Simpsons Did It!: “101 Mitigations”

Guillermo del Toro has a cameo in this episode as himself, and it may be one of the funniest things I’ve seen on The Simpsons in quite some time.

It’s also only a small part of the episode, so make of that what you will.

Homer is actually taking his kids out to a fine meal.  Why?  Coupon misprint gave them 100% off.  It’s enough to let Marge go off for a Swedish massage that she could really use.  And then when the valet makes a mistake and brings out a classic American roadster convertible, a muscle car the likes of which no one ever makes any more, Homer can’t resist taking it for a spin with his kids.

At that moment, Marge realizes her husband is doing something stupid and all the tension comes right back into her.

OK, so, the car has no safety features or anything, but there would be no harm done if there’s no harm done.  That would depend on whose car it is.  You know, so long as it isn’t someone belligerent or anything.  You know, not someone like Mr. Burns.

So, good news.  It isn’t Burns’s car.

It’s Comic Book Guy’s.

And Homer put a scratch in it.

Fiddled with illegal stuff he didn’t even know what they were.

And destroyed a copy of Radioactive Man #1.

Hey, maybe if Comic Book Guy hadn’t sold one of those before, he wouldn’t have had only one in his car.

Point is, he will press charges, forcing Chief Wiggum to ride Homer down to the station on the back of a police motorcycle.  And when Homer points out that he needs a helmet because riding without one is against the law, Wiggum says that’s two laws Homer broke along with Grand Theft Auto.

How does Homer do in court?  Well, he had a speech prepared (yes, Lisa wrote it), and he still gets found guilty.  Now, he could do like Lisa suggests and use a “Mitigation Video” to wow Judge Schneider into a lenient sentence.  That would be what Guillermo del Toro did once for Mr. Burns, and it was beautiful.  It convinced Homer that evil was OK and everything.  The problem is Homer is a little hard up for people who can speak well of him without incredibly creative editing from Marge though Lisa makes sure Maggie and Santa’s Little Helper get in there because babies and dogs always work.  Sorry, Snowball, cats are too polarizing.

Does this video work?  Um, no.  The Judge was just reminded he lost custody to his own kids.

Well, maybe if Homer got a replacement for the comic.  That means a trip to Odgenville, and it’s successful.

Will Comic Book Guy accept it to drop the charges?

Uh, no.  He has a rage inside of him that nothing will quell short of sending Homer to prison.  Then he spots Homer’s Welcome Back Kotter key chain, and does Homer value that?  Well, it was literally the only thing Grampa ever gave Homer as a kid, so kind of.

As such, Comic Book Guy smashes it.  And then he drops the charges and announces Homer is now his friend, meaning Homer has to go with him to Comic Con.

Homer might have preferred prison.

And in an epilogue, Bart tries his own Mitigation Video to get Skinner to let him loose from detention.  The video isn’t overly convincing, but that’s OK.

It was only there to distract Skinner long enough for Bart to make a run for it.