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The Simpsons: The Italian Bob
by Ryan j Budke, posted Dec 12th 2005 12:54PM
This was an odd episode for me. Normally, any of the "Sideshow Bob" episodes are great, and this one had some hilarious parts on it's own, but for some reason it just didn't gel with me. I think the ending is what did it, or more appropriately, didn't do it. It was just very abrupt. As I said though, there were a lot of very funny parts and you should definitely give it a look-see if you're a fan of Sideshow Bob. So now that I'm done talking in circles, on with the show!After Bart and the other kids make fun of his old jalopy, Mr. Burns decides to buy a new car; the Lamborgotti Fasterossa. Needless to say, it's nice. As Homer puts it: "That's the car I think about when I make love to my wife". To save money in taxes, Mr. Burns sends Homer to Italy to pick up the car and ship it directly to him. After some mischief in the Lamborgotti factory, Marge actually encourages Homer to spend a little extra time exploring Italy. They see the McDonald's that serves booze, among other ancient sites. Then, while on their way to finally ship the car, there is a horrible accident involving a cheese truck. The family regroups and pushes the demolished Fasterossa to a local town. No one there speaks english, except for the mayor. The family goes to see him only to discover, it's Sideshow Bob! Dun dun dun.
Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that after the last time Bob tried to kill Bart, he decided to start a new life and ended up in this small Tuscan village. After some initial trepidation, the townsfolk idolized him because of his amazing grape stomping ablility. He's a clown. He's got big feet. You do the math. Bob's settled in, even married and had a kid while in Italy. Everything's going well for him, but we all known that won't last with our favorite yellow family there. At a town celebration, Lisa gets a little intoxicated (hey, it's Italy, the town drunk is only two years old) and outs Bob as the homicidal criminal he is. The town revolts and exiles him. After a high-speed chase in the newly fixed Fasterossa, the Simpsons manage to escape Bob at an opera that Krusty is performing at.
Again, the ending lost me. It was going fine up until the opera, where it just seemed to be an excuse for Kelsey Grammar to sing. Just didn't care for it. There were some great parts in this episode though, when the italian police were looking through the book of criminals, and there was a picture of Peter Griffin (Family Guy) and his crime was "Plagiarismo" and then Stan Smith (American Dad) was in there for "Plagiarismo de Plagiarismo", I was cracking up. "It's called a hangover sweetie, and it's an unavoidable part of life" is another line that I know I'll get a lot of mileage out of. Bob's evil offspring was also surprisingly enjoyable. Decent episode in an otherwise great season. Let me know what you think.
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