The Simpsons/22 Short Films About Springfield

22 Short Films About Springfield
Season 7, Episode 21
Airdate	April 14, 1996
Production Number	3F18
Written by	David S. Cohen Jonathan Collier Jennifer Crittenden Greg Daniels Brent Forrester Rachel Pulido Steve Tompkins Josh Weinstein Matt Groening
Directed by	Jim Reardon
← 7x20 Bart on the Road	7x22 → Raging Abe Simpson and His Grumbling Grandson in "The Curse of the Flying Hellfish"
The Simpsons — Season Seven

Plot Overview

Milhouse and Bart are wondering if anything happens to people in Springfield as they are dropping stuff on cars from the overpass. This begins a series of loosely-tied vignettes around Springfield, involving many of the townsfolk:

Apu takes four minutes off to go to a party and parties "like it is on sale for $19.99", leaving Hans Moleman locked inside. Lisa gets gum in her hair and Marge fails to get it out with peanut butter and other things. Mr. Smithers gets stung by a bee while he is pedaling the tandem bike that he and Mr. Burns are on; when Smithers suffers an allergic reaction and medical help is called, the medics tend only to Burns.

Dr. Nick's malpractice suit is dropped because the malpractice committee saw how well he handled Abe Simpson, who was asking for a quack. Moe sends away to NASA to calculate Barney's bar tab; Barney pays $2,000 of it and Moe immediately get robbed.

Principal Skinner has Superintendent Chalmers over for dinner but his cooking goes bad and he passess off Krusty Burgers as "steamed hams." Homer accidentally locks Maggie in the newspaper dispenser while juggling his groceries and trying to get a newspaper about a donut tax. He ends up taking the newspaper machine home. The Springfield police department discusses McDonald's in Shelbyville. The Bumblebee man tells his wife about his horrible day at work, and similar things to the antics of his comedy skits start happening to him at home. Snake almost hits Chief Wiggum while he is crossing the street and a chase ensues, but they eventually get caught fighting by Herman, and he takes them to his store to hold them hostage, waiting for someone named "Zed."

Rev. Lovejoy's dog goes to the bathroom on the Flanders' lawn at Lovejoy's request. Lisa's gum in hair problem becomes the whole town's problem: everyone is suggesting things.

Cletus tries to give some boots to his wife, but she refuses. At the Comic Emporium, Comic Book Store Guy refuses to let Milhouse use the bathroom, citing a strict "for customers only" policy. A frustrated Kirk ushers Milhouse out and they try to find another store to use the restroom, stopping at Herman's Military Antiques Shop, unaware that Herman is holding Wiggum and Snake hostage; Kirk and Milhouse walk in and become unwitting heroes when, as Herman is trying to hold Kirk at gunpoint, his son emerges from the bathroom and accidentally knocks a military mace into the back of Herman's head, knocking him unconscious.

The final gag is the most celebrated, and it involves Nelson. After laughing at Lisa's new hairstyle and then Mrs. Glick, who trips over a sidwalk curb and lands headfirst into a trash can, Nelson then points at a man driving a Volkswagen Beetle, crowded into the small car in such a way where his knees nearly touch the ceiling and is otherwise a very tight fit. Nelson laughs ... until he realizes the man heard him. The man immediately stops his vehicle and steps out ... revealing himself to be a very, very, very, VERY tall man!!!!

And this very, very, very, VERY tall man isn't very happy at all!

"Oh crud!" realizes Nelson after the man spots Nelson and immediately runs after him to confront him about his laughing at him. Nelson, realizing what is about to happen, runs away at breakneck (for him) speed, but the man doesn't even run at half stride and is easily able – with some help from Lisa – to catch him. After pulling Nelson out of a manhole (where the bully was hiding) and shaking him by the head, the man asks him why he was laughing at him, explaining that the car he was driving was all he could afford. After a shaken Nelson basically admits he was indeed making fun of him, the man realizes Nelson isn't getting why his behavior was inappropriate and decides that public humiliation is the best way to teach him a lesson. So the man does just that ... when he pulls down Nelson's pants and makes him march down the street. The man, following behind him his car, points out Nelson and encourages everyone to laugh – children and others who were past victims of his bullying and "Haw-haw!" taunts, other bystanders, businesspeople, his fellow students ... even his teachers and the police! Bart and Milhouse add to Nelson's humiliation by squirting ketchup and mustard from an overpass.

After Bart and Milhouse conclude that life in Springfield is interesting and fun after all, Professor Frink hastily comes in ... only he doesn't have time to tell his story!

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Ian: Ian is the very tall man who teaches Nelson a lesson about empathy and how it's inappropriate to laugh at people for their misfortune or in other situations where he doesn't know the full story. Later episodes would reveal Ian is 8'2" and was bullied as a child for his tall, lanky stature for his age. Because of his experiences from childhood, he has no tolerance for behavior coming from people such as Nelson and will return the favor. Later appearances have Ian employed as an animator and voiceover artist at KrustyLu Studios.

Trivia

Allusions and References

• Green Acres: Cletus using a telephone whose (antiquated) receiver and dialing equipment are atop a telephone pole is akin to the recurring gag on the CBS sitcom, where the Douglas' home phone is high on a telephone pole. (Unlike the sitcom, where Oliver struggled to convince the local utility to switch over to modern telephone technology, Cletus seems to appreciate and like using the outdated phone service.)
• Public humiliation: Even before such incidents went viral (the video sharing service YouTube would not be launched for another nine years), instances of public humiliation of youths for their misdeeds were sometimes covered by the media, albeit these were administered more often by parents or teachers. Such situations possibly inspired the final gag, where a very tall man teaches Nelson a lesson about laughing at others just to be mean, by pulling down his pants and making him walk down the street as others laugh at him.
• Pulp Fiction: The 1994 Quentin Tarantino-directed crime drama inspired several gags within the 22 stories, including:
  • Officers Eddie and Lou discussing the merits of McDonald's Quarter Pounder and Krusty Burger's signature quarter-pound cheeseburger, a la the Quarter Pounder/Royale with Cheese conversation.
  • Various scenes involving Chief Wiggum and Snake, a la the "Gold Watch" segment of Pulp Fiction. These include a scene where Snake hits Wiggum with his car at a red light (same as Butch Coolidge and Marsellus Wallace). The resulting incident leads to a chase where Snake crashes into a mailbox and its contents spill out like a geyser (the crash into a fire hydrant), and Snake and Wiggum continuing their chase into Herman's Military Antique Shop, where Herman ties both adversaries up and waits for "Zed" to arrive, a la Maynard; and Herman eventually subdued when he is hit with a medival weapon.
• Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould: The 1993 bio-anthology film, where 31 short segments and an introduction are combined to tell the story of the Canadian pianist, inspired this episode.