimby to (featuring Mark Hamill!), but Tony insists that there is no ill will planned tonight… but he does have Homer deliver the Mayor a kiss of death. And sure enough, Fat Tony sends one of his cronies out to stab the Mayor, but Homer catches him in time and stops the attack, but isn’t quick enough to stop Fat Tony from hitting Quimby with a baseball bat. Quimby is alright, but obviously Homer is fired. Oh well, luckily he still has a job at the power plant.
There isn’t much to “Mayored to the Mob”- we’ve seen Homer try his hand at a different job before, with no regards to his usual work at the power plant, we’ve seen Mayor Quimby look the other way for a quick buck. and we’ve seen why messing with Fat Tony is a bad idea before. But I think that this works for a good reason- it’s a funny episode.
To be fair, part of me likes seeing all the nerdy references, mostly used in the first act at the convention, but also used for as many Star Wars nods the show can pull out with Mark Hamill in attendance. Luckily Hamill, himself a noted voice actor (his other best-known work is for portraying the Joker on and off for the past 30 years) and Simpsons fan, is game, having spent the past 20 years (at this point, never mind the 25 years since this episode aired) hearing no shortage of references to his time as Luke Skywalker. He does a great job of appearing bored, since he has to be bored for real by this point. I also like hearing Duck Tufeld reprising his role as the Robot from Lost in Space, which fits right into the show’s affinity for boomer nostalgia.
And sure, that works, but the rest of the episode feels like boilerplate, repeating familiar ground without a whole lot that’s new to offer. We don’t even get to learn much more about Mayor Quimby, despite this being the first time he’s a major factor in an episode. And that’s fine, it still amounts to a good time, but we know the show can be better, so it would be nice to see that. At least it’s funny.
Homer’s Bar Tab:
So this week’s chalkboard gag is “‘The President did it is not an excuse’”, while the couch gag pushes the family into a cube. Not bad, this should have been right during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
All he had to do was clean the Sweet Tarts off of his beard and he could have got a girlfriend. I have to give Comic Book Guy credit for standing for what he believed in.
Also, if you check out Üter in the audience, you can see him wear a Futurama shirt, which wouldn’t air for another three months.
I love how Skinner says “Kenobi?”
Next Week: Sorry guys, I promised to do two as usual but I need to take a little time to myself so I decided to do my solo episode this week. So next time, I promise that we’ll get to Homer and Flanders in Vegas, plus kids vs. adults. This should be fun!