THE MAN FROM Na.N.N.I.E.
The Man from Na.N.N.I.E.
(A “SIMPSONS” SCRIPT)
by
Jack H.
ACT ONE
FADE IN:
SCENE 1
INT. SIMPSONS BEDROOM – DAY
MARGE is folding clean laundry at the bed. Homer rushes in, wearing oven mitts and carrying a large pot of red sauce.
HOMER
Marge, I made the meat sauce for the cotillion! You can put it on anything! I put it on...
MARGE
(INTERRUPTING) Be careful, Homer.
HOMER
What could possibly go...
He trips over a laundry basket. In slow-mo the sauce flies in an expanding arc. Marge and Homer cry out, voices deep and slow.
MARGE
Noooooooooo!
HOMER
D’ooooooooh!
The sauce SPLATTERS across the walls, the clothes on the bed, into the closet. Music reminiscent of “PLATOON” fills the air. Homer and Marge stand frozen amidst the carnage. Meat sauce SLIPS down the wall, falls in gobs to puddle on the floor.
INT. SIMPSONS LAUNDRY ROOM – CONTINUOUS
BART is at the side-load washer, by a pile of field stones. A book, “Diamond Polishing for Dummies,” is on the washer. Bart tosses in one last stone, closes the lid, turns the knob; there is a roaring, the washer shakes, then crumples like an aluminum can.
BART
Ay carumba.
Homer dashes in, covered in sauce and cradling soiled clothes. He stares in horror at the shambles.
HOMER
Wha...wha...
BART
It broke. What’s the big deal? Just buy another one.
Homer DROPS the laundry and GRABS Bart by the throat.
HOMER
Why you little...
EXT. A LAUNDROMAT – DAY – ESTABLISHING SCENE 2
INT. LAUNDROMAT – CONTINUOUS
Homer is loading a dryer. He wears a swimsuit and an extraordinarily tight pink “
HOMER
...and one morning I was, um, palpitating myself? – and I found this lump in my armpit? Sometimes they’re just gummy bears, but this one’s getting bigger. And Doctor Leopard – it has teeth.
THE DOCTOR
Sounds like you need a dentist then.
HOMER
(LAUGHS) Yeah. But sometimes it keeps me up at night. It snores.
THE DOCTOR
Lie on that side.
HOMER
Wow, you’re really smart, Professor Leotards.
THE DOCTOR
A girl scout once commended my intellect, trying to sell me her macaroons. I told her she was a stupid little girl and ate all her Caramel deLite Cookies. [SLURP]
ANGLE ON HOMER
HOMER
(DROOLING) Ahhh...macaroons. (BEAT) So you English or something weird like that? The English people have horrible food and large discolored teeth. Poor, pathetic limeys.
THE DOCTOR
I do just bet you love your pizza pies and your toasted cheese sandwiches. What do you feed your tumescent armpit-growth with its budding bicuspids, Homer? Can it digest those cocktail weenies you think no one knows you feed it?
HOMER
Hey! Cool your jets.
THE DOCTOR
If you tell me your worst memory of childhood.
HOMER
What? I...I don’t think so.
THE DOCTOR
You would be afraid.
HOMER
(LAUGHS INSINCERELY) I’m not afraid.
THE DOCTOR
No, not of anything. Except...vulnerability.
HOMER
(FRETFUL) Ohhh. (RELUCTANTLY) It was probably when my pet died.
THE DOCTOR
And what was the little boy’s “pet”?
HOMER
I wasn’t...I was in high school.
THE DOCTOR
(SHARPLY) Tell it all.
FLASHBACK – TEEN-HOMER’S ROOM – DAY
Teen-Homer PLAYS delightedly at his tide pool tank. Among the sand dollars, crabs, coral, etc., is a freckled clam which seems somehow to smile. “Welcome Back Kotter,” “Space: 1999” and “Jaws II” posters hang on the wall.
HOMER (V.O.)
(RELUCTANTLY) So I really liked Jacques Cousteau, okay? And I had a tank, like a peaceful tide pool...
THE DOCTOR (V.O.)
(DRYLY) Sounds tres cool.
HOMER (V.O.)
But then one day I came home and one of them, my favorite, was missing.
Teen-Homer enters his room, notices, holds his hands to his cheeks in distress.
TEEN-HOMER
(TO A CRAB) Horshack! – where’s Freckles!?
BACK TO SCENE
THE DOCTOR
(SARCASTIC) One of your pieces of coral was missing? How moving.
HOMER
No! It was worse! Shut up! I don’t want to talk about it anymore!
THE DOCTOR
But one of your crustaceans had disappeared. You still do love the beach, don’t you, Homer, with your carefully preserved swimwear redolent of post-pubescent salad days.
FLASHBACK – TEEN-HOMER AT THE BEACH – EVENING
Teen-Homer walks along the shore, sits by an open fire with a plate on his lap.
THE DOCTOR (CONT’D – V.O.)
Ah, the beach — the tugging of the tide, guitar strumming of an evening, fire cracking, embers flying into the effervescent sky, clams abaking. Ah— They were having a clam bake, your little teeny-bopper prankster friends.
Freckles lies dead on Teen-Homer’s plate, wearing a ghastly “smile.”
HOMER (V.O.)
(HYSTERICAL) Yes! Yes! It was Freckles, my favorite clam, smothered in spicy shrimp sauce!
BACK TO SCENE
HOMER (CONT’D)
(WEEPING) Oh, the steam, rising from the jelly of his succulent flesh — the steam, the horrible steam...
The SQUEAKY-VOICED TEENAGER saunters by with a boom box playing Bach’s “Goldberg Variations”; he drops a Pilates flyer into Homer’s laundry basket.
THE DOCTOR
(INTENSE) You still wake up sometimes, don’t you, Homer? — to the terrifying memory of your dear oyster Freckles, his spotted little half-shell open to you like a pleading hand.
HOMER
(WEEPING) Oh Freckles, how I miss your manic antics!
THE DOCTOR
And do you think if you can wash out those horrid freckle-like meat sauce spots now staining your polychromatic polyesters, that you won’t wake up in the dark ever again to that terrible vision? Do you?
HOMER
Yes! No! I don’t know—!
THE DOCTOR
(SHUDDERING BREATH) Thank you, Homer. That was very...sweet. I do prefer savory, but...
HOMER
I don’t want to talk to you anymore, Cap'n Liquor.
THE DOCTOR
But tell me one final thing, Homer. After all these years, in the deep of the night when you lay abed, now, in your memory, Homer, in your dreams, have the clams stopped steaming?
HOMER
You’re a monster! A freakish monster of insensitivity!
Homer frantically bundles his washing and attempts to flee, but trips over the Doctor’s basket and crashes into him, who cartwheels out of sight, his laundry flying: a clown suit, socks, tee-shirts (labeled “World’s Best Dad,” “I’m with stupid,” “Predator”), etc.
INT. SIMPSONS LIVING ROOM – AFTERNOON SCENE 3 Bart and LISA sit WATCHING an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon.
ON TV – ITCHY & SCRATCHY CARTOON
Title card: “Fatwa in the Fire”
Scratchy (cat) walks through a desert, with a gas can. Itchy (mouse) pulls up in a car and Scratchy gets in.
ITCHY
Going my way?
SCRATCHY
Yes, thank you.
Itchy stops at an oil derrick, and Scratchy goes to it with his can. Itchy gets a flame thrower from the back seat and ignites a geyser of oil, which arches down toward Scratchy. The cartoon is interrupted by—
ON TV – NEWS ROOM – CONTINUOUS
Newsman KENT BROCKMAN’S talking head fills the screen.
KENT BROCKMAN
Dangerous developments are developing dangerously down at the Springfield Oil Refinery. Protestors are protesting at the gates, led by infamous peace-nik
EXT.
MONTGOMERY BURNS and WAYLON SMITHERS are wearing slogan pins in psychedelic font, “OIL SUCKS, NUKE ROCKS.” Behind them is the MOB, with signs and slogan tee-shirts. Some of the mob tips over an oil tanker, which crushes a cluster of protesters then bursts into flame.
MOB
(CHANTING) No blood for oil!
ANGLE ON BURNS AND SMITHERS
BURNS
Smithers, shake my fist.
Smithers RAISES Burns’ hand and waves it limply.
BURNS (CONT’D)
More fervor, you flaccid lackwit! Like I mean it!
SMITHERS
I don’t want it to snap again, sir.
BURNS
I’ve got others, dolt.
MOB
(CHANTING) No blood for oil.
BACK TO NEWS ROOM
KENT BROCKMAN
There we have it, Americans. “No ballads for girls.” What a sad state the world is in, when poor Britney Spears can’t sing a soulful song to gladden the hearts of lonely men in shirtsleeves, leaning out of windows. I’m Kent Brockman. Courage.
BACK TO ITCHY AND SCRATCHY
Lions, bears, hyenas, jackals, vultures, crocodiles, camels and a small T-Rex fight or gobble at the blackened remains of Scratchy, his charred head looking on in horror while Itchy laughs.
End card: “The End”
BACK TO SCENE
Bart and Lisa laugh in delight. Homer rushes through the front door, carrying his laundry basket.
INT. SIMPSONS KITCHEN – CONTINUOUS Marge sits CLIPPING washer ads. Homer ENTERS, drops the basket on the table, goes to the fridge, gets a sandwich. He SNEAKS a cocktail weenie down his collar. Marge notices the Pilates flyer.
HOMER
(EATING) Comfort.
MARGE
Oh look. They’re offering Pilates at the “W”.
HOMER
(MOUTH FULL) Pilates?
MARGE
I’ve been wanting to take a class.
HOMER
Pilates is a funny word. (LAUGHING RUDELY) Pilates!
MARGE
(DIMLY ANNOYED) Yes, Homie, Pilates.
HOMER
What’re Pilates. Sounds foreign. Deliciously foreign. Are they like gelaties? (GROWING EXCITED) Or baklavies? Or Turkish Delighties?
MARGE
Well, I don’t really know exactly what it is. But I’ve heard they’re just wonderful. It’s some sort of wonderful exercises.
MARGE'S PILATES FANTASY
Draped in veils, Marge leaps through the moon-drenched glades of a silver and blue dreamscape; unicorns prance, fawns play lyres and pipes; Marge’s face assumes an aura of grace. Ravenous chewing shreds the scene, which resolves into—
BACK TO SCENE
—the face of Homer, finishing the last of the sandwich.
HOMER
Pilates exercises? Keepin’ your man satisfied is all the exercises you need.
MARGE
(STIFLED FRUSTRATION) Mmm.
INT.
Burns, still wearing the slogan pin, sits at his desk watching a film. Smithers and the film’s pimply, multi-pierced Gen-Y DIRECTOR stand nearby.
XLN-ERATOR TEST COMMERCIAL
A pale, anthropomorphic car labeled “REGULAR OLD-FASHIONED POLLUTING GAS-GUZZLER” lies in a sickbed, hooked to an I.V. marked “TERRORIST-SUPPORTING FOREIGN GASOLINE”. White-coated DOCTORS are grouped solemnly about. A just-visible “subliminal” message flashes -- “OIL = EVIL BAD” -- over a zombie-like face.
DOCTOR # 1
How long can he last?
DOCTOR # 2
It’s hopeless. Let’s just end it.
Doctor # 1 pulls out the tube, and a ‘flatline’ tone starts. A macho XLN-ERATOR-MAN bursts in, labeled “The XLN-erator”. He clutches a bottle labeled “NEW CLEAR HYBRID TO-IC!” – his thumb blocks a letter in “TO-IC”. XLN-erator-man takes a swig and the doctors cheer. “Subliminal” message -- “NUCLEAR = HAPPY GOOD” -- over the image of Santa Claus.
ANGLE ON XLN-ERATOR-MAN
ANNOUNCER (V.O.)
It’s dynamic! It’s radical! It’s nuclear! The new XLN-erator hybrid automobile! Fuel-injected with highly-charged energistically activated atomistic alpha-rads, isotopically forged in the mighty core of American power!
A paunchy, balding pony-tailed ACTIVIST-type — love beads, hippie vest — enters. “Subliminal” message — “UNPATRIOTIC” — over Stalin and Hitler locked in a passionate embrace.
ACTIVIST
(WHINEY) Oh no, you can’t use that! That’s toxic!
DOCTOR # 2
That’s the OLD way of thinking!
XLN-erator-man holds up the bottle: the blocked word is “TOXIC”. He waves his hand and the “X” shifts into an “N”, making “TONIC”.
ALL DOCTORS
You saved us, Excellenerator! (CHEERING)
Suddenly flanked by bikini MODELS, XLN-erator-man smiles hugely into the camera, and gives a thumbs-up. “Subliminal” message — “SEXY” — over a kickline of can-can dancers.
XLN-ERATOR-MAN
(THUMBS UP AND SMILING) It’s genuine!
End card: “Buy-buy!”
BACK TO SCENE
BURNS
(TO DIRECTOR) No! More bathing beauties, you gangrenous degenerate. Show me some “IT”! And that Bolshevik is too sympathetic. Make him more loathsome — more Charles Laughton, less Randolph Scott.
DIRECTOR
Anything you want, Mr. Burns. We’ll give him a runny nose, and a tattoo of Pol Pot on his face.
BURNS
I’m not paying you to stand here yammering, college boy. Hop to it.
The director trots away.
BURNS (CONT’D)
(TO SMITHERS) When I’m done, those swine with their coal-tar factories couldn’t sell kerosene to the Amish.
SMITHERS
But why is the old car a car, but the new car is a very attractive man? It doesn’t make sense.
BURNS
Details! I leave that to the artsy types.
SMITHERS
And the name, sir — “Excellenerator” isn’t very easy to say.
BURNS
I don’t know. I have a throng of bruiters snuffling out something more lyrical.
INT. SPRINGFIELD MALL – DAY
The SQUEAKY-VOICED TEENAGER, holding a clipboard, is standing with HANS MOLEMAN.
SQUEAKY-VOICED TEENAGER
(
MR. MOLEMAN
(WORRIED) Oh, can I go home and think about it?
INT. SIMPSONS LIVING ROOM – CONTINUOUS SCENE 5
Homer watches TV, eating from a cereal box: “PeaNuttee Vocabuleeri-O’s,” picturing an owl, realistic but wearing a mortar-board hat; a dead TRIX Rabbit dangles from its beak. It hovers over a bowl of words: “cotillion” “palpitate,” “succulent,” “implausible,” etc.
TV ANNOUNCER (V.O.)
This concludes “Autochthonia: The Mysterious Origin of Mount Rushmore!” Coming up, “Tintinnabulation: The Philadelphia Mystery”!
Homer mutes the TV and grabs for a pencil—
HOMER
(MUMBLING THOUGHTFULLY) ...rintintinitudinity...
—when the doorbell RINGS.
HOMER (CONT’D)
(EXCITED) My GRIT magazine is here! “The Joy Bells of life are ringing!”
EXT. SIMPSONS HOUSE — CONTINUOUS
POV over the shoulder of TWO MEN in black suits. Homer opens the door.
HOMER (CONT’D)
(DISAPPOINTED) You’re not mailmen. (GASPS AND POINTS) Men in Black!
The two men are SAM STRYPE, SR. (older), and GENE MANN, JR. (younger), clean-cut.
MANN
I’m Agent Mann, and this is Mr. Strype. We’re with the government, sir.
SAM STRYPE
You are Mr. Simpson? Mr. Homer J. Simpson of 742 Evergreen Terrace,
HOMER
(CAUTIOUSLY) Earth?
STRYPE
Yes.
HOMER
Yes.
STRYPE
Well, Simpson, we actually do have a letter for you.
Homer gives a tippy-toe DANCE of anticipation.
HOMER
Oh, what can it be! Gimme!
He SNATCHES a letter from Mann.
HOMER (CONT’D)
(
STRYPE
The word would be “selected.”
MANN
“Inducted.”
STRYPE
Inducted. You see, you were drafted...
HOMER
D’oh!
FADE OUT:
END OF ACT ONE
ACT TWO
FADE IN:
INT. LIVING ROOM — DAY SCENE 6
Bart and Lisa look out the window at Homer and the two men.
LISA
What’s up with Dad?
BART
I think we won the lottery again.
LISA
I hope he doesn’t spend it all on paper flowers, like last time.
QUICK CUT TO:
INT. ATTIC – CONTINUOUS
The attic is heaped with riotously-colored paper flowers, ruined and in sodden piles from a roof leak. A pile stirs and a MOUSE peeks out, its fur a rainbow of colors from the running dyes.
EXT. SIMPSONS HOUSE — CONTINUOUS
HOMER
Drafted into what army?
Marge RUSHES out the door.
MARGE
Well, Homer, I’m off to my Pilates! Have fun with your new friends. Brunch is in the fridge.
The men NOD politely as Marge RACES off, then enter the house.
INT. SIMPSONS LIVING ROOM — CONTINUOUS
HOMER
(DAZED) “ARMY” is almost “Y-M-C-A” backwards.
STRYPE
(TO HOMER) It happened quite a number of years ago. You see...
BUREAUCRATIC FLASHBACK – 1991
A montage shows the Congressional voting, the bureaucratic paperwork going through, the random selection process, the mailing of the notification.
STRYPE (V.O.)
...during Gulf War I, Congress secretly re-instated the draft. It was rescinded...
MANN (V.O.)
Repealed.
STRYPE (V.O.)
...repealed after precisely three minutes, but one name was already selected. You, sir. The notification was misdirected, somehow.
QUICK CUT TO:
FLASHBACK – INT. POST OFFICE – DAY – 1991
A berserk firehose-wielding POSTAL WORKER trips over a
BACK TO SCENE
STRYPE (CONT’D)
The letter was found not long ago, during a routine mumps virus sweep, and this brought you to our attention.
HOMER
(GASP) The MP’s! I’m a deserter!
STRYPE
No, Mr. Simpson.
MANN
We’re with (DRAMATICALLY) N.A.N.N.I.E.!
He flashes a badge bearing the acronym “Na.N.N.I.E.” and the motto, “Minding Big Brother since 1948.”
MANN (CONT’D)
The National American Nuclear (FALTERING)... Necessary... Investigatorial Effort, or something. I don’t really know what it stands for. It’s very secret.
STRYPE
(SMUGLY) I know.
HOMER
(STILL WORRIED) What do you want with me?
STRYPE
Your country needs you, Simpson.
HOMER
Me?
STRYPE
Your Homeland Security file is astonishing. You’ve stopped a number of China Syndromes.
HOMER
I won a plaque. (POINTING TO IT ON A TABLE) I use it to crack walnuts.
STRYPE
You saved the Space Shuttle.
HOMER
I thought I dreamed that.
STRYPE
You helped Hank Scorpio save the Eastern Seaboard from creeping liberalism.
HOMER
Wasn’t that an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.?
MANN
And then there was the time you kept the Earth’s core from exploding by diverting the coming Ice Age down that big volcano.
HOMER
Yes, I remember doing that.
STRYPE
Frankly, sir, there is no one more suited to the mission. You’re a renaissance man.
HOMER
Woohoo! I’m going back in time! Now I’ll get the guy who cracked the Liberty Bell! (RESENTFUL) Dirty luddite.
STRYPE
No. Now you’ll save the world. Again.
INT. BURNS’ OFFICE – DAY SCENE 7
Burns is at his desk, with Smithers nearby.
BURNS
Smithers, get the former
SMITHERS
But sir, fueled by nuclear waste? It’s so toxic.
BURNS
Tonic! Weren’t you paying attention to that pedagogical flicker show? And not “waste”...
Burns NODS at a formula on his desk: “NUCLEAR WASTE = SUbmolecular Puissantic Recto-Ionic Surfeit Excreta = SuPRISE.”
BURNS (CONT’D)
...“suprise!” It’s such a happy word. Blast that
INT. A STALACTITE CAVERN — CONTINUOUS
Countless aisles of shelves cover a vast cavern. Snaking between stalagmites is a small monorail. At the center are mad-scientist machines; background noise suggests heavy industry.
BURNS (V.O. — CONT’D)
...with its environmental extremism! (INDIGNANT) What are garbage men for, if not to cart away my effluvia?
Moving in, shelves are stacked with red-labeled cans, reading “SuP”, and “RISE" beneath. Each can is marked with a picture of a leering
BURNS (V.O. — CONT’D)
Ah well — at least those SuP (‘SOUP’) cans will turn a pretty profit.
BACK TO BURNS’ OFFICE
BURNS (CONT’D)
I’ll even get a nickel back for the cans. (LAUGHS MALIGNANTLY)
EXT. THE “W” — DAY — ESTABLISHING SCENE 8
A building identified by a large “W” sign.
EXT. THE “W” — CLOSER VIEW — CONTINUOUS
Marge stands near the entrance reading a banner: “The W offers — Happy Magic Partyland Pilates of Tantalizing Joy.”
MARGE
(TO HERSELF) Ooo, it sounds so enticing!
INT. EXERCISE ROOM — A FEW MOMENTS LATER
Marge, NED FLANDERS, BARNEY, KRUSTY, SELMA and PATTY, COMIC BOOK GUY, CHIEF WIGGUM, BUMBLEBEE MAN, SEA CAPTAIN, HANS MOLEMAN, EDNA KRABAPPEL, AGNES SKINNER, MANJULA NAHASAPEEMAPETILON, and others mill about. Mats are on the wood floor in regimented order.
Krusty is facing a scowling
KRUSTY
My god, it’s like looking into a mirror. A sexy, scowling mirror.
Selma ignores him.
KRUSTY (CONT’D)
You really send me, doll.
SELMA
Crawl back into your crypt, pasty.
KRUSTY
Wowie! Do you do voice-over work?
Lucky for you I used up my MACE on him.
She points at DISCO STU, curled in the corner, CLAWING at his face.
KRUSTY
(UNDAUNTED) So, sugar, did you know your eyes are the color of tobacco smoke? Sultry!
Under all this makeup my skin looks like the floor mat of a
KRUSTY
That’s very exotic.
Go sell some blood, rummy.
KRUSTY
So you’re gonna make me work for it. Okay, cupcake, I got yuks outta the Grand Dragon in ’63 — I guess I can turn you around.
ANGLE ON
Hi-didley-ho, Barney-bean, gonna exchange those abs-of-flab for a bustle-o’-muscle!
BARNEY
Huh? Isn’t this the Labowsky bar mitzvah?
Ding-dang defin-idley not.
Smithers ENTERS, dressed in 80’s aerobics wear — leg-warmers, wrist-bands around biceps, lime tank-top, lemon tights. Chief Wiggum is dressed identically — he notices this, BURSTS into tears and RUNS like a school girl from the room.
SMITHERS
Hello, all. I’m Waylon, your Pilates instructor. Everyone find a mat and lie on your backs, please.
They comply. The lights dim, and a low mechanical humming begins.
SMITHERS (CONT’D)
We’re going to initiate you into a higher degree of Pilates. Everyone, stare at the ceiling, at the light directly above you.
They comply. The humming increases, and the lights begin to pulsate and spin in sickly shades from red to yellow.
COMIC BOOK GUY
There is something familiar about this.
Marge shows mild confusion, then relaxes.
COMIC BOOK GUY (CONT’D)
(WEAKLY) Oh! Daggers in...my mind...
Comic Book Guy passes out, eyes open, and so does Marge. Everyone is entranced. A metallic door slams down. The recorded voice of Mr. Burns starts.
BURNS (V.O.)
Now, my lumpen pawns, you are about to begin an appalling, an excellent adventure...
INT. LIVING ROOM — EVENING SCENE 9
Homer sits on the couch EATING from a Vocabuleeri-O’s box. Marge COMES IN the front door, mechanically.
MARGE
Hi, Mommy. I’m going to bed now.
HOMER
But what...what about dinner?
MARGE
Look in the closet.
Homer obediently GOES and looks.
HOMER
There’s nothing here but cookie boxes. (THE SOUND OF FRANTIC TEARING) Empty!
Homer TURNS around, but Marge is gone.
INT. SIMPSONS BEDROOM — CONTINUOUS
Marge, fully clothed, lies asleep face down on the bed. The room darkens into midnight, and we widen to find Homer in bed, staring at the ceiling. He hears the doorbell ring faintly.
INT. LIVING ROOM — A FEW MOMENTS LATER
Homer is in his pajamas standing next to Strype and Mann. The Vocabuleeri-O’s box is on the couch, next to another Homer which stares ahead blankly.
STRYPE
This is an exact robotic replica of you...
HOMER
What, again?
STRYPE
...programmed for any contingency. Your family will never know you’re gone.
HOMER
That’s (EYES DARTING TO THE CEREAL BOX) implausible.
MANN
(IMITATING MARGE’S VOICE) Homer, would you open this pickle jar?
ROBO-HOMER
(HOMER’S VOICE, FLAT) In a minute.
MANN
(MARGE’S VOICE) Homer, the funniest thing happened to me today.
ROBO-HOMER
Can I have another beer?
MANN
(MARGE’S VOICE) Homer, why aren’t you at work?
ROBO-HOMER
It’s Saint (BEAT) Thistlethwait’s Day and additionally (BEAT) I have a headache.
HOMER
(PENSIVELY) It might work. It just might work. (DECISIVELY) Alright, men. I’ll do it. I WILL save the world.
INT. LIVING ROOM — THE NEXT MORNING
A bedraggled Marge LURCHES down the stairs and to the front door. She dimly notices the Robo-Homer.
MARGE
Morning, Homie. Oh, my head hurts funny. But I’m going to Pilates. It’s so...it’s so, um, tantalizing.
ROBO-HOMER
I am continuing to sit here on this (BEAT) red couch.
Marge EXITS.
INT. “W” PILATES EXERCISE ROOM — A WHILE LATER
Marge and the others lie on mats, staring at the ceiling, again mesmerized. Their arms SWING in semaphoric arcs as they listen to the droning voice of Mr. Burns.
BURNS (V.O.)
(SLOWLY) You will pinch the seal with the mechanical prizer...
EXT. SPY SCHOOL — MORNING — ESTABLISHING SCENE 10
An inconspicuous building with a flashing neon sign: “American Slosh Copy.”
INT. SPY SCHOOL INTAKE ROOM — CONTINUOUS
Homer, wearing skivvies, stands in a bare room. An elegant DOCTOR STEREOTYPEPERSON poses nearby with a stylish clipboard, a cigarette dangling from his insouciant lip.
DR. STEREOTYPEPERSON
Name, Homer J. Simpson, code name, “CRULLER”. Sex?
HOMER
I’m married. (SLOWLY) To Marge, my female wife.
DR. STEREOTYPEPERSON
(HUFF) Gender?
HOMER
Oh. Um, well, I’m a man. But I’ve got this growth? Under my arm? And I’m not quite sure if it’s a boy or a girl.
DR. STEREOTYPEPERSON
(BEAT) Fabulous — male then, with tertiary sexual characteristics. Body art?
HOMER
Oh no, I’d never get a tattoo art. I knew this guy who got one? And his baby was born with an extra head! — in exactly the same spot! I don’t want anything weird like that.
They stare at each other for an endless moment, something unspoken not passing between them.
EXT. SPY SCHOOL TRAINING FIELD – DAY
In a wet sweat suit, Homer is EATING from a foil MRE (“meals ready-to-eat”) bag as if from a feedbag. A black-garbed man approaches — BULLENGER, a drill sergeant-type, hairy arms and neck. Homer LICKS and swallows the bag, finishes by popping a roundish “treat” into his mouth.
HOMER
Hey, that wasn’t a fortune cookie! It was a snail!
BULLENGER
Snail is the other dark meat, cockroach. Now, two! Gimme two push-ups!
HOMER
You’re hairy. I burn the hair off my back with a lighter.
INT. SIMPSONS KITCHEN — NIGHT SCENE 11
Bart and Lisa finish eating hard spaghetti in a bowl of milk. Their eyes are haunted. Lisa washes the bowls, and Bart puts away the milk and spaghetti package. They stare at each other, Lisa picks up Maggie, Bart takes Lisa’s hand, and they walk into the living room.
INT. LIVING ROOM — CONTINUOUS
Robo-Homer has not moved, and Marge stands waving her arms. SANTA’S LITTLE HELPER (dog) lies curled by the couch. A rainbow-striped mouse RUNS out of Robo-Homer’s pant-leg.
BART
Um, mom, Homer, we’re going to bed now.
ROBO-HOMER
I really dug my groovy day.
LISA
My recital is tomorrow, mom.
ROBO-HOMER
Woo. Hoo. This is my favorite show.
The TV is not on.
BART
Hey Homer, Lisa’s butt-crack goes sideways.
ROBO-HOMER
I think so. Ask your mother.
The kids look at each other. Bart goes up to Robo-Homer and SHAKES its shoulder.
BART
Hey man, you’re freakin’ us out.
ROBO-HOMER
(VIBRATING) Here come the judge.
The Robo-Homer attempts to stand – its head tilts to the side, then pops off. A ganglia of optic fibers spouts from the neck.
BART
Gaaahhng!
LISA
(WITH TERRIBLE INSIGHT) This explains so much.
The kids look at Marge, then FLEE upstairs. The dog growls at the Robo-Homer head, which blinks mechanically on the floor.
INT. LIVING ROOM – LATE NIGHT
Bart and Lisa, in pajamas, stare from the staircase as Marge finally stops waving her arms and goes out the front door, which closes with a small noise.
ROBO-HOMER’S HEAD
I taught I taw a puddy-tat.
FADE OUT:
END OF ACT TWO
ACT THREE
FADE IN: SCENE 12
INT. SAM STRYPE’S SPY SCHOOL OFFICE — THE NEXT DAY
Homer stands, and Strype sits at his desk, which has a name plate, “Sam Strype, Master Spy.
HOMER
(GASP) Mr. Burns!? How do you know?
STRYPE
Anonymous tip.
HOMER
What’s he doing?
STRYPE
That’s on a need-to-know basis. And also, we don’t know. Just stop him, Secret Agent Cruller. (DRAMATICALLY) By any means necessary! Or unnecessary.
HOMER
But, um, from doing what?
STRYPE
We trust your judgment, man. (DRAMATICALLY) We trust your judgment. Anything you see that needs stopping, go ahead and stop it.
HOMER
But, shouldn’t I get more training or something? Like in a movie?
STRYPE
There’s no time, man! There’s...
HOMER
Yeah yeah, there’s just no time.
STRYPE
(ANNOYED) You’ve got a lifetime of heroism behind you. Use it!
HOMER
(DOUBTFUL) Okay. I guess.
INT. ROOM D’EQUIPAGE — LATER
Homer walks with PROFESSOR FRINK through a gadget-testing room. The “GET SMART” theme is playing.
A MIDGET holds a pinwheel — the wheel flies off and beheads an Osama manikin. A WOMAN is shot with a ray gun — she swells into a female HULK, then explodes like a green balloon.
A TECHNICIAN turns a dial and the “BOND THEME” plays. A MAN with a fly-head walks with a tuxedoed JAMES BOND, who sees Homer, moans sickly and flees in terror.
A FEW MINUTES LATER
Homer stands with Professor Frink by a table holding familiar and bizarre spy-gear, including a TV Batman utility belt.
HOMER
(POINTING AT THE BELT) Ooo! Do I get a cape, too?
PROF. FRINK
Now pay attention, Cruller, here. (HOLDING UP A KOOSH BALL-LIKE PILL) Now this makes you pass a rainbow from the bladder of your body with the swallowing and the passing hennggg.
HOMER
What good is that?
PROF. FRINK
(DEFENSIVELY) Look at what I’m saying to your ears now and suppose you were captured by a primitive tribe of island people in the ocean, who’d think you were a god or that sort of thing that’s in the sky with power.
HOMER
Oh.
PROF. FRINK
(HOLDING A WATCH) And this wristwatch translates Italian words into Egyptian...
HOMER
”Egyptian?”
PROF. FRINK
You’ve heard of “mummies” with the scaring and the choking, I think so. And it explodes when it gets wet.
HOMER
Explodes! This is so cool.
INT. CAVERN BALCONY — NIGHT SCENE 13
Burns looks out over the expanse of the cave, which is now occupied by figures moving about stiffly, all wearing “DR. NO” style radiation-suits.
BURNS
My army is working perfectly.
SMITHERS
But sir...
BURNS
(INTERRUPTS) Enough insolence! Don’t make me make you thrash yourself, Smithers. There’s always room for one more dupe in my Legion of Drone-Droids.
SMITHERS
(CONFLICTED) Oh no, sir — being your willing slave would be terrible.
BURNS
My Brain Wave has worked its magic on this pliable bevy of magnetized ciphers.
INT. CAVERN DECANTING CENTER — CONTINUOUS
The drone-droids are at work — carting, unsealing with hand-held devices, opening (with a Rube Goldberg-esque can opener requiring large arm-movements), pouring the sludge into open tanks which drain into gas cans.
SMITHERS (V.O.)
Why not just use an electric can opener, sir?
BACK TO SCENE
BURNS
Silence, you simpering blatherskite! That level of technology — it’s — where do you think we are?
SMITHERS
Sir, I just don’t understand how you can release all this nuclear waste into the environment. It’ll cost millions of lives, sir.
BURNS
That’s a price I’m willing to pay. In any case, my top scientists tell me that SUNLIGHT is radiation. (DEFENSIVELY) I’ll be selling a blocker.
He points to a corner, at a barrel of “PAPA BURNS ALL NATURAL RADIATION BLOCKER — WITH ALOE VERA.”
SMITHERS
It must be illegal...
BURNS
You’re forgetting (AS IF THIS EXPLAINS IT ALL) “The Yucky Mounds Recycling Loophole Act.” And it will be good for the economy! “Waste” not, want not. (LAUGHS)
SMITHERS
(TROUBLED) Yes, very witty, sir.
INT. SPY DRESSING ROOM — NIGHT SCENE 14
Homer, wearing black and the Batman belt, is at a mirror. He POPS a KOOSH BALL pill, drains a jug of water. With a FLURRY of makeup he gives himself a clown-face, WIPES it off, PAINTS again. Now it’s the “Cat Man” drummer from KISS. He WIPES, paints, has proper camouflage.
EXT. WALLS OF THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT — LATER THAT NIGHT
Homer is ready for the mission. Mann is with him.
HOMER
Can’t you come with me?
MANN
It’s a one man job, and you are that man.
Homer dances about on tippy-toe.
MANN (CONT’D)
I know, you’re eager.
HOMER
(INSINCERELY) Well, yeah. But I have to...you know...
MANN
(IMPATIENT-PARENT VOICE) Why couldn’t you – oh never mind. Find a tree.
Homer WALKS OFF for a moment, RETURNS. There is an angry squeaking from a bush. A rainbow-colored mouse FLITS away.
INT. SUBTERRANEAN CORRIDOR — LATER
Homer SKULKS down the hall, down dank stairs, along horror-movie tunnels. He OPENS an arched wooden door: a huge room filled with barrels of “PAPA BURNS’ ALL-NATURAL RADIATION BLOCKER, WITH ALOE VERA – RPF LEVEL 27,000,” labeled with various scents: “POTPOURRI,” “LEMON ’N’ STRONTIUM,” “HEAVY WATERMELON,” “APOCA-LYPTUS,” “RAINBOW HOLOCAUST,” “ON THE BEACH,” “HEART OF THE SUN.” Homer closes the door.
Homer OPENS another door. Inside are rows of large glass capsules, holding clones of Mr. Burns at various ages. The oldest are stamped “RIPE” and labeled “MONDAY” thru “SUNDAY”. A large dumpster overflows with “Burns bodies,” limbs akimbo. Homer SHUTS the door.
Homer OPENS a final door, which leads onto the cavern balcony.
INT. CAVERN FLOOR – A LITTLE LATER
Homer CREEPS along, and sees:
HOMER
Hey, Barn, lend me that outfit, okay?
BARNEY
Sure thing, master. (URP)
A FEW MOMENTS LATER
Homer, in a radiation-suit, moves to the decanting machine, looks confused, touches the operator, who turns — it’s Marge. Through the protective helmet, Homer’s face distends in Munch-like horror.
HOMER
Eeeeeeck!
Burns, in a Darth Vader radiation-suit, looks up from a 1960’s style “computer” panel.
BURNS
(POINTING) Seize him!
A hoard of drones converges on Homer, who backs into a tub of waste, tips backwards and disappears beneath its roiling surface.
INT. A DUNGEON CELL — LATER SCENE 15
Homer, bound with ropes to a chair, again wears black, sans camouflage. Burns is just finishing revealing his plan.
BURNS
...spiffing scheme, isn’t it.
HOMER
You’ll never get away with it.
BURNS
And just who are you, my meddlesome intruder.
HOMER
(ATTEMPTING TO BE DRAMATIC) I’m The Man from, um... B.A.B.Y.S.I.T.T.E.R.!
BURNS
Well, it’s nap time — forever!
HOMER
Mr. Burns, you’re acting so, so evil.
BURNS
Quit your nagging, Jiminy Cricket. I’m over 21.
HOMER
But if all this nuclear waste...
BURNS
(BORED AND DISMISSIVE) Yeah yeah, nuclear waste, blah blah, nuclear winter. Brrr. But what about the nuclear spring afterwards, hmm? (TO THE SIDE) We never hear about that, eh, Mr. Nader?
Widen to find Ralph Nader, also bound, and gagged. He wears a slogan pin, “Nuclear Power Is Just As Bad As Oil – In Fact, Worse, Even, Probably.”
HOMER
But, um, but...
BURNS
But me no buts. You bore me. I’m going to get a Fresca, and when I come back, well, I don’t know, but it seems like I should do something — something nefarious.
Burns LEAVES. Homer STRUGGLES with his ropes, gives up. A rainbow mouse scurries across the floor.
HOMER
Come here, mousie, I have a yummy peanut for you.
Homer puffs and a peanut flies out of his nose. The mouse grabs it and scampers way.
HOMER
D’oh!
There is a gnawing sound out of shot – it is Homer’s unseen armpit twin, which he calls ‘Boo-Boo’. Homer GLANCES down to his left side, and looks joyful.
HOMER
Yes, Boo-Boo, yes! Use those wonderful teeth, and gnaw, gnaw our way to freedom! And then, to rescue our wife and save the world!
INT. CAVERN – A FEW MOMENTS LATER
Homer stands heroically in the decanting area HOLDING Smithers by the throat; Marge stands nearby.
SMITHERS
Goodness, there’s no need to be so butch. I’m on your side.
HOMER
Oh yeah? Says who?
SMITHERS
It was me who called for help. Mr. Burns isn’t himself. He has a mold infestation in his socks, and he just won’t change them. But the medicine’s coming down from
Burns, holding a Fresca, DODDERS by and sees that Homer is free.
BURNS
Horrors! – the brute is loose! I must flee!
He STEPS into a nearby Blofeld monorail which carts him away at walking speed — a white cat leaps and settles in his lap.
HOMER
(TO SMITHERS) That’s alright for now, Igor. How do I get all these poor Pilates zombies out of here?
SMITHERS
(POINTING) Just tell them to go out that tunnel.
INT. CAVERN TUNNEL ENTRANCE — A WHILE LATER
The last of the Pilates zombies, including Ralph Nader, are trotting into the tunnel. Marge is beside Homer.
HOMER
(TO MARGE) Wait here, beautiful. I’ve got one final bit of business to attend to.
Homer TROTS to a tub of waste, REMOVES Professor Frink’s exploding watch from his belt and TOSSES it in. He RACES back, sweeps Marge off her feet, heaves her over his shoulder and RUNS down the tunnel.
A fireball consumes the cavern, and flames race down the tunnel toward Homer and Marge. On and on he RUNS, the now-somehow-impossibly-slow fireball plodding along after him. Homer stumbles and the fireball pauses. Finally he reaches a door, slams it as the flames arrive. A thread of smoke leaks through the keyhole.
INT. “W” PILATES EXERCISE ROOM — NIGHT — CONTINUOUS SCENE 16
Homer finds himself among the rescued zombies.
HOMER
Alright, everybody, snap out of it.
And indeed, they bestir themselves as from a troubled sleep.
ANGLE ON COMIC BOOK GUY
Wearing a look of supreme distain.
COMIC BOOK GUY
Worst, definitely worst exercise experience ever. Henceforth I shall exert myself solely by re-cataloguing my graphic-novel archives.
ANGLE ON
He’s talking on a cell phone.
And I just diddly-dang don’t know if it was a vision from the Lord, Reverend, or if I was actually in hell.
ANGLE ON KRUSTY
He SLUMPS against a mirrored wall.
KRUSTY
Oy, did I get some farshtunkeh kreplachs or what? I haven’t felt this bad since Totie Fields taught me how to rumba.
Widen to find Marge and Homer.
MARGE
(DISORIENTED) Oh Homie, what’s been happening?
A series of muted explosions shakes the building.
MARGE (CONT’D)
What’s that?
Homer
Joy bells, baby. Joy bells.
Homer takes her hand and they go outside—
—and look toward the far hills, where a towering mushroom cloud possesses the horizon. Homer pulls an improbably large tube of RADIATION BLOCKER out of his utility belt.
HOMER (CONT’D)
Butter up, beautiful — it’s gonna be a hot night.
Marge utters a suggestive Mae West purr.
By the glow of the distant pillar of flame, Homer’s shadow is cast behind him, the shadow of a flawed man, a weak and a foolish man, but now a man who is everything a man would want to be – strengthened, redeemed, by the love of a good woman.
INT. SIMPSONS KITCHEN — DAY SCENE 17
The Simpsons are at the table. Robo-Homer sticks feet-up out of the trash. Homer has finished a feast of meat sauce and 8 or 10 entrees. Lisa wears the badly-stretched Malibu Stacy tee-shirt.
HOMER
And that’s how your father saved the world again.
LISA
But dad — didn’t the explosions just spread all that nuclear poison that much faster?
HOMER
(CONDESCENDINGLY) Of course not, honey. Because the “Papa Burns” blocking goo blew up with it, and canceled it out.
LISA
(UNCONVINCED) Oh.
Homer contentedly PICKS his teeth.
HOMER
I’ll miss Boo-Boo, though. (ASIDE TO BART) That was gonna be your name, boy. (TO ALL) Boo-Boo — I guess he just ... dropped off, like a blue toenail.
QUICK CUT TO:
INT. SIMPSONS ATTIC – CONTINUOUS
A rainbow mouse scurries from a flower pile, accompanied by a tiny HOMINID with huge teeth in a Homer-face. It wears an MRE bag.
BACK TO SCENE
BART
(TO HOMER) How do we know you’re really Homo-Homer, and not just another Robo-Homer?
HOMER
I’ll show you my Boo-Boo scar.
He pulls up his shirt to reveal a sucking gouge in his side.
LISA
(AVERTING HER EYES) So would this “Boo-Boo” be a brother, or an uncle? (BEAT) Dad, are you a hermaphrodite?
MARGE
I don’t think those are appropriate things to think about, Lisa. The important lesson here is that, if you get a chance to do something you really want to do, like Pilates, it just may turn out to be a nightmarish living hell.
BART
Well, I got the Robo-Homer head (HOLDING IT UP BY AN EAR) and I’m keeping it. It does my homework.
Bart SWINGS the Robo-Homer head onto the table with a loud THUNK, cracking a walnut.
ROBO-HOMER-HEAD
That’s all, folks.
THE SIMPSONS ALL
(DELIGHTED LAUGHTER)
FADE OUT:
THE END
posted by Jack H @ 04:16
2 comments
2 Comments:
Whew, how long did it take to type that. My son is a Southpark fan, so we don't get a lot of the Simpsons around here. I haven't thought of Totie Fields in years.
Only 45 script pages -- plays in 22 minutes. Not so very much typing. Any Typoes?
:-)
J
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